The Spirit and the Church

The end of a long day, but a great day - Pentecost! Lots of people saying good things about liturgies today. I celebrated 8.30 and 10.30 at Christ the King this morning. Coffee 'n' chat after both, then back to the ranch where James and I got micro-waving the lovely sausage and bacon casserole housekeeper Mary had left for us. Then, after a quick 30 minutes feet up, it was off with James to take part in the Pentecost walk, service and picnic marking 50 years of Churches Together in Llanishen and District. We parked as recommended at Christ Church in Lake Road North, and joined the walkers for the stroll down Lake Road West in the sunshine to the patch of grass reserved for us behind the playground area. As Chairman at the moment, it had been down to me to prepare the brief service, which went well. Then we all sat down in wonderful Roath Park for a shared picnic. I suppose we were 70 or 80.

James and I strolled back to the car, and I was pleasantly tired. However, it was also my turn for evening Mass - and there was no lead altar server or organist! Our two lovely evening Mass younger girl servers turned up however, despite their grandad dying last week. I was pretty whacked by the end, and was rather reuctant to go to the Prayer Group which meets after Mass on Sundays. However it IS the feast of Pentecost, and, as it turned out it, was a very positive and enriching group this evening, and I felt refreshed by the end. So, after a sandwich and a little drivel on TV, it's catch-up on blog! So, happy Pentecost, happy feast day!

Chains that bind

So we have all this horrific news from Ireland about abuse among some religious orders. In a month or so we will have another report, this time about the archdiocese of Dublin. After my experiences in Penarth in the late 1990s, I would like to think I know a few things about the fall-out from these cases. Jesus said "The truth will set you free." Either we believe that or not. Personally I do, and so let's get it out, all of it. Some of our fellow human beings, often among the weakest or most fragile, are in chains and have been deeply, deeply damaged. Our society, and perhaps our human nature, is fractured by a tendency to play games, wear masks, bend the truth whatever you want to call it - all variations on a theme. We are so paranoid about litigation etc that we run from the "S" word - "Sorry." And so we don't face one another, or ourselves, and are bound by chains of fear. I don't think the Church is at times all that different, as we are part of that society, and reflect it more than we sometimes want to believe. But the difference is, we preach someone whom we proclaim to be the Way, the Truth and the Life, who called us to love another, and called the children to himself.

In the letter of St James it says "Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up." That was our theme in Penarth for the most meaningful Lent I have experienced. The Lord will have a humble Church. If we don't humble ourselves, then maybe He allows it to be humbled.

Love at the heart of the Church

One of the most loved saints is St Therese of Lisieux, "The Little Flower". Our September Pilgrimage visited Lisieux in September, and we were able to celebrate Mass at her convent chapel and spend an afternoon at the Baslilica dedicated to her. For a while now her relics have been brought to different countries for people's devotion, and they are coming to Britain in September. On 22nd September they will be at St David's Cathedral here in Cardiff until the following day. I know that for some people the whole idea of relics doesn't sit well, but for many others it's a way of "coming close" to one of the most venerated members of the family of the Church in heaven. You can find out all about the visit and about Therese here on the Bishops' website. Sr Patricia Mary explains the message and importance of St Therese in a short video here. When Therese accepted that her health would not allow her to be a missionary, this woman of God proclaimed "I will be love at the heart of the Church."

Michael W Smith

A year or two ago I came across a religious song entitled "Breathe" as sung by an American called Michael W Smith. The picture shows him recording his latest CD at a "little" gathering in Houston, Texas. On a smaller scale, at REFRESH we sang one of his own songs called "Step by Step". So I've been looking him up on YouTube etc and I like a lot of what I've heard. You may not be into "happy clappy" stuff, but stick with it. You can catch him doing the lively "Step by Step" also known as "God you are my God" live here. "Breathe" is more reflective, and can be found here. Lastly, a song called "Agnus Dei" from the same live performance I think. It lasts around ten minutes and shows how a good worship leader can bring a crowd of many thousands to a time of profound - and unaccompanied - worship. Enjoy it here.

Year of the Priesthood

On March 16th Pope Benedict announced a Year of the Priesthood to run from 19th June this year - Feast of the Sacred Heart - to June 19th next year. He told us that this was in an effort to encourage "spiritual perfection" in priests. During this jubilee year, the Pope will also proclaim St. John Vianney to be patron saint of all the world's priests. At present he, also known as the Cure of Ars, is considered the patron saint of parish priests only. In his March address, Pope Benedict said the priestly ministry consists of total adherence to the Church's tradition of participating "in a spiritually intense new life and a new lifestyle which was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and which the apostles made their own." The pope underlined the "indispensable struggle for moral perfection which must dwell in every authentically priestly heart." You can read the letter on the Year by Cardinal Hummes, of the Congregation for Clergy here.

We are going to mark the beginning of the Year in our parishes by hosting the annual Sacred Heart Mass which is normally celebrated in St Peter's. Specially invited are those who attend Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in their parishes, but all are most welcome to join us - Friday 19th June at 7.30 in St Brigid's. Other events will be announced as the Year of the Priesthood unfolds. See what other Catholic bloggers are saying about the Year here.

The case of the disappearing church...

St Brigid's church has disappeared under a cloak of scaffolding this week. Over the years since it was opened in the early sixties the rendering on the outside walls has deteriorated, as has all the woodwork in the fascias, soffits, downpipes etc. Over the last months we have been negotiating the diocesan financial apparatus to get out some of our money to get the work done. As so often with the archdiocese, you take months to get the agreement - and then the job itself happens superfast! I was told on Monday that it will take about three months, which was longer than I thought, but as a veteran of building a hall from scratch at St Francis, turning a hall into a church at St Clare's, doing up the hall at St Cadoc's etc, I'm not fazed...

People have various opinions about moderrn architecture. Not everyone likes St Brigid's for example. Some wag did suggest that actually the scaffolding was an improvement - and in terms of modern architecture I suppose St Brigid's does now look rather like the Pompadour Centre in Paris, that amazing Museum with all its services on the outside. Come to think of it, what do our readers think of our three churches as architecture and as places of worship?

Happy faces

Ah yes - First Holy Communion. Don't those words bring it all back? The excitement, the preparation and then the Day. Anxious teachers, proud parents - and boiled eggs for breakfast if, like me, you are of a certain age. Big White Veils went out a little in the eighties, but seem to be back in now.

And then soon after there was Corpus Christi, and maybe a school trip to Bristol Zoo (I remember enjoying myself so much there one day that I cried almost all the way home!) One mum at First Holy Communion in Christ the King today said she had tears all the way through our Mass - and she is just one of the catechists! Yes it has it all, doesn't it as a happy day, and it shows on the children's faces.

Seven and eight are such lovely ages - past the initial blank pages of the first few years, but not too scribbled over by life, as they soon will be. When seven to nine year olds look up at you when you are preaching to them, they seem to absorb every word. Earlier in the week I celebrated Mass with Year 4 and told them the story of the apparitions of Our Lady at Guadalupe in Mexico. I could feel 30 pairs of eyes fixed intently on me, and loads of them wanted to ask questions. I had explained that nobody knows how the image of Mary is imprinted on the cloak of Juan Diego which is preserved at the shrine of Guadalupe in Mexico City. One bright angel, however, had that one sorted. She told me that maybe Our Lady would come back and explain it for us! Brilliant...

A straight run

Another interesting run of appointments yesterday evening showing our varied lives as priests. 5.40pm the phone rings. It's the Christ the King First Communion catechists. Am I, er, coming to the practice for First Communion which started 10 minutes ago?! A mad dash and I make it. Now I was already intending to get to CK for 6.30, because I had a wedding practice. I had clean forgotten about the children. As 6.30 drew close, sure enough bride, groom and entourage appeared outside. We gently edged the kids and their mums out and then I got into the wedding practice. All went well, especially as I did the marriage of the bridesmaid a year or two ago, so at least she knew the routine - and so did dad.

No time to stop. Evening prayer at 7.15pm before Mass at 7.30. Usually Fr James does Wednesday evening at CK, but he was in London getting his visa renewed. Afterwards, back down to St Brigid's, where I was expecting at 8.30 a visit from someone who had been away from the sacraments for a long time. An hour and a half later, and amid tears, they were back on track.

So there you are - 5.30 8 year olds; 6.30 starry-eyed couple; 7.30 "regulars" at Mass; 8.30 a joyful reconciliation. Eventually, 9.50 a bit of supper - and the last 10 minutes of "The Apprentice".

p.s. I did catch up on the rest of Sirallan on iPlayer today!

REFRESHed!

Well, our REFRESH weekend happened, and it was VERY blessed. The number of young adults was not huge, though if you add together all those who came for part of the weekend to those who stayed for the whole thing, the numbers really mount up. But what was obvious was the presence of Jesus, and of Mary, his Mother. The number of blessed conversations that people have told me about, the number of people who came to Confession after many years, the people young and not-so-young who came up to touch the fringe of Our Lord's cloak at the Saturday evening Healing Service, the really anointed way in which the music group played, the fantastic catering done by Caroline and her team of parishioners... the list goes on of the ways that God has responded to all our efforts for this event. For myself, one of the abiding memories will be the members of the three religious orders that we invited to come along. Sister Mary Trinity from Carmarthen just smiled a beautiful smile through the whole weekend. A whole bunch of Mother Teresa's sisters from Merthyr radiated peace and inner beauty, and attracted the young people to them like bees after the honey. And Fr Augustine and Brother Benedict, two young Friars of the Renewal in their full grey Franciscan habits spent the whole weekend just making themselves available - in Confession, in the canteen, wherever they were needed. Sadly, many of our young people have never encountered men or women from religious orders who are so at home with youth, so down to earth and yet so inspiring. It's not just because these ones wear their habits; rather it's because they are so transparently given over to the Lord.

I was really tired by Sunday evening, having been on the go throughout the weekend. Now I'm looking forward to the "post mortem" of the organizing group, and to a reunion meeting of those who attended - to see where we go from here.

So, readers, make no mistake, the Church is alive and active. Bring people together, gather them around Our Lord, light the spiritual touch paper and stand back!

One Church, two faces

Well, I'm back at base and survived my conference at Aviemore in Scotland. As it turned out, yesterday I went straight from Bristol airport to REFRESH at Corpus Christi, and didn't get home until after 11 last night.
In a way, you couldn't get two more different faces of the Catholic Church. On the one hand, 100 church lawyers in conference, mostly priests, talking about some of the most "difficult" aspects of life as Catholics. On the other, a group of young Catholics having a great weekend, especially when gathered around the beautiful Burning Bush, which is a sort of tower about 6 feet high with 70 sanctuary lamps on it and the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament on the top. But, you know what, what they both have in common is the wonderful people involved. In both cases I'm with committed, faithful, yet down-to-earth Catholics. I'm reminded how, next to the Lord, the church's greatest resource is simply one another - you and me, the people of the Church.

Come along to REFRESH - you'll find the timetable at http://www.refresh09.org/

And it's not a skiing trip!

Alas, alack, I will be out of blogreach for a few days now. I'm going to Aviemore in Scotland to attend the annual conference of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland (CLSGBI). There I will, er, enjoy thrilling lectures on exciting subjects such as "Public Juridical Persons"!!

However, I'm sure I'll meet some nice folks, and if all else fails, there is the beautiful mountain scenery, my iPod - and a wee dram!

I'm flying back from Inverness to Bristol, and then it's straight into REFRESH on Friday evening. Please keep up the prayers for that. I'm feeling that it's going to be something very special. Let's hope so - let's pray so.

Fr M's 3 Generation Theory

I just finished writing about Corpus Christi High School's wonderful Inspectors' Report for the newsletter. I make the point there about never taking things for granted such as our school system. Several times recently the subject of people being handed things "on a plate" and therefore not appreciating them, has come up in conversation. For example, if parents experience difficulty in some aspect of their lives, they don't want their children to have such a bad time, so they work hard to enable that to be avoided. Then those children take whatever it is for granted, grow up taking it for granted, and this can lead to problems of one sort or another in the third generation.

Think of young couples starting off a few decades ago, and then their children and grandchildren starting off now, and what they expect to have and achieve. Young couples starting off now sometimes think something is wrong if they can't have what their grandparents or greatgrandparents had to struggle to have. I think it works sometimes with family relationships too. Parents who had difficult childhoods, through losing a parent or whatever, will often work extra hard to make sure their children are surrounded with love and security. These then grow up taking it for granted, and sometimes forget to pass it on to their children. That can lead to problems, and lo and behold, we are back where we started. Fr Matthew's Theory of the Three Generations....

More musical nostalgia

Turned on Sky during the weekend, and came across a biopic (biographical film for the uninitiated) on 60s legend Donovan. Having been instantly whisked back, I must confess to you, dear readers, that after the programme I went off to download Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Barabajagal (spelling??), There is a Mountain, Jennifer Juniper and, one of my favourites, Hurdy Gurdy Man. Back in the programme, it seems D is still very much around, and hasn't really changed very much.

Listening again to Hurdy Gurdy, I wondered what its weird words are really about. People have put various interpretations on them, including religious ones. Turns out that it's simply dedicated to a friend of Donovan who led a band called Hurdy Gurdy at the time. Bang goes my memories of imagining some sinister-fantastical magician from the mists of time... But it's still a good song and sounds amazingly modern for 1968!

Any other offers of nostalgia from the 6os or other decades?

Coughs, sniffs and parish life

How kind the Lord is sometimes! I've had a few days this week feeling sorry for myself with a sore throat and a bit of a cold. Yes, ladies, I know - it's a man thing, but, well, we priests are men after all! Anyway, it coincided with a few days of a slightly less hectic diary, when I also had some Canon Law desk work to do. So God put in his diary to give me a cold when he knew it would cause least damage - sorted! Isn't He kind?

Yesterday I spent a very good evening with the Circle of Friends at Christ the King - Mass first, then an open meeting addressed by members of an organization called Beginning Experience. The Circle are a great group for the widowed, single, separated or divorced that really fulfils a pastoral need - you can find out about them here. If you feel that you'd like to find out more, you'll find contact details on the site, or just have a word with me.

Beginning Experience put on weekends for people who have lived through bereavement, separation or divorce. They too were impressive, and they too have a site with full details here.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to 10.30 Mass at Christ the King, as I have special permission to confirm three of the youngsters who missed out on our parish celebration of the Sacrament with Archbishop Peter back in March. The catechists and Fr James told me they were a great group this year, and I'm sure they'll all turn up tomorrow to support their friends. So I get to preach to teenagers, which I always find both a challenge and a blessing. They get a bad press sometimes, but I find that if we can only find the right button to press with them, faithwise at least, then they open up to a remarkable degree. They need the Holy Spirit more than ever nowadays...

Father, is that you?

"Hello Father - are you there?" Several phonecalls today started that way because I had a sore throat yesterday, and by this evening I'd more or less lost my voice. I had to skip my mini-homily at St Paul's this morning. However, as I was feeling pretty sorry for myself by late morning, I still went off to attend my priests' gathering at Chepstow, even though I didn't have much to say... The parish priest there, Fr Barry English, is both one of my former curates and a distant relation. The subject of my former assistants came up, because the lads like to pull my leg about how many of them have left the priesthood. I always point out that none of them left when they were actually with me, as I would be down their throat. Whenever Fr James hears about my record he looks strangely anxious! Actually priests who leave is a subject of course of great seriousness, which like many such matters, you sometimes need to laugh about. Anyway I think I'll have another Strepsil.

ps Did anyone see that dreadful pants business on the Apprentice?

And now reverse...

Searching around for youth-oriented material, partly for REFRESH, I found this very clever and very challenging little 2 minutes video. As with many of these videos, be sure to watch the whole thing... It's called Lost Generation.

REFRESH update

Interesting phone conversation this afternoon with a family from Aberystwyth, who want to come to REFRESH in three weeks' time. It seems they attended the similar event in Carmarthen last autumn, and got a lot from it. The chat just confirmed for me one of the guiding principles of REFRESH - the need for support, the need just to meet and be with like-minded people of faith. Yes, people are prepared to come from Aberystwyth, Bristol and Hereford in order to get that blessing that comes from simply being together. As usual with any event, there are loads of people working away in the background for REFRESH. The main planning group has met every two or weeks since December, while folks involved with catering, audiovisuals, publicity, liturgy, sacristy, security, child protection, leisure activities, school liaison, site management etc etc. have been busy, busy, busy. Speaker John Pridmore is also a big draw, and quite right too, he is something very special. So please, everybody, keep up the prayers - you can use the special prayer I wrote and which you'll find in the right hand pane on this page. This is one of the biggest "leaps of faith" that I've taken...

Canon Law reaction

Today I did something I haven't done for a while. A while after a Canon Law interview lasting just under 3 hours this afternoon, I put some music on the computer very LOUD. What came to hand, courtesy of iTunes was the Who, crashing into some tracks from "Who's Next" from circa 1970. "Behind Blue Eyes" was followed by "Won't Get Fooled Again". My mind went back to the evening, around that time, when I went with some school friends to see the Who live in Bristol. Four of us went on a motorbike and scooter, with me on the back of the scooter (I was 16 or 17!). The Who were brilliant, of course, but the evening ended with our scooter breaking down on the way back - on the (old) Severn Bridge! We pushed it on to the exit pretty sharp, to avoid paying the breakdown fine, and got home at some unearthly hour, in the days when young people weren't just going OUT at midnight. Great how music can transport you back forty years! This past year what I've listened to most has been Coldplay's "Viva la Vida". Although the critics didn't give it a huge thumbs up, I liked it the first time I heard it. Any Coldplay fans out there? If you're all good, I'll tell you about going to see Blondie not long ago, or Queen in about 1972 at the Castle, or Roxy Music as a kind of "stag night" just before going off to seminary in 1974...

Dreaming a Dream

In case you didn't see Susan Boyle on 'Britain's Got Talent', catch her singing here "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables", a show that I love. This 47 year old woman from Scotland wowed the audience and judges last Saturday. What a God given talent... Don't judge a book by its cover!

Counters and Convents

I was wondering today how many people visit my Stall. The Sitemeter counter (at the bottom of the page) only tells me how many come to thecanonsstall site, and not those who read it on 3churches.org. Just to give me an idea, could everyone who is looking at this on 3churches on Wednesday this week please click also on one of the articles, which will then take you to thecanonsstall and therefore will register on my meter.

Meanwhile... parish life goes on, and Fr James and I each have a funeral tomorrow, Wednesday. I'm celebrating Peggy Daly's in Nazareth House, and Fr James's is at St Peter's. Peggy was a lovely lady, and I'm sure her Mass will be well-attended. The chapel at Naz House is much bigger than you'd think - bigger than many churches. Who remembers Nazareth House fetes and Blackweir sports? My Auntie Kitty Kearns died at Naz House a few years ago. She was the last of my parents' brothers and sisters. She wasn't married, and smoked till not long before she died, aged 96! Naz House is part of Catholic Cardiff, isn't it? Talking of which, I've done quite a lot of my family history, and I'm sure that if you go back to the 19th century most of Catholic Cardiff are related somehow. I've got Kearns, Casey, Driscoll (including Peerless Jim) Anzani, Burns etc etc. Anyone with any interesting Catholic Cardiff info?