9 June, Reflections on the Mass, V: Prayer Which God Alone Sees.

We continue sharing Canon Anthony Charlton’s reflections on the Eucharist in preparation for the feast of Corpus Christi.

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In June last year, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic letter on the Liturgical Formation of the People of God.

In Latin it was entitled Desiderio desideravi — Luke 22:15 — ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this paschal meal with you’. His intention was to ‘offer some prompts or cues for reflections that can aid in the contemplation of the beauty and truth of Christian celebration’.

There was one thing he wrote toward the end of the letter which struck me. He said that silence occupies a place of vital importance in the Mass.

In our missal, moments for silence are prescribed, but I realise that as a celebrant I often fall short and don’t give these moments of silence their due.

The entire Eucharistic celebration is immersed in silence. It is good to settle into silence before we announce and sing our first hymn. Silence is present in the Penitential rite; after the invitation ‘Let us pray’; in the Liturgy of the Word (before the readings, between the readings, after the homily and in the Eucharistic prayer); after communion.

Pope Francis says:

‘Silence is a symbol of the presence and the action of the Holy Spirit who animates the entire action of the celebration of Mass. In the Penitential Rite the silence enables the Spirit to move us to sorrow for sin and the desire for conversion. It awakens a readiness to hear the Word and awakens prayer, and it disposes us to adore the Body and Blood Christ.’

When I was training for the priesthood our rector at the seminary was very keen on a time of silence after communion, especially at the early morning Mass. Some of us would become concerned when the period of silence stretched to several minutes and there was loud coughing to be heard among the student body who were afraid he might have fallen asleep.

The Pope’s final sentence in this paragraph on silence is:

‘For all these reasons we are called to enact with extreme care the symbolic gesture of silence. Through it the Spirit gives us shape, gives us form.’

I love Mother Theresa of Calcutta’s prayer:

‘The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.’

St Pope Paul VI, reflecting on the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth, offered these thoughts on silence.

‘May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us, besieged as we are by so many uplifted voices, the general noise and uproar, in our seething and over-sensitised modern life.

‘May the silence of Nazareth teach us recollection, inwardness, the disposition to listen to good inspirations and the teachings of true masters. May it teach us the need for and the value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of personal inner life, of the prayer which God alone sees in secret.’

Amen.

Canon Father Anthony Parish Priest

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2 June: Praying with Pope Francis, For the abolition of torture.

We pray that the international community may commit 
in a concrete way 
to ensuring the abolition of torture 
and guarantee support to victims and their families.

People who have been tortured have to choose how to live when the active part of their ordeal is over. When we were new parents I used to take our baby to the antique and secondhand bookshop of Mr S for morning-long chats about this and that. The Other, rarely mentioned, was the tattooed number on his wrist.

John S had emigrated to Israel but eventually washed up at a rundown English seaside town, selling a few books, welcoming odd bods like me to sit around the fire, and getting by. Israel, for him, had become too bullying towards the Palestinian people living on the same patch of land.

Ensuring the abolition of torture is a big ask. It is underhand, a deed of darkness. It will need long-term, concerted action to come near this goal. Most of all it needs the grace of the Spirit to inspire governments to cease torture done in their name; to press governments to intervene with other nations where torture is practised; to encourage journalists and NGOs to tell the world about torture.

Let us pray that we may be men and women of peace, like John S: Come Holy Spirit, heal our wounds, our strength renew, on our dryness pour thy dew.

30 May: A Letter to our 2023 Confirmation Candidates

A Letter to our 2023 Confirmation Candidates

My dear Confirmandi,
Thank you for coming forward to make this preparation to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. You are doing the right thing. I believe so much in you.
Please God, on Pentecost Sunday, 28 May 2023 at the 11am Mass, you will be sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The practice of virtue, enabled by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, will bring you to the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. During the Confirmation, the Bishop (or in our case, the Archbishop’s Vicar for the Southeast Area of our Archdiocese) will say this prayer: 

All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit
you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgement and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer begins the new life in Christ which you are invited to lead.

There is the impression that after Confirmation a number of young Catholics, at least here in this country, make an exodus from the Church in large numbers. Simply put: they stop attending Mass, no longer participating in the life of the Church or identifying themselves as Catholics. Some lose their faith and only a reduced number return when it is time to start a family. I pray that this may not be the case with you. Amen.

This is why you will notice your catechism formation programme was focused on rebuilding a solid foundation where you encounter Jesus Christ and experience him in a transforming way in your life. I have gone through all your coursework and I must say I am impressed. Each of you, in your own unique way, has expressed great Faith. Well done. Your formation is meant to ensure you live the very Faith experience and be prepared to take up the role of discipleship in whatever community you find yourself. The preparation to become a disciple of the Lord takes a life time, the confirmation process is meant to open your eyes to a new world of Faith. This has been your journey in Faith. You have experienced the Sacred Scripture and the tradition of the Church. You now know, or know where to
get the teachings of the church; our unadulterated deposit of faith han ded down by our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

You now know, or know where to find what we believe and why we believe them. I kindly encourage you: Do not choose to go through life seeking the next sin that will complicate your life, keeping
you in chains. Set yourself free from the grip of the world, and open yourself to Jesus by drawing closer to him in prayer. Be a good boy and a good girl that will grow up finely into a good man and a good woman of God.

The most important part of everything you have learnt is to attend Mass. Remember, Prayer is like Oxygen to us. Without prayer we can do nothing. You have nurtured a friendship with Jesus and I hope enables you to speak freely with him as your dear friend in a heart to heart conversation. I hope prayer becomes something you enjoy doing.

I trust you will come to appreciate that it is a very positive thing to be a Catholic and a person of Faith. I pray that you are never conflicted in life; and when you are, you are able to change and fix your belief so that you do not go through life confused and conflicted, which always leads to a crisis. G.K. Chesterton said: ‘When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.’ My prayer for you is that, from today, the song that will echo in your heart will be: I rejoiced when I heard them say: “let us go to God’s house”. Psalms 121 [122] v. 1
God bless
Your Parish Priest,
Father Valentine Erhahon
Thursday 11th May 2023

28 May, Pentecost: What indeed if they do?

A little conversation about prayer.

This dove hovers over the place where the priest vested for Mass in the Catholic Church of Our Lord in the Attic, Amsterdam, hidden away in plain view, in the centre of town. Illegal but tolerated.

Our friend Christina Chase set off this little conversation, speculating ‘What good are my prayers, really?’ Her original post follows this introduction.

Christina Chase April 20

Have you ever wondered if your prayers for others have any real beneficial effect at all? I have. I still am wondering sometimes.

Sacred Scripture tells us that praying for others is important. Jesus did not only say “Love your enemies,” but also “pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus Himself prayed for His disciples during the time of His earthly life. St. Paul continually asked the people to whom he addressed his letters to pray for him.

Praying for others seems to be the right thing to do. And I sincerely try to do it. Although, of course, I could try harder and do it better. I am merely human, after all. Life is busy and … well … praying can sometimes feel like tedious work. When I think of the many prayers that I could raise to God on behalf of countless others, it feels rather daunting. And I wonder if it’s really necessary. Even when I put in the time and effort to pray deeply for someone I know or someone who has asked me to pray for them, I still wonder.

What good are my prayers, really? Doesn’t God love all the people for whom I pray even more than I do? How does it work? I wonder as if I could actually discover the answer and understand a profound mystery of God. And then, yes, I doubt, and wonder if it works at all.

”But what if it does…?” a little voice in my heart said recently.

Maybe my prayers for other people don’t make a difference.…But what if they do?

 Christina Chase

I could not leave those questions hanging in the air, even if I couldn’t answer them properly. So here are my first thoughts.

A first response, late at night

Dear Christina,

you lay out the arguments effectively (I shall copy this post to my blog, if I may!?)

In this world there is always room for doubt, but have you never felt support from people’s prayers? Of course, you can tell yourself that that feeling could just be your imagination, but if knowing that prayer has been offered by someone else for your benefit boosts your confidence, your courage, perhaps the Spirit is at work in you, and linked to your friend that was inspired to pray for you. I think the Spirit is the missing link here.

And I’m too tired to think straight for one more sentence.

Love,

Will

Only God knows

Christina Chase commented in response to willturnstone:What indeed if they do? So good to hear from you! You are in my prayers, my friend. And yes, you may copy this post in any way that you like. I do believe, like you said, that I have benefited from people’s prayers. Their prayers may not have been answered exactly the way they intended, but only God knows what is truly best. The Holy Spirit at work within us, among us, and between us is perhaps exactly the key in understanding how intercessory prayer “works.” Perhaps our guardian angels in communication as well? I’ve been trying to be more open to the presence of angels. God works in mysterious ways. With much love, Pax Christi Christina

Pentecost! The Church of 120 believers are already on the way to being transformed. They wanted to be together – whether they were all sleeping where they met or they returned to lodgings at night, we are not told, but for sure, the Upper Room was hardly the Savoy. How did they keep the place clean?

We know that the risen Jesus appeared there at least twice, which made it a special place. His presence must have been felt in the very air of the Upper Room. It was a place of prayer; talking to Jesus, they were coming to realise, was and is prayer, ‘My Lord and my God’.

The group were praying to the Father. Just sitting around, talking about Jesus, was prayer, the Spirit at work in the disciples as they spoke and listened to each other. We too are called to open our hearts to the Spirit and to live within the Communion of Saints. Praying for others is part of this, but so too is opening our hearts to each other. Listening to each other (perhaps through e.mails) helps focus our prayer when we pray for each other but as Christina reminds us, God knows what is truly best.

And what about the gardening Morgan and I do for Mrs A? More often than I would like, as a conscientious gardener, to pull more weeds than I can when she wants, or needs, to talk, to be reassured. Mrs A has dementia and needs to make connections with her garden (among other things) because that helps to put her on her feet metaphorically. She helped create this garden with her late husband. Through pulling up a few weeds and chatting she connects with her own history and the many blessings she has received through her married life.

Laborare est Orare: to work is to pray; we can pray without being conscious of doing so. We can pray for others without being conscious of doing so, as in my working for and with Mrs A. But examining what happens shows that my work-prayer provides her with grace here and now. We can trust that a prayer mention of a distant person is also a ‘channel of thy peace’ though less obvious to mere mortals.

Pentecost: This Gift of Love

Canterbury cathedral’s collected Paschal Candles: this year’s special Easter candles will be lit in churches today, the Church’s Birthday.

Reflections from Fr Anthony Charlton of St Thomas’, Canterbury.

In my previous parishes, on this feast of Pentecost the children released helium-filled red balloons, at the end of Mass, to celebrate the great feast. The feast is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the church, hence the balloons. Pentecost ushers in the age of the Church. Now Jesus lives and acts in, and with, the Church.

We are not merely remembering a past event, when those in the Upper Room were transformed and changed. For us, the Holy Spirit is not just a help for the mission of the church. He is salvation; he is life itself. We celebrate today that we are all filled with that Spirit — just as Mary, the women and the apostles were transformed.

Today we celebrate the gift that is given to all of us, this gift of love. We are all immersed in the ‘ocean of the Father’s love’, Cardinal Ranerio Cantalamassa wrote. ‘They discovered for the first time what the love of the Father was, this love that Jesus spoke to them about for so long and in vain. They discovered the tenderness that is in the name Abba which they had heard their Master share about many times.’

A great Pentecost hymn is Come down O Love divine, seek thou this soul of mine.

Because of the gift of speech, all were able to understand the apostles. It was the reversal of Babel. At the building of the tower of Babel, the people said, ‘Let us make a name for ourselves.’ Their focus was on themselves and not on God. At Pentecost, instead everyone understood each other, because they had forgotten about themselves. There was unity, harmony and communication. The apostles did not want to make a name for themselves, but for God. They were no longer discussing among themselves who was the greatest.

We need in our prayer to put the accent on praise. We no longer want to live for ourselves but for the Lord. ‘Praise is what best helps us to decentralise and to recentralise on God.’ We need to rediscover this living Christ, whom only the Spirit can stir up in us. Let us rediscover this personal experience of Jesus — who died and was raised for me.

We need to have the same burning experience that Paul had on the road to Damascus, when he asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ (Acts 9:5). From that moment on, Paul considered everything as worthless, so that he might gain Christ.

At this time some of the people of the parish are joining with others, throughout the Diocese, participating in the Life in the Spirit seminars. It is a seven-week course of renewal, and yesterday they went to St George’s Cathedral, for a day when they asked for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sometimes referred to as ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’.

Let us all pray on this Pentecost Sunday:

Lord Jesus I open my heart to the Holy Spirit so that I may rediscover and proclaim you as Lord.

26 May: Prayer to the Holy Spirit for the Synod.

Adsumus, Sancte Spiritus

We are approaching the Feast of Pentecost when the first Church gathered in the Upper Room and received the Holy Spirit with her ‘sevenfold gifts’. Let us pray at this time for the success of the Synod, using the Church’s ancient prayer.

Every session of the Second Vatican Council began with the prayer Adsumus Sancte Spiritus meaning, “We stand before You, Holy Spirit,” which has been used at Councils, Synods and other Church gatherings for hundreds of years. It is attributed to Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636). As we
are called to follow the path of the Synod 2021-2023, this prayer invites the Holy Spirit to operate within us so that we may be a community and a people of grace.

We stand before You, Holy Spirit,
as we gather together in Your name.
With You alone to guide us,
make Yourself at home in our hearts;
Teach us the way we must go
and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful;
do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path
nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find in You our unity
so that we may journey together to eternal life
and not stray from the way of truth
and what is right.
All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place and time,
in the communion of the Father and the Son,
forever and ever. Amen.

Window, Saint Aloysius, Somers Town, London, England.

7 May: Francis on Joseph, IV: an Accepting Father.

We return to Pope Francis’s reflections on Saint Joseph. Here we see the human side of the Holy Family, saved from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Joseph’s repeated acceptance of disastrously changing circumstances. Joseph was the man of the moment many times! May we discern and accept our responsibilities, day by day.

4. An accepting father

Joseph accepted Mary unconditionally. He trusted in the angel’s words.  “The nobility of Joseph’s heart is such that what he learned from the law he made dependent on charity. Today, in our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident, Joseph appears as the figure of a respectful and sensitive man. Even though he does not understand the bigger picture, he makes a decision to protect Mary’s good name, her dignity and her life. In his hesitation about how best to act, God helped him by enlightening his judgement”.[18]

Often in life, things happen whose meaning we do not understand. Our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment and rebellion. Joseph set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events and, mysterious as they seemed, to embrace them, take responsibility for them and make them part of his own history. Unless we are reconciled with our own history, we will be unable to take a single step forward, for we will always remain hostage to our expectations and the disappointments that follow.

The spiritual path that Joseph traces for us is not one that explains, but accepts. Only as a result of this acceptance, this reconciliation, can we begin to glimpse a broader history, a deeper meaning. We can almost hear an echo of the impassioned reply of Job to his wife, who had urged him to rebel against the evil he endured: “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” (Job 2:10).

Joseph is certainly not passively resigned, but courageously and firmly proactive. In our own lives, acceptance and welcome can be an expression of the Holy Spirit’s gift of fortitude. Only the Lord can give us the strength needed to accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.

Jesus’ appearance in our midst is a gift from the Father, which makes it possible for each of us to be reconciled to the flesh of our own history, even when we fail to understand it completely.

Just as God told Joseph: “Son of David, do not be afraid!” (Mt 1:20), so he seems to tell us: “Do not be afraid!” We need to set aside all anger and disappointment, and to embrace the way things are, even when they do not turn out as we wish. Not with mere resignation but with hope and courage.

10 April: Eternal glory

O God, creation’s secret force, 
yourself unmoved, all motion’s source, 
who from the morn till evening ray 
through all its changes guide the day:

Grant us, when this short life is past,
the glorious evening that shall last;
that, by a holy death attained,
eternal glory may be gained.

To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
may every tongue and nation raise
an endless song of thankful praise!

Saint Ambrose of Milan composed this simple hymn, appropriate for Eastertide with its reflection on a holy death and eternal glory. I wonder what would make a holy death? Or unholy? Accident victims and those who die in their sleep or of a massive heart event we can but commend to God, ‘creation’s secret force’ who can grant eternal glory to whomsoever he will. The photograph shows the ancient Baptistry beneath the present day Cathedral of Milan, discovered in the 1950s when the metro was being excavated. Notice that it was a proper pool with room for total immersion. It has eight sides because Jesus rose on Easter Sunday, the eighth day of Holy Week. We are baptised into his death and resurrection,as was Ambrose, in this pool, and at his hand, Augustine.

6 April, Maundy Thursday: Peace be with you.

At the Last Supper, Jesus said to his disciples: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27.

I was teaching an RE lesson to 14 year olds when an almighty disturbance broke out between two girls who were best friends and sitting next to each other, an arrangement that had worked well so far. The lesson was going to be wasted and the next one would be more difficult if I got this wrong!

The expected course of action would have been to despatch them to the deputy head, which would mean escalating the matter and possibly involving parents. I sent them to Sister Carmel in her warm chaplain’s room round the corner. They made it back to us before the end of the lesson with sheepish smiles.

I would have appreciated a resource like this in those early days of teaching. It is not always easy for young people to step back from a disagreement and make peace, but if they do not learn this skill when young, when will they ever learn?

At Christian CND we recognise the importance of children’s and youth work and see the children and young people as vital members of the Body of Christ.

We have published a new resource called ‘Peace be with you’, which helps young people to be peacemakers. The resource looks at different aspects of God’s peace and explores what that means in our everyday lives. It contains varied activities which are rooted in scripture with real-world applications and is suitable for all ages.

Youth and children’s workers and volunteers can request a free copy from us using the form at: http://christiancnd.org.uk/youth-resource/

Source: Christian CND via ICN.

The Dove of the Holy Spirit is also the Dove of Peace. This one is at the Church in the Attic that welcomed Catholic worshippers in Amsterdam after the Reformation. Though they were worshipping illegally, they were tolerated, left in peace.

1 April, Synod Press Release: the end of the Continental Stage.

Continental Stage comes to an end The consultation also ends but not the dialogue with the People of God  On Friday, 31 March 2023, the Continental Stage, that is, the second stage of the synodal process, officially ended and with it the time of broad-based consultation of the People of God. The inclusion of a time to listen, dialogue and discern among the Churches of the same geographical area after the Local Stage (diocesan and national) represented a new feature that was introduced by this synodal process. This new stage was not confined to the mere celebration of seven continental assemblies, but was a real process of listening and discernment on a continental level. The question that formed the basis for these assemblies was the same and unique question of the synodal process as a whole, namely: How is our ‘walking together’ which enables the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accord with the mission entrusted to her, being achieved today at the different levels (from local to universal)? (PD No. 2). Following the principle of subsidiarity, the organisation of this part of the process and the respective continental synodal assemblies were entrusted to local Organising Committees (or Task Forces) that were mostly part of the International Reunions of Bishops’ Conferences or the Eastern Catholic Churches. However, a special Task Force of the General Secretariat of the Synod accompanied their work. The heads of the General Secretariat of the Synod and the General Rapporteur of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops ensured the presence of at least one of them in each continental assembly as a testimony of the closeness and desire of the Holy See to listen to the particular Churches. The seven assemblies that, from the beginning of February to the end of March, have marked this time of the synod’s journey, were all ecclesial assemblies, that is, representative of the People of God (bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, laity). Their aim was to respond to the three questions contained in the DCS (no. 106) published on 27 October (for more details). Participants in these assemblies sought first to identify the ‘resonances’ aroused by reading the DCS and second, to indicate tensions and priorities. It was comforting to note how the participants in the continental assemblies recognized themselves in the paths identified in the DCS, notwithstanding that each one came from their own ecclesial and cultural perspectives which were sometimes profoundly different. The fruit of their discussions is contained in the Final Document that each Assembly produced and that will serve as a contribution to the work of the first session of the Synod of Bishops (4-29 October 2023).  These documents were the fruit of an authentically synodal journey, respectful of the process so far, reflecting the voice of the People of God on each Continent. These seven continental documents will form the basis of the Instrumentum Laboris, the working document for the first session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. It is now up to the Preparatory Commission, set up by the General Secretariat of the Synod, (read more), to organise the working group called to produce it. All assemblies have been a graced time for the Church. In addition to emphasising the great desire for renewal by walking together in unity with Christ, the continental process revealed deep joy and the love of so many faithful for their Church, the People of God, despite its shortcomings and weaknesses as well as the importance of listening as a tool and permanent dynamic of ecclesial life. These assemblies also confirmed the decision to opt for the method of “spiritual conversation” to foster true listening and community discernment in order to reach ecclesial consensus. The General Secretariat of the Synod expresses its heartfelt gratitude to all those who have engaged in this process with great seriousness and enthusiasm. The Continental Stage led to a greater awareness of the importance of walking together in the Church as a communion of communities, strengthening the dialogue between Particular Churches and the Universal Church. The conclusion of the consultation does not mean the end of the synodal process within the People of God; nor does it mean the interruption of the dialogue between the Universal Church and the Particular Church. Rather. Rather, it means leaving the local communities with the challenge of putting those “synodal reforms” into practice in the daily routine of their ecclesial action, in the knowledge that much of what has been discussed and identified so far at the local level does not require the discernment of the universal Church nor the intervention of the Magisterium of Peter. The Final Documents published so far are available here

Our mailing address is: General Secretariat for the Synod of BishopsVia della Conciliazione, 34Vatican City 00120Vatican City State (Holy See)