Holy Day of Obligation 15 August

Friday is the Feast of the Assumption of our Lady

09.40 Morning Prayer
10.00 Sung Mass
Masses also at 19.30 (Thursday),
07.30 and 19.30 Friday

Holidays

Canon Jim is on holiday for the next month. Fr Ivan Grigis will be helping out Fr Gregory while Canon Jim is away.

WYD 2008

You can find Bishop Paul’s blog from WYD 2008 here.

Coincidentally, Southwark pilgrims were hosted in my (previous) home diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. Bishop Paul stayed in the Bishop’s House in my home town of Maitland.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Peter Coldham has written a very interesting piece on Archbishop Fulton Sheen – all about the man and the recommendation for his canonisation put forward by his American diocese.

ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN

Those who so much enjoyed watching the CaFe programmes last autumn which featured Archbishop Fulton Sheen presenting his lively exposition of Catholic belief, will wish to know that he has now been officially put forward by his American diocese with a recommendation for his canonisation.

The following is an abstract from the Catholic Herald article which appeared in the issue of 8th February this year

The first phase of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s cause for canonisation was completed last week as Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria nailed shut the wooden box containing the late archbishop’s writings and testimonials and sent them to the Vatican. . . . The faithful, including one hundred members of the Sheen family, crowded round the crate containing 6,500 pieces of information relating to the Archbishop’s life.

Born in El Paso, Texas, in 1895, Peter John Sheen was ordained at the age of 24 and so fresh-faced that when he arrived as a substitute priest he was told: “Get over to the church, the other altar boys are dressed already.” He became a public figure in the 1930s thanks to his America-wide radio show The Catholic Hour and, after the second world war, his television programme Life is Worth Living regularly reached a weekly audience of 30 million people. When he won an Emmy award in 1952 he said: “I feel it is time I paid tribute to my four writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”

He was made Auxiliary Bishop of New York in 1961 and in 1969, fifty years after his ordination, he was appointed as titular Archbishop of Newport, Wales. He died in 1979, two months after Pope John Paul had embraced him at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York with the words: “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ: you are a loyal son of the Church.”

A more detailed appraisal of Fulton Sheen’s life and work has been written by Thomas Reeves, the author of several books including the definitive biography from which the following is taken.

“Many Catholics have a clearer understanding of Sheen, for more than a dozen of his books remain in print, several anthologies of his writings are for sale, and his television shows and tapes continue to be popular. The Eternal Word Television Network regularly features Sheen videotapes. Moreover, an effort is underway, formally inaugurated by the late Cardinal O’Connor of New York, to have the Archbishop canonized.

In preparing [his biography] I discovered a brilliant, charismatic, and holy man who has been underestimated by historians, largely overlooked by the contemporary mass media, and forgotten by too many Catholics. Indeed, I came to the conclusion that Fulton J. Sheen was the most important Catholic of twentieth century America. His father was a modestly prosperous farmer, his mother a hard-working and popular farm wife and mother of four boys. The Sheen children were gifted with high intelligence and for most of his life Fulton would work a nineteen hour day, seven days a week. Fulton excelled in his school work from the start, and was an extremely popular youngster. Rather short (five foot seven) and slim, he was unable to compete effectively in athletics and so poured his energy into becoming a skilled debater. His beautiful speaking voice, penetrating eyes, pleasing personality, and outstanding academic preparation proved effective in competitions. From his earliest years, there seemed to be a consensus of opinion in the family that he would become a priest and he was ordained in 1917.
After a brief and successful stint in a slum church in Peoria (a test given by his bishop to see if he would be obedient), Sheen became an instructor at Catholic University. He was teaching philosophy and theology from 1926 until 1950. While proving to be a popular professor, Sheen’s interests were primarily off-campus. After writing two scholarly books, he began publishing a lengthy list of more or less popular books and articles that would earn him honours and praise throughout the country. In 1928, he went on The Catholic Hour, a nationally broadcast radio program. He quickly became the program’s most popular preacher and for more than two decades was asked to preach during Lent and at Holy Days.

Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York, one of the most powerful figures in the Church, took Sheen under his wing after World War II, and in 1948 invited him to join a world-wide tour and assume the bulk of the journey’s preaching duties. The two men greatly appreciated each other’s talents and in 1950 Spellman arranged for him to head the American branch of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Church’s principal source of missionary funds. The appointment came with a mitre, and in 1951, he was consecrated in Rome. He flung himself into his new duties, revealing his great skill as a fund-raiser. He continued to produce books, articles, and newspaper columns at an astonishing rate, and accepted invitations to preach throughout the country and across the world. Sheen’s personal success at winning converts attracted national attention. Unmentioned in the press were the thousands of average Americans who came into the Church because of Sheen’s efforts.

When, in 1951, the Archdiocese of New York decided to enter the world of television, Sheen was a natural choice to appear on screen. The initial half-hour lectures were broadcast on the tiny Dumont Network, opposite big budget programs by comedian Milton Berle, known as “Mr. Television,” and singer-actor Frank Sinatra. No one gave Sheen a chance to compete effectively. Soon, however, he took the country by storm, winning an Emmy, appearing on the cover of Time magazine, and entering the “most admired” list of Americans. In its second year, Life Is Worth Living moved to the ABC Network and had a sponsor, the Admiral Corporation.

Sheen’s talks, delivered in the full regalia of a bishop, were masterful. He worked on each presentation for 35 hours, delivering it in Italian and French to clarify his thoughts before going on television. He at no time used notes or cue cards, and always ended on time. The set was a study with a desk, a few chairs, and some books; the only prop was a blackboard and a four-foot statue of Madonna and Child on a pedestal was clearly visible. Sheen’s humour, charm, intelligence, and considerable acting skill radiated throughout the Live Is Worth Living series, captivating millions eager to hear Christian (only indirectly Catholic) answers to life’s common problems.

For all of his concerns about worldly issues, Sheen was above all someone who fervently believed that God is love, that miracles happen, and that the Catholic Church best taught the divinely revealed truths about life and death. Still, he was not a plaster saint. Vanity was a constant problem for him, and he knew it. He lived and dressed well and enjoyed the publicity he received in the media and the applause of adoring crowds. Perhaps more serious was an offence that was not discovered until twenty years after his death: while a young teacher at Catholic University, in order to expedite his academic career, he invented a second doctorate for himself. Sheen could also be difficult at times when his authority was challenged. In the early 1950s, he and Cardinal Spellman, a very proud man, engaged in a bitter feud largely over the dispersal of Society funds. The struggle led to a private audience before Pius XII, who sided with Sheen. In a rage, Spellman terminated Sheen’s television series, made him a local outcast, and drove him from the Archdiocese. In 1966, Sheen became the Bishop of Rochester, U.S.A. He was an active participant in the Vatican II sessions in Rome and thoroughly endorsed the reforms that followed. During the last decade of his life, while battling serious heart disease, he continued at a breathtaking pace to travel, speak, and write. During the course of his more than 50-year career in the Church, he wrote 66 books and countless articles. No other Catholic figure of the century could match his literary productivity. In October 1979 when he met John Paul II in the sanctuary of St. Patrick’s Cathedral thunderous applause greeted their embrace. The Pope told the 84-year-old Archbishop that he had been a loyal son of the Church. Nothing could have been more pleasing than to hear this from the Pope himself before he died on 9 December 1970 in his chapel before the Blessed Sacrament.”

The very engaging talks by Fulton Sheen which we had the privilege of hearing in the parish last year should form a fitting curtain-raiser to the next series of Ca Fe programmes starting on Thursday 1st May which will feature many internationally known contributors such as Delia Smith (of cookery fame), Cardinal Arinze, Archbishop Coleridge (presenter of a previous series of Ca Fe talks), Nicky Gumbell of Alpha fame, and Lord Alton. Diary bookings to be made now!

The Pope’s Easter Message

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum. Alleluia! I have risen, I am still with you. Alleluia! Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus, crucified and risen, repeats this joyful proclamation to us today: the Easter proclamation. Let us welcome it with deep wonder and gratitude!

Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum — I have risen, I am still with you, for ever. These words, taken from an ancient version of Psalm 138 (v. 18b), were sung at the beginning of today’s Mass. In them, at the risi ng of the Easter sun, the Church recognizes the voice of Jesus himself who, on rising from death, turns to the Father filled with gladness and love, and exclaims: My Father, here I am! I have risen, I am still with you, and so I shall be for ever; your Spirit never abandoned me.

In this way we can also come to a new understanding of other passages from the psalm: “If I climb the heavens, you are there; if I descend into the underworld, you are there … Even darkness is not dark for you, and the night is as clear as day; for you, darkness is like light” (Ps 138:8,12). It is true: in the solemn Easter vigil, darkness becomes light, night gives way to the day that knows no sunset. The death and resurrection of the Word of God incarnate is an event of invincible love, it is the victory of that Love which has delivered us from the slavery of sin and death. It has changed the course of history, giving to human life an indestructible and renewed meaning and valu e.

“I have risen and I am still with you, for ever.” These words invite us to contemplate the risen Christ, letting his voice resound in our heart. With his redeeming sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth has made us adopted children of God, so that we too can now take our place in the mysterious dialogue between him and the Father. We are reminded of what he once said to those who were listening: “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt 11:27).

In this perspective, we note that the words addressed by the risen Jesus to the Father on this day — “I am still with you, forever” — apply indirectly to us as well, “children of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (cf. Rom 8:17). Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we too rise to new life today, and uniting our voice with his, we proclaim that we wish to remain forever with God, our infinitely good and merciful Father.

In this way we enter the depths of the Paschal mystery. The astonishing event of the resurrection of Jesus is essentially an event of love: the Father’s love in handing over his Son for the salvation of the world; the Son’s love in abandoning himself to the Father’s will for us all; the Spirit’s love in raising Jesus from the dead in his transfigured body. And there is more: the Father’s love which “newly embraces” the Son, enfolding him in glory; the Son’s love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity. From today’s solemnity, in which we relive the absolute, once-and-for-all experience of Jesus’s resurrection, we receive an appeal to be converted to Love; we receive an invitation to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness, and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is “gentle and lowly in heart”, who is “rest for our souls” (cf. Mt 11:29).

Dear Christian brothers and sisters in every part of the world, dear men and women whose spirit is sincerely open to the truth, let no heart be closed to the omnipotence of this redeeming love! Jesus Christ died and rose for all; he is our hope — true hope for every human being. Today, just as he did with his disciples in Galilee before returning to the Father, the risen Jesus now sends us everywhere as witnesses of his hope, and he reassures us: I am with you always, all days, until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). Fixing the gaze of our spirit on the glorious wounds of his transfigured body, we can understand the meaning and value of suffering, we can tend the many wounds that continue to disfigure humanity in our own day.

In his glorious wounds we recogn ize the indestructible signs of the infinite mercy of the God of whom the prophet says: it is he who heals the wounds of broken hearts, who defends the weak and proclaims the freedom of slaves, who consoles all the afflicted and bestows upon them the oil of gladness instead of a mourning robe, a song of praise instead of a sorrowful heart (cf. Is 61:1,2,3). If with humble trust we draw near to him, we encounter in his gaze the response to the deepest longings of our heart: to know God and to establish with him a living relationship in an authentic communion of love, which can fill our lives, our interpersonal and social relations with that same love. For this reason, humanity needs Christ: in him, our hope, “we have been saved” (cf. Rom 8:24).

How often relations between individuals, between groups and between peoples are marked not by love but by selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence! These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner o f the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters. They are waiting to be tended and healed by the glorious wounds of our Risen Lord (cf. 1 Pet 2:24-25) and by the solidarity of people who, following in his footsteps, perform deeds of charity in his name, make an active commitment to justice, and spread luminous signs of hope in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person continues to be scorned and trampled. It is hoped that these are precisely the places where gestures of moderation and forgiveness will increase!

Dear brothers and sisters! Let us allow the light that streams forth from this solemn day to enlighten us; let us open ourselves in sincere trust to the risen Christ, so that his victory over evil and death may also triumph in each one of us, in our families, in our cities and in our nations. Let it shine forth in ever y part of the world. In particular, how can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Dafur and Somalia, the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, and finally Tibet, all of whom I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good! Let us invoke the fullness of his Paschal gifts, through the intercession of Mary who, after sharing the sufferings of the passion and crucifixion of her innocent Son, also experienced the inexpressible joy of his resurrection. Sharing in the glory of Christ, may she be the one to protect us and guide us along the path of fraternal solidarity and peace. These are my Easter greetings, which I address to all who are present here, and to men and women of every nation and continent united with us through radio and television. Happy Easter!

[Translation distributed by the Holy See]

© Copyright 2008 — Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Easter Message from Jerusalem

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christ is risen. Indeed He is risen!

I wish you all a Happy Easter full of God’s grace. This will be my last Easter with you as I reach the age of 75 and retire. Yet, and as I have said in my last pastoral letter, I shall remain with you in my prayers and shall continue to accompany you in your happy moments and grievances. I shall work with every seeker of justice and peace until all the inhabitants of this land will live in security and tranquility, in t he presence of God Almighty, merciful and full of love to all his creatures. For the sake of all our faithful in our Churches of Jerusalem, and all believers from all religions in this land, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Baha’is, I shall pray, and extend my love to all.

Christ is risen. Indeed he is risen! I pray and ask God to fill your hearts with the joy and hope of the Resurrection. We all live in a holy Land, the land of Revelation, Redemption and reconciliation between the peoples and reconciliation with God, the compassionate and forgiving. Unfortunately, this land remains a land of bloodshed, ignoring its own vocation and incapable of accepting it.

We have witnessed in the past few weeks the tragedy of over one million people in Gaza Strip and over one hundred martyrs who fell there; we also witnessed the victims of the Jewish religious school in Jerusalem; and we still witness every day Israeli incursions in the Palestinian cities and the killing of many Palestinians despite agreements with the Palestinian Authority. We can still hear the voices of anger following the killing of the four young men in their homes in Bethlehem a few days ago. All of these incidents form a chain of inhumane and futile violence, regardless of the party behind it. Facts on the ground prove that violence has failed to achieve the desired security. It remains an inhumane violence and an aggression against the human dignity of the one who is killed and the one who kills.

Of course, this is not the new life that we celebrate with every Easter. The states, the individuals, Israelis and Palestinians, after more than one century of conflict must understand that armies don’t protect their peoples anymore, but expose them to more violence, fear and insecurity, because the weak and the oppressed have also their power that challenges the strong of this world. It is high time to learn the lessons of history and engage in the p ath of God; it is high time for every people and individual to accept the vocation entrusted by God to them, which is to build societies and not demolish them. Violence destroys and never builds. We are all capable of building because God granted us part of his goodness and power so we can uphold human societies that respect individuals and in which they must vi3ew each other as brothers and as God’s creatures, equal in dignity, rights and duties. Violence can never be a way towards this. God created us and urged us to be perfect and holy as He is perfect and Holy. (cf Mt 5:48).

Despite this, there are hundreds of thousands in both the Palestinian and Israeli societies who send an outcry: peace… peace. And they are ready to make ‘peace now’. But we see also extremists on both sides who are prisoners of their own ideologies and call in the name of God to kill their brothers, while God tells them all: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We are in need of leaders who can make peace because this is the sole path to put an end to extremism and to start the true way towards security and tranquility. To say that peace is a risk that we cannot take means to keep all of us in the cycle of death and violence. The leaders have to choose between two paths: either peace or increasing extremism and insecurity. We need leaders who are ready to offer their lives for the sake of peace not leaders who issue orders to kill and assassinate and send others to kill or to get killed.

Christ is risen. Indeed he is risen! Amidst the difficult conditions which are worsening every day in our land and in the region, – we remember the death of the Archbishop of Mosul in Iraq and the lives of all Iraqis who have been living a daily tragedy since the declaration of war on Iraq. Amidst these difficult times, we celebrate Easter in Jerusalem and we tell you, brothers and sisters and all of you, men and women of good will: don’t fee l weak in front of the death forces working within our ranks. Saint Paul said: “You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear” (Romans 15:8), but you received the spirit of God to be strong, with the same strength of God and His love.

We celebrate the feast of the glorious Resurrection, which is the triumph of Jesus Christ over death and sin. God grants this power to every human being so that he can prevail over evil within his soul and the evil surrounding him. He grants us all the power to transform hatred and death into trust and love and life that was gifted to us through the Resurrection.

We believe in God and we believe that God is good and His goodness will one day defeat the evil of people who claim that they want to build and maintain security, while their actions transform security into a mirage. It is high time to take new security measures that respect the human being and bring him closer to peace rather than death.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is my last Easter Message as a Patriarch of the Holy Land. I have said earlier and I repeat: I shall continue to pray and walk with you on the difficult path of peace and justice, and on the path of sanctity that God requires from anyone who wants to live and rule this land. I wish everyone a Happy and Holy Easter and a new life full of the spirit and grace of God.

Christ is risen. Indeed He is risen!

+ Michel Sabbah, Patriarch

Jerusalem – March 17, 2008

Stations of the Cross

There will be Stations of the Cross on the following dates at 7:30PM

• 29/2/2008 – Fr Gregory
• 7/3/2008 – St Gerards
• 14/3/2008 – CWG
• 21/3/2008 8:00PM - Paulette Coldham (Meditation around the Cross)

Holy Fathers Message for Lent 2008

“Christ made Himself poor for you” (2 Cor 8,9)

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. Each year, Lent offers us a providential opportunity to deepen the meaning and value of our Christian lives, and it stimulates us to rediscover the mercy of God so that we, in turn, become more merciful toward our brothers and sisters. In the Lenten period, the Church makes it her duty to propose some specific tasks that accompany the faithful concretely in this process of interior renewal: these are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to spend some time reflecting on the practice of almsgiving, which represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods. The force of attraction to material riches and just how categorical our decision must be not to make of them an idol, Jesus confirms in a resolute way: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16,13). Almsgiving helps us to overcome this constant temptation, teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s needs and to share with others whatever we possess through divine goodness. This is the aim of the special collections in favor of the poor, which are promoted during Lent in many parts of the world. In this way, inward cleansing is accompanied by a gesture of ecclesial communion, mirroring what already took place in the early Church. In his Letters, Saint Paul speaks of this in regard to the collection for the Jerusalem community (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27).

2. According to the teaching of the Gospel, we are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession, but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbor. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, material goods bear a social value, according to the principle of their universal destination (cf. n. 2404)

In the Gospel, Jesus explicitly admonishes the one who possesses and uses earthly riches only for self. In the face of the multitudes, who, lacking everything, suffer hunger, the words of Saint John acquire the tone of a ringing rebuke: “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?” (1 Jn 3,17). In those countries whose population is majority Christian, the call to share is even more urgent, since their responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity.

3. The Gospel highlights a typical feature of Christian almsgiving: it must be hidden: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” Jesus asserts, “so that your alms may be done in secret” (Mt 6,3-4). Just a short while before, He said not to boast of one’s own good works so as not to risk being deprived of the heavenly reward (cf. Mt 6,1-2). The disciple is to be concerned with God’s greater glory. Jesus warns: “In this way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5,16). Everything, then, must be done for God’s glory and not our own. This understanding, dear brothers and sisters, must accompany every gesture of help to our neighbor, avoiding that it becomes a means to make ourselves the center of attention. If, in accomplishing a good deed, we do not have as our goal God’s glory and the real well being of our brothers and sisters, looking rather for a return of personal interest or simply of applause, we place ourselves outside of the Gospel vision. In today’s world of images, attentive vigilance is required, since this temptation is great. Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy: rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbor, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave His entire self for us. How could we not thank God for the many people who silently, far from the gaze of the media world, fulfill, with this spirit, generous actions in support of one’s neighbor in difficulty? There is little use in giving one’s personal goods to others if it leads to a heart puffed up in vainglory: for this reason, the one, who knows that God “sees in secret” and in secret will reward, does not seek human recognition for works of mercy.

4. In inviting us to consider almsgiving with a more profound gaze that transcends the purely material dimension, Scripture teaches us that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20,35). When we do things out of love, we express the truth of our being; indeed, we have been created not for ourselves but for God and our brothers and sisters (cf. 2 Cor 5,15). Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbor in need, we discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction and joy. Our Father in heaven rewards our almsgiving with His joy. What is more: Saint Peter includes among the spiritual fruits of almsgiving the forgiveness of sins: “Charity,” he writes, “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4,8). As the Lenten liturgy frequently repeats, God offers to us sinners the possibility of being forgiven. The fact of sharing with the poor what we possess disposes us to receive such a gift. In this moment, my thought turns to those who realize the weight of the evil they have committed and, precisely for this reason, feel far from God, fearful and almost incapable of turning to Him. By drawing close to others through almsgiving, we draw close to God; it can become an instrument for authentic conversion and reconciliation with Him and our brothers.

5. Almsgiving teaches us the generosity of love. Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo forthrightly recommends: “Never keep an account of the coins you give, since this is what I always say: if, in giving alms, the left hand is not to know what the right hand is doing, then the right hand, too, should not know what it does itself” (Detti e pensieri, Edilibri, n. 201). In this regard, all the more significant is the Gospel story of the widow who, out of her poverty, cast into the Temple treasury “all she had to live on” (Mk 12,44). Her tiny and insignificant coin becomes an eloquent symbol: this widow gives to God not out of her abundance, not so much what she has, but what she is. Her entire self.

We find this moving passage inserted in the description of the days that immediately precede Jesus’ passion and death, who, as Saint Paul writes, made Himself poor to enrich us out of His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8,9); He gave His entire self for us. Lent, also through the practice of almsgiving, inspires us to follow His example. In His school, we can learn to make of our lives a total gift; imitating Him, we are able to make ourselves available, not so much in giving a part of what we possess, but our very selves. Cannot the entire Gospel be summarized perhaps in the one commandment of love? The Lenten practice of almsgiving thus becomes a means to deepen our Christian vocation. In gratuitously offering himself, the Christian bears witness that it is love and not material richness that determines the laws of his existence. Love, then, gives almsgiving its value; it inspires various forms of giving, according to the possibilities and conditions of each person.

6. Dear brothers and sisters, Lent invites us to “train ourselves” spiritually, also through the practice of almsgiving, in order to grow in charity and recognize in the poor Christ Himself. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that the Apostle Peter said to the cripple who was begging alms at the Temple gate: “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk” (Acts 3,6). In giving alms, we offer something material, a sign of the greater gift that we can impart to others through the announcement and witness of Christ, in whose name is found true life. Let this time, then, be marked by a personal and community effort of attachment to Christ in order that we may be witnesses of His love. May Mary, Mother and faithful Servant of the Lord, help believers to enter the “spiritual battle” of Lent, armed with prayer, fasting and the practice of almsgiving, so as to arrive at the celebration of the Easter Feasts, renewed in spirit. With these wishes, I willingly impart to all my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 30 October 2007
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2007 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

John Fisher School Chapel Consecration

On January the 24th,  fifty years after it was built, Archbishop Kevin MacDonald consecrated the Chapel of the John Fisher School.  The school was opened by the Diocese in 1935 and staffed by Diocesan Priests until fifteen years ago.  Fr Fawssett, who taught in the school for fifty years, was the last Priest on the teaching staff.  He finally retired two years ago.  The school has always had a chapel, during the war it was a converted army nissan hut, and an historic link with the past was made at the end of the ceremony, when Bishop Tripp, an old boy of the school, blessed a picture of John Fisher that used to hand in the old chapel.  Keith Ockenden, who has been Sacristan at the Chapel for fifty years also received a Papal Blessing in recognition of his service.

The Archbishop in his homily paid tribute to the school for providing forty seven Priests for the Diocese from its former students.  He said that Consecration was the dedication of the building for the service of God just as the students learn to dedicate their lives to the service of God through the Church.  The relics of St Edward the Confessor, King of England, St Thomas a Beckett and St Edmund, Archbishops of Canterbury, were placed in the altar.

The service was conducted before a full congregation  with the Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Millward, and the Director of the Diocesan Schools Commission, Dilys Wadman, in atterndance together with a full compliment of Staff, Students, Governors, and Old Boys .

Archbishop Kevin’s Pastoral Letter

This weekend, there is a pastoral letter from Archbishop Kevin McDonald regarding the results of last year’s consultation “Towards a Vision for the Diocese”. You can access the letter online as well as summaries of the results for conversations in deaneries and with the clergy here.