Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Bernard Longley

PASTORAL LETTER

OF THE

ARCHBISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM

THE MOST REVEREND BERNARD LONGLEY

FOR 13^th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

27 JUNE 2010

Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ

Earlier this month, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Year for Priests drew to a close. Pope Benedict had asked the Church to dedicate a year, beginning in June 2009, to prayer and reflection on the gift of the priesthood. It has given us an opportunity to look again towards Jesus himself, the great High Priest, who has offered the perfect sacrifice to his Father so that we might become holy.

In the course of this year we have given thanks for the way that our Lord shares his priesthood within the Church. Through our baptism we are a priestly people, making an offering of our service day by day. As I begin to know the diocese better I see many examples of this, especially in the worship and liturgical life of parish communities, in the mission of our schools, and in the many and varied pastoral initiatives that reach out to those most in need of help.

All of this is enabled, encouraged and enhanced by the witness and work of the priests of our diocese. This year has helped us especially to thank our Lord for the particular expression of his priesthood in the life and service of each individual priest. He has chosen quite a variety of personalities and characters in whom we can see different and complementary reflections of the one priesthood of our Lord.

During this year we have prayed every day for one of the priests living and working in the diocese, and I know how much our priests have valued these prayers. Many have spoken with gratitude of the letters and phone calls they received reminding them of your prayers and appreciation for their vocation. I too thank you for your prayers in support of our priests.

As the Year for Priests closes I thank all our priests for their love of Christ as the foundation of their lives, their dedication in serving all God’s people and their friendship and support for one another which bears such fruit within the diocese, not least in encouraging vocations.

In this Sunday’s readings we can hear echoes in the ministry of Elijah of the call to priestly service. At the Lord’s prompting Elijah goes to find a “prophet to succeed” him. Elijah’s ministry as prophet is to continue for the benefit of the people and so “Elijah passed near to [Elisha] and threw his cloak over him.” In the same way the priesthood of our Lord has to touch every generation and he has thrown his mantle over those ordained as priests.

Elisha’s first response is both enthusiastic and hesitant – he wants to follow Elijah but finds it hard to cut the ties with his old way of life. Those who are thinking about the priesthood may experience a similar dilemma as our Lord calls them to a new way of life. We pray that they may be generous and wholehearted in their response to Christ’s invitation – they need never feel hesitant about the happiness it brings. I hope that they will feel encouraged to attend the Invocation event at St Mary’s College, Oscott next weekend.

St Luke’s Gospel shows us an important turning point in our Lord’s own life and ministry: “As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road to Jerusalem.” As the great moment of his priestly sacrifice approached the direction of our Lord’s life was set. In a similar way the Lord sets the direction of a man’s life at its deepest level when he is ordained as priest. The rest of his life and ministry is a resolute following along the path marked out by Christ.

As the Year for Priests has shown this is not a solitary journey, for just as on the road to Jerusalem there are companions on the way, those with whom we share all or part of the road. The communities served by our priests are also the communities who encourage and sustain them. Priests lead others to follow the Lord by resolutely following him themselves.

This Tuesday, the feast of St Peter and St Paul, I shall be a pilgrim in Rome and I shall pray at the tomb of the Apostles for all the priests and deacons, religious men and women and lay-faithful of our diocese. I shall pray especially, and with gratitude, for our life and mission together as that part of the Lord’s flock now entrusted to my care.

As a symbol of that care the Holy Father will place the pallium on my shoulders. This little woollen vestment is a reminder of the bonds of love and obedience that unite us with the Successor of Peter and of the responsibility entrusted to me to serve the priests and people of our diocese. As the Year for Priest closes, I hope that I may always serve God’s people faithfully especially through giving time and support to our priests.

Please pray for me this Tuesday as I receive the pallium. Pray also for our priests who wear the mantle of Christ, the Good Shepherd. May we resolutely follow Christ together, and as the summer approaches may you find opportunities to be refreshed and renewed, priests and people of God alike.

+Bernard Longley

Archbishop of Birmingham

Given at Birmingham on the 22 June 2010 and appointed to be read in all Churches and Chapels of the Diocese on the weekend of 26/27 June 2010.

Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Bernard Longley

PASTORAL LETTER

OF THE

ARCHBISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM

THE MOST REVEREND BERNARD LONGLEY

FOR 6^th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

14 FEBRUARY 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

This Sunday we find ourselves on the threshold of Lent. We still have a few days before we enter this great season of grace and these days give us a little time to prepare. As we do so I am conscious of being with you for the first time on our Lenten pilgrimage towards Easter. I hope that my few reflections following today’s Scripture readings may help us sense our unity in Christ as we approach the coming forty days. Writing my first Pastoral Letter certainly makes me conscious of my unity with you, within the family of the diocese, as we move together towards Lent.

Every threshold offers an important choice and the threshold of Lent is no exception. The choice lies before us every year as Ash Wednesday draws close. Are we ready to cross the threshold and go into this season following Christ so that we can enter more deeply into the mystery of his death and resurrection? Are we prepared to accompany him and one another into Lent so that we may eventually enter into the joy of Easter transformed and renewed?

The prophet Jeremiah illustrates the choice before us in terms of a curse and a blessing. It is a curse when we decide to trust in ourselves, for then we become like dry scrub in the wastelands. But when we agree to trust in the Lord we become like a tree by the waterside that never ceases to bear fruit. We can choose to trust in the Lord by consciously and wholeheartedly walking with him and depending upon him as we cross over the threshold into Lent.

St Luke reveals something fundamental about the choice before us in his account of the beatitudes. In our Lord’s teaching those who are truly blessed, although they suffer, are set alongside those who are really deprived, even though they have plenty. This is a reminder that God does not see as the world sees. Poverty and hunger, sadness and rejection by others can lead to a deeper happiness when they enable us to find and depend upon God (and we surely also have our part to play in showing God’s goodness and love to all who suffer in these ways). Riches and fulfilment, laughter and the good opinion of others will always deprive us of true happiness when they make us forgetful of God’s presence. Finding true happiness means seeing our lives in the light of God’s truth as we cross the threshold of Lent.

These are Lenten insights of faith that we want to share with the world around us. Lent is a season that we have to experience personally, yet it can never be something entirely private. In the Church we sense our unity with one another as we encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to make a good beginning to Lent. But we also have an opportunity to give witness to others in the local community, especially as they see us gathering on Ash Wednesday for the symbolic moment that starts us on this Lenten journey.

We can begin Lent wholeheartedly if we choose today to renew our commitment to prayer, self-denial and almsgiving. Prayer underpins our trust in the Lord, holding us close to him as the foundation of our lives and giving us a clearer vision of the way ahead. Self-denial helps us to live the life of the beatitudes day by day, more readily aware of our dependence on God and of the blessings we can so easily take for granted. Almsgiving is a call to be generous, to notice the needs of others and to respond with a compassion that can deepen the likeness of Christ within us. These three help us to see ourselves and the world around us illuminated by the light of Christ.

In the days leading up to Ash Wednesday we have time once again to make our commitment to Christ as his disciples so that our observance of Lent may be of benefit not only to ourselves but also to others. Let us pray for one another within our parish community that together we may be strengthened and make good choices this Lent. Please pray for those who will assemble in the Cathedral next Sunday for the Rite of Election, when the Church recognises their desire to be fully part of our Catholic communities and calls them to be received into full communion at Easter. Pray also that the choices we all make this Lent will cause us to trust more and more in Christ so that each of us may become like a tree by the waterside that never ceases to bear fruit.

I pray that each of us may be blessed with a joyful and fruitful Lent. May we come refreshed and renewed to accompany our Lord in his death and resurrection in the Holy Week that leads to the joy of Easter.

XBernard Longley

Archbishop of Birmingham

Given at Birmingham on 11 February 2010 and appointed to be read in all Churches and Chapels of the Diocese on the weekend of 13/14 February 2010.