St Luke and Seminarians

Wow, so much to do and such little time!

Happy Feast to Luke (you know who you are) and did you read the letter from the Holy Father to seminarians? You can follow this link here. My favourite passage is:

Anyone who wishes to become a priest must be first and foremost a “man of God”, to use the expression of Saint Paul (1 Tim 6:11). For us God is not some abstract hypothesis; he is not some stranger who left the scene after the “big bang”. God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. In the face of Jesus Christ we see the face of God. In his words we hear God himself speaking to us. It follows that the most important thing in our path towards priesthood and during the whole of our priestly lives is our personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

I kind of wish I'd realised that myself when I was in seminary! Time flies so quickly and before you know it you're ordained. Still, at least the Pope reiterates that this personal relationship is the centre of all that a priest is.

St Luke
Pray for Us

The Sacred Heart

On feast of St Margaret Mary Alocoque, which we celebrated at Mass this morning, we recall her passion in drawing us ever closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The above photo is the statue of the Sacred Heart in the centre of the sanctuary at Fatima. Please pray for all those who make this pilgrimage, as the parish did earlier this year, that they may be drawn to a deeper appreciation of the love which Mary shows for her Son.

St Margaret Mary, pray for us.

St Teresa of Avila

Fearsome old battle-axe or joy filled advocate?

St Teresa of Avila, Pray for us

Blessed Pope John XXIII

Blessed Pope John:
Pray for us

St Margaret of Scotland

I know we're a little early (16 Nov) but it's always good to seek the intercession of those whom you feel close to, spiritually. So, with this in mind:

St Margaret of Scotland

Pray for us

Deacons

Remember, today, in prayer all those who are ordained Deacon, both transitional and permanent. Especially, we pray for Deacons Gerry and Pat, here in the parish, and for Craig and Padraig at Oscott, who are preparing for ordination to the presbyterate next summer.

Newman by Fr Michael Rear

There is little time within an Assistant Priests schedule for reading, it seems to me. Perhaps, one wonders, if I spent a little more time in prayer then I would have the time for uplifting spiritual reading as contained within Blessed John Henry Newman by Fr Michael Rear. Fr Michael presents a short but excellent biography of Newman. Clearly, in this fervent time of Newman-appreciation in which we are all gripped, it's good to take time and learn about the man who will be declared Blessed by the Pope in a few weeks time.

If you have time for only a brief introduction to the man, then Fr Michael's account comes very highly recommended. The blurb on the back of the book states:

Newman’s life spanned nearly the whole of the 19th century, spent almost equally in the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. Michael Rear begins by exploring Newman’s immense influence on the Anglican Church, and the events that led to him being denounced as a traitor’ and virtually expelled from that Church.

Only after four years of prayer and of his study of the development of doctrine, did Newman find his way clear to enter the Catholic Church. Founder of the Oratories, of a school, and a university in Ireland, his views on the laity, papal infallibility, education, and conscience led to misunderstanding, until, at the age of 78, he was made a Cardinal. A century later he was called an ‘unseen presence’ at the Second Vatican Council, and revered for his holiness.

His prediction of the secular society, in which Religion, ‘is a private luxury, which a man may have if he will; but which… he must not obtrude upon others, or indulge in to their annoyance’, has a very contemporary feel.

Treat yourself: though at £4.95 it's not great value for such a brief book. Mind you, better value than other's I've read! Buy it here.

A great pleasure to spend time with one holy priest on the feast of another. St John Marie Vianney: Pray for us. Soon-to-be Blessed John Henry Newman: Pray for us.

St Henry

Happy Feast, Dad!

St Thomas More

H/T to Fr. James Farfaglia for pointing us in the direction of Deacon Keith Fournier's excellent article on Catholic Online, which you can read in full here. Deacon Keith writes:

Thomas More showed heroic courage in the face of a State which had lost its soul. He never wavered in his fidelity to the Truth. He would not betray the truth or compromise it on the altar of public opinion for political opportunism. He knew that to do so would not only have dishonored God and led his family and so many others astray, but that it would have given tacit assent to the emerging despotism of his age. Thomas More was brought to trial for his fidelity to the Truth. As is often the case with persecution against Christians, it was framed as a charge against the "positive law". This outstanding lawyer defended the Truth - for which he would later give his life.

One of the many highlights of the Papal Visit, for me, will be when Pope Benedict addresses our Society in Westminster Hall; the same hall in which St Thomas More was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. How we have moved on since those terrible times.

St Thomas More and St John Fisher, pray for us.

Augustine of Canterbury

One of our patronal solemnities in the parish. Please pray for one of our primary schools, under his holy protection, for our staff and students and all those who contribute to the welfare of our children. St Augustine of Canterbury, Pray for Us.

Also known as St. Augustine the Less to distinguish him from his illustrious namesake from Hippo. Augustine was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great as leader of the mission sent from Rome for the evangelisation of the English. He landed in the Isle of Thanet in the Spring of AD 597 and, within a year, Aethelbert, King of Kent, was baptised with several thousand of his subjects.

The foundation of Canterbury Cathedral was laid five years later, supposedly, on the site of an old Roman Church. Augustine was consecrated by Vergilius, Archbishop of Arles and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

The alienation between the British Church and the Italian missionaries might have been averted had Augustine recognised the consideration that was due to the Church which had existed in Britain for three centuries, and had been more tolerant of the diversity between British and Roman usage.

He had laid the foundation stone of the Monastery of St. Peter & St. Paul outside Canterbury, later known as St. Augustine's, in the year of his arrival and here he was buried. He died on 26th May, traditionally in AD 604, but possibly as late as 609.

Edited from G.M. Bevan's "Portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury" (1908).

H/T Early British Kingdoms

St Philip Neri

Today, of course, we recall the great life of St Philip Neri and ask him to intercede for us. ICN are carrying some details on the founder of the Oratorians here. This paragraph struck me:

Often described as the 'Second Apostle of Rome' Philip however did not escape criticism. Some were shocked by his friendliness and informality. He said that the path of perfection was for laypeople as much as for the clergy and religious. He preached more about love and spiritual integrity than physical austerity. He was very fond of cats.

A wonderful thought - this kindly and funny bastion of orthodoxy, bringer of love and stroker of cats!

Ss Philip & James

Today, on this Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles, I was looking for a picture of the two together - for the blog. This website, which I happened upon, is really great. Go take a look. There's an awful lot of good Catholic information to view as you while away a few minutes on an otherwise lazy Bank Holiday weekend. Unless you're not in England and don't have any idea what I'm talking about (lazy bank holidays, not good Catholic information) in which case take some time from your busy schedule and be renewed in your faith.

REFLECTION. --The Church commemorates on the same day Saints Philip and James, whose bodies lie side by side at Rome. They represent to us two aspects of Christian holiness. The first preaches faith, the second works; the one holy aspirations, the other purity of heart.

The website concludes by asking us to seek the intercession of Ss Philip and James for all priests. At Mass we chose to seek their intercession for our successor to the Apostles: Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham!

God bless our shepherd.

St Catherine of Siena

An excellent post, here, from Rocco Palmo at Whispers on the great Doctor of the Church which is St Catherine of Siena. One of my inspirations. Just recently I was able to visit her sarcophagus beneath the High Altar of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. It's one of the highlights for me during any visit to the Eternal City. Along with catching a Caravaggio or two and stopping by the Gesu. Oh, yeah, and gelato too. Ah, such halcyon days!

Just this morning I have been preparing the 'saints of the week' section of our weekly newsletter. I had quite forgotten how, once the seasons of Lent and Easter are behind us, the memorials and feasts of the saints come thick and fast. What excitement awaits us!

One such excitement is il Beato Angelico who is also buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Blessed Fra Angelico, as we know him, was only beatified recently by JP II in 1982. I heard once that he is the only artist to have been beatified - can this be true? I'm not a huge fan of his work: a bit early for my personal tastes. Nonetheless who can fail to be moved by his rendition of the Annunciation. A classic, surely.

Anyway, back to the great Doctors of the Church, including Pope Paul VI's wisdom is declaring those first women doctors.

St Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

St George

Happy Feast to one and all, but not least our good friends in Worcester.

It's good to be back...

St Nicholas Owen and Harvington Hall

On 22nd March we remember St Nicholas Owen, the Jesuit who was martyred at the start of the 17th Century. Nicholas Owen is remembered, other than his martyrdom, for his outstanding skills at building priest-holes. One such home to come under his craftsmanship was Harvington Hall, located within the archdiocese of Birmingham. Their website, here, records:

The priest-holes were built in the time of Humphrey Pakington, when it was high treason for a Catholic priest to be in England.

The hiding places at Harvington are the finest surviving series in England, and four of them, all sited round the Great Staircase, show the trademarks of the master builder of such places, Nicholas Owen, who was at work from 1588 onwards.

Owen was servant to Fr Henry Garnet, the Jesuit superior in England, who during the 1590s built up a network of houses throughout the country to which incoming priests could be directed and where they could find disguises, chapels and priest holes. The centre of this operation for Worcestershire and the Welsh Marches was Hindlip House, the home of Humphrey's friend Thomas Habington, where the Jesuit Edward Oldcorne arrived in 1590. It was there that Garnet, Owen and Oldcorne were all captured in 1606, just after the Gunpowder Plot. Owen was starved out of one of his own hides on the fourth day of a twelve day search, during which he and a companion, Ralph Ashley, had nothing to eat but one apple between them. He died under torture in the Tower; Garnet, Oldcorne and Ashley were all hanged, drawn and quartered. Although Hindlip was demolished in 1814, descriptions of the hides there show a striking similarity to those that survive at Harvington. That is unlikely to be an accident.

I'm told that they do excellent homemade cakes at Harvington, though I have yet to taste any. Over the years it's been my pleasure to visit Harvington on not less that four occasions. Each visit the baker has, sadly, not been present. Ah, it was ever such. Pray one day I may get to enjoy the cakes, but meanwhile I remain satisfied to have witnessed to Nichols Owen's great skill.

I was amused to read of the connection with Blessed Edward Oldcorne and Nicholas Owen: It is my understanding that a certain priest who ministers, from time to time, at a school under the patronage of Oldcorne was stuck, recently, in one of Owen's priest-holes at Harvington. It seems we priests are growing in girth if not sanctity! I can testify, however, that my learned colleague is most certainly diminishing in girth through his Lenten observance, and undoubtedly flourishing in sanctity at the same time.

What an heroic saint for our times. St Nicholas Owen - pray for us.

Happy Feast

Wishing everyone the very best of the feast day in honour of St Joseph.
Patron of the Universal Church.
Ensure you have a great feast and a respite in this penitential season.
Enjoy whatever you do.

Given the difficulties the Church is currently facing, not least in these Islands, perhaps you will enjoin the following:

Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, watch over the Church as carefully as you watched over Jesus, help protect it and guide it as you did with your adopted son.

St Patrick

Happy St Patrick's Day to all of our Irish readers, all those with Irish blood and, of course, all those who are named after the great saint. Patrick's trinitarian contribuition is so important to us, and here are two short paragraph's from website's:

According to legend, Saint Patrick used a shamrock to explain about God. The shamrock, which looks like clover, has three leaves on each stem. Saint Patrick told the people that the shamrock was like the idea of the Trinity – that in the one God there are three divine beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so Saint Patrick’s use of it in explaining the trinity was very wise.

Legend has it that St. Patrick was responsible for ridding the Emerald Isle of snakes; but more importantly, it is said that Patrick used the shamrock as a symbol to explain the Trinity to Unbelievers, i.e., how God is One God in Three Persons. Patrick would hold up a shamrock and challenge his hearers, "Is it one leaf or three?" "It is both one leaf and three," was their reply. "And so it is with God," he would conclude. Of course, doctrines such as the Trinity or the Divinity of Jesus Christ can only be received by willing hearts, who have committed themselves to obey whatever the Spirit reveals from the Scriptures. St. Patrick, no doubt, was careful not to confuse pagan idolaters with the idea of Polytheism, i.e., the false notion that there are many separate gods; but, his dependence upon the Holy Spirit to give him the illustration of the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity, gave him success in preaching the Gospel. Thank God for the testimony of Patrick of Ireland!

John Ogilvie

This day in the Church we remember St John Ogilvie. It's hard to describe exactly why I think he's such a role model for us now, but there is something about him which I'm drawn to. Is it his martyrdom; the fact he's a Jesuit? Maybe it's his Scottishness, or the penal times in which he lived. Perhaps it is his heroic conviction to follow his faith and come home to his land to bring about conversion. In the end, like all the saints, it's because who he is drawn to, namely Jesus Christ. The Saints, we can agree, have one thing in common above all other things, their personal, deep and ever-lasting relationship with Jesus. Boy, is that attractive, or is that attractive.

For the liturgy police out there who may be reading this blog - of course I'm mindful of the season and you will be pleased to know I'm keeping St John Ogilvie as a Commemoration - obviously!

On this day I often, also, remember the parish of St John Ogilvie in Corby. A friend of mine was a parishioner there some moons ago. I think it might be the only parish in England under the patronage of the Scot, but do let us know if you are aware of other parishes for whom we need to be praying.

A nice little bio from Archbishop Conti is available on the The Glasgow Story website, here. He says:

Few figures in Scottish history have had such a varied life as John Ogilvie (1579-1615). Born into a respected Calvinist family in Keith, Banffshire, he died a Jesuit priest at Glasgow Cross and is today Scotland's only acknowledged post-reformation Catholic saint. John Ogilvie was educated in mainland Europe. Exposed to the religious controversies of his day and impressed with the faith of the martyrs, he decided to become a Catholic. In 1596, aged seventeen, he was received into the Church at Louvain, Belgium.

He attended a variety of Catholic educational institutions, including the Benedictine College at Ratisbon (Regensburg) in Germany, and Jesuit houses at Olmutz (Olomouc) and Brunn (Brno) in what is now the Czech Republic. He was ordained a Jesuit priest at Paris in 1610 and repeatedly asked to be sent to Scotland. He eventually arrived in November 1613 and ministered clandestinely in the central belt to the few remaining Catholics. His missionary career however lasted less than a year. One posing as a Catholic betrayed him. After his arrest he was tortured in prison in an effort to get him to reveal the names of other Catholics, but he refused. Eventually, Father John Ogilvie was convicted of high treason for denying the king's spiritual jurisdiction by upholding the Pope's spiritual primacy. He was hanged at Glasgow in 1615 aged thirty-six.

He was canonised in 1976 by Pope Paul VI following the inexplicable – later declared miraculous - cure of John Fagan, a working man from Easterhouse in Glasgow devoted to the then-Blessed John Ogilvie whose advanced cancer vanished after prayer to him.

St John Ogilvie - pray for us.

Happy St David's to our Welsh sisters and brothers

A happy St David's day is wished to all our Welsh friends. Unable to be in Wales, as I was, I partook in leeks and bara brith, instead. Most delicious!


Were that this be true! The taste of Wales didn't happen, but this is just what I posted one year ago today. What a year!

Tomorrow we celebrate: Blessed Jacinta and Francisco Marto

It was good to read, today, a reminder that tomorrow we celebrate two of the three children of Fatima. Thanks to ICN for this. They write:

Visionaries. Between 13 May and 13 October 1917, three children, Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel, saw apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon.

At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was in political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after.

During the first appearance, Mary asked the children to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. She also asked them to learn to read and write and to pray the rosary "to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war." They were to pray for sinners and for the conversion of Russia, which had recently overthrown Czar Nicholas II and was soon to fall under communism. Up to 90,000 people gathered for Mary's final apparition on October 13, 1917.

Less than two years later, in 1919, Francisco died of influenza in his family home. He was 11. He was buried in the parish cemetery and then re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1952. Jacinta died the next year of influenza in Lisbon. She was just 10. During her illness she offering her suffering for the conversion of sinners, peace in the world and the Holy Father. She was re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1951.

Their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and was still living when Jacinta and Francisco were beatified in 2000. She died on 13 February 2005. This year, on the third anniversary of her death, at a special Mass in the cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins CMF, president of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, announced that an exception was being made so that the usual five-year wait could be waived and the diocesan stage of the cause for her beatification would begin.

The shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is visited by up to 20 million people a year and is particularly dedicated to prayers for peace and reconciliation.

This coming autumn our parish will be making a pilgrimage to Fatima. Please do remember us in your prayers.