Men good and true

Busy, busy at this time of year. As well as extra services during Lent there is lots of planning to do for Holy Week itself. We're very blessed in our 3 Churches that many people are ready and willing to be involved in the liturgy - but it can mean a multiplication of meetings! Things are also pretty busy in the Tribunal department at the moment, with a lot of annulment cases reaching the judgement phase at the same time, where I am pretty heavily involved.

One of the great delights for me in recent years in the Church has been the introduction into our diocese of the permanent diaconate by Archbishop Peter. I've been involved in the formation of the men in various ways, one of which is being part of the selection panel which advises the Archbishop (or Diocesan Administreator at the moment) on who to accept for formation. We had oen such interview on Monday, and once again I was so impressed by the faith and dedication of these men who offer themselves. They have already been through a rigorous spiritual and psychological testing before reaching the panel, and our questions are quite challenging too. This man, like so many others over the years it has been running, answered with simplicity, honesty and faith. In particular I am always touched by their love for the Church - not a sentimental one, but a warm and realistic attachment to the Lord and his people.  Very impressive - and Fr M really approves.  

Free!

"Lazarus, here! Come out"  These are the amazing words with which Jesus brings Lazarus back to life in this Sunday's Gospel. On this last Sunday before Palm Sunday and Holy Week, the Church offers us Our Lord's most astonishing miracle or sign - the raising of a dead man, his friend Lazarus.

But I've always been taken with what Jesus says next. "Unbind him, let him go free" he says to the gathered people. It seems to me that these words are a command, a pleading from the heart of God to us - to unbind one another, to let one another go free.

Now we can apply this to ourselves first. What binds me, what constricts my spirit, what stops me being the person that God has made me to be? What kind of fears, anxieties, habits or addictions do I have that distort my spirit? Ever since the Exodus that lies behind the Passover and Maundy Thursday, and reappears in the Readings of the Easter Vigil, God has been anxious to reveal himself as one who frees. 

Then I must go on to ask myself whether I have bound up other people. Has our country bound up other peoples. Who are those in our world who are most in need of setting free? Sometimes our tying up other people can masquerade as something more attractive. How many marriages and families are wrecked by manipulation masked as love, love whose true purpose should be to set us free. The shock and horror of clerical abuse of young people is compounded by its masquerading as priestly pastoral care, and cover-up of the same has been seen as doing the right thing.

"Lazarus, here. Come out!" A clarion call for Christianity. Jesus calls us forth from the darkness, but very often we have to do the unbinding - and sometimes the one who needs unbinding may be ourselves. "Unbind him. Let her go free."
The pictures show a statue of Lazarus unbound at an Addiction Rehab Centre in the southern USA.

Twilight Retreats

During Lent I've been leading a series of "Twilight Retreats" each Wednesday. I saw this concept in Canada in the 80s. Many people feel they cannot get away for a retreat but would like something to help them in their spiritual life. Our retreats are from 7 - 9.30pm, and have been aimed principally at people involved in different ministries in our 3 Churches. This evening we had catechists, the fourth out of five groups.

The numbers have varied from seven to fifty, but the format has been the same each week. The first part looks at ministry through images from the Bible, then we look at the particular ministry of the evening. After a cup of tea or coffee we move on to reflect on how Jesus was and is the "first minister", and take a Lenten approach by thinking about Gethsemane as a place of decision. Lastly we go into the church to join those who are there for Adoration 8-9pm. After the adorers have left I give the last piece of input, and then we invite Jesus to minister to us in a very special way.

It's been a worthwhile Lenten project, as over 100 will have experienced it by the end of Lent. They have had a chance to reflect on their own spiritual life and service, and share a little with others. Hopefully, through the last part they will also have caught a glimpse of what Jesus wants for them.  I hope so...

Brilliant

So, this time last week I was having a great time here at the Presbytery hosting the annual Reunion. Reunion of who? Ten of us who have been friends for 30 to 45 years, some of us going back to the first year at St Illtyd's, our grammar-now-high school. We try to have this get-together every year in February or March, and in recent years when I have been in Cardiff, I have been the host. It was brilliant, and ten is the biggest number we have ever had.

I suppose it always makes me aware of the importance of friends, too. When you're younger, well, you just have them, and that's it. It's only later, I think, especially after a few of life's experiences when you "find out who your friends are", that you begin to understand the deep menaing of friendship. If you're single, without that unique "someone" in your life, then perhaps friends take on an even greater significance. And  a great sign is if you don't only talk about the good ol' days, and don't sort of regress to the last period at which you were together, as happens sometimes in arranged reunions. It means that your friendships are still very much alive, now.

For myself, I find that most of my best friends are married. That might surprise people, who often think that priests are only friends with other priests. Of course I have priest friends, but there is something very "earthed", real or normal if you like, about married folks, and I like it a lot.  Last Saturday was a mixture of couples and singles - including me, of course. Two meals-for-four from the Chinese, several bottles of wine, and ten friends together for four or five hours. Fr M approves.  Bigtime.

The Fosse Ardeatine

I noticed that on Sunday Pope Benedict paid a visit to the Fosse Ardeatine outside Rome, a place that we used to walk to from the Beda seminary when I was there in the 70s. It's a fascinating place marking the spot where over 300 Italians were murdered by the then retreating Nazis late on in World War II. The Resistance set off a bomb in the city killing over 30 soldiers, and reprisals were ordered, 10 Italians for every German killed. These were rounded up in a fairly random way, taken outside the city to the area where many of the catacombs are, and shot in a cave. The entrance was then blown up, but some locals spotted this happening.

After the war all the bodies were dug out and reburied under a massive symbolic concrete tambstone and the cave turned into a place of prayer and reflection. It has a powerful presence about it, and is a place of pilgrimage for Italians, though not so many foreign visitors are aware of it. To get a sense of the place visit this WWII Landmarks site and click on the panorama images.

On a lighter note I did the latest of my "Wednesday Word" broadcasts this afternoon - on the subject of April Fools' Day, which is also the anniversary of my priestly ordination. It seemed to go down OK. I managed to get in St Paul, Shakespeare, John Cleese, Ricky Gervais and Miranda Hart!

Tears of welcome, tears of joy

A huge group of people gather in a valley in West Papua, Indonesia. They are the remote Kimyal tribe, and they are awaiting a celebrity arriving on a plane.  When the celebrity lands they sing, shout - and cry, especially cry. They embrace and hug the celebrity, awith a heartfelt welcome. At last, at last, for the first time...

Who can it be?  Please watch this 10 minute video, and maybe you'll find that you also need to appreciate more and open your heart to..... well take a look!

Acknowledgments F Tim Finegan

More children's Lenten wisdom

So here's another example of the work of the inspired children of our 3 Churches. Yesterday's Gospel was the Transfiguration and this drawing was brought down in the Offertory procession with the gifts of bread and wine. The picture here is just the top slice of a very, very big mountain.

On the top you can see three figures in gold - Jesus (with a sort of halo), Moses and Elijah. Rather unconventionally Moses and Elijah are both to one side. Then further on the right side is a large figure who I'm thinking must be Peter. As the mountain is rather pointy in a children's way, there's no room for him, so he's hanging precariously off the edge!

Then I zoomed in on the peak, and saw that - maybe accidentally or maybe not - Peter's hand is actually being held by that of Jesus. So there you have it - as we stand in faith before the Lord revealed in all his glory, we may feel like we are truly being knocked off our little perches. But the Lord who is blowing us away is also the same one who is holding us tight, and stopping us from falling right off the whole great mountain of life itself. "Out of the felt-tips and  crayons of children"... so to speak.

What we have to do

GOD CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN

AND HE CAME INTO THE CHURCH

AND THEN STARTED WHAT WE HAVE TO DO

I couldn’t have put it better myself. This was one of the many, many inspiring contributions that you, the people of our 3 Churches, made towards our dream of how the Church, and our churches, could be. And this response was written by a child! Incidentally, if she or he wants to come forward, there may be a little reward for such a stunning summary of what it’s all about.

Members of our two parish councils have been busy collating all your responses. They met this week to review how we are doing, and to plan the route towards a Pastoral Council for our 3 Churches. It will be the job of that body to oversee our growth towards the vision that God has given us. Our goal is to produce by Easter a neat vision of where we believe God would want us to be going, and to launch the new body with an interim group to run for six months. We hope to celebrate all this at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday. But let’s get back to that child’s vision.

“God came down from heaven” Our vision must be firmly rooted in Jesus, our Lord and Saviour – this is God’s Church, not ours. The Word came into the world and became flesh, and therefore we are to put flesh on that Word for our own time and place. “Love one another as I have loved you”.

“He came into the Church” Jesus and his Father breathed their Spirit into us at Pentecost, firing up those first followers to truly be the Church of Jesus Christ. St Paul teaches us that we are nothing less than the Body of Christ. Now we are that same Church for the twenty-first century in north Cardiff.

“He started what we have to do” Brilliant. We are to do what He did! Simple, but so profound. Our vision must be that of the Gospel. The risen Jesus said, “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you”. Our agenda is His agenda...

So let’s move on together into the next part of our journey together. It started with the man whose Death and Resurrection we will celebrate in a month’s time. It is still His journey and mission, carried out through and with us. That is our privilege, that is our challenge.

The front page from this week's newsletter

Young Church

So young people are at the fore this week.

Yesterday and this coming Thursday we are having our annual celebrations of the sacrament of Confirmation. In the absence of an Archbishop (yes still) these are being celebrated by the local Deans in our diocese. Fr Allan Davies-Hale did an excellent job for St Brigid's and St Paul's yesterday. There were ten youngsters, and thanks to the dedicated catechists and parents, they were very well prepared. All went well, and now I'm looking forward to Christ the King on Thursday.

Also in St Brigid's church is the Corpus Christi Cross. This is a large bare cross that travels around our High School's partner parishes during Lent, spending three or four days at each church. It moves on to Christ the King and then St Paul's later this week. As a strong supporter of our Catholic schools, I'm very happy that we are reminded in this way of the bonds of faith that bind us to our schools.

Also in St Brigid's - as I write, there is 24 hour eucharistic adoration going on. This is organised by Jesus Youth, a movement that originated in Kerala, India. They have organised 100 days of adoration which started in Birmingham diocese a few weeks ago, and now passes to Cardiff. Young people are pledged to come for one, two or four hours throughout the next 24 hours from Mass this morning to Mass tomorrow morning. Very impressive.

60,000 ashes and 16 voices

A brief p.s. to yesterday's post... Flicking through Whispers in the Loggia, one of the zillions of Catholic blogs out there, I noticed that St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, one of my favourite churches in the world, was expecting about 60,000 - yes 60,000 - people to receive the ashes yesterday. There would be 12 liturgies during the day, but the demand meant that ashes would also be continually available at different points in the cathedral.

I'm also grateful to Whispers for a link to a performance of Allegri's stunning setting of Psalm 51, the Miserere. I think I saw this on TV not long ago, in one of Simon Russell Beale's programmes, and it's The Sixteen singing under Harry Christophers at St Luke's in London. Music for starting Lent...

Ashes, barbs - and emails

Although Easter is about as late as it can be this year, and therefore so also is Lent, nevertheless Ash Wednesday seems to have arrived very quickly. There were a lot of people at 9.30 Mass at St Paul's, after which Fr T and I went up to our parish primary school, Christ the King, for a liturgy with the juniors. As always with Christ the King, it was imaginative and thoughtful, centring on the three images of ashes, water and seeds. Then I also celebrated evening Mass at St Brigid's - not so full, but still a respectable number of folks.

For the season of Lent I've changed the header picture for this blog. I've used a close-up of barbed wire at Auschwitz, where I went on our September Pilgrimage six months ago. Auschwitz had an enormous effect on me, greater even than I expected in fact, and the wire there seems to stand for everything that traps us, from within and without, everything from which Jesus came to set us free. The wire at the camps was beautifully crafted, but hard and inpenetrable. It also, of course, bears a distinct resemblance to many images of the Crown of Thorns. Just something to contemplate this Lent... (acknowledgments to Paul for photos).

I have decided to give a series of so-called Twilight Retreats this Lent on Wednesday evenings for people involved in different ministries. These will replace the series of talks on various themes that I have given over previous Advents and Lents. It will be pretty demanding each week, but I am convinced that many people would enjoy and benefit from a little time apart, with some spiritual nourishment and challenge. We'll see how they go.

The use of email is great for a large organization like the Church, but it does, of course, have its drawbacks. One of them came back and bit me today when I discovered that a series of emails that I had sent over several months to a colleague, and which I had sort of concluded he was chosing to ignore, had, in fact, never reached him because he had changed his email address. So I had to repent of some evil-ish thoughts - and resend them!

Heavy week - light intervals

Whoa - bit of a busy week folks, and sorry about longish gap without postings...

Several bereavements and funerals going on, inside the parish and elsewhere. These included the funeral of Rita, of the lovely couple who organise our September Pilgrimages. Bill asked me to celebrate her Requiem Mass on Friday, which I felt privileged to do, after being present at her death a while ago. Funerals, I find, take a lot of what I may call inner energy, especially of course when it is that of someone whom I would call not only a parishioner but also a dear friend. However all went well on Friday and also for the funeral of Tim on Wednesday, Tim being only 39 years old.

So with quite a lot of issues around at the moment on the Canon Law side of my work, and with Lent around the corner, it's been a little on the heavy side. Vital, then, to lighten up too. So I went out Friday evening with friends for a drink, and last night spent a lovely evening at Christ the King parish's Quiz Night. I got a Bible question wrong, and will take ages to live it down - ho hum!!

O great St David

Daffodils are coming up all over the place, Wales won again (OK against Italy) it can mean only one thing - St David's Day tomorrow!

I gave Fr T a quick run-down on our saint today, so that he's all geared up for Mass in the morning. I was trying to describe the beautiful mini-city named after St David in West Wales. Its Latin name was Menevia, giving us the name of the modern diocese covering south-west Wales today, whose cathedral and bishop are in Swansea. The little town at the end of Pembrokeshire should have a special place in the heart of all Welsh people as the place where David eventually settled and was buried. The spot is now marked by the cathedral, now of course in Anglican hands. It's situated down in a  little dell, like other Welsh Celtic churches at Llantwit Major and our own Llandaff here in Cardiff. Although often the medieval bishops lived away, at Carmarthen, there are the fine remains of the Bishop's Palace still there, with their beautiful arcading from the time of Bishop Gower.

David's mother was Non, also revered as a saint. A short walk south from St David's brings you to her chapel, perched on the top of the cliffs, and adjoining a retreat-house. St Non's lies on the wonderful Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

If you have never been to St David's, and especially if you call yourself a Welshman - or woman - get down there this year, and soak in the atmosphere of our patron. Listen and digest his famous last words - "Be joyful, keep the faith!"

Saints near and far

It got very busy recently, especially in the bereavements part of ministry. We have three funerals coming up in the parishes, and also that of Rita, wife of Billy, my close friends who run our September Pilgrimages, that mean so much to me and to so many others. I've known them for thirty years. Rita passed away on Monday evening, and I was privileged to be present with Billy and some of his family. Lord grant her - and the others of course - eternal rest. And if you need any typing, Lord, I can recommend Rita.

I was reading the magazine of the Companions of the Cross, a religious congregation, friends of mine, based in Ottawa, Canada, and came across a link to an excellent site on saints. Now I know that the saints are not exactly the absolute centre of our faith, but I love them. The more "human" the better! And people ask  questions about them surprisingly often - who's the patron of this, what do you know about Saint that? So I can recommend Saints at SQPN.  SQPN seems to be a large site covering all kinds of Catholic stuff, much of it hosted for individuals, as is the case with this saints section. It seems to cover everything you want to know about them all! Another huge saints resource is at catholic.org

Some people seem to think that interest in, or devotion to the saints is somehow old-fashioned. Rubbish! They are our friends, part of the family. Just like we keep photos of our own family, so we have images, shrines etc of the Christian family. I've got a whole list of my special buddy-saints - Peter, John, Teresa of Avila, Matthew (of course!)... Many of our September pilgrimages have centred on shrines and places associated with saints - Francis and Clare (Assisi), Benedict (Subiaco and Monte Cassino), Teresa and John of the Cross (Avila, Segovia, Alba de Tormes), Therese (Lisieux), James (Santiago de Compostela), and so on.  Love 'em all.

New Stanbrook Abbey

While I was pp at Ledbury in Herefordshire during the 1980s, I came across one of the most impressive groups of Catholic women I'd ever met. I was taken by a parishioner to visit a friend of hers who was a nun at Stanbrook Abbey near Worcester. What an amazing lady! Intelligent, spiritual, inspiring, sensible etc etc.

The story of this enclosed community dates back centuries to recusant times, and a few years ago they took the momentous decision to leave their Victorian Gothic pile and build a new sustainable abbey in Yorkshire, not too far from the men's Ampleforth Abbey, where Cardinal Hume was abbot. Also close by are the beautiful ruins of the medieval Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx.

They are now installed there, and I found this 5 minute video giving a glimpse of their new place. Listen to the wisdom of the nuns, and I liked the compliment paid them by one of the architects too... Their website tells you a lot more about these two dozen women of faith. 

An amazing young man

Friday, 11th February, was the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and Pope John Paul proclaimed it World Day of Prayer for the Sick. Ministry with the sick is a vital part of Christianity, parishes, and priests. I say "with" the sick, because almost always I end up receiving more than I give. From little ten year old Christopher whom I met on the HCPT pilgrimage in 1979, through hundreds and hundreds of people I have visited at home, to the Holm Tower cancer hospice in Penarth, to the extraordinary sensation I experienced last year during a Mass with the sick here at St Brigid's when I was aware that it was not only me that was anointing them, I know that in the sick we are very, very close to Jesus.

Over the last couple of years I have heard from time to time about Philip Johnson, a remarkable young man from North Carolina who is studying for the priesthood while suffering from an inoperable brain tumour. Today I came across a video of him recently giving a talk to high school students. If you have a spare half an hour, and want to be challenged and inspired by a young man's story, then listen to Stephen. It almost sounds redundant to say, Fr M approves.


 

Serious stuff

Thursday was a very unusual day for me. After Mass at Christ the King, I was at the Law School in the University from 11 to 4. They have a project on at the moment on, er, social cohesion, religion and society. Basically my involvement is that they are studying the way that three faiths look at the role of law, and marriage and family law in particular. So as Judicial Vicar (ie boss) of the National Tribunal for Wales, I am representing Christianity (no pressure there!), while London Beth Din (the court of the Chief Rabbi) and the Shariah Court of the Central Mosque in Birmingham represent Judaism and Islam respectively.

We've already been interviewed, as have various of the other people who work with me on the Tribunal, and now the University was bringing reps together for a dialogue (should that be trialogue?). So we had two professors and two other academics from the Uni, myself for the Catholics, a woman from Birmingham for the Moslems and a very imposing chap from the Beth Din, who was unable to come down to Cardiff, and took part via  Skype video-conference. Very hi-tech...

It was a hard day, but fascinating. We hear so much for example about shariah law, some of it negative, yet here was the opportunity to hear about it from the inside. What about all those laws about which Jesus got very agitated? Here was the top man in Britain, to explain how they see God Law operating. I too got griled about some of the more obscure aspects of canon law. While there was lots of questioning, by the university and by one another, the atmosphere was very good, and there can't be many canon lawyers like me who have the visiting card of a woman member of a shariah council!

I got home about 5, belatedly did my weekly task of my contribution to the newsletter and emailed it off to Luke the editor, and the day was rounded off with St Brigid's and St Paul's Finance Committee. They feel that Christ the King should be coughing up a bit more to the running costs of  the presbytery and clergy - so that should test the warm relations of Tuesday's meeting (see last posting)!

Bright future, bright serving faces

Yesterday evening I led a joint meeting of our Parish Councils. We were discussing nothing less than the future direction of our 3 Churches, and in particular the developing relationship between them. I'll be saying much more about that in coming weeks. I'll just say here that it went very well, and the atmosphere was very optimistic and practical. Our people are wonderful, and as I often say, I am sure that the future of the Church is safe. As long as it's not left to the clergy! 

Meanwhile I had a few things to do in town today, so I took the opportunity to have a wander and see how things are doing in the city centre, something I don't do very often. Good ol' Queen Street rolls on as ever, but, oh dear, it seems to me that some other parts are sort of slipping. I cut through the Queens Arcade, for example, to find it, well, heading towards running down. Even the older part of St David's (Centre) to me doesn't look as good as it used to. I ask myself whether everything been sacrificed on the altar of the extension to St David's and devotion to the Blessed John Lewis?

I'm fascinated by customer service, spurred on by Mary what's-her-name on the telly. Treatment at the Queen Street branch of my bank, Barclays, was excellent, just the right balance of helpfulness without the gushing. St Davids eateries looked heaving, so I headed over to the Shop-formerly-known-as-Howells via Waterstones.  I discovered some old book vouchers in a drawer, and bought something on Provence, goal of our September Pilgrimage this year, with helpful assistant making the experience a good one. The restaurant at the Shop-formerly-known-as is usually quietish, and I hadn't been there for ages. Food was, er, OK, but at least lots of smiles were in evidence.  I was heading off to my next bit of business when I was distracted by the presence of an in-store Caffe Nero, whose cappuccino turned out to be the culinary highpoint of the day. The two serving were both very good - a young chap who called every male "man" in that sort of pretend-American which he pulled off well, and a girl of indeterminate European background who was also efficient and friendly. Caffe Nero also opens onto Trinity Street. Fr M approves.

Variations on a theme

A good weekend, lots going on. Here in our 3 Churches we celebrate seven Masses between Saturday evening and Sunday. So, one weekend  Fr Tomy and I do three, the next weekend four etc. I was in Christ the King this time, so I was on three... but all three were different. Now, of course, usually we preach more or less the same homily at all three (or four) Masses, but this time it had to be three very diferent versions around the same theme, the words of Jesus in the Gospel, "You are the light of the world".

Saturday evening the Confirmation candidates were with us after their day retreat at Porthcawl. For them, to be the light of the world is an amazing challenge, so amazing that we need the gift of the Holy Spirit to carry it out. At 8.30 this morning we were observing Poverty and Homelessness Week, so here we talked about specific ways that we can be a light in our world, noting that the first reading specifically mentioned those who are poor or without shelter. Then at 10.30 we had the First Holy Communion children with us, so we thought about torches lighting up the dark and how we can be like torches, bringing light into other children's and people's lives.

I found another feel-good video today, this time about bringing some fun into an otherwise tedious aspect of life.

Acknowledgements to Greg Stewart

Good ol' Google

Hey folks, we didn't quite make it to the 1,000 visits last month!  993 - 7 short! Why couldn't a few have gone out 'n' come back in again... boo hoo.

Anyway, by way of consolation I paid a visit to Google's latest venture, Google Art Project. I like wandering around museums and galleries, I know not everybody does. I've hit lots of the greatest ones, like the Brera in Milan where I was in July.  In this project, Google allow you to wander around various rooms in some of the world's greatest museums. Then, they have filmed some masterpieces of each collection in extraordinary detail, so that you can zoom in to an amazing degree. I happened to notice that one of these is Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" in the Hermitage, St Petersburg. This has in recent years become one of the world's best-known religious paintings, especially after Henri Nouwen wrote a book based on it. If you want to study the detail of this wonderful work by the master of painting teh humanity of human beings, then go to the new site www.googleartproject.com . Click on the Hermitage, and you can then click on the image of the painting. Stunning. Fr M approves - bigtime.