No more fishing in the Sea of Galilee

ICN are reporting:

The Israeli government has introduced a two year fishing ban in the Sea of Galilee, in order to protect fish stocks there.

Scientists who study the freshwater lake say fishermen have been using nets with smaller and smaller mesh over the years, catching more small fish to match the tonnage of big fish they caught in past decades. In recent years, up to 80 percent of fish pulled from the lake were under legal size limits,PA reported.

While as recently as 2005 almost 300 tonnes of the local St Peter's Fish were caught here, last year that figure fell to just eight tonnes.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said fishermen would receive financial support during the ban.

Since Biblical times, the Sea of Galilee has supported fishermen and their communities along its shores. In the Gospels, when Jesus told Peter to cast his nets into deep water, "they caught fish in such large numbers their nets began to break".

The Israeli government have pledged to restore fish to the Sea and in future will enforce fishing regulations more strictly. The ban will not affect tourist boats.
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The photograph was taken whilst I was in the Holy Land and shows the sun setting over the Sea of Galilee.

Praying where we want?

Independent Catholic News are carrying the story "Turkish government allows Christian worship in birthplace of St Paul" by Dan Bergin. The old haunts of St Paul are one journey/pilgrimage I am yet to make, but perhaps one day. This story got me to thinking about the places in the world which mean so much to people who want to be able to pray and worship and yet are denied. Sometimes, perhaps, we take for granted the places where we can celebrate the liturgy together.

For my 'first' Mass I was very blessed to be able to celebrate with friends in the chapel at Oscott. This meant an awful lot to me. Countless holy men and women have graced that chapel and countless prayers and celebrations of the Mass have sanctified the place. Truly, to sit in the chapel, one just knows that it is a holy place. Yes, of course when the blessed Sacrament is reserved it is clearly a holy place, yes it has been consecrated as a chapel but beyond this there is the trace of the supernatural there. In it's literal sense of something beyond the natural world is present here. There is, if you like, a trace of all that has gone before, and with the Grace of God all that is yet to come. In this space there is the making of the saints and you can feel it rub against your skin as you sit and wonder at the place.

When I think of where St Paul was born, it is no wonder that people should want to worship there. There, too, is the place involved in the making of a saint. Last summer, in the Holy Land, I was lucky to visit the acknowledged site of the ascension of Our Lord. It is a tiny rock within a tiny shrine next to a mosque and owned and run by Muslims, as I recall. We were able to visit and yet I never, for a moment, thought how privileged I was to go there. It has nothing of the majesty of Holy Sepulchre or Church of the Nativity or countless other holy sites. It could so easily just be closed down and not open to access for anyone to offer up a prayer.

Maybe, this weekend, as I go up to Newcastle for an ordination, I will think how lucky I am to be able to freely go and celebrate with my friends. Perhaps I will give thanks to God that through his grace and abundance he has given us the example of both the guys to be ordained and the places where we are able to gather and celebrate. Most surely, I will give thanks for those who have gone before us and marked the way that we may follow.

Perhaps we can all take a moment and pray for those outstanding examples of Christians within Muslim countries who relentlessly pray for the simple pleasures which we take for granted and maybe in our prayer we will ask God to intervene in the mess which humanity has created in the holy land. Lord, in your mercy...

Fr Alex Austin OSB

Fr Alex was part of our clergy pilgrimage to the Holy Land last year. Here he is seen atop a camel, which he rode, whilst we were in Jericho. As part of the Birmingham diocesan initiative to pray for priests, during this Year of the Priest, we are asked to pray especially for Fr Alex. Do please remember him. He was a great companion to be on pilgrimage and a fine Parish Priest, I'm sure. A great man. Also pictured is Fr Brian McGinley, though I'm not sure if he's getting in on the photo or holding Fr Alex upright. Answers on a postcard.

The Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre

Oscott welcomed the Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre for a celebration of mass, today. This annual event gives the seminary both the opportunity to welcome the equestrian order and a chance to get to know the people and work behind this impressive 11th century order.

More details of their work can be found on their website, which includes the aims of the order.

Recently, I was privileged to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. No doubt I will write more of this over the coming weeks, but, for me, the suffering of the Palestinians, and in particular the Christian Arabs, was shocking. Whilst I had watched the news and seen the wall being built, the television did nothing to bring over the horror of the experience for those effectively held in prison by it.

Around the Holy Land, the work and generosity of the Knights was evident, none more so than in the seminary at Beit Jala near Bethlehem. The rector, Mgr. William Shomali, gave a moving account of the struggles the seminarians go through, together with details of the hardships that they will endure once ordained to the priesthood. I am in admiration for the 40 or so students they have.

Whilst in 'the land' I was asked to pray every week for the Holy Land, which I have subsequently managed. Usually I add a regular prayer into the intercessions at Mass. Please join me, and countless others, who pray for peace in the land where heaven and earth meet.