The Prodigal Son

Jos 5:9a, 10-12 Ps 34: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 2 Cor 5:17-21 Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

When I was but a small child, my sister had a sign upon her dressing table and it read: When God made man, SHE was only joking. This profound statement, even perhaps joke, stayed with me through the years. Was it just a joke? Surely God mad man in His own image, so there could be no joking to this. Yet it stayed with me, I suspect, because it spoke some sort of truth. Like all truth, it niggles away at your conscience until finally you learn to face up to it. You might try and hide from the truth, but you can never escape from it.

So, what truth does my sister’s sign have for us? Firstly, it is a play on words. It parodies the notion that when we talk of ‘man’ we mean all humanity. Clearly all humanity is not made as a joke? Remember, we were growing up in a very respectable Catholic home and would clearly know that God made man in His own image and it is, indeed, very good. All life, we know, is sacred and it is not for mere mortals to sit in judgment of when a life is expendable.

Secondly, the sign introduces the notion that God is not male, but female. Now this is a massive debate and I don’t propose to develop the theological underpinning of the sexual identity of God here, but I do want us, for a moment on this special occasion of Mothering Sunday to pause for a while and consider the role of women in our lives, and especially mothers.

In the parable of The Prodigal Son, it is surprising there is no mention of a mother: or sister for that matter. I wonder why that is. What is the role of a mother in this situation? A situation familiar to families the world over. The Fathers of the Church very much saw the father of the prodigal son as being a representation of God the Father: God the Father of Mercies, who reconciles the world to Himself through the life, death and resurrection of His Son. And yet artists have often hinted at the role of a mother in this situation. In his poem, The Prodigal Son, Rudyard Kipling retells the familiar tale to lyrical aplomb and speaks of the Son leaving home for the second time: “So back I go to my job again, not so easy to rob again”, and as he does, he bids farewell to Pater and to Mater, to father and to mother. Rembrandt, in perhaps the most famous image of the Prodigal Son, hanging in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, has the father with both a male and female hand embracing the supplicant boy as he returns home on bended knee.

In the traditional song: The Wild Rover, the final verse begins: I'll go home to me parents, confess what I've done, and I'll ask them to pardon their prodigal son. It’s to both mother and father the Wild Rover is to return. Evidently many people, and we might even say tortured artistic souls, have recognised the need for not just the loving and forgiving father, but also the comfort only a mother can bring.

Often when we think of Mother in the context of God, we think only of Mary. We talk of Jesus as Son of God and Son of Mary and he rightly is Son of the Father. Yet God is not limited to masculinity. The Catechism reminds us: In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective "perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father.

In the faces of all our Mothers, both with us and those who have gone before, we have seen the image of God. If I may now, in my own turn, parody my sister’s sign: When God made woman, He was only showing off! I recall a line from the hit TV show years ago, The Golden Girls: It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it.

Read The Question

This afternoon my inbox contained the regular email from The Tablet with edited highlights of the paper's stories for the week. Often I scan the headlines and then read what catches my attention. One story, New powers for bishops to 'sack' priests, caught my attention in particular. Hurriedly I clicked the link to follow this story by Robert Mickens. As I read through I began to think 'this is not really new: I'm sure I read about this months ago' and so decided to corroborate with an instant google search. Trusty old ICN were quick to the rescue with this story, Pope gives new powers to bishops to release priests from ministry, but then I noticed the report was dated June 7 2009. Ah, thinks I, The Tablet are recycling old news. I was sure I'd read it before. Then I checked back on my email from The Tablet to discover they have sent me the electronic version of the paper from 13 June 2009. This explains a lot.

It reminded me of a tale I was recalling just the other day. During my mock O-levels (older UK readers will recognise this expression for our examinations) we were given a paper on physics, as I recall. After the results were published (which I'm pleased to say we all passed) our teacher gave a run down of some of the silly mistakes which were made. He told us a silly person who failed to read even the first question. He reminded us that the question was very simple. How many seconds are there in an hour? Through haste, ignorance or just plain laziness, he chided the class, if you were not careful in reading the question you might be fool enough to answer 60! You might be very bright but still fail on the simplest task and then, to the shock of the class, he revealed that there was one idiot amongst us who may be very good at physics but had spectacularly failed to master the art of reading.

Would you not agree, Mr Johnson, he said?

The shame. I thought I'd learnt to read the question, but clearly I'm up to my old tricks. Thank you to The Tablet for sending this test!

Choosing the Common Good

Choosing the Common Good from Catholic Westminster on Vimeo.

Archbishop Nichols speaks on the new Bishop's conference document, Choosing the Common Good. It's excellent that the Bishops are offering a steer in this important area of our lives. We will soon be asked to vote in the General Election. It is important that we vote, it is important that we, as Catholics, play our part within society. We need to undertake our civic duty. Voting isn't really an issue of should I vote or should I not, rather we have to decide how we will vote. Before voting, however, it is important that we inform ourselves not only of our own faith, but also which of the candidates we are able to support.

The video does not tell us how to vote, as Archbishop Nichols reminds us.

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.

Friends and life

Continuing on the theme of reflecting on friends; let me direct you to a good mate, Dom Andrew Berry, who has written a short piece for the Year of the Priest blog. The blog is organised, administered and written by the students of Oscott College, the diocesan seminary in Birmingham. It's a good read (though guys you should write more often) and very encouraging not only of vocations but faith also. I'm not sure that seminarians appreciate just how much they can influence the lives of the people around them. Well, let us be honest, I didn't realise.

Andrew has written a heartening piece reflective of his time in seminary. You can read it here but I wanted to draw out a few words which I found helpful. Andrew says:

To speak of life in community is to speak of a journey through a wild and windy landscape, a place of hills and valleys, of great beauty and heart wrenching loneliness. However, like Elijah sheltering in a cave, God comes when He is least expected and whispers words that touch the very depths of the heart and the one we long for becomes a reality beyond anything hoped for. A more down to earth description of community life would be to compare it to using a computer, it can be frustrating, annoying and at times you want to give up on it but at the end of the day you know you’d be lost without it.

Only a monk could write so eloquently about life in community. It makes me smile when I think back. Thanks, Andrew, for that.

Please pray for our holy monk, too. His ordination to the Sacred Priesthood is fast approaching and I'm sure he could use all the help we can muster. God be with you in these final weeks, brother.

Our Man in the Vatican

Did you manage to catch the BBC Northern Ireland series, Our Man in the Vatican? It was a profile of Francis Campbell. I first picked up the series via Fr Tim on the Hermeneutic of Continuity blog. Mr Campbell is the first Catholic to hold the post of Ambassador to the Holy See in almost a century. On my BBCiplayer link I couldn't get the first episode to load, but you can get part two, here, and part three, here. You may be luckier thank I and get episode one to work, here. I think the series is only available until the 10th March. Very enjoyable and a pleasure to watch. Francis is an inspiring representative of the UK and will no doubt have been very busy setting the scene for the forthcoming Papal visit to the UK.

The Ulsternet news-site has the following to say:

A Rathfriland native, Francis Campbell holds a high profile position as British Ambassador to the Holy See.
A new series on BBC Northern Ireland follows Francis, gaining an exclusive insight into the life of the senior diplomat.
‘Our Man in the Vatican' will air next Wednesday 17 February at 10.45pm on BBC One.
In 2005, Francis Campbell, who was born and raised on a farm outside Rathfriland, was the first Catholic since the Reformation to be appointed to the post of British Ambassador to the Holy See in Rome.
This new three-part series follows him over a year, both on duty and on rare occasions off duty, offering viewers a fascinating view of life as an Ambassador in one of the UK's oldest and smallest embassies, as he and his team of three staff co-ordinate visits to Rome to meet the Pope by among others Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and The Prince Of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
Cameras also follow the Ambassador as he travels home to Northern Ireland to visit his old school, St Colman's College, Newry, and to England and Scotland.
The series also includes an interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who talks about his former private secretary and policy adviser's appointment to the post of ambassador.
The BBC's Rome correspondent David Willey tells the programme: "I've known about four British ambassadors to the Holy See and it's absolutely clear to me that Francis Campbell is by far the best. He has succeeded in operating with a very small staff, and making Britain's presence felt inside the Vatican. He's a very clever man. It's a very tricky business trying to mix religion and politics and he has succeeded very well - the Vatican has confidence in him as a representative of the British Government."
Viewers will see Ambassador Campbell meet with Pope Benedict and his officials within the Vatican and cameras accompany him as he walks through the corridors of the world famous and powerful state.
Stephen Douds Series Producer said: "This series is public service broadcasting at its best. It opens up to our audiences a key, if often overlooked, aspect of the UK's foreign policy, taking our cameras and viewers into a world they would not normally access. Telling the story of Francis Campbell and the work his embassy does has been a career highlight."

Lenten Almsgiving

A very good friend of mine, Tracy, is undertaking to do the 'Race for Life' in aid of Cancer Research UK. If you feel able to support her, you can make a donation online now by following this link to her own page on their website. If you're a UK taxpayer, you can even 'gift aid' your donation, increasing your donation by 25% at no cost to yourself. There is always more needed that we can give and Jesus says we will have the poor with us always. Don't let that be an excuse for you, give generously now, and feel better at the same time.

Tracy's only looking to raise £100. Would it be wonderful if we exceeded her expectations?

Shocking News from the Vatican

“Two senior Vatican figures removed from posts over alleged links to homosexual prostitution”

Do you mind if I just have a little rant? For a quick update on the news the BBC website seemed like an obvious choice. It is book-marked for me to save on time. This, I clearly now know, was my first mistake. When I saw the above headline of course I was horrified and clicked the link immediately to find the headline of the actual story reads:

“Vatican pair removed in homosexual prostitution inquiry”

Evidently there is a move from ‘senior Vatican figures’ to ‘Vatican pair’. It transpires that the allegations involve a ‘Gentleman to His Holiness’, who is actually an usher, and a chorister in a choir which “performs at St Peter's Basilica when the Pope is not present.” The usher is also an engineer; does that make him a part-time usher for the Pope.

The allegations are terrible, should be fully investigated and the people involved prosecuted as is fit. That is not an excuse, however, for the BBC to raise the profile of a part-time usher and guy who sings when the Pope’s not there to be classified as Senior Vatican Figures. Come on! Is there some hidden agenda?

The Scotsman is typical of others when it headlines: Pope's ceremonial usher and a Basilica chorister implicated in gay prostitution ring. Still upsetting, but at least a little fairer.

Lord Help Me

Lord help me to live this day,
Quietly. Easily.

To lean upon Thy great strength,
Trustfully. Restfully.

To wait for the unfolding of Thy Will,
Patiently. Serenely.

To meet others,
Peacefully. Joyfully.

To face tomorrow,
Confidently. Courageously.

St Francis of Assisi
1182 - 1226

Offered for all those who might be struggling during Lent.

Exorcisms, Satan et al.

The subject of evil, the devil, Satan and exorcism never seems to be far from conversation about the bigger questions in life. Often, I find, it's hinted at but not actually mentioned. When it is talked about, often it appears in the context of drama and the fight good v. evil, it might be somewhat Manichaeistic in tone.

Bess Twiston Davies has a lovely post, today, about the possibility of satanism in the Vatican and specifically discusses the apparent fight between two leading experts in the field. Bess writes:

Rome, I can reveal, is riven by battling exorcists. Well, two to be precise, both priests, both experts on demonic possession, yet currently clashing over the possible existence of Satan worshippers within the Vatican.

It's a great article and I found the links an enjoyable post-lunch way to spend a few minutes updating on the state of play in this field. Perhaps the most irritating aspect of the article was the link to Frank Skinner's article, calling for increased persecution of Catholics. a la the martyrs of Rome. Skinner's article was also fun, but a little lacking in Christian values was my thought. How about that awful American-style hymn: All Are Welcome In This Place.

Archbishop Bernard Longley Welcomed

We were very honoured, within the parish, to welcome Archbishop Bernard Longley to a Mass celebrated with the clergy, religious and laity of the three deaneries of Rugby, Coventry and Warwick. The church was really busy and it was a great chance to meet and talk with people from the neighbouring deaneries. There has been nothing but great praise for the event and, of course, the Archbishop was a huge hit with all. If you would like to see photographs of the event, then you can view on the parish website, here.

Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP at Catholic Youth Ministry Fed.

Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP gave an excellent talk at the 2010 CYMFed Congress in London at the weekend. The conference was on the theme of Hope. You can read Fr Timothy's text in full from ICN, here. Below is a snapshot, but I hope it leads you to find out more...

And then we went to visit the sisters. I knew that I was expected to say something but what could I say? I had come across more suffering on that day than ever before in my life. I had no words. And then I remembered that Jesus had left us something to be done in memory of him. We could remember that night before he died, which was the darkest moment in human history. One of his friends had sold him, and his beloved Peter was about to betray him. And most of the rest would run away. And when everything seemed lost and there was no future, he did this extraordinary thing. When he was having supper with his friends he took bread and gave it to them saying ‘This is my body, given for you.’ When the only future seemed to be the cross, then he made this mad, generous, loving gesture. That is the basis of our hope. Every time that we gather as a community for the Eucharist, we are taken back to that dark moment, and that unexpected gift of the future. The last Supper seemed the end, the last supper, but it was just the beginning, the first Eucharist.

Annunciation

Whilst it may be some time away, I wanted to share with you a new discovery. A friend alerted me to The Annunciation by Caravaggio. It's a confession to say that I'd not even heard of the work, so looked it up on wiki, good-old wiki. They have the following to say:

The Annunciation is an oil painting by the Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, finished around 1608. It housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy.

The painting has been considerably damaged and retouched, and what remains of Caravaggio's brushwork is the angel, who bears a resemblance to the figure in John the Baptist at the Fountain. The illusionistic treatment of the angel, floating on his cloud and seeming to protrude outside the picture plane, is more Baroque than is normal for Caravaggio, but the contrast between the energetic pose of the heavenly messenger and the receptive Mary is dramatically and psychologically effective. The loose brushwork is typical of Caravaggio's later period.

The painting was given by Henry II, Duke of Lorraine, to his primatial church in Nancy as the main altarpiece, and was perhaps acquired by one of the Duke's sons in the course of a visit to Malta in 1608.

Isn't it beautiful, though!

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!

Viral Blogging

I'm not one for viral action (or chain letters for those amongst us of a certain age) but...

The results of a computerized survey indicate the perfect priest preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He condemns sins but never upsets anyone. He works from 8:00 AM until midnight and is also a janitor. He makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly to the poor. He is 28 years old and has preached 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his time with senior citizens.

The perfect priest smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humour that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls daily on parish families, shut-ins and the hospitalized, and is always in his office when needed.

If your priest does not measure up, simply send this letter to six other churches that are tired of their priest, too. Then bundle up your priest and send him to the church on the top of the list. In one week, you will receive 1,643 priests and one of them will be perfect. Have faith in this procedure.

One parish broke the chain and got its old priest back in less than three weeks.

___

Thanks to E F pastor emeritus for this laugh!