tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79540465027328683752024-03-05T04:11:40.502+00:00DENBIGH CATHOLIC CHURCHSt. Joseph's Catholic Church, Bryn Stanley, Denbigh, LL16 3NT; tel. 01745 812297.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-81004527448292420062011-06-28T22:28:00.004+01:002011-06-28T22:40:20.876+01:00First Holy Communion PhotographsCelebrated during M<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyA0RRROadh0pVtpPI54ziShyKyOmNnPNouFZgN-tBATx2jDEp3B94kkX4Lh4aaOjOjPMXRYsKzlHW_-Dv8drqz6s9-EzuayLdeOrRJregWi7kMs_yYa2_EJJg8QmKFgkVnRBliIzjuc/s320/DSC01695.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623386368561084626" />ass on 26th June 2011 - The Feast of Corpus Christi<div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lU7OXKTmLUG-ZXTr0T3obkl7Bgy-3GSP-nIFV4nGw-DlcdUG33H-M9TFgqQN5Gme0cZiF30f4dCQt4vDMNlFCxjZb7X5F4aHeazyQEJpheKWSU9WotHkAeKrFIxoLJB1-mmg3dMy5A8/s320/DSC01721.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623388028224399730" /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6V65yS1BVuh_vR8D8waaXUMmwMFQ1EL3wylAvg4EikNaZgy9nOjg9HfTxraWLur0Cg73Ig-jnbwNRREYhn0L2QKKR0_-l264aimTLy5UEMz3KqQMYhHoY35B_lQ_tTMFuactktMCZHmA/s320/DSC01699.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623388003464651954" /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtSKzISGUleMUm6VQP3Mvu9fR88BiGp_zatA-SmEmsaJL6LUNXXQm3gJVaCNfmsQ6zOOF5mhR1tagGp5FLIYZKNoKoL8t1C_Am8p5aaXwa743UAOOyxVw4GBpIFK3eHCh4QQ3rgwMaABc/s320/DSC01697.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623387996660014226" /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxqNpVOnST9klvzlG2zvSxg7jOcc6mb8oP5PUSHmEbxx6jUFgz8e_6sXUfDzEYEn3zanfywf50qTsmB9M56dgW9gUFk165KwLwEo608cupk3fxZvog137u4sOdNMVeQ2GQBMnr1atEQQ/s320/DSC01720.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623388023234381698" /><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8eOIxYLY-9046hdicVlAhiLxfMabmkQlWHv5h4a5RB3L4jg3LgWwuP3KoCMIMMMZ-Lp2Xf9vHpKUZ2S_4P6ofkfGo7HkdWG9u8dALwiS_GdonYh7TAgw-3yjWVAeIPCGxcK8Doi_wwXo/s320/DSC01696.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623387990023480610" /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Steph RJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10299080989319553122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-61274569443425682062011-04-14T13:25:00.002+01:002011-04-14T13:28:56.861+01:00The dignity of the body<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggx_DpoBcX4tIpdp2C28VXcXABnF_YAG8Adh16Qx7gwPEend4MoxHrXsXGEw2KUflW3OJpIa_loQuWFcKZUnO9ekSCCyFelyHqyVaz7ukjWwIsZmFv4iuxPruhDfVtYioQIrVC2mLiMkgP/s1600/lazarus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggx_DpoBcX4tIpdp2C28VXcXABnF_YAG8Adh16Qx7gwPEend4MoxHrXsXGEw2KUflW3OJpIa_loQuWFcKZUnO9ekSCCyFelyHqyVaz7ukjWwIsZmFv4iuxPruhDfVtYioQIrVC2mLiMkgP/s320/lazarus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon for last Sunday, 5th Sunday in Lent, Year A:</span><br />
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A common pagan religious belief in Old Testament times and in Jesus' time was that human beings are made up of a body and a soul, and that when we die our soul separates from our body and carries on existing in some kind of eternal, purely spiritual realm.<br />
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The tradition and the teaching of the Bible on the subject of immortality and life after death, which developed slowly over the course of centuries, is different from that and more precise than that. Right from the start, the Jewish faith took a very positive attitude towards the material world and the human body, because it saw the whole of material reality, including our bodies, as having been created by God for an inherently good purpose.<br />
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So when they sought to understand God's plan in terms of life after death they didn't assume that the soul would survive after death independently of the body, they assumed the opposite: that our bodies will also somehow be "raised" and survive in some form in eternity. This is the conviction that lies behind the language of today's first reading, for example.<br />
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The official Catechism of the Catholic Church makes a valuable point about the biblical belief in the resurrection of the body.<br />
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As we wait for the last day and the final resurrection of the dead, the Catechism says, "the believer's body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that [each Christian believer] should treat with respect his own body and also the body of every other person, especially the suffering...".<br />
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The Catechism goes on to quote a passage from St Paul's writings: "The body [is meant] for the Lord and the Lord for the body....God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Did you not know that your bodies are members of Christ....You are not your own....So glorify God in your body" (c. 1 Corinthians 6:20; <span style="font-style: italic;">Catechism of the Catholic Church</span> <a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a11.htm#">paragraphs 992 - 1004</a>).<br />
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I think there are two lessons we can take from this particular aspect of our faith.<br />
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One is that, like all cultures that are heavily materialistic, our modern culture puts an exaggerated emphasis on physical health and physical attractiveness. There are many manifestations of this tendency, but one of the most striking, over the last few decades, is the steep rise in demand for plastic surgery for purely cosmetic purposes - i.e. surgery not to cure any medical illness but to enhance the person's physical appearance.<br />
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It's not that the whole population is going in for cosmetic surgery. But what's noticeable is the way that it's come to occupy a huge space in the popular imagination. It's become a normal and morally uncontroversial course of action - many people wouldn't think for a minute that there are significant moral objections to surgery for purely cosmetic reasons.<br />
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But from the standpoint of our Christian belief in the dignity of the body there's surely a criticism to be made, not just about the issue of physical vanity or even about the money and medical resources devoted to procedures that are essentially unnecessary, but about the underlying mentality involved. it's become more common for people to view their own body as an object, a commodity, to be altered and manipulated at will, rather than seeing their body and soul together as a unity and their body as an integral part of their unique identity.<br />
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For people to feel alienated from their bodies, rather than feeling "at home" in them, whatever their imperfections, is really a kind of spiritual malaise, a disease of the soul. Christians can only be critical of a culture that encourages people to become preoccupied with their outward appearance as opposed to accepting themselves, body and soul, and indeed dedicating themselves body and soul to the higher purpose of holiness and service of God - as St Paul says.<br />
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Secondly, the Catechism refers to the importance of respecting the bodies of other people - especially those who are suffering.<br />
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I would argue that this basic Christian principle is more relevant now than ever because, as we are are always hearing on the news, so many people now are living well into old age, with all the physical weakness and dependence on others that this entails.<br />
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Throughout the Church's history the care of the sick and old and infirm has been considered a vital aspect of Christian life and ministry. Whole congregations of religious men and women have been founded to carry out this ministry. Tending the needs of the old and frail with patience and compassion has a spirituality of its own and a task that many felt is worth dedicating their whole lives to.<br />
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Today, of course, caring for the elderly is a major industry; but I don't think we can be confident that always and everywhere it's governed by Christian notions of patience, compassion and the dignity of the body.<br />
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Again, in a culture that puts so much stress on health, youth and independence, people who are well can often struggle to show respect for those who are subtly regarded as no longer useful and productive. In many ways you could argue that without prayer, without the influence of God's grace and the leavening, humanising effect of Christian values, it's normal for people to fall into an impatient and contemptuous attitude towards weakness and frailty of any kind. At the extreme end of this attitude is the growing belief that it's acceptable and somehow kind to end someone's life once it's become dependent and burdensome.<br />
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The only thing Christians can do in this sort of climate is to carry on putting the moral argument against this way of thinking, and also to try to revive, in some form, the practical motivations that led to the great nursing congregations of the past.<br />
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This might seem to be moving at something of a tangent from Jesus' raising of Lazarus, but I think these are actually very valid reflections for us to make on today's Scripture readings, which reiterate our Christian belief in the dignity and therefore ultimately the resurrection of the body.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-59133086518123389712011-04-14T10:27:00.002+01:002011-04-14T13:27:51.711+01:00"Consider that you might be mistaken"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ICtU9Z0Y7vLPViCn6oPbXtouHpSFtMiCkO5Zq9pC94JfP2i7vl5pZ7OgRvEqMbj5Uk-8So5jrq-_oTbc7Wh5puX9n_-ZnqHRb5Y9tnjiR5NbwUUDUm-gSz5wnOovUJck0vlOkBRGNrDv/s1600/jesus-and-the-pharisees" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592371222544368274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ICtU9Z0Y7vLPViCn6oPbXtouHpSFtMiCkO5Zq9pC94JfP2i7vl5pZ7OgRvEqMbj5Uk-8So5jrq-_oTbc7Wh5puX9n_-ZnqHRb5Y9tnjiR5NbwUUDUm-gSz5wnOovUJck0vlOkBRGNrDv/s320/jesus-and-the-pharisees" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 214px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 320px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon for the fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A:</span><br />
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The lines from the First Book of Samuel in the first reading today make up one of many Scripture passages that highlight the difference between God's way of thinking and ours, and, maybe more precisely, the difference between the qualities of character that God seeks out in a person when he wants him or her to carry out some aspect of his work, and the qualities that we tend to find admirable or striking.<br />
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The issue here, without going into the background too deeply, is: who is going to take over from Saul as King of Israel? Through Samuel, God communicates his preference for David, a young shepherd-boy, over the other, apparently better-qualified, candidates. And this is God's consistent pattern. If we think of Moses and Jeremiah for example, or St Peter in New Testament times, they were all men with glaring faults and weaknesses, men who judged themselves inferior to the vocation that God was calling them to, and who tried to get out of the task that God was setting them.<br />
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God's way, it seems, is never to be impressed by the sort of natural talents and abilities or the easy self-confidence that we applaud in a "leader", and he certainly isn't mesmerised by worldly wealth, power or glamour. He always summons individuals who are only too conscious of their lack of authority, their clumsiness in communicating, their general lack of worldly sophistication.<br />
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The reason is, as he tells Samuel here: God's ways are not men's ways. Man looks at appearances while God searches the heart. The qualities that make for worldly success aren't the qualities that make us good servants of God's Kingdom.<br />
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During his public ministry Jesus was faithful to this consistent attitude of God's. Christ's association with tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners, coupled with his constant attacks on the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of the Pharisees, was the main cause of the plot against him that led to his crucifixion.<br />
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St Luke, in his gospel, describes the Pharisees as men who prided themselves on their virtue and looked down on everyone else. (This was yesterday's gospel reading, in fact). St John's way of describing their attitude was to label it as spiritual blindness.<br />
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It's worth remembering that the Pharisee movement was actually a spiritual reform movement within the Jewish faith. The whole direction of their reform was to put a huge stress on keeping the religious law very meticulously - as here, regarding the keeping of the Sabbath. They tended to think that strict law-keeping and ritual cleanliness made them holy and close to God almost automatically.<br />
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Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees was that their striving for virtue led to an arrogant, condescending attitude which actually alienated them from God. Christ further scandalised the Pharisees by stating that many of the people they regarded as sinful and impure were closer to God and understood his will better, because they approached God humbly and self-critically, admitted their faults readily and turned to God to ask for forgiveness and help.<br />
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In many ways the blindness of the Pharisees is a warning to any individual or group of individuals who cast themselves in the role of reformers. The temptation for would-be reformers is to divide the world into the righteous and the unrighteous - to regard oneself or one's group as the embodiment of all goodness and truth and right, and to see everyone else as sunk in error, ignorance or prejudice.<br />
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And this is a form of blindness that isn't restricted to religious-minded people like the Pharisees. One of the unpleasant features of the moral and political debates that take place in our society today is that there are lots of campaigners and pressure groups who adopt a fanatical and unquestioning stance towards their own cause, while easily justifying a dismissive or even abusive attitude to those who happen not to share, or to disagree with, their commitment.<br />
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It's a sort of secular pharisaism - taking pride in their own virtue and looking down on everyone else. What's lacking is the note of self-criticism or self-questioning that the Old Testament prophets encouraged among the Chosen People, and that we all need to have as fallible, sinful human beings.<br />
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When we can look at ourselves honestly and acknowledge our own blind-spots we find it less easy to be self-righteous towards other people, and we learn that, if we don't want to be hypocrites, kindness, compassion and courtesy are the only acceptable attitudes. And then, when it comes to debates on issues that people feel strongly about, a sense of our own blind-spots helps us to conduct the argument in a more civilised and respectful, less polarised and abusive tone.<br />
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It was Oliver Cromwell, wasn't it?, in the 17th century, who appealed in a letter to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland: "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, consider that you might be mistaken". That's the attitude that Jesus found missing among the Pharisees, and it's the attitude that St John recommends to us as the starting-point of our relationship with God and with our neighbour.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-2823020357903795482011-03-30T23:41:00.003+01:002011-04-14T10:33:24.671+01:00Living Water<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJfUDJMZaKNhFdjaf3nWUrY9MKdRm-TgJVEPU9SC6jIqpvwY9hDeqY-WYlzsY2FEDe84kDftTyNGknRbE1SV_-1sRvH9AGbtKUt4H_PbLvsw_EB6-P5_SdV5H7onIgiO_ABqKN9dT7cXg/s1600/jacobs_well" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5589612071719589170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJfUDJMZaKNhFdjaf3nWUrY9MKdRm-TgJVEPU9SC6jIqpvwY9hDeqY-WYlzsY2FEDe84kDftTyNGknRbE1SV_-1sRvH9AGbtKUt4H_PbLvsw_EB6-P5_SdV5H7onIgiO_ABqKN9dT7cXg/s320/jacobs_well" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 228px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 319px;" /></a> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
My sermon for last Sunday, the Third Sunday of Lent, Year A:</span><br />
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One of the commonest metaphors in the Bible is the metaphor of hunger and thirst. Spiritually we have a need for God parallel to our physical need for food and water.<br />
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Jesus employed that metaphor when he said that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, and he uses the same kind of image here when he says that whoever drinks ordinary water will get thirsty again, whereas the water that he gives will turn into a spring, welling up to eternal life.<br />
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We know that when someone is deprived completely of food he might remain alive for weeks. But if someone is deprived of water, he won't last longer than a few days.<br />
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Our need for water is even more basic than our need for food, and what Jesus is saying here is that, spiritually, our need for God is just as basic: separated from God our soul will quickly die of thirst.<br />
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But what Jesus tells the Samaritan woman is more precise than that. In trying to awaken a sense of her need for the living water that he is offering, Jesus doesn't point upwards to heaven, to God the Father, "immortal, invisible". He points to himself. Now, if we want to know God and receive salvation from God, we don't turn to the Law of Moses or the teachings of the prophets, we turn to Jesus Christ. He is the fullest revelation of God, surpassing all the traditions - and rivalries - of both Jewish and Samaritan religion. And it's only through Christ that we can come to know the true God and be united with him.<br />
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Another significant element in this encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well is that Jesus actually goes on to criticise and challenge her about her moral circumstances: "You are right to say, 'I have no husband; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband'".<br />
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We'll never know the background story of the woman's situation, but one scripture scholar, commenting on this passage, wrote that in meeting Christ she "was suddenly compelled to face herself and the looseness and immorality and the total inadequacy of her life".<span style="font-weight: bold;">*</span><br />
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That seems rather harsh and sweeping, but I think what we can say more generally is that whenever anyone of us comes into genuine contact with God and his holiness and perfect love, our lack of holiness and love is immediately exposed. Any genuine encounter with Christ brings us face to face with our sinfulness and challenges us to change. So in this episode we're not being invited to condemn the Samaritan woman. We're being invited to identify with her: to react as she does when she finds herself in Christ's presence and to experience the same kind of conversion.<br />
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One of the features of our present situation is that many Christians try hard to be open-minded and accepting towards the outlook and lifestyles of non-believers. But we can easily be too open-minded and accepting, in the sense that we end up saying, more or less, that Christ isn't necessary, that people are are rights with God without the effects of Christ's saving work.<br />
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Whereas the genuine proclamation of the Gospel message always begins with the recognition that we're not at rights with God and we need to accept Christ, his teaching and his work of salvation, as the way to God.<br />
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That's the conclusion of this gospel story. Having met Christ, the woman goes back to her town to announce to her neighbours that they also need to come and meet him. The story ends then with a lot more people meeting Christ and coming to believe in him as - in St John's words - the saviour of the world.<br />
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It's an image of the Christian mission. Once we've accepted Christ we can't just keep him to ourselves. We have to try, by some means, to bring other people to the same acceptance and belief.<br />
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At the very least it's a reminder to the Church community that Christ has brought something unique and necessary to the human race. We can't be content with the widespread modern attitude that everyone's entitled to make their own mind up about God, salvation, and how to live. Without Christ we're missing the one essential thing in life, and we're in trouble, as the community of his followers, if we lose our sense of that conviction.<br />
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It was certainly St John's conviction in writing his Gospel, and its the lesson he wants us to take from this story of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well.<br />
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</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: bold;">* William Barclay, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gospel of John</span>, Volume 1, p. 156.</span></div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-57659397908286140832011-03-22T16:04:00.009+00:002011-04-14T10:24:33.912+01:00Our spiritual journey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIsv9ktDNkIjJUiVvbB-O6uoPAaX7Z_zlonjaPoQFmf-oHW0rmBnkrk06IVBLk7TL7XPt5IoNbztFDFC74K4cFjPUrHc61INaaXV9fO2B4SvVF-urnPGbp82-0MvXmM87SxESiW3iWMoD3/s1600/abraham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIsv9ktDNkIjJUiVvbB-O6uoPAaX7Z_zlonjaPoQFmf-oHW0rmBnkrk06IVBLk7TL7XPt5IoNbztFDFC74K4cFjPUrHc61INaaXV9fO2B4SvVF-urnPGbp82-0MvXmM87SxESiW3iWMoD3/s1600/abraham.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<i>My sermon for last Sunday, 2nd Sunday in Lent, Year A:</i><br />
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You could say that the readings today are about three journeys: Abraham's, Christ's, and ours.<br />
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The first reading describes an ancient and mysterious event: God's call to Abraham to uproot himself, to leave his old country and his old way of life behind and to set off for a new country and a new life under God's direction.<br />
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Abraham's journey wasn't something he himself decided to embark on. The initiative and the summons came from God and Abraham responded. God's approach to Abraham was the first act of God making his character and his will known to the human race. It was the beginning of a process that would last for centuries and culminate in the life and mission of Christ, the ultimate revelation of God in human history.<br />
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In the gospel reading there's another journey taking place. On one level Jesus and his disciples are travelling to Jerusalem for the Passover. But on another level, as Jesus has been trying to explain to his disciples before this incident of his transfiguration on the mountain, this is his journey towards Calvary, towards his death and resurrection - the fulfilment of his mission.<br />
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The transfiguration is an important incident not only because it illustrates Jesus' real identity - the fact that he's God and not just a human being - but because it also illustrates the end-point of his journey: his return to God the Father. This strange luminous state that overwhelms Christ has always been seen as an anticipation of the glorified state that he took on when he appeared to his followers after his Resurrection.<br />
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The image of a journey is a common image of the spiritual life of every Christian and every seeker after spiritual truth. The life of every Christian is a very specific kind of journey, a pilgrimage, with a very definite purpose, direction and destination: to be united with God, now and in eternity.<br />
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If there's any parallel between our Christian journey and Abraham's, it's the fact that God takes the initiative in our case just as much as in Abraham's. When we reflect a little, we realise that the Christian journey is less about us finding God and more about God approaching us, revealing himself and drawing us into his life. Saint Augustine talked about this in his <i>Confessions: </i>as he looked back on his life Augustine realised that after all his spiritual wandering and immoral living, he didn't come to God, God came to him - and rescued him. And that's part of the experience of every Christian believer, even if, often, our pilgrimage towards God isn't as colourful and dramatic as Augustine's was.<br />
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Then if there's any parallel between our spiritual journey and Christ's, it's that we're also destined for "transfiguration", for resurrection and glory.<br />
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Human life doesn't begin and end within the limits of this world. Even the efforts we make to lead lives of Christian love and holiness don't have their ultimate reference-point withn our present life - something which can be easy to lose sight of when we put a lot of emphasis, as we tend to do today, on campigning against poverty and injustice and so on.<br />
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It's right that Christians should oppose poverty and injustice but it's worth reminding ourselves from time to time that God's Kingdom is never fully realised in this world. We're destined for eternity, and all the acts of practical compassion and love towards those who are suffering - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless - are important in terms of our future life with God, and not only in terms of our life here and now.<br />
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The theme of journey is especially apt today because, as we all know, today at Mass we have a short ceremony in which Alex is going to be received into the full communion of the Church. He'll be confirmed and he'll receive Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist for the first time.<br />
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I don't want to put words into Alex's mouth or speak on behalf of anyone who is preparing to become a Catholic soon. But the moment of coming into the Church formally and receiving Christ's life through those sacraments is surely a great step forward in anyone's journey of faith.<br />
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We live at a time when many members of the Church aren't men and women who were born into Catholic families and raised as Catholics; they're people who are drawn to Christ, to the Gospel and to the Church through the events of their adult life. And when that happens, I think this motif of a journey in which we're conscious of God's initiative in seeking us out and drawing us into his life, is especially relevant.<br />
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So let's pray for Alex as a new member of the Body of Christ and of the parish of St Josephs, welcome him, support him and maybe take the opportunity to think about our own journey of faith in the light of the readings we've got for this Sunday's Mass.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-76388809998850654002011-03-22T16:03:00.007+00:002011-03-26T21:52:56.067+00:00Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSRiZiexumO7DzvDh5ik5GdfezF7xiHZZovUSeiXXIz9kQQNngICFmK0j8Ymn40ABxwfr-ecEUvFSvWQjBgnkqFFrvRJooe3bG_l28KnxPwTGNhxgXa_zne4QJuscY3bfnVzb9-sgRXawo/s1600/IMGP0015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSRiZiexumO7DzvDh5ik5GdfezF7xiHZZovUSeiXXIz9kQQNngICFmK0j8Ymn40ABxwfr-ecEUvFSvWQjBgnkqFFrvRJooe3bG_l28KnxPwTGNhxgXa_zne4QJuscY3bfnVzb9-sgRXawo/s320/IMGP0015.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Yesterday at the 4.30pm Mass Alex Rae was received into the Church and confirmed. After Mass we had a party in the house to celebrate. We managed to get a lot of photographs of the occasion and even some videos of parts of the Mass. Here are some of them.<br />
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Practising and rehearsing beforehand in church:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnpGjeXY-haudGOqEkY36G8BL1PTxHtNvSbKaeHkM5MzgQ5Ru-8wL-Ux603cfT3ixaGycLCsreg60N3Psgp8ZUOdoLzvvSRf7fyevwH2sQu1sOH3pnKqANWos1E-K-RciGNWS16M_Mc26/s1600/P3110024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnpGjeXY-haudGOqEkY36G8BL1PTxHtNvSbKaeHkM5MzgQ5Ru-8wL-Ux603cfT3ixaGycLCsreg60N3Psgp8ZUOdoLzvvSRf7fyevwH2sQu1sOH3pnKqANWos1E-K-RciGNWS16M_Mc26/s320/P3110024.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Then the Mass itself, with the ceremony of Reception and Confirmation:<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After the Mass many of the congregation came up to the presbytery to celebrate (the Lenten discipline abrogated of course on Sunday):</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9rCsyhSNuY7tKU1hQHY9ntBFLbaP-c_JAxpHOOQjT8rt_owUZA1R-Z-6G_a0K5KuwBqfIXrknxyjZQXZbuS29lUZZUuLs2eoa857rxA-eLz44OhTi9J4CVU35jnx2lqnIfqxlKtrOLhd5/s1600/P3110044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9rCsyhSNuY7tKU1hQHY9ntBFLbaP-c_JAxpHOOQjT8rt_owUZA1R-Z-6G_a0K5KuwBqfIXrknxyjZQXZbuS29lUZZUuLs2eoa857rxA-eLz44OhTi9J4CVU35jnx2lqnIfqxlKtrOLhd5/s320/P3110044.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGDLjAYW5_fIJLODo6aHHARhYm-gMOcTy5wWvYKSgzZrghH4n_SulgWjc6SoWAh5CLn-GuESwuPSCIK2exL214nk_zEnjZwbISj8JcxhOdEESQ9U8FsoRvDpkSmVLCvrUteYZLIUHaw-P/s1600/P3110046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGDLjAYW5_fIJLODo6aHHARhYm-gMOcTy5wWvYKSgzZrghH4n_SulgWjc6SoWAh5CLn-GuESwuPSCIK2exL214nk_zEnjZwbISj8JcxhOdEESQ9U8FsoRvDpkSmVLCvrUteYZLIUHaw-P/s320/P3110046.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Finally, a couple of photographs of Alex with Anne Marie, his sponsor:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4LhsrC2R8dd2wuH2K3RQ_Lfn5-OUUqZDhWYEA9UpQG6DTe8YNr5LE9ONv7zhd-vEHUxVoaI_33K5JiI6eqUei9x5xdODwAyNef7fHonS0sVyVE2KrnlnDBjYXRoqbGtkxjYbhV-XhtDI/s1600/P3110036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4LhsrC2R8dd2wuH2K3RQ_Lfn5-OUUqZDhWYEA9UpQG6DTe8YNr5LE9ONv7zhd-vEHUxVoaI_33K5JiI6eqUei9x5xdODwAyNef7fHonS0sVyVE2KrnlnDBjYXRoqbGtkxjYbhV-XhtDI/s320/P3110036.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0xQEoNcxJmU6VNpP5ZdNCUK35V9iIQkejsf_1SNpi0CqIvv_VvVKNQhmyOCNaahFH8eKNqsP583tz8xOgXwQkLmmKGJK5n7MKbX3UHLA1iXWITGxXUav39hMfV2jspjIdOKXPXTW-0bd/s1600/P3110034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0xQEoNcxJmU6VNpP5ZdNCUK35V9iIQkejsf_1SNpi0CqIvv_VvVKNQhmyOCNaahFH8eKNqsP583tz8xOgXwQkLmmKGJK5n7MKbX3UHLA1iXWITGxXUav39hMfV2jspjIdOKXPXTW-0bd/s320/P3110034.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-82136587556051041142011-03-15T18:32:00.005+00:002011-03-23T09:57:41.078+00:00The World, the Flesh and the Devil<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVYEKyx5UgrTFJKMXtC1vT79pkAkIrw6eN5mX41kF8k60daRU6XRfx6tw2Xm9wKNeJjjLmrC-e4OPgm0mE5GSpCaGQzI3h2iI_OCGOyJ7LwMjju86-RN5cfcmDvfAX5uevDAtetTjmTuu/s1600/devil" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584361163590694930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVYEKyx5UgrTFJKMXtC1vT79pkAkIrw6eN5mX41kF8k60daRU6XRfx6tw2Xm9wKNeJjjLmrC-e4OPgm0mE5GSpCaGQzI3h2iI_OCGOyJ7LwMjju86-RN5cfcmDvfAX5uevDAtetTjmTuu/s320/devil" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 280px;" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><i>The Devil presenting St Augustine with the Book of Vices</i> </strong></span></span></div><i><br />
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<i>My sermon for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A: </i><br />
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The readings today, appropriately enough for the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, revolve around the weakness of our human nature, our inclination towards sin and self-seeking, and our susceptibility to temptation. They invite us to reflect on the wisdom, the realism and the compassion of Christian spirituality on these subjects, especially on what we might call the psychology of temptation.<br />
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We're not hopelessly sunk in depravity - that's never been the authentic Christian view of the human condition - but neither are we drawn effortlessly towards truth and goodness and love.<br />
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The life of faith has always been seen as a journey towards holiness and towards the light of the Gospel, a journey that involves resisting and struggling against various temptations or obstacles. And the great tradition of Christian spiritual teaching has always identified three main sources of temptation that we all face, summed up in a phrase which probably used to be better known than it is now: "the world, the flesh and the devil".<br />
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<i>The world</i>, or the spirit of worldliness, means the attraction we have towards created things, towards physical comfort, wealth, the admiration or good opinion of other people, a sense of status about ourselves.<br />
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People who have a purely worldly mentality are inclined to think along the lines that "you only live once" and that the good things of the material world are there to be enjoyed while life lasts. They often belittle religious faith and the moral ideals that go with it, and then our natural sensitivity to ridicule creates a temptation downplay or abandon our faith. Young people, for example, are often embarrassed if their friends laugh at them for going to church, or for taking religion seriously in any way, and that becomes a motive for giving it up altogether.<br />
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The response we make to "the world" is, ideally, to remember that all material things are transient and impermanent. Everyone's life is a journey towards eternity, one way or another, and none of the created things that take up so much of our time and energy will be going with us when we leave this world. Ultimately they're not important, and that should be a matter of deep conviction for us.<br />
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And then, if we find ourselves in an environment that tends to only value material things, we need to strive to have the courage of our Christian convictions; to pray to God for courage and a spirit of endurance, even; and we need to pray for the people who regard religious beliefs as a load of rubbish. Christ warned us to be prepared for a certain amount of ridicule for belonging to him, and that's all part of resisting the temptation to worldliness.<br />
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The second source of temptation, or obstacle to healthy spiritual life is <i>the flesh</i>.<br />
Human beings are attracted naturally to bodily pleasure, and the things that give us pleasure: food, sex, alcohol, drugs - legal and illegal. The other side of the coin is that we shy away from suffering and pain, physical or emotional.<br />
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These aren't unhealthy instincts in themselves. The problem arises only when we allow our appetite for pleasure and our aversion from pain to dominate, so that it comes into conflict with our love of God and our love of our neighbour.<br />
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Again, the ideal response is to foster a sense of the dignity of our Christian calling and of our identity as followers of Christ. We're demeaning ourselves if our imagination and behaviour is dominated by food and sex and so on.<br />
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At the same time, although experiences of pain and loss are unpleasant, the Gospel surely encourages us to always approach such experiences as potentially positive and redemptive. Our salvation was won through God's suffering, and, as Christ taught, "carrying the cross" is something that always has the potential to bring us into closer union with God.<br />
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It's never right to be to glib about people's suffering, great or small, but it's probably true that there are a lot of influences in our modern consumer culture that foster high expectations of material happiness; and that mentality leaves people ill-prepared for set-backs and frustrations when they come along.<br />
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Christian life is more about finding happiness, again, in the love and service of God and our neighbour, and at a basic level that involves resisting the temptation to allow physical pleasure and the avoidance of suffering to dominate our outlook and our actions.<br />
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Last of all, a major source of temptation, as today's readings emphasise, is <i>the Devil. </i>Obstacles to the spiritual life don't only arise from our environment or from our inner appetites. There's an enemy of the human race who's always trying to influence our minds and wills to draw us away from God and God's way.<br />
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I think there's a significant detail in today's gospel reading: that the Devil appears just as Jesus is about to embark on his public ministry. In a sense, he does this with us too.<br />
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If we're trotting along in a more or less mediocre way, spiritually, the Devil leaves us alone. He's happy with that. It's when we embark on a more resolute attempt to live the Gospel that he steps in, tempting us to give up our resolution and trying to induce a feeling of failure and demoralisation. When we tell ourselves that its enough to be a decent person, and we'll never be a saint, the Devil has done a good job and he can go away happy again.<br />
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So we don't need to see the devil everywhere, as some over-imaginative religious people do, but let's not completely forget his presence and activity either. He's always lurking in the background and sometimes we need to be ready to stand up to him, as Jesus did in the desert.<br />
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It's a good idea to see our efforts to resist temptation as part of the drama of our spiritual journey. Every Christian's life, however quiet and unexciting it might be outwardly, is infinitely valuable to God, and he's with us constantly on our journey away from sin and towards holiness.<br />
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I think myself that if people had more of a sense of the spiritual drama or significance of their lives, it would be an antidote to the feelings of emptiness, aimlessness and meaninglessness that are widespread in our society. Christian life might be a lot of things, but it's not empty and aimless. In some ways, that's the fundamental message we can take from the readings we've listened to today, the first Sunday in Lent.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-89522607443483199742011-03-11T12:23:00.004+00:002011-03-23T09:58:25.286+00:00Lent: our annual spiritual refresher course<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_czhpmvwDGs4sTmEjU4YxPGk2cNKKTrHFJfy-GFNlYvc0nQeE62g5JqtSOyWOT_-bUOztZjSBorccD9T-HSfZsOwgG7vPFxHhg1AuffF7uK0npXxSlot_wTDlAVy-vI-ZBOAGCW6xdTp1/s1600/breadwater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_czhpmvwDGs4sTmEjU4YxPGk2cNKKTrHFJfy-GFNlYvc0nQeE62g5JqtSOyWOT_-bUOztZjSBorccD9T-HSfZsOwgG7vPFxHhg1AuffF7uK0npXxSlot_wTDlAVy-vI-ZBOAGCW6xdTp1/s1600/breadwater.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>My sermon for Ash Wednesday:</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Every celebration of Mass begins with the Penitential Rite, as we call it. We prepare to meet Christ and receive Christ in the Eucharist by pausing for a moment, right at the start of Mass, and turning our attention to our faults, our weaknesses, the areas of our life where we fall short of the standard of Christian holiness. We apologise to God and we ask him to give us strength in our future struggles.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lent is a whole season of the Church Year dedicated to this aspect of Christian spiritual life.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">The mood and tone of Lent is penitential rather than joyful or festive, but that doesn't mean that it's supposed to be a depressing and demoralising experience. It's meant to be an exercise in honesty about ourselves, a time to examine our attitudes and behaviour, to renew our commitment to God, and to take some concrete steps to purify our often selfish and malicious motives.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The readings today, especially the gospel, suggest three main ways of entering into the spirit and purpose of Lent. The first way is by <i>fasting</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Fasting means disciplining our ordinary physical appetite for food and drink and cutting down on the occasions of convivial eating-together: partly to remind ourselves that the physical and material side of life is secondary to our spiritual side and our relationship with God; partly as a gesture of self-sacrifice offered to God as a way of making up for our sinful actions (doing penance); and partly to symbolise our "appetite" for God.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">What I mean by that is that when Jesus went into the desert to prepare for his public ministry - the origin of the forty days of Lent - he removed the "distraction" of bodily nourishment so as to concentrate on the spiritual nourishment he received from solitude, prayer and meditation. During Lent we're supposed to imitate Jesus' example to some extent at least.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
Second, Lent is a time for <i>almsgiving</i>: an old-fashioned word, maybe, which means giving of our material resources, but also our time and energy, to those in need. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The recipients of almsgiving benefit in an obvious way. But we also benefit spiritually in that almsgiving helps to make us detached from money and possessions: the best way to be really detached from something, after all, is to do without it or give it away. It directs our attention away from our own wants and needs towards those of other people. It's a practical expression of sacrificial Christian love.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">As with fasting, there's a long tradition of treating almsgiving also as a form of penance.<br />
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Sometimes, when we've done something sinful, we can't go back in time and literally undo it. But what we can do is make up for it by giving away some of our money or otherwise making a sacrifice for the sake of the poor. There's a long tradition of seeing almsgiving as making amends for past faults and restoring our friendship with God.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lastly, Lent is a time of <i>prayer</i>, or, perhaps, since we're meant to pray continually, a time of more intense prayer, or a time for making a special effort to get into a more regular habit of praying.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Prayer, if we're honest, is an activity that we find easy to neglect. We're often busy, or preoccupied, or tired. There are all kinds of reasons why prayer can easily become neglected or rushed. But more than any other activity, prayer maintains our bond of communion with God, and when prayer slips down our list of important activities, the bond we have with God is weakened. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So Lent is a time when we consciously correct that particular fault - we try to put a bit more time aside to communicate with God and to bring him back from the periphery of our lives to the centre, which is surely where he should be.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">None of these penitential practices are gloomy or off-putting in themselves. They've always been seen as essential to maintaining a real, living friendship with God and a healthy spiritual life. So if we've forgotten or neglected them over the last twelve months, we can approach the season of Lent, now that it's beginning again this year, as a spiritual refresher course and an opportunity to re-establish some good habits that can only deepen our love for God and our neighbour.</div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-59056291186849268882011-03-09T13:01:00.015+00:002011-03-23T09:59:08.450+00:00"De-chavving" the car parkThe bushes around the car park had gradually grown very tall and, following a suggestion at the last parish council meeting, I arranged to have them cut down a bit, making the car park and the church entrance far more visible from the street.<br />
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Hopefully now the car park will be less of a <span style="font-style: italic;">rendezvous</span> for boy racers and their molls, and we won't have to clear up so many <span style="font-style: italic;">Macdonald's</span> wrappers, empty lager bottles and the like. Now there's also a panoramic view over the town and towards the famous <a href="http://www.clwydianrangeaonb.org.uk/">Clwydian Range</a> of hills.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhslmFB8_-fxMj85FEfZYBfBydAelwUxxHgp2gRyzyeR8iZ8WHgaSG6FzWSmpXH5Y7f3YxTaaWCVsBgN0QVj5a4RNNb1u5rVMf_5BnK2C-4wDGfAywcPZIcpwpjKoePVuAvVXB8JLq5v9lF/s1600/_48436607_scene6.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582783832459868114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhslmFB8_-fxMj85FEfZYBfBydAelwUxxHgp2gRyzyeR8iZ8WHgaSG6FzWSmpXH5Y7f3YxTaaWCVsBgN0QVj5a4RNNb1u5rVMf_5BnK2C-4wDGfAywcPZIcpwpjKoePVuAvVXB8JLq5v9lF/s320/_48436607_scene6.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 214px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A view of the Clwydian Range (though not </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">quite</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> from St Joseph's car park)</span></span></div><br />
A big thank you to Simon and Andrew Fox-Byrne for putting in several hours this morning, Ash Wednesday, clearing up the tons of leaves and branches that were cut down. <br />
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Here they are, hard at work:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwgpP2dg43zJUNgVfoLAnvzWTPhQThko5DgsO8XIeLwmr4McEib3qEthrQ4gtwoUv0m41uvgpE3TRqD2l6W4jeY4hSMYaGRiulGtL4aUty9B270Kj5xkmcd8WWD-kufD73ELOiwhYRCrt/s1600/P2270006.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582065450052130130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwgpP2dg43zJUNgVfoLAnvzWTPhQThko5DgsO8XIeLwmr4McEib3qEthrQ4gtwoUv0m41uvgpE3TRqD2l6W4jeY4hSMYaGRiulGtL4aUty9B270Kj5xkmcd8WWD-kufD73ELOiwhYRCrt/s320/P2270006.JPG" style="display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CRJqfUaikgqf7_yYF-ujf3crYJjkWKajN1y-lG5GAXeA8GxNJQLb6_sT5l6gBl6VxFSsNemaf-mxglIJF4Ip0w56MZPb22spw2klgkc0BrB6HeweCqAkMNdY-K2GidvJzqWnXC0L0PVO/s1600/P2270009.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582066177664532914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CRJqfUaikgqf7_yYF-ujf3crYJjkWKajN1y-lG5GAXeA8GxNJQLb6_sT5l6gBl6VxFSsNemaf-mxglIJF4Ip0w56MZPb22spw2klgkc0BrB6HeweCqAkMNdY-K2GidvJzqWnXC0L0PVO/s320/P2270009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoasjpC8C64DLe0zO3U9J6LA6nlTnhyphenhyphenbGhXem6s-6rsNM5bdBjx9Mv2fOu3nyLGHnRnM6CWnNqpEhB-LHKSVCRLGGGrEiNPrTCwukE6uV0iuMRVDo2h6_LdcphqVq4cyfSoWAls6whwZd/s1600/P2270008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582065989222500242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoasjpC8C64DLe0zO3U9J6LA6nlTnhyphenhyphenbGhXem6s-6rsNM5bdBjx9Mv2fOu3nyLGHnRnM6CWnNqpEhB-LHKSVCRLGGGrEiNPrTCwukE6uV0iuMRVDo2h6_LdcphqVq4cyfSoWAls6whwZd/s320/P2270008.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuse89zK0fnQbMWReK0ENPfzEU5SUFantXbtqA8UlxuKQLePwhIEO4wkUhTxWXxlKwuQGtcitH7qY5EP3c3UitSyFcAOouTlMKnN7OTYzZdPQzu2g6PCIkP2yn-mCHA9Z42TOMoNUnQLLJ/s1600/P2270007.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582065793720859170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuse89zK0fnQbMWReK0ENPfzEU5SUFantXbtqA8UlxuKQLePwhIEO4wkUhTxWXxlKwuQGtcitH7qY5EP3c3UitSyFcAOouTlMKnN7OTYzZdPQzu2g6PCIkP2yn-mCHA9Z42TOMoNUnQLLJ/s320/P2270007.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-49439722182488750922011-03-09T12:47:00.007+00:002011-03-23T10:00:00.968+00:00"Worldly prudence"<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKAQRopPAJfxtaqd57Cbw4-UHdZ-MMaSG59lTlvdJwPn8J6qhcAZztR8_5A1XxSJoypp6EreH4ECwohLXsGvJ1K9Ye93OR-7z32tSsYYlGF9pvDG4172WeX4TMFiGz4n9bLpq4GDRyA-J/s1600/wordlywiseman" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582053367632785474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKAQRopPAJfxtaqd57Cbw4-UHdZ-MMaSG59lTlvdJwPn8J6qhcAZztR8_5A1XxSJoypp6EreH4ECwohLXsGvJ1K9Ye93OR-7z32tSsYYlGF9pvDG4172WeX4TMFiGz4n9bLpq4GDRyA-J/s320/wordlywiseman" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 212px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mr Worldly Wiseman from Bunyan's <i> </i></b><br />
<b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>The Pilgrim's Progress</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>An <span style="font-style: italic;">addendum</span> to Sunday's sermon, courtesy of F.P. Harton in his book<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Elements of the Spiritual Life</span>. The book was first published in 1932 and Harton, an Anglican clergyman and sometime Dean of Wells Cathedral, obviously belonged to the High Church party of the Church of England. My second-hand copy is a 1957 reprint, but the book is apparently available in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Spiritual-Life-Ascetical-Theology/dp/1592449883">a modern edition</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9on5GfWfkD4wVR5KqQk0poBb4sRLrH6roZ0auU-RizPBss4o7EjNAALpLtgqAEy1dF_WzwkG1VgBFwidtJLwm-vcuWeWZ1jHs2EcV8yhPg5EWqCqhswS8ZO-7wifAr5-q2S2RKZQOZcbs/s1600/Harton"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582063168342536930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9on5GfWfkD4wVR5KqQk0poBb4sRLrH6roZ0auU-RizPBss4o7EjNAALpLtgqAEy1dF_WzwkG1VgBFwidtJLwm-vcuWeWZ1jHs2EcV8yhPg5EWqCqhswS8ZO-7wifAr5-q2S2RKZQOZcbs/s320/Harton" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 100%;">He writes (pp.69-70) </span><span style="font-size: 100%; font-style: italic;">à propos</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> the cardinal virtue of prudence:</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">There is a selfish prudence which seeks to regulate life with regard to personal comfort, ambition, success and other similar ends; there is also a worldly prudence which, though not blatantly selfish, is, nevertheless, the enemy of true religion. Whether good or bad, prudence always seeks to regulate conduct with regard to a definite end, and it is of vital importance that that end should be the right one. In the case of worldly prudence the end may frequently seem to be the right one, but its criterion is the world's standard of business, tactics, policy or what not, and it is that fact which vitiates it. It refuses to take risks or follow ideals; it is so eminently sane that the cross is to it as to the Greeks, "foolishness". In worldly affairs it is commonly successful and, for that very reason, it is in spiritual matters the Devil's favourite method of throwing dust in the eyes of the unwary. It "works", it is eminently successful up to a point, it appeals to "commonsense", its motto is "be not righteous overmuch", and it seeks to balance the morality of Christ and the world.<br />
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Christian prudence is the virtue of balance of another kind. It does not seek to reconcile Christ to the world, but man to God, and the scale whereby it weighs all things is the will of God. It directs the actions of everyday life not merely towards immediate and secondary ends, but towards the one primary end of the fulfilment of the purpose of creation.<br />
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It is therefore the supernatural directing power of the life of the virtues. Such direction is eminently necessary if the soul is to live its life aright, and it is also necessary that such illumination should come from God if the soul is not to lose itself in the complexity of life in the world as it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Prudence, therefore, sums up and directs all the other virtues and is the light by which the soul is guided until it comes more directly under the control of the Holy Spirit....The Wise Man remarks that "the wise in heart shall be called prudent"<b>*</b> and Prudence is truly the practical wisdom of Jesus; not a nice balancing of probabilities, but the discovery of the Father's will in the affairs of daily life, and the doing of that alone which is consonant with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><b>*</b> Prov. xvi. 21.</span><br />
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Were Dean Harton alive today, would he, I wonder, be planning to join <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12685062">the new Ordinariate</a>?Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-81937604876395793852011-03-08T20:34:00.005+00:002011-03-23T10:00:50.282+00:00A house built on rock<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxJZPHzoM38ZPG4TOjUvr9auDg6KlQLMBN6cD8tltOiMyAyVhk6lop2Ub-PZbr7peRndKcUuykyoNoOfekJy_TW71vetkCh8LRk023ehdwzBK9OnovpF04KLz0vxPsqdQ0z3FRJI7Z9GT/s1600/cosimo-rosselli-sermon-on-the-mount" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581811793512614498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxJZPHzoM38ZPG4TOjUvr9auDg6KlQLMBN6cD8tltOiMyAyVhk6lop2Ub-PZbr7peRndKcUuykyoNoOfekJy_TW71vetkCh8LRk023ehdwzBK9OnovpF04KLz0vxPsqdQ0z3FRJI7Z9GT/s320/cosimo-rosselli-sermon-on-the-mount" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 187px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 320px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon for the 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A:</span><br />
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The gospel reading today brings to a close a long and important section of Saint Matthew's Gospel: Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.<br />
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This great exposition of Jesus' moral teaching covers chapters five, six and seven of Matthew's Gospel and there are some disadvantages in dividing it into several short segments, as in the gospel readings for Mass over the last five or six Sundays. It's a good idea to read all three chapters together, to get a picture of the whole charter of Christian moral life, or the way of God's Kingdom.<br />
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What Jesus seems to warn his followers about here, at the end of his Sermon, is a tendency that's probably very easy for religious believers to fall into: the tendency to give lip-service to God, to offer <span style="font-style: italic;">gestures </span>of loyalty and friendship and praise to God while actually ignoring his will and pursuing our own self-interest, our own pleasure and happiness.<br />
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We might say that the worldly-minded person, the person with a purely commonsense code of ethics, is the person who looks after his own welfare, and that of the people he's closest to. He makes use of the opportunities that come his way that bring advantage to himself and his own, and avoids risks or sacrifices that might bring disadvantage. It's possible to live by that code and still be a basically decent, honest and even occasionally generous person.<br />
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But that's different from the code of God's Kingdom the way Jesus proclaimed it. Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you....if someone takes your tunic, give him your cloak as well...don't worry about money and food and clothes but trust in God to provide you with with what you need...all the teaching of Christ that the gospel readings have put before us over the last few Sundays. What concerns Christ is that his followers might well say their prayers and observe their religious obligations all right, but in their daily conduct and their relationships with other people, follow the same worldly rule of life that men and women with no commitment to God follow.<br />
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Jesus knows, of course, that the values and the way of life of the Kingdom don't come naturally to us, because acting against our own self-interest doesn't come naturally to us. Conversion to God's Kingdom usually takes a long time, and God is infinitely patient towards our failures, our compromises, the struggles we have against our resistance to the high standards of the Kingdom.<br />
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So the second point that Jesus makes in this passage is important as well: that the person who listens to his words and acts on them is like a man who builds a house on rock. The way of the Kingdom might be difficult but ultimately it's the only solid foundation for life, and the only way that will lead us to communion with God - the goal at the heart of Christian life.<br />
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I think that's very relevant in the context of our present society because if there's a general attitude towards morality at the present time it's an attitude of what a lot of people would call "realism".<br />
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Listening to so many of the pundits and opinion-formers in the media, you easily get the impression that we've all lost faith in the ability of human nature to rise above it's self-serving tendencies. There's often an outright hostility towards any kind of moral absolutes, or and set of values that invite us to transcend our selfish appetites and motives. And of course people can dignify this attitude of aiming low in our moral behaviour by saying that they're only being realistic.<br />
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In this context all the Church community can do is to go on preaching, and hopefully living, the ideals that Jesus lays out in the Sermon on the Mount. The human vocation isn't just to be rich and famous and physically attractive and all the other worldly aspirations that our culture seems to be obsessed by. Our vocation is to resist those kinds of temptation, to rise above them, and to take God's holiness as the standard that we measure ourselves by. It might be an uphill struggle, but anything less involves selling ourselves short.<br />
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This is the message that Jesus finishes off his Sermon on the Mount with, and maybe its especially appropriate for us to reflect on with the season of Lent starting again on Wednesday this week, when we're supposed to question ourselves about the progress we're making in our spiritual and moral life, and re-commit ourselves to the way of God's Kingdom.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-82250165195124223382011-03-02T08:20:00.005+00:002011-03-23T10:01:43.280+00:00Consider the lilies....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBP6lRLmtksL__2xinlWVOatW4NSgSpULJUmF7rx6Szl0T41l8UcFG42jwmoiWrtnj-R7u-kQ3shijSzpSAYkpU-A_Ln75eCPnGgOyqUcGwgVtr1avsQZkD55quCEO1dL_SwjsqXI_xSb0/s1600/designer" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579398657651188770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBP6lRLmtksL__2xinlWVOatW4NSgSpULJUmF7rx6Szl0T41l8UcFG42jwmoiWrtnj-R7u-kQ3shijSzpSAYkpU-A_Ln75eCPnGgOyqUcGwgVtr1avsQZkD55quCEO1dL_SwjsqXI_xSb0/s320/designer" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 196px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 257px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon for last Sunday, 8th in Ordinary Time, Year A:</span><br />
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There's a story about one of the hermits living in the desert in the fourth or fifth century, who came back to his hermitage one day to find a couple of robbers making off with his few possessions. Instead of protesting or trying to stop them, he began to help them remove his few goods from the house. He seemed to look on the experience of being robbed as a test of his vow of poverty or an opportunity to show, even to himself, his level of non-attachment to material things.<br />
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Maybe that kind of action shows Christian simplicity on a heroic scale, but you could also argue that it's easier for someone who has chosen a solitary, monastic way of life, removed from the ordinary responsibilities of work, home and family, to make such a gesture.<br />
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Most people, including most Christian believers, have families to support, bills to pay and so on, and have to be a bit more "attached" to money and food and clothes - the things Jesus is talking about in the gospel today - than the saintly hermit. And especially in the present economic climate, it's surely only natural for people to be worried about keeping their jobs, for example, feeding and clothing their children, or keeping up their mortgage payments. <br />
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If someone feels anxious about those kinds of issues it doesn't mean he or she is a materialistic or unspiritual person. It's worth remembering that in Old Testament times it was the poor and economically dependent person who was the special object of care and pity on God's part; and the community that worshipped God was always being exhorted by the prophets to make sure that they were looked after and to not allowed to fall into destitution.<br />
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Jesus' teaching here in his Sermon on the Mount doesn't contradict the Old Testament ideal. Jesus isn't unsympathetic to people whose situation is precarious because of a lack of money or material necessities.<br />
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Jesus is more concerned, I think, that his followers should have a proper sense of perspective about material possessions: that our relationship with God should be the primary concern in our lives, while material things are secondary; that we should never make money and possessions the main source of happiness and security in our lives; and that we should always trust in God to look after us and carry us through the bad times in our lives as much as the good.<br />
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Most people in Christ's time weren't rich or even particularly comfortable. But he still felt that it was appropriate and necessary to talk to them in this rather black-and-white language about making a clear choice either to serve God or to serve Mammon. We can't choose both, and we can't divide our loyalty between the two, Jesus urges.<br />
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Like the Old Testament prophets Christ was very alive to the danger of idolatry, or worshipping false gods, and that didn't always mean turning away from the true God to say prayers and offer sacrifices to some pagan deity. It could mean becoming so preoccupied with our physical and material wants - things like money, food and clothes - that we end up giving these objects the time and energy and the place in our lives which we should only give to God.<br />
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So as a counter to the temptation to idolise material things, there are three basic spiritual attitudes that Christ wants his followers to take.<br />
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The first is to be detached from our possessions - maybe not to the same extent as the hermit in the desert, but to always see them as secondary to the spiritual side of life and our relationship with God. Seek the Kingdom of God first, Christ says, and then worry about these things. Food and clothes and money are important and necessary in their place. But they're not all-important. Union with God, now in the present, and in the next life, <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> all-important.<br />
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Second, Christ's followers must always practice generosity, or sharing, or solidarity with those who lack the basics or existence. Christians who happen to be fortunate enough to have everything they need materially can never take an "I'm all right, Jack" attitude and look on other people's poverty as their tough luck.<br />
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The Bible teaches that everything ultimately belongs to God, not to us. We're stewards, not owners, of the material things of the world, and we're obliged to divest ourselves of our goods and to share them if we come into contact with people who are more needy than we are. That's one of the main principles that we'll be judged on at the end of our lives.<br />
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Last of all, in this gospel passage Jesus recommends that his followers always turn to God and rely on God to provide them with what they need in life. That always means what God knows we need, not what we think we need. God never provides us with a luxurious existence or makes us rich or keeps us free from all forms of suffering through life. We can leave that sort of thinking - the "prosperity gospel" as it's called - to American television evangelists.<br />
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What God <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> provide us with is his presence, his support, his grace so that - if we don't turn our backs on him, which is always a temptation during anxious and miserable times in our lives - we'll come through our experiences of suffering with a stronger and purer faith, and a clearer sense of what's really important in life.<br />
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So I don't think Jesus wants us to feel guilty if we happen to get into financial trouble or if we're worried about how we're going to pay for some things. That's not his point.<br />
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But what he does want us to do is to always put God first, not to make anything else into a false god, and to always trust God to give us what we really need in life. Those are the basic Christian attitudes to life that today's gospel passage is directing us towards.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-55745860424741241322011-02-21T14:43:00.003+00:002011-03-23T10:02:47.587+00:00Education Sunday<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiDS7Dj-3vhNu3w9sLW49_tDIFFf0kYM7XURaVXDfOykjQ2tPL1VbV3kIQSKSq1ESc1XXRjlNU51kbh07ePTrns4w5SeQ9q8guPmy1Tk2h4BEMxlOYoYcZ8gyBrwaUIFsjnTXL56SLWwbu/s1600/schools" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576152516099316034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiDS7Dj-3vhNu3w9sLW49_tDIFFf0kYM7XURaVXDfOykjQ2tPL1VbV3kIQSKSq1ESc1XXRjlNU51kbh07ePTrns4w5SeQ9q8guPmy1Tk2h4BEMxlOYoYcZ8gyBrwaUIFsjnTXL56SLWwbu/s320/schools" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 284px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 290px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
Y<span style="font-size: 100%;">esterday was "Education Sunday" and Bishop Regan wrote this Pastoral Letter on the subject of Catholic Education</span>:</span><br />
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M</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">y Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ</span> <br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">In his first five years as our Holy Father, Pope Benedict has named as special, the Year of St Paul and the Year of Priests. These years have given fresh impetus and zest to our following of the Lord Jesus. When the Holy Father came to Britain we were given the inspiration for another Year, the Year of Catholic Education. It began last September, when Bishop Malcolm McMahon launched the Year at the Big Assembly in Twickenham. Pope Benedict had just spoken to 4000 children gathered around him, and to an audience of many thousands who were following the Big Assembly in schools right across Britain. The Year of Catholic Education seeks to distil the beauty of that encounter in faith, in every school and parish. </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">So there are some special events planned but mainly we want to celebrate the great work that continues in Catholic education on behalf of the young and in service of the common good. </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">We are proud when Catholic schools are praised for their achievement and indeed we expect our schools to reach the highest possible standards. However, we know that our educational aims are much wider and deeper than this. As Pope Benedict said to the children, </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">“</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">In your Catholic schools, there is always a bigger picture over and above the individual subjects that you study, the different skills that you learn. All the work you do is placed in the context of growing in friendship with God, and all that flows from that friendship. So you learn not just to be good students, but good citizens, good people. .....never allow yourselves to become narrow. The world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes dangerously narrow if it ignores the religious or ethical dimension of life, just as religion becomes if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world......</span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.” (Address at the Big Assembly, Twickenham 17.9.10).</span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Pope Benedict was echoing the challenge of the reading from Leviticus – ‘Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.’ The horizon of a good education also stretches further than preparing young people for the work place, important as that is. Catholic education puts the whole person at the centre, encouraging in that call to the fullness of life, to become whom God intends. This is continued in our life-long call to learn, to wonder, and to grow in virtue. Catholic education has something important to say in today’s fierce debate about education, about its hopes and its purpose for our society. This is a good time for us to contribute to that debate. </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">We are never too old to learn! We might reflect on what we can learn today from the scriptures. For instance, when we hear Jesus’ words on loving our enemies, and about respect for the dignity of every human being, including ourselves, do we see how subtle is the teaching of the Lord Jesus on offering the other cheek? He did not offer the other cheek when the High Priest’s servant hit him. Rather, He challenged him, ‘If I have done no wrong, why did you hit me?’ (John 18, 23)</span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Have you thought about this before? - If you are right-handed, what is entailed in hitting someone on the right cheek? If you intend to really hurt someone, you would hit them on the left cheek – a right-handed person would land a blow on their opponent’s right cheek either without much force, or as a slap, a sign of contempt and disdain. That is the point – if someone treats you without respect for your human dignity, then you must challenge them. Do not become a doormat. </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">That is a reason too why we must defend our Catholic schools robustly. When they are attacked, the Church must be ready to defend the rights of parents to choose an education based on Gospel values, the teaching of the Lord Jesus. </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Similarly, when parents choose a school for their children, the Catholic school must be high on their list of priorities. In many parts of this Diocese, parents who wish to send their children to a Catholic school are thwarted because of geography, and I appreciate the pastoral care of clergy and catechists in those parishes who help families to grow in the Faith.</span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">I also wish to applaud our teachers who devote themselves unstintingly to the work of the Catholic school. In their dedicated service, we do have something great to celebrate! Our headteachers give inspiring leadership in many difficult situations; they are enabled by governors, who are the unsung heroes of our education system. My deep gratitude extends also to the clergy for their indispensable support of the Catholic school. The Catholic school is at the interface between the values of the Gospel and what is considered important in secular society, and the priest is an outstanding witness to the absolute necessity of the spiritual in human life.</span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">I also thank those who work in the Diocesan Education Service, who have to cope with many new challenges in the course of their work. The collection today is for the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales, which gives us sterling support and defends and promotes the values of Catholic education in dealing with Government, both in the Welsh Assembly Government and the Parliament in Westminster. </span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">I give the last words to Pope Benedict as he spoke to the schools at the Big Assembly:</span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">“</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only God can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts. In the meantime, may God bless you all!”</span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br />
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<div align="center" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">+ Edwin</span></div><div align="center" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Bishop of Wrexham </span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;">Given at Wrexham on 17<sup>th</sup></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> February 2011 and appointed to be read and made available at all Masses in all Churches and Chapels in the Diocese of Wrexham on Education Sunday, </span><br />
<div align="center" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></div><div align="center" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 20 February 2011.</span></div><div align="center" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">This pastoral letter will also be available on the diocesan website <a href="http://www.wrexhamdiocese.org.uk/">http://www.wrexhamdiocese.org.uk/</a></span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-36591362967059261002011-02-17T08:59:00.004+00:002011-03-23T10:03:35.597+00:00"But I say this to you...": Christ's new standard<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh8j1z3wn-2eG54ITM1M7-tsz5x3n1AEDNIFlDQ9uTDdqJ2D91Gpey39K3ssf6-jk4Mljl3n6-e5mueZ0dAllDuaf9_kpFGwcC2RUsOnHHmLeR4c_TgE0-KGXMx_MJmg1aGGaiG9RVkO4k/s1600/Beatitudes_sm.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574581691865091090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh8j1z3wn-2eG54ITM1M7-tsz5x3n1AEDNIFlDQ9uTDdqJ2D91Gpey39K3ssf6-jk4Mljl3n6-e5mueZ0dAllDuaf9_kpFGwcC2RUsOnHHmLeR4c_TgE0-KGXMx_MJmg1aGGaiG9RVkO4k/s320/Beatitudes_sm.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 183px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A:<br />
</span>The religion of the Old Testament is criticised sometimes for being too legalistic, but I think that's a mistake and a misrepresentation.<br />
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The faith of the Chosen People didn't revolve around a set of harsh rules; their faith revolved around the character of God, especially his quality of loving-kindness or steadfast love (<span style="font-style: italic;">hesed</span> in Hebrew, a word that's used hundreds of times in the Old Testament to describe the main quality of God's character).<br />
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Under the Covenant between God and his people each individual member of the community had to try to take that quality to heart and practice it in his or her own life.<br />
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The whole community also had to put it into practice by making sure that basic standards of justice and compassion were observed in society as a whole, taking special care, for example, of the poorest and weakest members of the community ("the widow, the orphan and the stranger" in the symbolic language of the Old Testament).<br />
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That's why Jesus can say here, in his Sermon on the Mount, that, as far as his teaching is concerned, not even the tiniest part of the old Law or the preaching of the prophets is going to be done away with. It's a reminder, apart from anything else, that there aren't two Gods in the Bible - a harsh, legalistic God in the Old Testament and a nice loving God in the New Testament. It's the same God, and Jesus' whole mission was to reveal God's character more fully than before.<br />
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Having said that, Jesus does talk in terms of a contrast between what has been taught before and what he now has to teach: "You have heard that it was said to our ancestors..." is contrasted over and again with "But I say this to you...". We have to conclude that Jesus wants his disciples to aim for a new, higher standard in their moral attitudes and behaviour.<br />
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The main contrast Jesus makes is between a sort of outward conformity to moral rules and regulations and a real conversion of inner motives.<br />
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If we want to be a disciple of Christ, it's not enough to avoid killing someone. The motive of anger, which leads to violence, has got to be rooted out of our hearts, and everything should be done to settle differences and to be reconciled with persons who have offended us. It's not enough to avoid actually committing adultery; the motive of lust, which leads to adultery, has got to be eliminated.<br />
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We have all had the experience, surely, of being tempted to do something we know to be wrong, but failing to go through with it, not because we recognise it's inherently immoral but because we fear being found out, because other people would hold a lower opinion of us if they knew what we'd done, or maybe because we would face punishment if we were discovered. In other words sometimes there's a conflict between what we feel attracted to doing for selfish reasons and what we actually do.<br />
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Jesus holds out the ideal of there being no conflict between our inner motivations and our outward conduct: a counsel of perfection, of course, but not an impossible counsel.<br />
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I think the best way to look at it is in terms of <span style="font-style: italic;">spiritual combat</span>, or <span style="font-style: italic;">spiritual warfare</span>, as the Christian tradition has come to call it.<br />
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We know that our human nature is flawed and fallen. Our conscience is damaged; our will-power for doing good and avoiding evil is weak; our moral reasoning - how we deliberate about what's right and wrong is unreliable. And that means that we're easily misled by strong inclinations to self-seeking, treating other people as means to our own ends, which is a failure to love.<br />
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But at the same time we're not hopelessly corrupt. We also have inclinations towards self-sacrifice, towards love and care and service of others - the opposite of treating people as objects.<br />
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And Christian spiritual life has always been seen as a struggle to identify and resist our self-seeking tendencies and to deliberately cultivate our capacity for love and service. It's the difference between doing the right thing reluctantly or because we fear the unpleasant consequences that might follow from pursuing our selfish desires, and being transformed at root, in the motives that take shape in our mind, our imagination, our will and our conscience.<br />
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But that transformation doesn't happen just by our own efforts, or even mainly through our own efforts. Christian spiritual life isn't about having a strong will; it's about turning to God, trusting in God and being open to his grace. When we're receptive to God, he guides our mind, our imagination, our will, our conscience, in the direction of his own holiness. He changes us within, and our outward behaviour follows naturally from that.<br />
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That's why Jesus can put the standard of perfection before his disciples - because any moral progress Christians make in their lives is mostly God's work, not our own. God takes the initiative and we respond.<br />
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I'd like to think that this hopeful and encouraging message is one of the main lessons we can take from this particular section of Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount, as St Matthew presents it to us.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-25062525817606852712011-02-09T13:40:00.005+00:002011-03-23T10:05:24.499+00:00Your light must shine among men<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI0o8kmEhIbedFJLHmFazy39flKYUzGJmBnpqAGM41stqh48kGPdNmxk7XTIrJibcuNXh2JlfEuGzJvrB6JpsoT6qIvam1kNsJWoGe6Js1Q5HuQgv7HEfqQzvmLEZhYP7Sx0b-t__hc1Ar/s1600/simonopetra_rock.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571684383144818290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI0o8kmEhIbedFJLHmFazy39flKYUzGJmBnpqAGM41stqh48kGPdNmxk7XTIrJibcuNXh2JlfEuGzJvrB6JpsoT6qIvam1kNsJWoGe6Js1Q5HuQgv7HEfqQzvmLEZhYP7Sx0b-t__hc1Ar/s320/simonopetra_rock.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon last Sunday, 5th in Ordinary Time, Year A:</span><br />
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The instruction that Jesus offers in these few lines of the gospel seems at first glance to contradict the teaching he gave on other occasions, along the lines that when we pray, or fast or give alms, we should do it in secret, and God, who alone sees what we do in secret, will reward us.<br />
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Here Jesus seems concerned that our "good works" <span style="font-style: italic;">shouldn't</span> be hidden or secret. They should almost be well-advertised, like a city on a hill-top, or a lamp on a lamp-stand.<br />
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The important element is motivation, of course. Jesus aligns himself with a strain of spiritual teaching in the Old Testament, illustrated in the first reading and the psalm today, that sees great value in setting a good example to other people - especially an example of pity and generosity towards human suffering.<br />
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"Share your bread with the hungry," says Isaiah. "...shelter the homeless poor, clothe the man you see to be naked". And the author of the psalm describes "the just man" as the person who is generous and merciful, who "takes pity and lends", and gives help to the poor "open-handed".<br />
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Jesus' idea in particular is that when we give this sort of example of responding humanely to instances of suffering, we're not drawing attention to ourselves or cultivating a virtuous image - the motive that he often accused the Pharisees of having. What we're doing is, we're inviting people to make a connection between our care and service to the poor and the devotion we have to God, which motivates our behaviour.<br />
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There have been many instances in the history of the Church when people have been persuaded to take the Christian message seriously, not by words an preaching and verbal appeals, but by the practical example that Christians have given of kindness and self-sacrifice. "Preach the gospel at all times," said St Francis. "Use words if necessary".<br />
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Jesus often echoed another strain of thinking in the Old Testament when he criticised people for having a rather showy devotion to God at the same time as turning a blind eye to people who were suffering, sometimes right under their noses. Time and again in the Bible we're told that this isn't the sort of faith or devotion God wants to see.<br />
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But it's possible that, in our circumstances today, we face the opposite problem: there are lots of examples of concern for, and action against, poverty and other types of suffering, but they're divorced from any kind of devotion to God. Big events like Comic Relief and Children in Need, which aspire to draw the whole country into their "good works", certainly mobilise people's resources of pity and generosity, but not in a way that causes people to then give praise to their Father in heaven.<br />
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So if we're anxious to put Jesus' whole teaching into practice, maybe there are a couple of principles that we should keep sight of.<br />
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One is, regarding our own spiritual life and our personal relationship with God, not to become so caught up in good works and activism - however necessary and praiseworthy - that our activism becomes a sort of substitute for God himself. Pope Paul VI put it very well when he said that we shouldn't become so preoccupied with the work of the Lord that we forget the Lord of all work.<br />
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And the second principle that's worth keeping sight of is to remember Jesus' great saying that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.<br />
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There's always the temptation in a materialistic culture like ours, with a very "horizontal" notion of human welfare and happiness, to lose sight of the "vertical" aspect of human life - our vocation to live in communion with God, to detach ourselves in fact from material and worldly appetites in order to bring our our spiritual side, our appetite for God.<br />
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It used to be said about the Christian missions to very poor countries that you can't preach the Gospel to people with empty stomachs - and that's very true.<br />
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But in our modern consumer culture, with its narrow vision of material welfare and material happiness, what Christians have to point out, prophetically but delicately, is that just to have a full stomach, and a roof over our heads, and to aspire to be surrounded by the paraphernalia of material comfort, isn't enough. The human vocation is a higher vocation than that, and this is a difficult message to preach in a climate which is often blind or even hostile to the whole idea of transcendence.<br />
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Other people might now separate the expression of practical compassion from the worship of God, but we should always see them as connected, and try to find ways of making other people re-connect them. That's how we might take to heart the teaching that Jesus gives in this particular section of his Sermon on the Mount, which is of course directed at us every bit as much as the people who were sitting in front of him on the original occasion that he preached it.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-2155285460608915792011-02-02T16:58:00.007+00:002011-03-23T10:06:08.842+00:00The Poor in Spirit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDqV1s8_2dYLEY4Q4rYf3EBaXz3BFfhIHTBl0UtSnnYXniUXVfcIeeKXByY-PjSE5JLstzMi2P87B-cd5MgA7LqHnnwVcBoI2MRYnST0V5aN31Xu2vEseIZOvzaRdOMVyeesvr8WA8wFjE/s1600/sermon_mount.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="font-style: italic;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569139683167037810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDqV1s8_2dYLEY4Q4rYf3EBaXz3BFfhIHTBl0UtSnnYXniUXVfcIeeKXByY-PjSE5JLstzMi2P87B-cd5MgA7LqHnnwVcBoI2MRYnST0V5aN31Xu2vEseIZOvzaRdOMVyeesvr8WA8wFjE/s320/sermon_mount.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 187px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">My sermon for last Sunday, 4th in Ordinary Time, Year A:</span><br />
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There's a type of person in the Bible who is held up as an ideal or a model of faith in God: the poor humble man, or the poor righteous man.<br />
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In many places the authors of the Old Testament draw an approving picture of the person whose material circumstances are insecure, who is under no illusions about his or her lowly social status and lack of influence, but who persists in devotion to God and in trying to live a good moral life, in keeping with God's Law.<br />
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The Old Testament often contrasts the poor humble person with the rich and arrogant - those who enjoy their wealth selfishly, look down on their inferiors and turn a blind eye to suffering. All the readings we have for this Sunday's Mass are good examples of these biblical attitudes and ideals. We see the thread that runs through the whole of the Bible: God is close to the poor and humble but very far from the rich and proud.<br />
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In our culture today, very different from Old Testament times or the time of Christ, it's probably not so easy to make a straightforward connection between poverty and righteousness, between poverty and humble devotion to God. There are lots of pressures and a huge amount of propaganda in our consumer society that encourage everyone to be preoccupied with the material side of life, with food and clothes, expensive gadgets and toys and all the rest of it.<br />
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And while I think that a lot of people manage to resist the pressures, and reject the propaganda, a lot of people don't. And unfortunately, doctors, social workers, teachers and police who work in the most deprived parts of our society would testify that they don't often encounter examples of Old Testament-style righteousness; but they do see a lot of depressing selfish, predatory behaviour.<br />
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So if we're trying to reflect on what Christ has to say in the gospel today - happy the poor in spirit, happy the gentle, happy the pure in heart and so on - I think we're more likely to find instances of these qualities, not so much among the materially poor, as among people who have been defeated or brought low in some way, people who have been through a great deal of suffering and have been brought face to face with their own weakness and vulnerability. Or else maybe we could think of places like Jean Vanier's L'Arche Communities, where physically and mentally handicapped people live in community with the able-bodied people who are looking after them.<br />
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There are two ways that individuals react when they come in contact with weakness and vulnerability. One way is to feel contempt, to ridicule, to bully, to exploit people they regard as inferior. And that's an expression of the refusal to love which is the essence of human sinfulness.<br />
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But the other way of reacting is: to be converted; to learn poverty of spirit from those who in some sense already possess, or have already acquired, that quality.<br />
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In the second reading today Saint Paul addresses the members of the church community at Corinth, rebuking them in characteristically blunt language, for the lofty pretentions they seem to have been entertaining about themselves and their lack of poverty of spirit.<br />
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Like Jesus' Beatitudes, this passage from Saint Paul's letter has become a kind of classic statement of the way that God's values are very different from our human, worldly values. Like the Beatitudes, Paul's words show how we often have to completely reverse the values and attitudes we take for granted in everyday life if we want to belong to God's Kingdom.<br />
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"It was to shame the wise," Paul says, "that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen - those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything."<br />
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The more we come to recognise the qualities that God is looking for in us, and take them to heart, the closer we'll come to this "poverty of spirit" that Jesus proclaimed to be essential for belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-56412399474025541802011-01-25T20:39:00.007+00:002011-03-23T09:45:15.095+00:00Burns Supper<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU44iLyDwjYJ_-iNeMkeu3JC1-0LQ0gkjtstRoaJM1Dnoe1n6AYI1e0E2SS-1BeChvQNKnJtjivgtBCMPtDDCDqnAjxsYTp0q4UzstebKQwsHuq4DfzKNuNsI2GZhKWI7M-9vB4enfLQri/s1600/burns" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568503689946773586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU44iLyDwjYJ_-iNeMkeu3JC1-0LQ0gkjtstRoaJM1Dnoe1n6AYI1e0E2SS-1BeChvQNKnJtjivgtBCMPtDDCDqnAjxsYTp0q4UzstebKQwsHuq4DfzKNuNsI2GZhKWI7M-9vB4enfLQri/s320/burns" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 189px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 267px;" /></a>January always seems a bit of an anti-climax after December, but today is an excuse to celebrate! The same inventive Scots who gave you Hogmanay and the first hangover of the year gave us Burns night - Rabbie Burns (1759-1796) came from a family of small to middling Ayrshire farmers who, although far from wealthy, made sure he got a good education.<br />
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In 1801, the first Burns club was founded and Burns night was held on January 29th 1802. The date was subsequently changed to today but the format of a proper Burns supper has remained pretty much the same.<br />
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So if you feel like celebrating, here's how to do it:<br />
First, you have to have a whisky as an aperitif, then you sit down and say the Selkirk grace:<br />
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Some hae meat and canna eat,<br />
and some wad eat that want it,<br />
but we hae meat and we can eat it,<br />
and sae the Lord be thankit<br />
(Traditional Scots poem, often wrongly attributed to Robert Burns)<br />
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Then, tuck into a traditional Scottish soup; Cock-a-leekie or Scotch broth accompanied by whisky. Then the piper pipes, whilst the haggis is brought in, after reciting the appropriate poem, then you toast with whisky. The haggis is eaten, accompanied by mashed potatoes, mashed parsnips, and whisky.<br />
Dessert should be something like cranachan, a mixture of oatmeal, raspberries (which are optional) and cream, eaten with whisky! Then, you toast the Queen, the poet, the host, and the lassies, in whisky.<br />
Finally, you each read out a Burns poem, fortified beforehand with whisky!<br />
You're getting the idea, aren't you?! There's an awful lot of whisky involved, more whisky infact than Burns himself probably saw in his lifetime!<br />
The spirit was only legalised in 1784 and remained a highland specialty for many years after; as a lowlander Burns would have seen far more brandy than whisky.<br />
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Hopefully, this will get you through to the end of January where the days are quite glum, and the supply of parties seems to have dried up!<br />
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Anyway, if it's all too much whisky for you, you could always substitute Irn Bru!<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Happy Burns Night!</span>Teresa Redfern Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01634705305371647493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-31675939612630332572011-01-25T13:01:00.003+00:002011-03-23T09:49:23.068+00:00Unity in the Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbuGyTbxjzQurABVvXk0Qonn6zHnBlL04xatLYcCSQkFwk0Iq3yJW5koEPeHPd3IorTG6GRyffmWrX-B3-kaKxqL6ECOPSWfquAjy6R1tTjYb5ky57o-LI3pLRogZDptjvCztUICdVlea/s1600/vicar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbuGyTbxjzQurABVvXk0Qonn6zHnBlL04xatLYcCSQkFwk0Iq3yJW5koEPeHPd3IorTG6GRyffmWrX-B3-kaKxqL6ECOPSWfquAjy6R1tTjYb5ky57o-LI3pLRogZDptjvCztUICdVlea/s1600/vicar.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: ";"><strong>"It has been reported to me...that there is quarreling among you..."</strong></span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="left"><em>My sermon for last Sunday, 3rd in Ordinary Time, Year A:</em></div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">In the few short lines of today's second reading it seems that Saint Paul is anxious to restore the spirit of unity and harmony to the divided Corinthian church. Differences of opinion have in some way solidified into separate factions. Church members have grouped themselves around a number of individual leaders - including Paul himself.</div><div align="left"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div align="left">Paul first of all deplores the 'cult of personality' involved in church members declaring themselves as followers of individual pastors. No matter how attractive their personalities or persuasive their preaching, they are not Christ, they are not the Messiah; they have not surrendered their lives in atonement for the sins of the world. Paul argues strongly that in the Christian community worship and adoration should be directed to Christ alone, not to his ministers.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Second, if we take Paul's ministry as a whole, we see he does not deny that argument and discussion are vital to healthy community life. He himself famously rebuked Saint Peter for equivocating on aspects of the mission to the Gentiles. But Paul is also aware that "discussion" easily generates divisions; that divisions harden into antagonisms; and antagonisms destroy the spirit of love that should unite all members of Christ's Body, no matter how great is the variety of different opinions on matters of faith.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Third, Paul knows very well that there is a substantial core of Christian teaching - dogmas, ethical principles and norms of worship - which are not matters of opinion, but have to be accepted as true and non-negotiable as a condition of authentic discipleship. No one in the early Church was a stronger advocate of an essential content of faith, around which the whole community must be united in a spirit of humble obedience, than Saint Paul. </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">The situation of the community in Corinth is mirrored in the many divisions in today's Church - divisions exacerbated, I believe, by a failure or refusal on the part of many Church members to observe this "obedience of faith".</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">When parish clergy and liturgy groups deliberately flout established norms of worship; when Catholic teachers use R.E. lessons to impart their own opinions and disagreements to their pupils; when Catholic retreat houses propagate New Age doctrines and practices, we are witnessing, not a healthy diversity and vitality, but a harmful disruption of the unity of faith. One of the ironies of the present situation is that Catholics who voice their objections to erroneous ideas and abusive liturgical practices are often accused of being the perpetrators of division and disharmony - which always recalls to my mind the prophet Jeremiah's denunciation of those who cry "peace, peace" where there is no peace. (Jer 6:14).</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">"In essentials, unity," Saint Augustine is believed to have said, "in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity". If we all sincerely tried to follow this maxim, while heeding Saint Paul's appeal in today's second reading, we would probably be able to conduct important and constructive debates in a far more grown-up way than is unfortunately often the case in contemporary Church circles. </div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-54334933659142377702011-01-17T22:01:00.004+00:002011-03-23T09:50:21.600+00:00Jesus Christ the one true way to God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDim3xJGqnpf1CCKF9i5TYVJh8oWglC6EgIDe32UmiIMWR61Z6Mj_g6F8NJKOdinlWUGWRug8g1N4I9l0oTLtv-iNnUg1S3xM-U0BDpN7H6XenLOd730WWUDZwFflSO58jCBG198WltVz/s1600/friedrich3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDim3xJGqnpf1CCKF9i5TYVJh8oWglC6EgIDe32UmiIMWR61Z6Mj_g6F8NJKOdinlWUGWRug8g1N4I9l0oTLtv-iNnUg1S3xM-U0BDpN7H6XenLOd730WWUDZwFflSO58jCBG198WltVz/s320/friedrich3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<i>Yesterday's sermon, for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time,Year A:</i><br />
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John the Baptist's words about Jesus - "there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" - encapsulate a conviction which is central to the Christian faith. The human race is fallen, separated from God. The way we are now - prone to selfishness and evil in all sorts of ways - isn't the way God made us or intended us to be. <br />
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But God hasn't left us as we are. He sent his Son to "take away the sin of the world" and to restore the friendship with him that we've lost.<br />
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It's a great mystery, certainly, but it's a mystery which is central to our faith. And when Christians are strong in their faith, the Church community shares John the Baptist's conviction: Christ is the one sure way to God, and that means that the whole world has got to hear the gospel message. Everyone, ideally, has to be brought into contact with Christ and, hopefully, persuaded to become a follower of Christ. That's what the Church exists for.<br />
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But in more recent times a large part of that conviction, and the sense of missionary urgency that goes with it, has ebbed away. Now, to say that ideally everyone should know Christ and accept Christ as Saviour is regarded as arrogant and "fundamentalist" by many people. To engage in missionary activity is seen as a type of imperialism, disrespecting non-Christian customs and beliefs.<br />
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In many ways we're just as likely to find that way of thinking among church people as among the enemies of religion. Often a reluctance to claim that Christianity is true is seen as a form of progress towards a more tolerant and inclusive outlook. <br />
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My own judgement would be a bit more negative than that: that what we're really seeing is a waning of faith among Christians, a collapse of confidence in the truth of our own message. And I'd say that we can divide the process of waning of faith into three distinct stages.<br />
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At the first stage Christians believe that the gospel is true, and if it's true, it's true for everyone. Other religions and philosophies of life might contain a lot of spiritual wisdom, but they lack the fulness of truth about God and the unique work of salvation Jesus carried out for us. Pope Benedict touched on this subject in his message for World Peace Day on 1st January.<br />
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At the second stage a note of hesitancy and maybe equivocation comes in. There's an anxiety to affirm other, non-Christian perspectives - often in a rather simplistic and unreflective way, unfortunately.<br />
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Over the last forty or fifty years we've heard a lot of the slogans associated with this viewpoint: the Church must avoid "triumphalism"...."people outside the Church have as much to teach us as we have to teach them"....And in some circles you'll always get a round of applause for pointing out that "there are more real Christians outside the Church than there are inside".<br />
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One one level of course these statements are true - as banalities. On a deeper level they often express a loss of faith in the unique value of Christ's mission, and a loss of the sense of urgency in preaching the gospel far and wide and winning converts to Christ.<br />
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The final stage is the stage reached by some of the liberal Protestant churches in our own time.<br />
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Classical Christian beliefs are emptied-out, or redefined out of existence, and the kind of moral concerns that are dominant in secular society move to the foreground. Distinctive Christian moral principles, especially in the area of sexuality and marriage and family life, are disposed of - or fought-against in the name of equality and tolerance.<br />
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It's become more common even for members of the liberal denominations to say that they don't actually believe God exists as a real person. They see the Christian religion not as any kind of revelation by God to us but as a product of human imagination, like music and art and literature.<br />
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In an age when people were more inclined to call a spade a spade, this whole tendency would be named for what it really is: apostasy, a loss of faith in Christ.<br />
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Whereas the Scripture readings for today's Mass point to the coming of Christ, his life, his passion and death and resurrection, as the turning-point in God's relationship with humanity: something that it's essential for everyone to hear about and, hopefully, accept.<br />
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If we want the Church to be the "light to the nations" in Isaiah's language, surely the first step is going to have to be some kind of recovery of the sense of the unique truth of our faith that's given every great missionary figure in the Church's history the conviction and the confidence to take the gospel - as Isaiah again says - "to the ends of the earth".Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-20626276734066797332011-01-17T20:19:00.003+00:002011-03-23T09:51:26.951+00:00Trip to Wrexham<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Last Saturday afternoon the altar servers, their parents and friends took a trip down to Wrexham - first of all to see a Pax Christi exhibition in the cathedral.</div><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TZaI5UPZoyme8EbLkCHBbrBnXQ6WJF98iCJXnxWJfgTad4TTKmyNIG_1Odw8t8qUESNUphu8W9wICGTxOd5J_WoOvqMCJpbRXM4z-U2MjxsB2RvVn2EqTInrUcWnMe9f5SlbNG0PcWH2/s1600/DSC01173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TZaI5UPZoyme8EbLkCHBbrBnXQ6WJF98iCJXnxWJfgTad4TTKmyNIG_1Odw8t8qUESNUphu8W9wICGTxOd5J_WoOvqMCJpbRXM4z-U2MjxsB2RvVn2EqTInrUcWnMe9f5SlbNG0PcWH2/s320/DSC01173.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vgBfpjMjkGknAOjtvpetjYn-s42E8Yls0inSPVlaBrYX2dZcH_2bkwLdm_hBC8XUAMrHxHAgDFsDEpJy4bUZLF75hTqpJFHhiMeoZgbTAVyBxrfliljKseRj7aRTM0_SlUtB7qSPS6l8/s1600/DSC01167.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vgBfpjMjkGknAOjtvpetjYn-s42E8Yls0inSPVlaBrYX2dZcH_2bkwLdm_hBC8XUAMrHxHAgDFsDEpJy4bUZLF75hTqpJFHhiMeoZgbTAVyBxrfliljKseRj7aRTM0_SlUtB7qSPS6l8/s320/DSC01167.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Then we went tenpin bowling....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg81iAQ7WO3bQQD1jTddYN7jKxAwUV48bdp31E7fwqMHSrcv5WWl_tPyThcwanFq1R2_DnPKRoT0Qk0NMymrkmJvc9TM1Hkn44A6ZtkY3l4q8mu9VzFxY9BDZngPOK6AfqaPJlZLGfu6rHu/s1600/DSC01178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg81iAQ7WO3bQQD1jTddYN7jKxAwUV48bdp31E7fwqMHSrcv5WWl_tPyThcwanFq1R2_DnPKRoT0Qk0NMymrkmJvc9TM1Hkn44A6ZtkY3l4q8mu9VzFxY9BDZngPOK6AfqaPJlZLGfu6rHu/s320/DSC01178.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">....and rounded the trip off in <i>Pizza Express</i>. But by that time we were concentrating on the food, not on taking pictures! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwZUdxXh1dN-mH-FM-UhsjLaDIggPLlxVgfF5qMbE71ToFSHj3vfK2BAeR_PlIeiChXiMK_BJS63BuMRg2uvYvL2Hb0TjjivtX4bjRqP4t5Ko1qGQYezkv20YXl6sI8DMjZ_UIUfg8nek/s1600/DSC01166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-57587359832035074842011-01-10T14:24:00.003+00:002011-03-23T09:52:38.807+00:00Penance, Prayer & Service<i>My sermon for yesterday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I can't pretend that the idea is my own; I nicked it from this book, by the Jesuit academic, Patrick Madigan.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6j8b5P4cnui0p5_NxD_cRNgxFBu6hudTmSx_sLaQ8VbiklRJJiNc60Xr0ViRAhs1AsBEy9xl6hRvOYXyCyqwDUOtYkuTUl4C96Rw00YBFQRLrsqY6RbOYw5zHzkbPfimKt2rZbDzr7i1r/s1600/penance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6j8b5P4cnui0p5_NxD_cRNgxFBu6hudTmSx_sLaQ8VbiklRJJiNc60Xr0ViRAhs1AsBEy9xl6hRvOYXyCyqwDUOtYkuTUl4C96Rw00YBFQRLrsqY6RbOYw5zHzkbPfimKt2rZbDzr7i1r/s1600/penance.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div align="left">The men and women who were baptised by John in the river Jordan were answering his appeal to repent their past sins and make a new start in their relationship with God, and that means that there's a bit of a puzzle in Jesus presenting himself for baptism, because he didn't need to leave behind a life of sin and re-dedicate himself to God.</div><div align="left"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div align="left">We'll probably never know exactly what Jesus himself intended by receiving John's baptism, but it seems to have something to do with his having reached a moment of decision: the decision to leave behind the "hidden years" in Nazareth and embark on his public ministry. In other words his baptism marked the point where he embraced his unique vocation and mission.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Personally I would see a kind of parallel between Jesus' baptism and our Christian baptism. In Jesus' case it marked the moment he began his life's work as our Saviour; in our case baptism is the moment we each begin our life as his follower, accepting Christ as Saviour and living the way of the Gospel.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">I'd like to suggest that there are three commitments that we undertake when we embark on the way of life that baptism initiates. The first commitment is a commitment to <i>penance</i>.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">When St Peter met Jesus for the first time he was overwhelmed by a sense of Christ's holiness and godliness, and that meant at the same time being overcome with a sense of his own weakness and sinfulness. "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man," he said.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">That's an experience that every sincere Christian goes through at some point in their spiritual pilgrimage. Contact with God, contact with his goodness and love and justice always exposes our lovelessness, our injustices towards others, our susceptibility to temptation.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">One of the main objections to the Christian religion is that it fills people with an exaggerated sense of guilt and makes them frightened of God's "wrath". We can't deny that this has happened in the case of some individuals, but of course it's a distortion of Christian faith. But the opposite tendency, a sort of complacency, is possibly more common today: "I'm all right. I'm a good person, basically. How could God <i>not</i> like me, just as I am?"</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Both those tendencies miss the point of genuine conversion and the need for penitence. A genuine encounter with God always has the effect of making us realise the areas of weakness and selfishness in our character. It always involves being sorry for them and relying on God's grace to change those areas of our life, to chip away at our sinful motivations and to strengthen our capacity for love - love of God and love of our neighbour. In Christian spirituality, a sense of our own frailty and the conviction that with God's help nothing is impossible are two sides of the same coin.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">The second commitment which is tied up with the vocation we embrace when we're baptised is a commitment to <i>prayer.</i> </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Prayer isn't only for monks or nuns in an enclosed community. They've got a particular vocation, but surely it's part of the vocation every Christian has to set aside time every day to put ourselves in God's presence, to thank him, to ask him to carry on looking after us, to say sorry for our various lapses, and generally to open ourselves more completely to his influence.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">For people who are busy with work and family commitments and so on - most people, in other words - it's not possible to spend several hours a day in some kind of silent contemplation. But even five or ten minutes, a couple of times a day, withdrawing from all our activities to address ourselves to God, to voice our anxieties to him, to ask him to guide us, is something that we can't overestimate the value of.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Another valuable thing we can do is to take one of the gospels and read a small part of it every day, reflecting on Christ's words and actions during his ministry and allowing our character to be moulded by the gospel picture of Christ's character.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">And one other step we could take is to make an effort to come to Mass and receive Communion on some day in the week other than Sundays. Dedicating time and effort to God in that way benefits us spiritually, and in fact these are all ways of offering ourselves to God and uniting ourselves with God. They're all different forms of prayer.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Last of all, our baptismal vocation involves a commitment to <i>service.</i> </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">In today's second reading St Peter describes the way that, during his ministry, Jesus "went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil". </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Jesus spent a lot of time practically demonstrating God's compassion and care, especially for people who were suffering in any way, and it's always been a basic part of our vocation as his followers to imitate that compassion and care. There's never going to be a time when all forms of suffering are eradicated. Ill-health, death and loss, loneliness, poverty and exploitation, etc. are always going to exist. And as long as they exist Christians are bound to stand alongside the victims and to try to ease their burden. </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">We can't get away from Christ's teaching that our eternal salvation will depend on how far we've offered, or withheld, practical love to people in need. It's a fundamental and decisive aspect of discipleship.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">So these three commitments - penance, prayer and service - to a large extent make up the vocation we take on when we're baptised, and today's feast, commemorating Jesus' baptism, is a good opportunity to reflect on them. </div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-17623259178669746852011-01-07T21:07:00.009+00:002011-03-23T09:54:14.462+00:00<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">The Collect for the First Sunday after the Epiphany</span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfZ8WiBRLUjaSlZnK6sXlyc-LO1txbXC43erjfdegKdq4M0RY3rkPbcVcztVr82JSaj2cI_dAMHWg_cU4QVvOhmkvLhQIVJU3spB-06Ihwc57TsaENComWAS0jg3mUCcpVtwIfkWgOwg/s1600/river-of-life-russ-docken.jpg.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559558589212398338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfZ8WiBRLUjaSlZnK6sXlyc-LO1txbXC43erjfdegKdq4M0RY3rkPbcVcztVr82JSaj2cI_dAMHWg_cU4QVvOhmkvLhQIVJU3spB-06Ihwc57TsaENComWAS0jg3mUCcpVtwIfkWgOwg/s400/river-of-life-russ-docken.jpg.gif" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 267px;" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: right;"><br />
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O LORD, we beseech thee mercifully<br />
to receive the prayers of thy people<br />
who call upon thee; and grant that they<br />
may both perceive and know what things<br />
they ought to do, and also may have grace<br />
and power faithfully to fulfil the same;<br />
through Jesus Christ our Lord.<br />
Amen.<br />
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The Baptism of the Lord brings this Christmas season to its close. Yet the Baptism like the New Year is a beginning. Jesus is sent out on his public mission, sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the words,<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">"This is my Son, the beloved, my favour rests on Him"<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Each New Year we often look back on the year that has gone and look forward to the one that is to come. It is an opportunity to reflect and examine our lives.<br />
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<ul><li>Have we lived up to our vocation to live the life in the Spirit?</li>
</ul><ul><li>Have we fulfilled our potential and used the talents God has given us?</li>
</ul>We share in the same Baptism. We too are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, in Baptism and in Confirmation. We too may hear words of love and encouragement. We are children of God, His favour rests on us. We face a new beginning as we ponder in our hearts...<br />
<br />
<ul><li>What does God want for my life in this coming year?</li>
</ul><ul><li>What changes can I make in my life?</li>
</ul>God knows the plans He has for each of us and wants to bless us and bring us happiness. This does not mean that we will not have struggles or difficulties or challenges but it does mean He is with us and loves us more than we could ever imagine. God's greatest gift to us is the Holy Spirit.<br />
<br />
St. Augustine said,<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">"It is easy to want things from the Lord and yet not want the Lord Himself; as though the gift could ever be preferable to the giver"<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">We are so blessed because we can call upon the Holy Spirit who lives within us.<br />
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The Holy Spirit shows us that in God alone, we find life, joy and peace. The Spirit also gently leads us so that we understand the wisdom of spending time with the Lord in prayer.<br />
<br />
The late Cardinal Basil Hume had a great sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit. He taught that the Spirit was always there for us but we must want to Spirit more than anything else. The Cardinal put it like this:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">"There is a gentle breeze if we can but catch it, which blows all the time to help us on our journey through life to our final destination. That breeze is the Holy Spirit. But the wind cannot be caught or used unless the sail is hoisted and the hoisting is our task. We must be on our watch, ready to recognise it and play our part. God does hold us and will lead us, if we want it; but we must want it"<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">We are those who seek the Holy Spirit and all his blessings.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Lord, your Spirit, the Spirit of love and truth, guides us on the pathway of joy. We strive to live always in the presence of our loving God.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWsSvPM0z73ycXLsXq9cJWTsZv6z0FCI32pE31BIDnnLDlJZy5SbSg7K6eSRTagwQ2si7DlsdpjtveCPAJOzFQ3UcC9vPhVD-G-hjpQ-Mqq67MGAtBtgzLPoqh29LX8HnbTKuLWEt29i4/s1600/jesus+baptism+and+the+holy+spirit.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559564712203693282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWsSvPM0z73ycXLsXq9cJWTsZv6z0FCI32pE31BIDnnLDlJZy5SbSg7K6eSRTagwQ2si7DlsdpjtveCPAJOzFQ3UcC9vPhVD-G-hjpQ-Mqq67MGAtBtgzLPoqh29LX8HnbTKuLWEt29i4/s400/jesus+baptism+and+the+holy+spirit.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div></div>The Holy Spirit can transform our lives, bringing us to the final transformation of our external redemption. That work begins afresh each day. It begins, for each of us, today.<br />
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O gracious and holy Father,<br />
give us wisdom to perceive you,<br />
diligence to seek you,<br />
patience to wait for you,<br />
eyes to behold you,<br />
a heart to meditate upon you,<br />
and a life to proclaim you,<br />
through the power of the Spirit<br />
of Jesus Christ our Lord,<br />
Amen.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">- Attributed to Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-c.550)</span></span><br />
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<br />
A blessing for the New Year</div></div><br />
For this new Year, Lord, I pray:<br />
May your love<br />
Dwell in our hearts,<br />
May your joy<br />
Shine in our minds,<br />
<br />
May your peace<br />
Abide in our lives,<br />
In our homes,<br />
In our families,<br />
In our workplace,<br />
everywhere!<br />
<br />
That your kingdom may come<br />
a little closer to us all<br />
And our world will be a better place.<br />
Amen.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%; font-style: italic;">- Missionary Society of St Columban</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JRTMTO-XLJaUXzB0WGYkGorerqLaiNtNh1RaAfgi1Zc5fdXIYqxQbbJ9YO-NgSCn-YtHU31mySs2tyEwqNREP9lgItLGpHWtXSx0iMJOwmImPPD9vUEIuRm2WJOj9wu0fos3T6SJPhw/s1600/zechariah.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559568788671270418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3JRTMTO-XLJaUXzB0WGYkGorerqLaiNtNh1RaAfgi1Zc5fdXIYqxQbbJ9YO-NgSCn-YtHU31mySs2tyEwqNREP9lgItLGpHWtXSx0iMJOwmImPPD9vUEIuRm2WJOj9wu0fos3T6SJPhw/s400/zechariah.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div>Teresa Redfern Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01634705305371647493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-78044948560468059342011-01-06T13:01:00.001+00:002011-03-23T09:55:35.848+00:00Epiphany: "children come to the children's king"A few edifying photographs taken at the end of the 4.30pm Mass on Sunday. A box of frankincense and myrrh miraculously appeared too, but no gold - it must have ended up in the Gold-for-Cash shop in Vale Street.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAWyMo3uwgptyMhr3uiMP6QlvE5RSYjq_4b-19a5XCOWzPL3kV2WdIOwy7Jy44SUPkiYdNxBRKT1vh2aNG8xT3LNrNPFD-tA87KbczqjYNQw9r5PvCMgvuTFsc8M1bapN5Eo6J19cIgOEZ/s1600/epiphany+052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAWyMo3uwgptyMhr3uiMP6QlvE5RSYjq_4b-19a5XCOWzPL3kV2WdIOwy7Jy44SUPkiYdNxBRKT1vh2aNG8xT3LNrNPFD-tA87KbczqjYNQw9r5PvCMgvuTFsc8M1bapN5Eo6J19cIgOEZ/s320/epiphany+052.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7zu5ZO8CwjECf9-y271AQUGl74ZOTB4m6_3i51jqUY4EOwXmGkbi0JxiOeDQf73Bj0FWfTQ7E59ncolSavccPfLRmykrCeGTUx9ta_1gF-Fm8tt1g1keWcwkLYQwYIlfyEr2UZGdXrNE/s1600/epiphany+056.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB7zu5ZO8CwjECf9-y271AQUGl74ZOTB4m6_3i51jqUY4EOwXmGkbi0JxiOeDQf73Bj0FWfTQ7E59ncolSavccPfLRmykrCeGTUx9ta_1gF-Fm8tt1g1keWcwkLYQwYIlfyEr2UZGdXrNE/s320/epiphany+056.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBme9fC2JfBN2o3KLkX05DPI51WTIFy8MUQEgZtkJ_AipHaAZXR7iEHP_tYsQnIrBKExzDelcV_YEpjDtaqjODvnOT-yGPmOTof8EnjSJBnoZSU2P_tSNMRn0wXpAHb_kaTnNUjSfs4yz5/s1600/epiphany+053.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBme9fC2JfBN2o3KLkX05DPI51WTIFy8MUQEgZtkJ_AipHaAZXR7iEHP_tYsQnIrBKExzDelcV_YEpjDtaqjODvnOT-yGPmOTof8EnjSJBnoZSU2P_tSNMRn0wXpAHb_kaTnNUjSfs4yz5/s320/epiphany+053.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1bcNPoJX4pTeviDFDBRaDbgL0Nd6pSeWt76jw7XW4M7Zv_YPJGazL7gbaW8Ehj4X3fW2xq0o82dNTdOA1Yuz5NNqC_iIpUwAgg70SF3-nHgIvWnwUeutMVZE-N_L53raRWi95CpiHVhZ/s1600/epiphany+057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1bcNPoJX4pTeviDFDBRaDbgL0Nd6pSeWt76jw7XW4M7Zv_YPJGazL7gbaW8Ehj4X3fW2xq0o82dNTdOA1Yuz5NNqC_iIpUwAgg70SF3-nHgIvWnwUeutMVZE-N_L53raRWi95CpiHVhZ/s320/epiphany+057.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center"></div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-8668189259056671452011-01-04T18:34:00.004+00:002011-03-23T09:41:47.202+00:00Epiphany<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwP7StPtuCWLJRAyqHNsG7s5ppXc6Vri2Jrx70zLU5NA2w6-daANeJbMZXWcrtlUWndPx6pZSb4pZREJUfS_xQjv93Y0u5kvbMlCrcg_Mul9ZVhWsftilOHG-C4jnf2jLnq-NemE6bzLwR/s1600/Three-Wise-Men-Christmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwP7StPtuCWLJRAyqHNsG7s5ppXc6Vri2Jrx70zLU5NA2w6-daANeJbMZXWcrtlUWndPx6pZSb4pZREJUfS_xQjv93Y0u5kvbMlCrcg_Mul9ZVhWsftilOHG-C4jnf2jLnq-NemE6bzLwR/s320/Three-Wise-Men-Christmas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<em>My sermon for last Sunday, the feast of the Epiphany:</em><br />
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There are passages of the Old Testament which look forward to a time when God's gift of salvation will be offered not just to the Chosen People but to the whole of humanity. The great theme of today's feast, the Epiphany of the Lord, is that with the birth of Jesus that time has arrived.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The three wise men are symbols of all the men and women who come to Christ from outside of the Jewish faith, who recognise Jesus as the manifestation of God in history and who gladly embrace the salvation he brings.<br />
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The truth is, though, that while God wants to reach out to the whole human race, not every member of the human race wants to reach out to God, and that's been true from the beginnings of the Christian mission.<br />
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Individuals like St Paul and St Peter went off on their missionary expeditions full of zeal and enthusiasm, proclaiming the good news that salvation was open to everyone now. But in many places, as we know, their preaching met with rejection, not glad acceptance, and this rejection was one of the bitter facts of life that the first generation of Christians had to come to terms with.<br />
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It's a fact of life that we have to come to terms with too, in our time. Often it seems that, while people are ready to welcome the participation of church members in the innumerable good causes that exist in our society - even eagerly soliciting the churches' involvement in anti-bullying campaigns in schools, efforts to counteract global warming and so on - they remain sceptical and resistant to many of the basic aspects of the Christian faith. We make very little headway then in our task of evangelisation.<br />
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It seems there are times when public debate and discussion and the putting forward of arguments in favour of religion are effective, and there are times when these activities are completely ineffective.<br />
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It's a bit like the situation that parents often find themselves in with their adolescent children. There might be lots of things that parents want to teach or discuss seriously with their children, but sometimes the children are just not amenable to reason. They're preoccupied with other things, they get stroppy about "being told what to do", or they retreat into frivolity, refusing to take anything seriously. Perhaps they best thing parents can do, then, is withdraw for a while and wait for a more opportune moment.<br />
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There's something of that relationship between the church and modern culture. <em>We</em> might be convinced that the basic goal of every person's life is to discover God and to live the way of the Gospel, but many people are simply not open to a serious discussion about all that - and so it's a waste of time even trying to have a discussion, because they just get irritated and even more resistant. Again, the best thing for us to do is to withdraw and wait for a more opportune moment.<br />
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The model I'm thinking of is the model of the <em>desert fathers</em> during the early centuries of the Church's existence. These were the individuals who left the noise and bustle of the great centres of population behind, to go into the quiet and solitude of the desert, to concentrate exclusively on God, in prayer and contemplation.<br />
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This wasn't a case of abandoning the Christian mission, it was just a different way of going about it, and in the long term it was a very successful way. Because the retreat into the desert was the beginning of Christian monasticism.<br />
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These hermits, and the communities that they started, built up a body of spiritual wisdom and knowledge, which they got from their own experience of prayer and reflection, and in the long run that strengthened the faith of the whole Church community. From the desert, eventually, the monasteries became ther spearhead of a new Christian mission, which spread all over Europe and beyond.<br />
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I happen to think that today, if we're serious about reading the signs of the times and trying to discern what God is calling the Church to do today, we'll recognise the value of doing what the desert fathers did: withdrawing for a while, concentrating on prayer and silent reflection, and building up our commitment to the essentials of the faith. Then, either when the Church itself is spiritually stronger, or perhaps when the mood of society changes, we might find that we'll have a better opening for the Christian message.<br />
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And we can afford to wait, because the success or failure of evangelisation is in God's hands, ultimately, not ours. That's one of the first lessons we learn when we leave our urgent activism behind and concentrate on offering our own lives wholeheartedly to God, and not worrying about what anyone else is doing.<br />
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Those are some of the reflections that occurred to me, thinking about the theme of today's feast. Yes, God wills for everyone to enter into friendship with him and to embrace the salvation which his Son came to offer us. But on our part we always have to read the signs of the times carefully to see how we're meant to cooperate with God's will and proclaim his salvation.Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7954046502732868375.post-27263238880965425542010-12-29T13:17:00.003+00:002011-01-06T13:05:41.214+00:00The Holy Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDhJVpp3GNUL6XO8dAs7AInnNQM-VW4bcrgmntlJmrHZjIElqt6w5OTs_l_9a4KI_pv03Ntl7flTFpB7L0azn2PD4bQLstSAdd4QaRvBLOhJK5HW2r5IhadMMnPM_eqygMfBgIHTyjFXC8/s1600/Holy%252520Family%2525201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDhJVpp3GNUL6XO8dAs7AInnNQM-VW4bcrgmntlJmrHZjIElqt6w5OTs_l_9a4KI_pv03Ntl7flTFpB7L0azn2PD4bQLstSAdd4QaRvBLOhJK5HW2r5IhadMMnPM_eqygMfBgIHTyjFXC8/s320/Holy%252520Family%2525201.jpg" width="233" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left"><em>My sermon for last Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family:</em></div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Quite often during my time as a priest I've had the experience of being told by parents that they don't believe in "brainwashing" their children about religion; that they think it's right to let their children "make their own mind up" about God and faith as they get older.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">The idea seems to be that any attempt to pass on definite religious convictions is an interference with their children's freedom. At the extreme end of this viewpoint, we also have people like Richard Dawkins, who go as far as describing a religious upbringing of any kind as a form of child abuse.<br />
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An older, traditional view, certainly among Catholics, is that parents have a positive duty to impart their own faith to their children. They should have them baptised as soon as possible after they're born and start to bring them up as Christians - by teaching, by prayer in the home, and by their own example. </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">The conflict here is between two very different mentalities. The modern mentality, which is widespread now in our culture, places religious faith in the category of personal opinion and personal taste. It's similar to whether you like country music or heavy metal, or the colour red better than the colour blue. </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">The older view holds that religious faith is more objective than that.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Nobody really argues with the idea that if you want to own and drive a car, there are a lot of non-negotiable conditions you involved: the car has to be insured and MOT'd every year or else you're breaking the law; you have to pass the driving test and hold a driving licence; you have to keep to the Highway Code while you're out on the road.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">It's no good driving on the pavement or going through a red light and then, when the police pull you over, saying, "In my personal opinion, it's all right to drive like this". That won't get you very far in the Magistrates Court.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Analogies are never perfect, of course, but I think that religious faith, and parents' responsibility to pass on the faith, is more like the idea of learning to be a fit and safe driver than it a matter of expressing tastes in music or food or whatever.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">There would be chaos on the roads if everyone was left to make up his or her own mind about what constitutes acceptable behaviour when we get behind the wheel, and this notion that religion is something that people can more or less fashion for themselves has had a similarly damaging effect on the integrity and coherence of the faith. Basically, it's the wrong mentality to bring to religion, just as it's the wrong mentality to bring to driving a car.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">But there's a further aspect. Forty or fifty years ago there was a movement among Catholics in parts of Latin America and South America in favour of a more socially and politically critical faith. People looked around at the society they were living in, and they began to see their Christian commitment as demanding criticism and even opposition towards the way society was stuctured: the huge disparity between rich and poor, the lack of democracy, military dictatorships propped up by the CIA and so on.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">They rejected the idea that Christian faith meant acquiescence in that situation, or that the only duty Christians have is to be good, obedient citizens who don't question their rulers' values or practices.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">There was a book by the Brazilian literacy teacher Paolo Friere, and the title of his book summed up this tendency: <em>Education for Critical Consciousness</em>. Friere's idea was that commitment to the Gospel entailed thinking critically - and resisting and changing - the values and the structures of society.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">We don't have to be living in a third world dictatorship for this approach to Christian faith to be relevant and sometimes necessary. There are many aspects of our society which, if we're serious about being our commitment to the Gospel, we have to adopt a critical and resistant stance towards.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">In my view, one of the tragedies of the Catholic community in our part of the world over the last forty or fifty years is that we've been far more ready to allow the values of mainstream society to shed their critical light on ther faith, than we have been to shine the light of the Gospel on the values of modern society.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Whereas if Catholic communities - parishes, schools and families - took a leaf out of Paulo Friere's book, there would actually be more young people keeping hold of their faith as they got older, rather than rejecting it as boring and irrelevant. Because they would be growing up with a model of Christian faith that questions, rather than conforms unquestioningly, to mainstream attitudes and values.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Those are the two main ideas that came into my head when I was thinking about Christian family life and the responsibility of Christian parents: the value of representing the faith as something objective and truthful about God and the purposes of human life, not just a matter of personal taste; and the value of representing Christian faith that something that questions and criticises values that are othewise taken for granted by the majority in society.</div>Fr Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06183202892647032402noreply@blogger.com0