St. John's Blog

Friday, 25 May 2012

Defending marriage

There has been a lot of attention in the media lately on the issue of gay marriage with many pushing (and pushing hard) for it to be legalised. The Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales have been very active and very vocal on this subject, trying to show the world its true meaning, its true dignity and why gay 'marriage' isn't, in fact, marriage at all. Christians as well as many people from other religions have receive fierce criticism, even abuse, when expressing their views that marriage is between one man and one woman and therefore the legal definition should not be altered. In his letter a few months ago Archbishop Vincent Nichols said,

"The roots of the institution of marriage lie in our nature. Male and female we have been created, and written
into our nature is this pattern of complementarity and fertility. This pattern is, of course, affirmed by many other religious traditions. Christian teaching fills out this pattern and reveals its deepest meaning, but neither the Church nor the State has the power to change this fundamental understanding of marriage itself. Nor is this simply a matter of public opinion."

This is further affirmed by the Catechism which says;

""The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage." The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life." (CCC 1603)

Man has no authority to alter the definition of marriage since he himself is not the author of it. It is a gift lovingly given to us by God to bring man and woman into a more profoundly intimate union. They are no longer 'man' and 'woman' but one flesh, the two come together, giving all of themselves to their spouse with nothing held back; not emotionally, physically, psychologically, materially, the two literally do aspire - with God's help and by his grace - to become one. This is a reflection of the love shared within the Trinity (I'm not clever enough to explain that...but Blessed John Paul II did exceptionally in Theology of the Body. If marriage is redefined by the State then, even though they insist that religious institutions will not be required to perform these services, it will fundamentally undermine marriage as a whole. It will utterly distort the roots and source of what this amazing and holy sacrament is, it will uproot even further people's conception of what marriage is all about and why two people enter into it, it will totally devalue it too. (Anneli has written a superb article on the St. John's Pro Life blog as part of the Back to Basics series. You can read it here, you certainly won't regret it!)

All this having been said there has been a lot of misunderstanding and, sadly, venom from both sides which means we both

become deaf to one another. The vocation of the Christian is to proclaim the Good News of Our Lord Jesus Christ and to do so with love and understanding. We can't do this properly if we just shout our view at other people, preaching the Gospel at them and not to them. We cannot hope to help people see and understand the innate dignity and wonderful truth of marriage if we don't listen, if we don't engage with others adequately. The Bishops have called us to action, they have asked us to sign the petition started by the Coalition for Marriage. You can sign it here or add your name to it in paper form in the porch at St. John's. Action is most definitely necessary but there is no need to be rude or unkind in this situation. Christ's message was love, Christ's gift of marriage is to help man and woman truly express their love, to bring it to fulfillment, if we act without it then we will accomplish nothing.

Novena for Pentecost, day nine

On many novenas for Pentecost or to the Holy Spirit the last gift we pray for is, bizarrely, the one that is almost always listed first; the spirit of wisdom. It puzzled me a little as to why so many novenas seem to ask the Spirit to bestow his gifts on us in reverse order. But I think that the reason for this is that, although all of these gifts are equal in worth and all bring us into a more intimate knowledge of the divine, allowing the Holy Spirit to work within and through us, wisdom is...something else, something more. A gift that, in many ways, requires of us to have some experience of all of the others before we can receive this one and have it bear fruit within us. Wisdom is more than a deep reverence of God, more than a knowledge and understanding of him, more than the courage and good judgement to carry out his will. Wisdom is...summed up best, I think, by the book of Wisdom itself. For instance it says;

"She [Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God,
pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
hence nothing impure can find a way into her.
She is a reflection of the eternal light,
untarnished mirror of God's active power,
image of his goodness.
She is indeed more splendid than the sun,
she outshines all the constellations;
compared with light, she takes the first place,
for light must yield to night,
but to Wisdom evil can never triumph.
She deploys her strength from one end of the earth to the other,
ordering all things for good." (Wisdom 7:25-26, 29-30)

What better a gift to ask for on this, the last day of our novena? What more could we ask for, what else could we want to take root within us but the spirit of wisdom?

Veni Creator Spiritus (Hymn)
1. Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

2. Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas
et spiritalis unctio.

3. Tu septiformis munere,
digitus paternae dexterae
tu rite promissum Patris
sermone ditans guttura.

4. Accende lumen sensibus,
infunde amorem cordibus,
infirma nostri corporis,
virtute firmans perpeti.

5. Hostem repellas longius
pacemque dones protinus;
ductore sic te praevio
vitemus omne noxium.

6. Per te sciamus da Patrem
noscamus atque Filium,
te utriusque Spiritum
credamus omni tempore.

7. Deo Patri sit gloria,
et Filio qui a mortuis
Surrexit, ac Paraclito,
in saeculorum saecula.
Amen.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created
All: And you shall renew the face of the earth

Let us pray
O God who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy spirit, grant that by the gift of the same Sprit we may be always truly wise and always rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

All: O God I adore you, as the third person of the ever blessed Trinity. You are the living love with which the Father and the Son love each other. And you are the author of supernatural love in our hearts. Increase in me this grace of love, in spite of my unworthiness. It is more precious than anything else to in the world. I accept it in place of all the world can give me. It is my life. Amen.
(JH Newman)

Priest: LORD Jesus Christ who before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish your work in the souls of your apostles and disciples, grant the same Holy Spirit to me, to perfect in my soul the work of your grace and your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may not be attached to the passing things of this world, but always look to Heaven. The Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of your divine truth. The Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God. The Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my own cross with you. The Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow more perfect. The Spirit of Piety that I may find service of God sweet and amiable. The Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and avoid what displeases him. Mark me dear Lord with the sign of your true disciples, and animate me in all things with your Spirit. Amen

Regina Caeli (Hymn)

Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia.
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Novena for Pentecost, day eight

As we continue to pray for a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (which is so very close now) we move on to meditate on the gift of counsel. Since I couldn't come up with anything coherent to say I have, once again, cheated and pinched some words from Blessed John Paul II.

"A need that is keenly felt in our days, disturbed by not a few crises and by a widespread uncertainty about true values, if that which is called "reconstructing consciences". That is to say, one is aware of the necessity of neutralizing certain destructive factors which easily find their way into the human spirit when it is agitated by passions, and of introducing healthy positive elements into it.

In this commitment to moral restoration the Church must be, and is, in the forefront; hence the prayer that arise: from the hearts of her members - of all of us - to obtain especially the help of light from on high. The Spirit of God responds to this plea through the gift of Counsel, by which he enriches and perfects the virtue of prudence and guides the soul from within, enlightening it about what to do, especially when it is a matter of important choices (for example, of responding to a vocation), or about a path to be followed among difficulties and obstacles. In fact experience confirms that "the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans", as the Book of Wisdom says (9:14).

The gift of Counsel acts like a new breath in the conscience, suggesting to it what is licit, what is becoming, what is more fitting for the soul (cf. St Bonaventure, "Collationes de septem donis Spiritus Sancti", VII, 5). Thus the conscience becomes like the "healthy eye" of which the Gospel speaks (Mt 6:21), an eye which acquires, as it were, a new pupil, by means of which it is able to see better what to do in a given situation, no matter how intricate and difficult. Aided by this gift, the Christian penetrates the true meaning of gospel values, in particular those expressed in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5:7).Let us therefore ask for the gift of Counsel! Let us ask for it for ourselves and, in particular, for the pastors of the Church, so often called, by the demands of their work, to make arduous and agonizing decisions." (Blessed John Paul II, Regina Caeli Sunday 7th May 1989.)

Veni Creator Spiritus (Hymn)
1. Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

2. Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas
et spiritalis unctio.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Novena for Pentecost, day seven

All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are, obviously, related and inter-connected. Understanding goes hand in hand with the gifts of wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge allows us to come to a greater awareness of the divine, wisdom gives us the ability to contemplate the things of heaven and the desire to detach ourselves from the things of the world (to be in the world but not of the world) and understanding helps us to penetrate deeper into the mysteries of God. Although we can never grasp them fully as we are only finite beings trying to fathom the infinite and have a limited capability to take, for example, the awesomeness of the Trinity in but it does lead us into a fuller acceptance of the truth behind it. It, along with wisdom and knowledge, perfects the virtue of faith and we can't do without it. (There is also a wonderful message from Blessed John Paul II on Understanding, given after the Regina Caeli on April 16th 1989 - ten days after I was born - which can be found here.)

Veni Creator Spiritus (Hymn)
1. Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

2. Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas
et spiritalis unctio.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Novena for Pentecost, day six

The gift of knowledge perfects the theological virtue of faith, "...by which we believe in God an believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself..." (CCC 1814) Through the Holy Spirit God gives us the ability to recognise him in the world around us, through all created things, through other people. This gift awakens within us a deeper awareness, in part, of God's will and his plan for us. Without it we can't hope to respond to his invitation, to embark on our vocation. So today let us pray for the gift of knowledge and all that comes with it.

Veni Creator Spiritus (Hymn)
1. Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

2. Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas
et spiritalis unctio.

Monday, 21 May 2012

Novena for Pentecost, day five

'Among these gifts of the Spirit there is one on which I wish to dwell this morning: the gift of Fortitude. In our time many extol physical force, to the extent of also approving the extreme forms of violence. In fact, man has daily experience of his own weakness, especially in the spiritual and moral sphere, yielding to the impulses of internal passions and external pressures.

Precisely to resist these multiple stimuli, it is necessary to have the virtue of fortitude, which is one of the four cardinal virtues on which the whole structure of the moral life rests. It is the virtue by which one does not compromise in fulfilling one's duty.

This virtue finds little room in a society in which surrender and accommodation on the one hand, and domination and toughness on the other, are widespread in economic, social and political relations. Timidity and aggressiveness are two forms of lack of fortitude which are often found in human behaviour; they result repeatedly in the distressing sight of one who is weak and cowardly towards the powerful, or of one who is arrogant and overbearing towards the defenceless.

Perhaps today as never before the moral virtue of fortitude needs the support of the corresponding gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of Fortitude is a supernatural impulse which gives strength to the soul, not only on exceptional occasions such as that of martyrdom, but also in normal difficulties: in the struggle to remain consistent with one's principles: in putting up with insults and unjust attacks: in courageous perseverance on the path of truth and uprightness, in spite of lack of understanding and hostility.

When, like Jesus in Gethsemane, we experience "the weakness of the flesh" (cf. Mt 26:41; Mk14:38), or rather, of human nature subject to physical and psychological infirmities, we should ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of Fortitude to remain firm and decisive on the path of goodness. Then we will be able to repeat with St Paul: "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (1 Cor12:10).

There are many of Christ's followers - pastors and faithful, priests, religious, and laity, engaged in every area of apostolic and social work who in all times, including our own, have experienced and experience martyrdom of body and spirit, in intimate union with the Mother of Sorrows beside the Cross. All have been victorious thanks to this gift of the Spirit.

Let us ask Mary, whom we now greet as Queen of Heaven, to obtain for us the gift of Fortitude in all the vicissitudes of life and at the hour of death.' (Blessed John Paul II, Homily on Solemnity of Pentecost, 1989)

Veni Creator Spiritus (Hymn)
1. Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

2. Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas
et spiritalis unctio.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Preparing for Confirmation

This Thursday Bishop Kieran will be coming to Horsham to say Mass and to seal our Confirmation candidates with the Spirit. Usually this happens over the course of a few weekends at Worth Abbey but since we have so many this year our lovely bishop is coming to us instead! This is an exciting time for the parish but most especially for the candidates themselves and their families. Please, please pray for all of them as they prepare to receive this wonderful sacrament on Thursday evening. It will be a wonderful, beautiful and inspiring thing to watch them enter event deeper into their relationship with God.