Wednesday, 6 March 2013

Prepare yourself well.

With the closure of the centres of Christian formation in England one of the most important things that you can do is to better equip yourself to take part in the future mission of the Church in this country.
In the past we relied largely upon the Religious Orders to lead us in developing our Christian formation. Those days are gone and the Church now comprised of just parishes, many of them merely Mass centres. Your presence and your gifts are needed today, but just as in the past, the Church needs us to be formed so that we can more competently take part in Her mission.
I know of no better place in England than Maryvale Institute in Birmingham where you can prepare yourself for an apostolic role in the Church today. The photo above is of me receiving my MA in Theology from Archbishop Csabo Ternyac, in St Chad's Cathedral in Brimingham in 1998. In those days Maryvale offered just two MA courses. Today there are five:
1. Personal, moral and spiritual development in a Theological perspective (which I studied).
2. Spiritual formation.
3. RE and Catechetics.
4. Marriage and the Family.
5. Apologetics.
Alongside these there are two Pontifical Licenses in Catechetics, and in Marriage and the Family. There are a whole range of under-graduate courses and more post-graduate ones. Check out the Maryvale Institute website and consider undertaking one of their courses this year. The Church needs you and it needs your skills, your enthusiasm and your desire to grow in God-given role in the Church. 

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