Another Yorkshireman in Australia

Never in my wildest dreams ever think that I would live and work in Australia. When, in February 2008, I first received word that Campion College, Australia, were thinking of me for their first full-time chaplain, I wondered how I would take to Australia.

I loved Australia from the very first day and found my new appointment - at the other side of the world - one of the easiest to adjust to. There are so many things that I could say here about Australia but I will confine myself to what I regard as the most important.

For me, the best thing about Australia is the personality of the people. Coming from the natural reservedness of the English, I immediately took to the openness of the Australians, to their positive, 'can-do', and friendly approach to life.

Secondly, and in paying tribute to them, I was struck by the enthusiasm of young Catholics in Sydney for Christ and his Church. I arrived in Sydney just as WYD was finishing and I experienced, during the subsequent four years, the response of young people to the Christian life. I was amazed to see how many young Catholics have moved to the forefront of the Church, how much provision for their Christian formation has been set in place, and how stronly the new generation are claiming genuine Catholic life.

But the greatest experience of all which I had as an English priest working in Sydney, was the response of Australians to me when I was out and about on the streets. Becuase I was always dressed as a priest, if I was on foot I would often be approached by people, for confession, for a blessing, for spiritual direction or just for a chat. I never experienced anything like this in England and am convinced that a priest could have a part-time ministry at least, by making himself available on the street. So much did I find this to be the case that I would often walk rather than use the car, and try to appear not busy, and not to be rushing somewhere. What I found in Australia was a whole reservoir of faith ready to be untapped, and because of the openness of Australians, a great ease of communication. 

Would I return to Australia, if I had another opportunity to do so? Absolutely.

From Australia with love

I arrived in Australia at the end of July 2008 not knowing what lay ahead of me, not knowing how my apostolate there would develop or come to an end. After just over four years, four wonderful years of priestly life and grace, family responsibilities call me to end this period of work abroad and return to England.

The call to go to Australia came out of the blue, literally. I was asked to become the first full-time chaplain of Campion College, Australia; a position I held for two years. During this time, and for three years, I moved to live and work also at the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney.

My mother's diminshing health has convicted me that I should now be more available to the family back home.

My Australian experience has been so marvellous that I would like to make a series of posts here. In this first post I simply want to enumerate the pricipal people with whom I was involved and to whom I am indebted:

Firstly, Bishop Manning (now Emeritus) of Parramatta for his very warm welcome.

The Campion Foundation, and the staff and students of Campion College.

His Eminence Cardinal Pell, and the staff and students of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd.

The Officers of the Marriage and Family Life department of the Sydney Archdiocese.

The Theology on Tap team.

The iWitness team.

The Queensland Catholic Home-Schooling Association.

The National Asspciation of Catholic Families, Australia.

The Servants of Jesus Community.

The Catholic Youth Services of Sydney Archdiocese.

The leaders and members of the Youth Formation Course of the Sydney Archdiocese.

The Nashville Dominican Sisters.

The Dominican Fathers of the Sydney Archdiocese.

The Immaculata Sisters, the Immaculata Youth Community, and the leaders and members of the Immaculata Formation Course.

The Chaplaincy of the University of New South Wales.

The Schoenstadt Sisters of Mulgoa.

The priest members of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy.

The Sydney priests of the Fraternity of St Peter.

The Jesuit Fathers of Brisbane.

Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous  of Sydney and the members of the Credo Office of Evangelisation of the Sydney Archdiocese.

Archbishop Coleridge of Brisbane.

Bishop Jarrett of Lismore.

Bishop McKenna of Bathurst.

Bishop Fisher of Parramatta.

Bishop Mathys (now Emeritus) and Bishop Kennedy of Armidale.

Auxiliary Bishop Comensoli of Sydney.

My involvement in the Church in Australia was so wonderful, and I will rejoice in it for a long time, that I will endeavour to follow this with some appreciative posts. Watch this space!

The great teaching on spousal love and conscious parenthood

Support the prayerful petition to the Holy Father and the Bishops honouring the Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae and asking that its whole content be taught anew with confidence. This petition has been inititated by The Bellarmine Forum.

Why Children Matter

It is not often that I recommend books on Parenting, but I was given a copy of this book during the Sydney Scene Congress and read it over the next couple of days. It is superb. "Why Children Matter" is wriiten by Johann Christophe Arnold. Its simplicity and directness resonate immediately with both our human nature and with the Gospel. If I were a parish priest I would have a stock of these books to give to newly weds.

Although the author is not a Catholic, when you read this book you realise that truth is definitely not the exclusive preserve of Catholics, and that genuine wisdom is the heritage of humanity.

In our age the whole vision of family is somewhat obscured; in this book it is not. I recommend it without reserve. 

Holding out against the truth?

The excellent web initiative "Mercatornet" has published an article by Eamon Duffy about the English Reformation, in association with his new book, "Saints, sacrilege and sedition". Read this great article here.

There were about 320 Catholic martyrs who died horribly at the gallows; many more died in prisons. They suffered horribly. But they absorbed in their own flesh the terrible wrench which was caused when England tore itself off from the great movement of grace. It was England however, who suffered more and has continued to bear this sapping wrench down through the centuries. The suffering of England, cut off from the unity of Christendom has been great. It is impossible to imagine the scale of this spiritual suffering, through the Civil War, through the Industrial Revolution, and through the contemporary age in all its raging anti-life folly. But the Martyrs gained England for Christ; they enthroned Him in the land, they joined England to Him. We will, with God's grace, be merry in heaven together, one day, because of them. 

24 years

Today, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, is my twenty fourth anniversary of ordination. In that time the world and the Church gave changed so much. Yet, more and more, I am aware that my vocation and my very identity, was fashioned in the heart of Jesus Christ. I celebrate this anniversary in Sydney - I could never have engineered such a thing. Particularly, I give thanks to God for this time in Australia (I have been in Oz for four years now), which has actually been a time of priestly renewal for me, not least because I am living and working in a seminary. May the life of every priest be the cause of helping to engender more vocations to the priesthood. May Our Lady of Mount Carmel be a hinge of grace in all our lives. 

Scene into the streets

On the third day of the Scene Congress, Friday evening, four processions formed up at different locations in the city (locations which had been hubs of WYD08), to carry an icon of the Saviour through the streets by candlelight. The processions left from The Opera House, the Haymarket, Darling Harbour and the Sacred Heart church in Darlinghurst. I accomapnied the procession from Darlinghurst, which was led by the French Emmanuel Comunity. We prayed the rosary and sang as we walked, and again, so many people were amazed to see us moving through the Friday evening city streets, and many people came up to us to enquire about what was taking place. The processions finally converged on the Cathedral where a group of about 400 strong joined in adoration of our Eucharistic Lord. He really is preparing His Church here in Sydney. 

Scene III

The third Sydney Congress embracing the New Evangelisation is underway in the city. The Congress began on Wednesday and will conclude tomorrow, Sunday. This year the Congress has focussed on the great grace that WYD08 was to the life of the Church in this city. The majority of the participants are young people who have, again, filled the Cathedral and the city centre with their enthusiastic presence. And again, for the third year running, the Vocations Expo has been set up in Martin Place, 11am - 4pm, Wednesday to Friday.This is an extraordinary witness of faith and Catholic identity right in the heart of secular Sydney. Its presence has drawn many people in, turned many heads, and provoked innumerable moments of reflection. I don't know of another city which has hosted WYD in which the momentum caused by WYD has been so maintained. May the Holy Spirit continue to bring great renewal to the Church in Sydney. 

His heart is in England

"The giving of our hearts surely lies at the foundation of every Christian vocation and it lies at the foundation of every calling to priesthood and diaconate ... " Here is the full text of Bishop Davies' wonderful homliy yesterday in Manchester. 

A much awaited visit

From the 5th to the 9th of this month the relic of St John Vianney will be in England. It is extraordinary just how much this humble parish priest had to offer in life; there has always been a superabundance of priestly life and grace in the person of the Cure d'Ars. The first visit of the relic of his heart to the shores of England is surely a great grace.

Bishop Ullathorne, the first Bishop of Birmingham after the restablishment of the English Hierarchy, relates in his autobiography how he visited the cure in Ars and spoke to him about the difficulties the Church was facing in trying to evangelise England, St John Vianney looked up and said "Ah yes, but it wont always be like that!"

I always visit the shrine of the heart when I'm in Ars and am sorry that I wont be in England for this visit. I wanted to include a photo of the heart's shrine in Ars here but I cant seem to get the software to cooperate on this occasion.

Special thanks go to Bishop Mark Davies for initiating and hosting the visit of this relic. 

The renewing event

Recently the Sandro Magister Blog had a post on the Hidden Treasure of Pope Benedict, in which he pasted links to all the homilies of Pope Benedict on the subject of Baptism, and he spoke of how these homilies rank alongside some of the homilies of the early Fathers. They do; there are fifteen such homilies. Here is the link to this post.

Baptism is the hinge of the Life of Grace and, in my experience at least, our appreciation of and vision of the difference that Christ makes is often unspoken. Yet our Christian lives are set in relief when we appreciate the world from where we all came, and the world into which Christ has introduced us; the life that we used to live and the life that we live in Him; the secular and the fallen, and in Him, grace and truth. We could spend much time digesting these homilies of our Holy Father in order to develop our apprectaion of Baptism, the way in which we lead people to it, and the way in which we nake it our foundation in life.
Many thanks to Sandro Magister for collating all these homilies and bringing them to our attention. 

Priesthood and its renewal.

Last week I led the monthly 'recollection morning' at the seminary in which I focussed on the way that the priest is implicated in the celebration of Mass. My point of departure was a part of the Council's decree on the Priesthood, Presbyterorum Ordinis (12-14). John Paul II during his Pontificate developed this teaching of the Council, enabling the Church to see the way-markers which the Council had given us for the renewal of the priesthood, and particularly for the renewal of the Diocesan priesthood.

What is the measure or gauge of the renewal of the Diocesan priesthood? I don't think that we know what a truely renewed priesthood will look like, but what we do know is that the shape and the form of the Diocesan priesthood as it presently is, is not our goal. The priesthood is called to be purified and to be renewed. Essentially, the true glory of the priest is that he is called to be glorified with Christ in the Paschal Mystery. The Council's teaching on the Priesthood was given in the context of modern culture, and because of this, the Church is called to respond in a new way to priestly life and ministry.

Presbyterorum Ordinis outlined three particular dimensions to the priesthood which lie at the basis of the renewal of the Diocesan priesthood. Firstly, that the priesthood should not be seen so much as a ministry which is above the Church, but rather as one which is within the Church, and one which therefore acts as a leven to the whole Church.

Secondly, it spoke about pastoral charity. This is something which can fail to recognise the importance of; John Paul II really opened up the depth of this expression and revealed it as the essence of priestly life and work.

Thirdly, the Decree on the priesthood spoke about the genuine ways in which men who are called to the priesthood are called to actively cooperate with the grace of Holy Orders; the subjective ways in which priests embrace the objective reality of the Sacrament which configures them to Christ the Priest.

These three indicators lie at the heart of the priesthood and therefore also of priestly renewal. The teaching of the Council on the priesthood is also more significant than the models of priesthood which we have grown up with from the recent past, and for that reason calls for renewed reflection; as does John Paul II's Letter Pastores Dabo Vobis, and the 1994 Instruction Directory on the life and mission of priests.

Basically, what I am saying is that the renewal of the Diocesan priesthood, whilst respecting the current discipline of the Church, is today being called to a fuller embracing of the mystery of the Priesthood of Christ. We have saintly individuals who are tremendous examples of Diocesan priests, St John Vianney and St John of Avila, for instance, whose witness will always be timely. But that the recent teaching of the Church on the priesthood calls us to look beyond recent models of the priesthood and to seek genuine renewal.  

The intention of the Council

Time and again the Holy Father has spoken about the Liturgy and its reform with such clarity that the intention of the Council might be clearly appreciated by all, and so that we today might be led to enter into and the Liturgy more fully. During his address at the closing of the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin he again defined with great clarity the heart of the Liturgical reform. I will do no more than simply paste his words here:

  "At our distance today from the Council Fathers' expressed desires regarding liturgical renewal, and in the light of the universal Church's experience in the intervening period, it is clear that a great deal has been achieved; but it is equally clear that there have been many misunderstandings and irregularities. The renewal of external forms, desired by the Council Fathers, was intended to make it easier to enter into the inner depth of the mystery. Its true purpose was to lead people to a personal encounter with the Lord, present in the Eucharist, and thus with the living God, so that through this contact with Christ's love, the love of his brothers and sisters for one another might also grow. Yet not infrequently, the revision of liturgical forms has remained at an external level, and 'active participation' has been confused with external activity.

 ...   How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord's body and confessed their sins in the sacrament of Penance have offended in this way? It remains a mystery. Yet evidently, their Christianity was no longer nourished by joyful encounter with Jesus Christ: it had become merely a matter of habit. The work of the Council was really meant to overcome this form of Christianity and to rediscover the faith as a deep personal friendship with the goodness of Jesus Christ." 

Priestly fraternity 3

My third and last post on this subject is to take priestly fraternity to another level and into an area of a priest's life which is somewhat neglected: accountability.

A priest is obviously accountable to his bishop and, in a different way, to his parish or pastoral community. This still leaves huge areas of a priest's life where he is, in many ways, his own agent. A priest does not account to his bishop on a day to day basis, nor necessarily on a year to year basis. Nor can a priest really discuss his life and his personal situation with his parishioners. But what about with his brother priests?

Accountability through priestly fraternity enables the whole spectrum of a priest's life, from the way he spends his days off to the frustrations and misunderstandings that arise in his life, to be enlightened in a human and a priestly way through fraternity. Accountability through fraternity does presuppose that a priest is a part of a genuine fraternity in which priests invest much of themselves. In such a context, life-sharing by brother priests enables re-evaluation and appropriation of the stuff of their lives to take place in a life-giving way. 

Accountability through fraternity takes place through the genuine maturing of priestly fraternity and will inevitably lead to a deepening of the priestly interior life and apostolic vision. In a similar way, Bishops' Conferences can be the context for such a culture to develop.

And while I wish for all of you the grace to rekindle daily the gift of God you have received with the laying on of hands (cf. 2 Tm. 1:6), to feel the comfort of the deep friendship which binds you to Jesus and unites you with one another, the comfort of experiencing the joy of seeing the flock of God grow in an ever greater love for him and for all people, of cultivating the tranquil conviction that the one who began in you the good work will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil. 1:6), l turn with each and every one of you in prayer to Mary, Mother and Teacher of our priesthood.

Every aspect of priestly formation can be referred to Mary, the human being who has responded better than any other to God's call. (John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 82)

Priestly fraternity 2

So, priestly fraternity is a way of being rather than a duty to observe, because the priesthood is rooted in Christ.

The human dimension of priestly fraternity - again, something that is learned - is that a priest must first relinquish his own independence, and accept that his brother priests can help him to be open to what Christ wants of him. This is the first step to building priestly fraternity for it enables the individual priest to invest himself in fraternity and be open to receive from his brother priests. The Holy Spirit is undoubtedly at work when this happens.   

The ecclesial dimension of priestly fraternity is also very rich. All priests share in the same mission - building up the Church. This involves an attachment to both the Holy Father and the Bishops, but what is really at stake here is a missionary dynamic. In other words, genuine priestly fraternity enables priests to remain focussed on their mission, which is the sanctification of souls, and to avoid becoming over-involved with activities which are not essential.  

Another example of priestly fraternity, which was tremendoulsy enriching of my own experience, took place when I was a parish priest in Huddersfield. In 2007 I engaged the parish in a Parish Mission. The Mission was based on a series of waves of house-visiting throughout the Spring. The culmination of the Mission was the visiting of houses by priests. I had sent out requests to other priests to come and help me in my endeavour. Five priests responded and joined me in my parish. So, for a two-week period homes in the parish were visited by priests - and we went out visiting in twos! I was able to accomodate them all in the presbytery and to cook two meals a day for us all. We went out visiting in the afternoons and the evenings. Our priestly endeavour in the parish fed our fraternity and our fraternity fed our priestly identity. It was an extraordinary two weeks which I see, in some way, as a model of diocesan priestly life.

Priestly fraternity 1

I have been presenting in the seminary over the past couple of weeks the part which priestly fraternity has in the life of the Diocesan priest. This has been drawn, in part, from what Fr Julian Green and I have learned and experienced from being a part of the Societe Jean Marie Vianney. I will post here, in three parts, the vision which I have spoken about in the seminary.

First of all, what are the obstacles to priestly fraternity? They are two-fold: priests being isolated, living on their own, and priests not thinking of one another. Both of these can easily become stumbling blocks to priestly fraternity.

Secondly, priestly fraternity is something which, in my experience, doesn't happen in the normal course of events; it is rather something which has to be learned, received and embraced. This is because priestly faternity is established not upon basic human camaraderie, but upon the charismatic gift of the priesthood, together with those particular charismatic gifts which each priest has been given. This is not to say that the human elements of fraternity are not involved, they are; but that priestly fraternity really comes alive when it is lived at the level of the priesthood.  

In fact, there is only one Priest, who is Christ the Lord; this is the key to fraternity. For although there is only one Priest, we priests are a multitude, for we have been given a share in His Priesthood. Our origin and our priestly nature is identical - this is what we share in common.

How is priestly fraternity received and embraced? The way in which I 'learned' priestly fraternity was by coming to realise my own interior poverty as a priest - that I was maintaining a certain level of interior life, but didn't like to go beyond this. Then, through my contact with the priests of the SJMV I was opened to a deeper experience of the priesthood both in myself and in other priests. This openness, at the level of the charismatic gift of the priesthood was truly enriching of my own priesthood, and I could see that to be the case in the other priests also. Indeed, the focus of priestly fraternity is not so that priests can have a cosy clerical club in which to withdraw, but is for the opening up and nurturing of the interior life of the individual priest, precisely so that he can be a better priest in whatever apostolic mission he has in the Church.

An occasion where this became evident to me took place in August 2007 when both of us were spending a week in Normandy with the priests of the SJMV. One day we went to explore a region of the Normandy beaches and, at midday, had a picnic by the Batterie des Longues (a WWII German gun battery overlooking the English Channel). After the picnic we all stood up in a great ring (about 65 diocesan priests) and prayed aloud together the psalms of Midday Prayer. The place where we were is a very popular tourist spot, and as we prayed many visitors to the site silently joined in our act of worship. It was a most tremendous moment - a great gathering of diocesan priests praying together in public in a totally un-selfconscious way; our priestly hearts came alive together in Christ, our priesthood became stronger. It is because of experiences like this that priests can support and nurture one another in a unique way.

Cultural reference

Today, on the Feast of St Boniface there is an excellent piece about him in the Crisis Magazine website. This post is simply flagging up this website - www.crisismagazine.com - which is operated by the Sophia Insititute of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. The website seeks to underpin our contemporary outlook with the heritage of Western Christian tradition. It is worth a visit.

The Sophia Institute is already well known as the publisher of this same tradition: www.sophiainstitute.com.  

The Year of Grace 2

In 2005 I produced a number of leaflets - The Living Truth series - which covered a variety of themes. Fr John Edwards SJ wrote an excellent leaflet on the theme of grace. I include the text of this leaflet here:

"The life of Grace is absolutely vital for intelligent living in this life and to getting to heaven and avoiding going to a place where all good is rejected - hell - in the next. It is the most important gift I could ever have, and its loss would be the greatest disaster. Christianity is nearly incomprehensible if we do not know about it.

Grace is a supernatural share in the life of God himself. It is already the life we need to live in heaven; it is the equipment we need to endure, let alone enjoy, never ending Goodness, Truth and Beauty, outside space and time, for all eternity. It is a share in the life of Jesus, earned for us at a great cost when he died on the cross.

Grace enables us to enter and enjoy heaven (Without it we would find it un-endurable - it would in fact be hell because we wouldn't have the right tools and equipment.) Right now, every single action we  do draws from the Heavenly Father a "reward". This we receive in heaven. From God's point of view it is important that we are in a state of Grace, because if we are filled with grace we can help to make heaven a reality here on earth.

The Scriptures say a lot about Grace. It's bad to try to argue from "proof texts"' but here are some basic thought-provokers: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life", "no man can enter into the Kingdom of God unless birth comes to him by water and from the Holy Spirit", "if anyone eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he lives in me, and I in him", "he has chosen us out, in Christ ... marking us out ... to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ."

We receive Grace normally through baptism. We lose it through mortal sin (that is, if we give full and deliberate consent to something against God's law in a serious matter, something that seriously rejects love and goodness.) We regain it through a deep love-sorrow, which is God's gift. This love-sorrow is always given if we receive the Sacrament of Absolution properly; this refers to the reality of being forgiven of our wrongs when we receive this sacrament through the heands of a Catholic priest.

Do we feel the presence of Grace? Not normally. Do only Catholics have Grace? No, otherwise only Catholics would get to heaven. But Grace certainly comes in some way through the Church - which is of course Christ's Body.

There is much more that we can say about Grace, but notice two things especially. First, the life of Grace comes through the gift of Jesus; it is a share in his own life. And he got his life from Mary - that was the way God planned it. Mary is not worshipped, but honoured by Catholics and has a vast part to play in our own state of Grace, in receiving it and in keeping it."

The Year of Grace

The Year of Grace which opened in Australian Dioceses on Pentecost Sunday and which runs through until Pentecost next year, is given to the Church in Australia to lead her to a deeper encounter with Jesus.

The word grace, which we use so often, means the gift of sharing in God's life. Grace then, is the person of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father and Jesus have sent to us.

In many parts of the world today Jesus is marginalised, people have heard about him and think that this is the time for us all to move on from the Jesus 'story'. The radical truth is that Jesus as both God and man reveals to us now the love of God!

Again in many corners, following Jesus is thought of as a whole series of rules and regulations which must be observed. The reality is very different; following Jesus means living in freedom and truth!

Today many still prefer the opinion that God is either dead or never existed. The fact is that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive in His Church, living  and working today in His followers!

Another contemporary opinion is that to believe means to live in fear of a watchful and judgemental God. The extraordinary truth is that Jesus is full of merciful love and leads his followers into the fullness of life!

Again, many still claim that the Gospel is a purely human text, secretly invented. The real secret is that the Gospel is inspired by the Holy Spirit and introduces human beings into the life of God!

This is grace - the person of Jesus who is proclaimed by the Church and who wants us all to know Him.

But when they are gone?

Bob Dylan's award at the White House yesterday - by the way, well done Bob! - puts me in mind of one of our culture's main building bricks: the rock and pop culture of the 60s through to the 90s, which our generation has been fixated with. You can already sense the intensity which is being applied to maintain this culture now that some of the figures of this era are passing. The incesant hype in the media calling us to relive this era, the repeticious playing of the songs of this era in shopping malls, in movies, in mobile phone tones. A strange phenomenon indeed, yet the times are indeed changing and when this generation passes what will there be then. What vision of life has the rock and pop generation handed on to the new generation which is emerging? Is it a vision which deserves to remain?

A favourite painting

Yesterday evening I gave a talk to the Immaculata youth group in Lewisham, part of a mini-series which we are doing on St Paul. The Scripture passage which we looked at was St Paul's address at the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17). This section of Acts, together with Paul's departure from Athens for Corinth, is my favourite section of the Acts. I have long known about Leo von Klenz' painting of the Acropolis reconstructed. It is a magnificent painting housed in Munich. I insert here an image of the painting. It does, in fact, depict St Paul's speech at the Areopagus; you can see Paul speaking to a crowd in the forefront of the painting. The crowd even includes soem girls who are laughing at the speaker.

The seminary and the new evangelisation

Fr Robert Barron brings the two together. Read his article here.

Hot off the press

Two years ago, Bishop Julian Porteous, anxiliary bishop in Sydney, published a Maual of Minor Exorcisms for priests, and a small maual of prayers for lay people who are encountering evil spirits. Both of these books have now been published by the CTS in London. I warmly recommend both of these books - the Manual to priests, and the Prayer Book to lay people.

Up till now priests who are not Exorcists have had few resources and little guidance in their ministry of confronting and thwarting evil. This new Manual of Minor Exorcisms places in priests hands a whole understanding of the priest's power over evil spirits, together with a ritual for use in their ordinary pastoral ministry. Powerful prayers have been drawn out of the Tradition and are here offered again to priests, with indications for their appropriate use.

The Prayer Book for those in spiritual affliction contains a whole inventory of prayers, again from the Tradition, and with indications for their appropriate use, which lay people can powerfully use against evil spirits.

Bishop Julian has done the Church, and especially priests, a great service in developing both these resources.    

Patrick Madrid and company

Here is an excellent photograph of Patrick Madrid and the men's group in Parramatta last Saturday morning. You can make me out just to the right of Patrick's head.

Turning away from childish things.

I took part, yesterday morning, in a half day retreat for men led by Patrick Madrid, the American Apologist for the Faith. The event took place at Parramatta Cathedral and drew two hundred men of all ages. Many of them commented about wonderful it was to be a part of this masculine company of prayer and faith.

Patrick spoke very easily to this great crowd of men and his talk was warmly received; indeed, there was a discernible response of faith to his strong message.

He spoke first about the three hinges upon which one becomes a man: through mastering one's own body, particularly in the area of sexuality, through overcoming an innate selfishness, and through learning what it is to tell the truth, to be an agent of truth.

Then he spoke about the three levels of conversion which every man is called to undergo, not just once in life, but continually. First, there is spiritual conversion, which he keenly defined as letting Christ act in your life. Then there is moral coversion which hinges upon us turing away from anything which prevents us from being what Christ wants us to be. Finally, he spoke of intellectual conversion which he described as being open to formation - getting one's Catholic intellect in shape.

This tremendous proclamation about genuine masculinity concluded with the call to live the truth, speak the truth, and even to suffer for the truth. For most men, who have wives and families, these are the primary focus of their protecting mission: to protect their families, then to protect genuine culture, then to seek to advance the Kingdom of Christ.

What a fantastic vision of masculinity Patrick Madrid gave to us Sydneysiders! For more information visit http://www.patrickmadrid.com/ . 

A word from Cardinal Newman

These words are from a sermon which he preached in Advent 1835.

"This is what I have to say about the last persecution and its signs. And surely it is profitable to think about it, though we be quite mistaken in the detail. For instance, after all perhaps it may not be a persecution of blood and death, but of craft and subtlety only—not of miracles, but of natural wonders and powers of human skill, human acquirements in the hands of the devil. Satan may adopt the more alarming weapons of deceit—he may hide himself—he may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move Christians, not all at once, but by little and little from their true position. We know he has done much in this way in the course of the last centuries. It is his policy to split us up and divide us, to dislodge us gradually from off our rock of strength. And if there is to be a persecution, perhaps it will be then; then, perhaps, when we are all of us in all parts of Christendom so divided, and so reduced, so full of schism, so close upon heresy. When we have cast ourselves upon the world, and depend for protection upon it, and have given up our independence and our strength, then he may burst upon us in fury, as far as God allows him. Then suddenly the Roman Empire may break up, and Antichrist appear as a persecutor, and the barbarous nations around break in. But all these things are in God's hand and God's knowledge, and there let us leave them.

This alone I will say, in conclusion, as I have already said several times, that such meditations as these may be turned to good account. It will act as a curb upon our self-willed, selfish hearts, to believe that a persecution is in store for the Church, whether or not it comes in our days. Surely, with this prospect before us, we cannot bear to give ourselves up to thoughts of ease and comfort, of making money, settling well, or rising in the world. Surely, with this prospect before us, we cannot but feel that we are, what all Christians really are in the best estate (nay, rather would wish to be, had they their will, if they be Christians in heart), pilgrims, watchers waiting for the morning, waiting for the light, eagerly straining our eyes for the first dawn of day—looking out for our Lord's coming, His glorious advent, when He will end the reign of sin and wickedness, accomplish the number of His elect, and perfect those who at present struggle with infirmity, yet in their hearts love and obey Him."

The image above is a segment of Luca Signorelli's 'Last Judgement' from Orvieto Cathedral. Satan holds a 'Christ' figure in his embrace on a podium. But the figure which Satan is embracing is not Christ, but the AntiChrist.

Three views for Christ: 3

The third and final vision for the Christian Formation of young people which I want to speak about is one for which I can only give a brief scetch: creating spirituality centres. Now I realise that these two words, 'Spirituality Centre', can make us think in terms of laberinths, enneagrams and ceramic therapy; what I am thinking of when I say 'Spirituality Centres' are places of formation which nurture and establish prayer in young peoples lives. Such centres then would be given over to helping young people to pray, to discover and establish a basic foundation to prayer in their lives, and to discover the richness of the Church's tradition in this regard by being properly introduced to some of the Church's classical spiritualities - Carmelite, Ignatian, monastic, family etc. This could be done through short or extended retreats and through personal Spiritual Direction. 

I know of very few such places and I really do believe that there is a need for them. Two such 'centres' which come to mind are:

The Diocesan Centre of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Valladolid, Spain, http://www.centrodeespiritualidad.org/. You will need some Spanish here.

The Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer in Scotland, http://www.craiglodge.org/, which has enabled so many young people to grow in Christ.

I'm sure that there are other Centres which you could name - we need them. 

Three views for Christ: 2

A second vision for the Christian formation of young people looks to Houses of Discipleship. Residential houses for young men and women separately, in which young people who have left home and are either students or are working are able to establish a formation community together in order grow as men and women, and to grow in faith as Christian men and women.

Each house would live a simple rule of life and be led by a more mature person(s) who was competent for the role. Each person would have to self-fund their part in the house in order for it to be economically viable. Individuals could commit to live in such a house of discipleship, while working or studying, for one or more years.

The vision for each house and its life would need to be clear and simple; the basis of this vision is to enable the faith to take root, become incarnate, in the person's life. The rule of life would not be specifically directed, for instance to priesthood, religious life or marriage, but rather to enabling a fuller discernment, so that members of such a house would be well-disposed upon leaving, to take up whatever path in life God was calling them to (including that of becoming a part of a Youth Mission Team, for instance.)

The important factors in the creation of such an initiative are the acquiring of a property, having a clear vision and having appropriate and properly formed leadership. 

Three views for Christ: 1

When you come to look at the Christian formation of young people today it is like looking at the Mountain of the Beatitudes; there are many views, many approaches. But there are three particular ways which I see and I would like to speak briefly about them here. 

The first is the development of local or cell groups. These are groups which are able to meet regularly and who have adequate leadership, a leadership which knows how to integrate the various dimensions: human formation, evangelisation and prayer, discernment at its various levels, and catechesis, together with the very important social dimension. 

The local group best comes into being where there are some already formed relationships between members; these relationships can then become the means to attract and include new members.  

Again a local or cell group whilst engaging in various activities and even organising events for others, needs to be person-centered. That is to say, the group exists primarily for the formation in faith of its members, and to enable them to support one another as people of faith.

Another factor which supports this kind of initiative is the character of the venue. The most important ingedient here is that the group is able to make the venue its own - that it becomes a place where they feel at home because, in a certain sense, they have made it into a home.

The three main ingredients for the ordinary life of the cell group are the social dimension (food is a very good way of establishing this), prayer and some specific formation input.

You can see this form of apostolate with young people in many places both inside the Catholic Church and also in the Evangelical churches. How do you get a cell group going? Pray it into being, and look for and form leaders for such an initiative. 

More household's like More's

In reading Fr Peter Milward's excellent book "The English Reformation, from tragic reality to dramatic representation", Oxford, 2007, I was struck by the way in which the author referred to St Thomas More's household at Chelsea.

In the midst of the swirling controversies of the English renaissance/reformation, Sir Thomas More quietly and simply built up a Catholic culture around his home. The principal agent of this Catholic culture was simply hospitality. The many visitors who passed through the house, the meals, the many gatherings both informal and semi-formal, the conversations, the prayers which were led, were all able to be cast in the light of truth, the light of the Gospel, a light which was fast fading from early fifteenth century England.

What a patron to have if you are trying to build a Catholic household today. Again hospitality is the key. If you have a television, get rid of it, or unplug it and put it in the garage. Marginalise the computer and the iphone. The family table is second to none in terms of offering you a focus for hospitality. If there is a visitor in the area who has a particular gift in terms of the faith, invite him or her, and invite others so that more can be made of the gathering. You could think of organising, from time to time, particular events; a prayer time, a formation session, even a simple coffee morning. Let there be some focus on Christ and on the faith, but let in be a true social gathering, and let there be some prayer.

It is a good thing also, to consider building up a Catholic library in your home. With the culture taking a nose-dive, good books will disappear from the few book shops that are left, nor will they be referenced in any way by the culture. There is such a weatlth of great books, and somebody needs to preserve this heritage. Now is the time to act. Ask the Holy Spirit and St Thomas More for inspiration and direction.

Marking an anniversary

Last Saturday the Bishop of the French Diocese of Belley-Ars celebrated his seventy fifth birthday. Tomorrow, Wednesday, will be the twenty second anniversary of the foundation of the Societe Jean Marie Vianney by Mgr Bagnard.

Mgr Guy Marie Bagnard was chosen by John Paul II in 1987 to be the new Bishop of Belley-Ars. At that time Mgr Bagnard had been the rector of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart at Paray-le-Monial. This shrine is a focal point of the love of Christ because it was here that He revealed the whole teaching about the love of His heart, a love which Christ's priests are called to be channels of.

In 1988 Mgr Bagnard founded the new seminary in the village of Ars, the village of St John Vianney. Two years later he founded the priestly fraternity Societe Jean Marie Vianney. Looking back now, we can see what was in this new bishop's heart as he took up his pastoral office: to form priests and to uncover the beauty of the Priesthood.

As a member of the Societe I have met Mgr Bagnard on many occasions; each time I have been aware of the fatherhood of this holy bishop, and I have glimpsed how both an international seminary and an international priestly fraternity have been prayed into being by his priestly heart.

On one of the many visits to Ars which Fr Julian and myself have made, we took part in a Holy Hour in the large seminary chapel at which were present the seminarians and many priests and lay people of the Societe. While a deacon exposed the Blessed Sacrament and led the adoration prayers, Mgr Bagnard was in the front pew, deep in prayer throughout the whole hour. We could feel the power of his fatherly love and prayer. It was as if Jesus was pouring grace into the Church through the praying heart of this bishop.

May God continue to use Mgr Bagnard to form His Church, may He continue to bless the seminary and the priestly fraternity.

The secular idyll

That idyllic vision of life which Dawkins described on the 'Q and A' programme last Monday, in which everyone should have an opportunity to live their lives to the best of their ability and to make the world a better place, sounds absolutely delightful. Yet it is a vision of life which tends to exalt any kind of human culture, with the exception, of course, of Christian orthodoxy. But are all potential forms of human activity and culture good and desirable? The secular vision seems to say yes, and how dangerous this is.

Another hidden dimension of this idyll is that although the secular vision appears to embrace all forms of culture, except Christian orthodoxy. In fact the secular vision cannot at all tolerate the presence of Christian orthodoxy because it is a reminder of God's order, God's plan for humanity. This is especially true of Christian marriage and the Christian family which, institutionally, represent everything that the secular vision despises. What is now proposed as "same-sex marriage" at the level of equality with marriage, will not end there because the secular vision wants to remove all remnants of God's order in the world.

Nevertheless, God's Fatherhood which He has revealed to us is a real Fatherhood, by which He allows rebellious sons and daughters to experience the whole weight of their abandonment and wretchedness so that they can see the full effects of their sin, and so come to desire salvation. God's Fatherhood is given to us in a radical way in the parable of the Prodigal son. God desires that all men and women will come to Him, but we know that He will leave the rebellious to go on to experience the very worst that their rebelliousnous brings upon them. And then, when they cry out to Him, He is there with the fullness of a Father's love.

A culture of opinion

It is hard for atheism to speak about its point of view without refering to God. Again, Richard Dawkins, on the prime-time viewing spot 'Q and A', debating the question of God's existence with Cardinal Pell, tried courageously to defend the atheist position whilst speaking about God and Revelation.

What became manifest during the ABC programme was no so much atheism, so called, but rather the agenda of contemporary secularism. Dawkins himself nicely expressed this form of secularism, a secularism which promotes the leading of worthwhile lives, making the most of our short lives here, making the planet as good as we can, and hoping to leave it better than we find it, whilst aggressively refusing to admit the God of Revelation, Jesus and the Church. At the same time contemporary secularism reveals itself to be a culture of opinion, whether these are well articulated, as in the case of Dawkins or whether uploaded from viewers kitchens using their iphone (as we experienced during the programme). All the while, the pseudo-intellectual mass media, through its agents, taking great delight in trivialising some of the most important human questions, and trying to belittle humanity and its relationship with God. And at the centre of the debate a courageous prelate of the Church making himself available to people to listen to them and to try to answer their questions.

Contemporary secularism is like paganism of old. The Church has encountered this attitude in every era; at the Areopagus, in the Colosseum, in the cities and in the country tribes, in her Universities and in her hospitals. And in each case what is revealed is the spiritual battle which the Church has been called to take part in. It is a real struggle, for in every age, men and women do not want to step out of the kingdom of the world, which is the kingdom of sin and death, and of Satan. What will it take for the men and women of today to step into the Kingdom of Christ, of grace and righteousness?

The 'Q and A' debate on Monday evening told us nothing new about the world (to which we have all belonged), but it did speak about the greatness of Christ's Redemption, about what He has delivered us from, and about the reality of the spiritual warfare today between the world and the Church. It is a warfare which goes beyond both opinion and deliberated argument, because it is about whether we will allow ourselves to be delivered from the kingdom of death and brought into Eternal Life.

Pointing the finger

With reference to my last post in which I took a side-swipe at secular culture, I wanted to state a reservation which I have. It is one thing to challenge and criticise secular culture, but it is another thing to challenge and criticise those who live secular culture. The former can be justified, but not the latter. As Catholics we cannot attack people who do not know Christ live and who consequently live far from Him. We have no right to judge. Nor is the new evangelisation a time for Catholics to be self-righteous. Christ may indeed need to teach many people (including ourselves), but it is for us to hold people before Him in our hearts.

The Mirror of Galadriel

In Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" the elven queen Galadriel allows Frodo, the ring-bearer, to look into her mirror. The mirror itself is a draught of water which is taken from a secret spring and then poured into a special basin. Looking into this basin, rather than seeing one's own reflection, one sees images of events from the past, the present and even the future. It is a sort of "reality check" for Frodo, but one which requires some interpretation since the meaning of events is not always evident. Indeed, Frodo has to look into the mirror twice in order to even begin to see any image. And what he sees is ambiguous, it confuses him, and it draws him in - he almost falls into the basin!

The prevalent culture today is similarly ambigous and confusing, and it draws us in. Like the images which are reflected in Galadriel's mirror we need to take a second look, a second look which is more discerning than the first.

The secular culture in which most of us live offers no guide, no interpretation, no direction. But, if we take a second look then we can see that its primary focus is "self"; what it proposes is, first remove God from the scene and then seek success in whatever you attempt.

Secular morality is worth distinguishing for what it is: it focusses on virtually unobtainable goals as the purpose of and motivation for living, and then leaves you to struggle desperately towards them. The goals are things like inordinate wealth, beauty, prestige and dominance. The best image I can think of for today's secular morality is the weights gym. I'm not against gyms or keeping fit, but battling against serious odds in order to achieve an ephemeral goal is the content of todays secular ethic. It is an extremely demanding morality.

Two other points stand out in relief when one reflects upon today's secular culture. First, it operates at an IQ level of not higher than 14. You can test this out by turning on the television for a few minutes. Secondly, secular cultures costs a lot; in comparison with the family meal table and the table of the Lord's Body and Blood, secular culture starts at Cafe prices and rises steadily to encompass cars which have the same retail value as some family homes, and wrist watches which have a retail value greater than many people's annual wage.

Yet, so many are drawn in by this culture, and the homogenous nature of the secular world means that we rarely have a different viewpoint by which to assess our options and personal culture. Unlike Frodo, who had a humble elven queen to help him see the juxtaposition of the values which presented themselves to him.

What is most worrying however, are the number of baptised people who square themselves up to live according to secular culture. Now that Holy Week has begun, this is not the time to plaster over our personal culture, but rather to allow Christ to take centre stage in our lives.

Christian attitude

At the Last Judgement we don't want our near colleagues to point us out and say that they had no one to show them the way.

That process of formation in Christ which is common to all of the baptised is threefold:

First, the assimilate the Faith into our minds and hearts.

Second, to express the faith in our lives.

Third, to witness to the faith in life.

Apostolic Activity

"Apostolicam Actuositatem", the Vatican Council Decree of the mission of lay people presents a wonderful vision of the Christian life of the baptised. Becuase this vision does not concern the performance of a multipilicty of tasks on the altar during Mass, but rather the way in which lay people are called to Christianise the world, this document is somewhat forgotten.

Nevertheless, the vision of this document comes from the heart of the Gospel and of the Church - "You go into my vineyard!" Why does he say this? Becuase he, the Christ, is the hope of humanity.

Because we are baptised we have a new dignity which comes from Christ, and we are called to sanctify the world through our presence and our activity. First of all then, we are called to be holy and to belong to a communion - the Universal Communion of the Church. This is done by being established in a parish, and also sometimes in groups or associations. Being established in a parish enables us to respond to the call to union with Christ (holiness), it enables us to embrace our responsibility for professing the Catholic faith, to witness to the communion of the Church, to build our lives upon the Church's apostolic goals and to commit to being a presence of Christ in human society.

Within the dialogue that takes place between Christ and those he calls, there is a process of Christian formation. This process includes human and Christian formation. This formation is to lead to the living of a unified and integrated life in Christ, where one's personal culture becomes integrated with doctrinal and spiritual formation; the person and the community become themselves a centre of spiritual renewal in the world, because they offer Christ to others.

This vision was taken up by Bl John Paul II is his 1988 Letter "Christifideles Laici"; another wonderful teaching document which proposes the New Evangelisation on the basis of the renewal of the parish. Two documents deserving of particular attention today.

The public dimension

The public dimesnsion of marriage has been marginalised and diminished by the culture for many decades now. This undermining and betrayal of marriage is responsible, in large part, for the current UK proposal for same-sex marriage to be legalised.

Marriage has a public dimension. It is an essential aspect of marriage. This dimension is expressed formally in whatever marriage ceremony takes place by the presence of witnesses. A contract entered into privately by two parties has never been considered as marriage; society, represented by the witnesses, has to be present in order that this coming together by two people might be understood as marriage.

The public dimension is a part of what marriage is because there is a relationship between marriage and society. Society depends upon marriage (for the procreation of children and their upbringing), and marriage depends upon society in order to assist it in its mission. It is a mutual relationship, but not one in which marriage and society are as equals, for society (but not marriage) is obliged to observe the principle of subsidiarity, because marriage (and the family) takes priority over society.

The diminishing of the public dimension has been taking place over recent decades through a number of ways. We have the culture-led and State-led project of contraception and abortion. We have the culture-led and State-led project of divorce and the trivialisation of sexuality and relationships. We have the increasing number of people who have chosen not to get married but to simply live together. All of this has conspired to create an ethos of life without social responsibility, and in terms of marriage, to make the social dimension of marriage seem like an unbearable imposition.

So, in such a subjective age we hear such opinions as this: "What you are talking about (same-sex marriage) is individual people and their personal relationships, their love for each other and their wanting to be in a partnership or getting married. I think we should support that." (Harriet Harman, Labour front-bencher)

The culture has tried to remove the social dimension of marriage so that now we are in that position as a society where people want to do exactly what they want, without any sense of their responsibilty towards society, whether this is heterosexual or homosexual co-habiting. Same-sex marriage can never be in a right relationship with society because of the impossibility here of procreation, and of the authentic nature of the upbringing of children.

A important factor for young people today who are in relationships is to take your relationships out of the purely private sphere and introduce them properly into the context of family and friends, but especially family. Because if you marry, your life will be lived among and supported by your families, and by society also, not to mention the Church.