Reading through the book of Exodus

The great story of the exodus of the Israelites, their exit from slavery in Egypt, captivates every generation of Christians. Children love it. It makes for a wonderful film. For Christians, this is not the story of another people. Because of our membership of the Church, we have inherited this family narrative of the Hebrew people, whom we joined at Baptism. The story begins with the Israelites having grown prosperous and numerous during their stay to the east of the Nile delta, after the ascendancy of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph, who became an Egyptian prince of a sort. Then, a pharoah 'who knew nothing of Joseph arrived,' and horrendously attempts to control the Hebrew population, even demanding the execution of male Hebrew babies. 

"Meanwhile, a new king of Egypt had arisen, who knew nothing of Joseph. 'See,' he said to his people, 'how the race of the Israelites has grown, till they are stronger than we are. We must go prudently about it and keep them down, or their numbers will grow; what if war threatens, and they make common cause with our enemies? They will get the better of us, and leave our country altogether...' Then the king of Egypt gave orders to Sephora and Phua, the midwives who attended the Hebrews, 'When you are called in, he said, to attend the Hebrew women, and their time comes, kill the child if it is a boy; if it is a girl keep it alive.'" - Exodus 1: 8-10, 16

One little boy from the tribe of Levi is rescued by his mother and finds his way into the house of an Egyptian princess, and finds the same fortune as Joseph. Fleeing Egypt after committing a crime, Moses is discovered by the God of the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses returns to Egypt and, with the assistance of his relation, the Levite Aaron, he causes a supernatural destruction of Egypt's fortunes, and leads the people out into the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula. The miraculous events that tortured the Egyptian people have been cemented into the imagination of Hebrews, Jews and Christians over the ages, culminating as they did in the parting of the Red Sea. Here it is, in the excellent recent animated film, the Prince of Egypt (1998):

The rest of the book is almost a prophecy of the later history of the Hebrew people, for, despite these great miracles that had been handed down from father to children for generations, the people kept falling again into the idolatry and paganism of the cultures around them, as the rest of the Old Testament demonstrates. And so here, having passed into the wilderness, they complain against God and Moses for leading them into hunger, thirst, etc. Then they arrive at Mount Horeb and they see fire descending upon the mountain. Moses disappears into the brightness for weeks and the people decide to fall back into idolatry. The rest of the book is about their reconciliation with God, through the priestly pleading of Moses, the first high-priest of the new religion, and about the beginning and detailed description of the cult of the Hebrews, which would end centuries later in the Jerusalem Temple, the heart of the Hebrew religion until its final destruction in AD 70.

I rather enjoyed this cover-to-cover reading of Exodus, which I haven't done for years. In the Jewish synagogues, they do it every year. It's a great tradition.

Catholic Saints, God's holy ones, are not always human beings

Today is the feast day, a major feast day, honouring the three archangels, whose names we know from Sacred Scripture. Angels, we know from Church tradition, are everywhere, our friends and guardians, and in a few days we will mark the feast of the Guardian Angels. But the three archangels we know of (and Raphael said that he is one of seven) are sent on particular errands: Michael to counter the attacks on the Church, Gabriel to accompany the mission of Christ from his Annunciation to Mary, and Raphael to counsel and heal such people as the good Tobias and his family. Here, from the book of Tobias, is Raphael's final declaration to the family before his departure. It is one of my favourite stories:

"And now Tobias took his son aside and asked him, 'What payment shall we make to this heaven-sent companion of thine?' 'Payment?' answered he; 'why, what reward can ever suffice for all the services he did me? He it was that escorted me safely, going and coming; recovered the debt from Gabelus; won me my bride; rid her of the fiend’s attack; engaged the gratitude of her parents; rescued me from the fish’s onslaught; and to thee restored the light of day. Through him, we have been loaded with benefits; is it possible to make any return for all these? Do this, father, at least; ask him to accept half of all the wealth that has come to us.' So both of them, father and son, beckoned him aside, and would have prevailed on him to accept half of their new-found wealth. But he, with a finger on his lip, bade them give their thanks to the God of heaven. 'To Him,' he said, 'offer your praises for all men to hear; He it is that has shewn mercy to you. Kings have their counsel that must be kept secret; God’s ways are open, and He honours them best who proclaims them openly. Prayer, fasting, and alms,' said he, 'here is better treasure to lay up than any store of gold. Almsgiving is death’s avoiding, is guilt’s atoning, is the winning of mercy and of life eternal; the sinners, the wrong-doers, are enemies to their own souls. Come, let me tell you the whole truth of the matter, bring the hidden purpose of it to light. When thou, Tobias, wert praying, and with tears, when thou wert burying the dead, leaving thy dinner untasted, so as to hide them all day in thy house, and at night give them funeral, I, all the while, was offering that prayer of thine to the Lord. Then, because thou hadst won His favour, needs must that trials should come, and test thy worth. And now, for thy healing, for the deliverance of thy son’s wife Sara from the fiend’s attack, He has chosen me for His messenger. Who am I? I am the angel Raphael, and my place is among those seven who stand in the presence of the Lord.' Upon hearing this, they were both mazed with terror, and fell down trembling, face to earth. 'Peace be with you,' the angel said; 'do not be afraid. It was God’s will, not mine, brought me to your side; to Him pay the thanks and praise you owe. I was at your side, eating and drinking, but only in outward show; the food, the drink I live by, man’s eyes cannot see. And now the time has come when I must go back to Him who sent me; give thanks to God, and tell the story of His great deeds.' With that, he was caught away from their eyes, and no more might they see of him." - Tobias, chapter 12

If you look across to the sidebar of this blog, on the right, you will discover that Saint Michael has been there for some time. He is a powerful name in the tradition of the Roman church, and a great intercessor, alongside the Blessed Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul. His name is therefore frequent in our prayers. You can read about some of the many interventions he has made and the devotions that have resulted. Most recently, the Holy Father Leo XIII is said to have had a frightful vision about some calamity that would soon afflict the Church, and composed the famous Saint Michael prayer that many of us know by heart. In the picture at the end of this post, Michael is standing on a seven-headed creature (seven crowned heads), poking at it with his great cross-staff. That is a likely reference to the vision of St. John, recorded in the book of Apocalypse, in which just such a beast proceeds to afflict the Church:

"And out of the sea, in my vision, a beast came up to land, with ten horns and seven heads, and on each of its ten horns a royal diadem; and the names it bore on its heads were names of blasphemy. This beast which I saw was like a leopard, but it had bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth. To it the dragon gave the strength that was his, and great dominion. One of its heads, it seemed, had been mortally wounded, but this deadly wound had been healed. And now the whole world went after the beast in admiration, falling down and praising the dragon for giving the beast all this dominion; praising the beast too. Who is a match for the beast? they asked; Who is fit to make war upon him? And he was given power of speech, to boast and to blaspheme with, and freedom to work his will for a space of forty-two months. So he began to utter blasphemy against God, blasphemy against his name, against his dwelling-place and all those who dwell in heaven. He was allowed, too, to levy war on the saints, and to triumph over them." - Apocalypse, 13: 1-7

Saint Michael the Archangel, 

defend us in battle. 

Be our defence against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. 

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, 

and do thou, 

O Prince of the heavenly hosts, 

by the power of God, 

thrust down into hell Satan, 

and all the wicked spirits, 

who prowl about the world 

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. .

Catholics and the Bible

I just encountered again the strange idea that Catholics kept their Bibles dusty on shelves in their homes until some magic took place after the second Vatican council in the 1960s, and now Catholics read their Bibles. Aside from the obvious fact that not many Catholics use their Bibles even today (hence the decision of the bishops to have a Year of the Word), it is also clear that today, as ever before, the Bible is actually not the centre of the Faith and life of Catholics. The Mass has pride of place there. Hence the demolition of our communities in the last few months, as the churches were closed and the strange phenomenon of only watching Masses through online camera feeds was begun. 

But back to the Bible. As we are given it, in its present form, the Bible is the product of the Tradition of the Church, which pre-existed the Catholic Bible and already was powered centrally by the Mass and the Sacraments for generations before bound Bibles were available to the parishes. From the beginning, then, Catholics have not required their own copies of Scripture to live their lives. In the early decades and centuries, the Bible existed as isolated books, and different parishes and churches would have had their own combination of those books, which included the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek (aka. the Septuagint) and a combination of one or more Gospels and of the Apostolic letters (some of which are in our New Testament, but many of which were later discarded by the bishops). Even after the closed set of books of the Bible were decided upon, having a Bible would have been immensely costly until the arrival of printing in the fifteenth century. 

What I mean to say is that, although it's lovely to have printed Bibles for our homes, and although it is a gift that we are able to preserve the Word of God in so many ways, nowadays even in digital forms on our telephones and computers, Scripture was originally designed for reading in synagogue and church, and the many Catholics who could either not have a printed Bible or could not read, still heard and absorbed large portions of Scripture through their attendance at church and through being part of the community. Ours is a social religion. Even when Bibles are readily and cheaply available, many of us still remember Scripture through stories we have learned in school or through some form of multimedia product. I personally learn more from pictures and video than from layers of text. And in this way, Catholics learnt their Bibles for centuries before printing and, so also, for centuries after printing.

But the Vatican council of the 1960s did give an a new impetus to study of Scripture, through the dogmatic constitution, Dei Verbum, which is always worth a read. It's not a very long document. You need read only the sixth and final chapter to remember the place of Scripture in our lives.

Meanwhile, you could make use of commentaries on Scripture, and I don't mean those big, fat ones that are made for scholars at university. I mean those bright ones, full of pictures, that used to be produced by Readers Digest, and are still available sometimes in second-hand shops. I've got a good few myself from Mount Saint Bernard abbey shop, and I'm currently going through this one. It provides an excellent snapshot of first-century Judaism, still centred on the Temple (when the Temple was destroyed in AD 70, Judaism survived only as the present rabbinic Judaism in its various schools, and as the Christian Church), with the historical background that is required. I would attempt a cover-to-cover read, but it's better as a reference book.

Well, this article is long enough. At least keep that Bible by your side. You might feel inclined to read it. Click here for the best (free) Catholic mobile app I know, that could help. And I'm still reading through the Bible in a year.

Derby Saint Mary

I was out at Saint Mary's on Tuesday for a visit, and stopped in the Marian chapel. Thank God for this building, probably the most beautiful in the whole of Derby. Walking up to the altar, I realised that the decorators had placed icons of every mystery of the Holy Rosary around the walls of the sanctuary. So, the Joyful mysteries are on the wall to the left of the altar, the Sorrowful on the wall to the right of the altar, and the first three Glorious mysteries are on the panels on the front of the altar itself. The last two Glorious mysteries are on either side of the sanctuary on the back wall, the only ones that are clear in this photograph.

I was also delighted to see the names of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish covenant on the arched ceiling of the sanctuary, including the parents of the Blessed Virgin. We must remember that, in the Jewish mind, descent (Jewishness) comes from the mother of the child and not the father. A Jewish book I have says that this is in tribute to the prolonged labour the mother undergoes before child-birth; therefore, the descent through her is far more certain than through the father. That's interesting. Anyhow, it demonstrates the importance of the Blessed Virgin to Messianic Judaism, the biggest component of which by far is Catholic Christianity. It is through her, after all, that God acquired His human existence, which is critical to the salvation of the race. And therefore, her Yes to God is critical to our salvation, too, and gives her the title of Co-redemptrix, alongside her Son.

I really liked that life-sized statue of the Blessed Virgin and I think they have done marvellously to have restored the chapel so well. The roof is magnificent, the chapel is full of light. It is all delightful.

Mass intentions recap over this last week

 I haven't had time for the computer this week, so there haven't been posts since Monday. On Monday, Mass was offered for the repose of the soul of Jim Coleman (+); may he rest safely in the embrace of God. On Thursday, Mass was offered for Father Alexander; may he be blessed in his priestly ministry. Mass tomorrow will be offered for the repose of the soul of Una Mulvaney (+); this will be the public Mass at 10.30. May she rest in peace. Other Masses during the week have taken up the default daily intentions that can be found at the bottom of the sidebar to the right. 

We entrust these intentions to Almight God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. And may the Blessed Virgin always pray for us, and Saint Joseph our holy patron.

Daily Mass - twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary time

This is going to be a short post, for I am a little late tonight. We had the first public Mass offered this morning since March, about which I am quite pleased. It was nice to see people in the church again, and I was sorry that I could not meet most of them, either before or after, mostly because of the present restrictions. I await better days. Mass was offered for the repose of the soul of Sam Lukins (+), and I was pleased to recognise two members of his family before me, at last.

The readings at Mass were about the generosity of God in welcoming the sinner into His Church (so unlike the generosity of human beings, which has limits), thereby giving him the same reward as the rest of the People, and there can be no grumbling about it. This is clear in the gospel story at Mass, when Christ suggests to his Jewish audience that new entries into the People of God were imminent and that they would have the same reward as themselves, the Jews, however late they have arrived. We can apply the same idea, I think, to new converts to the Church in our times. God will be abundant in His graces to all His children.

"'And now it was evening, and the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, Send for the workmen and pay them their wages, beginning with the last comers and going back to the first. And so the men who were hired about the eleventh hour came forward, and each was paid a silver piece. So that when the others came, who were hired first, they hoped to receive more. But they were paid a silver piece each, like their fellows. And they were indignant with the rich man over their pay. "Here are these late-comers," they said, "who have worked but one hour, and thou hast made no difference between them and us, who have borne the day’s burden and the heat." But he answered one of them thus; "My friend, I am not doing thee a wrong; did we not agree on a silver piece for thy wages? Take what is thy due, and away with thee; it is my pleasure to give as much to this late-comer as thee."'" - Gospel of S. Matthew, 20: 8-14

A parish history

I thought we could have a short history of the parish on the parish website, so I've pieced this together from the book that was produced to commemorate the opening of the church in 1985. It is slightly dated, and will be added to when I find a usable source for the last thirty-five years. It is now on the About us page.

The original site for the church and parish property was obtained in 1876 by Monsignor McKenna, at a time when the present grid of streets had barely been formed. The first chapel was designed by Mr. Sheffield, and was opened for use by Monsignor Bagshawe, the third Bishop of Nottingham on the 26th of November, 1878. The priests came over from Saint Mary's at Bridge Gate until 1891, when the presbytery was built, using a legacy left by Monsignor Sing (once at Saint Mary's), who left more money for the furtherance of the mission at Saint Joseph's. The first missionary priest at Saint Joseph's was Father T. Hanks (1891-94). The chapel was used as a school from 1879, being enlarged gradually to form what was called St. Joseph's Institute. This building soon became unsuitable for the growing school and a new school was built in 1908 on the Cromwell Road. 

The first church was designed by James Hart of Corby, and the foundation stone laid by the Bishop on the 29th of April, 1896. Cardinal Vaughn appeared for the opening of the building on the 25th of February, 1897. Canon J. F. Browne (1896-1925) at Saint Joseph's helped establish the parish of Saint George in 1920 and Canon J. F. Hargreaves (1925-44) helped to make Saint George's independent, with her own resident priest. Father J. M. P. McCarthy (1944-58) arrived from the parish of the Good Shepherd, to the north of Nottingham, and was followed by Father D. Key (1958-59). Father Key began to move towards setting up the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Mickleover. Canon James Beel (1959-81) oversaw the building of Saint Joseph's Junior School and the building of a parish hall and watched Saint Thomas More school (established 1957) become a comprehensive school. The infant and junior schools were joined together to form a new primary school on the Mill Hill Lane under Father McLaughlin, and the Cromwell Road site was closed in July, 1983. Canon Beel had acquired the Grove Mansions plot to support the building of the parish hall and a possible future church, but died in 1981, without realising this plan.  

The second church has been designed by D. J. Montague of Derby, together with the sacristy and the presbytery, to complement the new school on the Mill Hill Lane, and to fulfil the desire of the City Planners to preserve a well-landscaped and pleasant prospect on the Burton Road. The church was opened for use by His Eminence Cardinal George Basil Hume, archbishop of Westminster, on the 25th of February, 1985.

 

Daily Mass - Saint Robert Bellarmine

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Rome for my brief stay there, while obtaining a Masters degree at seminary, was to stop at the splendid Jesuit church in the Campus Martius, the church of Saint Ignatius. The video above is a tour of the this beautiful building, and within it, under a side altar, lie the relics in full dress of today's Saint, the bishop Robert Bellarmine, one of the great teachers of the Catholic Reformation at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century. As a Doctor of the Church, he has an entry on my page on those Doctors on this blog (which I'm still building), and I copy that entry here: 

"Born in Montepulciano in the north of Italy, Robert joined the Society of Jesus, specialising in the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the work of the Church Fathers. Ordained in 1570, he taught first in Louvain and then in the Roman College, then a Jesuit institution, and received the chair of apologetics - the science of the defence of the Church and her theology. He therefore became a powerhouse of the so-called 'counter-reformation,' that is, the actual reformation of the Catholic Church, following the Council of Trent. As a teacher in Rome, he had already assembled a course of lessons called the Controversies, but between 1588 and 1594, he was spiritual director and then superior of the community at the Roman College. The Holy Father Clement VIII made him papal theologian and consultor to the Holy Office. One of his most popular works was a short catechism called Christian Doctrine. Clement VIII made him a cardinal in 1599 and archbishop of Capua in 1602. Under the Holy Fathers Leo XI and Paul V, he was recalled to Rome, becoming a member of various curial bodies, such as the Holy Office, the Congregation for Rites and the Congregation for the propagation of the Faith, among other diplomatic appointments. His final works were based on his spiritual exercises in the Ignatian tradition and he died in 1621. 

Saint Robert's Controversies remain a working standard for Catholic ecclesiology, sacramentology and anthropology - addressing protestant challenges - in which he applies reason to the Tradition of the Church, while clearly defining Catholic doctrine. His ministerial work made him a hardworking preacher, as given by his hundreds of homilies in various locations. To this may be added his commentaries on Scripture, and especially the epistles of Saint Paul. And then there are other spiritual works. His theme was (i) personal conversion as a source of every other reform, (ii) devotion to God and (iii) communion with Him." 

Daily Mass - memorial of the Holy Father Saint Cornelius and Saint Cyprian of Carthage

Mass was offered today for the repose of the soul of Ray Lloyd (+), may he be granted eternal rest in the embrace of the Almighty.

Today's is a significant memorial for the Roman church, because of the significance of these figures in our history. The Holy Father Cornelius was bishop of Rome in the third century and his position on the forgiveness and reconciliation of Christians who had apostatised under the pressure of a violent persecution (in this case, the Decian persecution). Both Cornelius and the bishop Saint Cyprian of Carthage agreed that reconciliation was possible, if those who had apostatised performed acts of penitence. Opposed to them were the followers of the north-African priest Novatian, who gathered a significant schismatic faction to challenge the authority of the pope; Novatian became one of the first anti-popes in history. Cornelius called a synod, excommunicated Novatian and named his position a heresy. In a later persecution in AD 253, Cornelius was exiled and then killed. Not much later, in AD 256, a renewed persecution of the Church led to the death of the Holy Father Sixtus II, and Cornelius' friend Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. By September, AD 258, Cyprian was ready for heaven. Wikipedia presents the sentence from his trial:

"You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the pious, most sacred and august Emperors ... have endeavoured in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; whereas therefore you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood."

Cornelius and Cyprian were important enough to be inserted by name into the oldest prayer of the Roman Church, the Roman Canon, which today we call Eucharistic Prayer I. Here is the relevant entry. May they pray for us, as we struggle to find reconciliation with God and his holy Church.

"In communion with those whose memory we venerate, especially the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, and blessed Joseph, her Spouse, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian and all your Saints: we ask that through their merits and prayers, in all things we may be defended by your protecting help. (Through Christ our Lord. Amen.)" - the Roman Canon [source]

 

Reading through Saint Paul's letter to the Philippians

Philippi was one of the great cities of Roman Macedonia in Saint Paul's time, sitting, as you can see by zooming in and out of the Google Map above, on the ancient Via Egnatia, the Roman Road joining Greek Kavalla on the Aegian Sea to Albanian Durres on the Adriatic. Philippi had become a Roman colony, placed under Italian law and governed by military officers. Saint Luke describes Paul's entry into Philippi in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, probably in a first-person account, for Luke was a companion of Paul at that time, alongside Timothy and Silas. How did a wandering Jewish group create a small Christian church (the first in Europe) in a short time, and in the absence of a pre-existing local Jewish community? They preached to the ladies:

"Thence we reached Philippi, which is a Roman colony and the chief city in that part of Macedonia; in this city we remained for some days, conferring together. On the sabbath day we went out beyond the city gates, by the river side, a meeting-place, we were told, for prayer; and we sat down and preached to the women who had assembled there. One of those who were listening was a woman called Lydia, a purple-seller from the city of Thyatira, and a worshipper of the true God; and the Lord opened her heart, so that she was attentive to Paul’s preaching. She was baptized, with all her household; and she was urgent with us; 'Now you have decided that I have faith in the Lord,' she said, 'come to my house and lodge there; and she would take no denial.'" - Acts of the Apostles, 16: 12-15

And, obviously they created a seed community in the home of the lady Lydia, who seems to have had part in the lucrative Phoenician market in purple dye. We discover later in the chapter that the Apostle couldn't stay very long, for he left almost immediately for Thessalonika. However, he undoubtedly kept in touch with the Philippians with correspondence, only one part of which we have reserved for us in our bibles in the Letter to the Philippians. I'm going to point out a few nice parts of the letter. First, Paul says that he is glad of any way in which Christ is proclaimed, whether as part of a work of charity, or even from a desire to make Paul himself suffer, such as by having him arrested and imprisoned!

"I hasten to assure you, brethren, that my circumstances [of imprisonment] here have only had the effect of spreading the gospel further; so widely has my imprisonment become known, in Christ’s honour, throughout the praetorium and to all the world beyond. And most of the brethren, deriving fresh confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment, are making bold to preach God’s word with more freedom than ever. Some of them, it is true, for no better reason than rivalry or jealousy; but there are others who really proclaim Christ out of good will. Some, I mean, are moved by charity, because they recognise that I am here to defend the gospel, others by party spirit, proclaiming Christ from wrong motives, just because they hope to make my chains gall me worse. What matter, so long as either way, for private ends or in all honesty, Christ is proclaimed?" - Philippians, 1: 12-18

Priorities! 'For me, life is Christ,' Paul declares, 'and death is a prize to be won!' He wants to reach past death for the joy of eternal life with God, but he dearly loves the people of his churches, and he moans that his heart is torn in two: he wants to die, but he wants to live for the good of the churches:

"I am hemmed in on both sides. I long to have done with it, and be with Christ, a better thing, much more than a better thing; and yet, for your sakes, that I should wait in the body is more urgent still. I am certain of that, and I do not doubt that I shall wait, and wait upon you all, to the happy furtherance of your faith." - Philippians, 1: 23-25

Now, remember when Christ said in the Gospels that we should be like little children in order that we acquire eternal life. Paul says a little bit more here, and it is startlingly relevant to us even today: 

"Beloved, you have always shewn yourselves obedient; and now that I am at a distance, not less but much more than when I am present, you must work to earn your salvation, in anxious fear. Both the will to do it and the accomplishment of that will are something which God accomplishes in you, to carry out his loving purpose. Do all that lies in you, never complaining, never hesitating, to shew yourselves innocent and single-minded, God’s children, bringing no reproach on his name. You live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern, and among such people you shine out, beacons to the world, upholding the message of life. Thus, when the day of Christ comes, I shall be able to boast of a life not spent in vain, of labours not vainly undergone." - Philippians, 2: 12-16

Paul has elsewhere in the letters we have said that he has begotten these new Christians in Christ. So he calls himself their father, and addresses them commonly as beloved children. He urges them to follow his example, which is a useful idea, since they do not have the spiritual and moral tradition and heritage of the Jews. By copying Paul, they acquire it gradually:

"No, brethren, I do not claim to have the mastery already, but this at least I do; forgetting what I have left behind, intent on what lies before me, I press on with the goal in view, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons in Christ Jesus. All of us who are fully grounded must be of this mind, and God will make it known to you, if you are of a different mind at present. Meanwhile, let us all be of the same mind, all follow the same rule, according to the progress we have made. Be content, brethren, to follow my example, and mark well those who live by the pattern we have given them..." - Philippians, 3: 13-17

Humble, dear Paul says that he is not perfect, doesn't have the mastery, but he's struggling along like everybody else. We know that this is not the first letter or the only letter Paul wrote to the Philippians, because he ends with a salutation to two ladies other than Lydia, whom we know from the Acts of the Apostles. He names Evodia and Syntyche. He is very affectionate in his recommendations of the Philippian Epaphroditus who had probably brought him a letter from Philippi and would now carry this letter of ours back home with him. Paul is also affectionate about his priest Timothy, who he has promised to send to visit the Philippian church. Timothy would later become bishop of Ephesus, across the Aegian in Asia Minor. Anyway, this post is overlong, and I shall end with a characteristic and beautiful Pauline exhortation to virtue:

"And now, brethren, all that rings true, all that commands reverence, and all that makes for right; all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is gracious in the telling; virtue and merit, wherever virtue and merit are found—let this be the argument of your thoughts. The lessons I taught you, the traditions I handed on to you, all you have heard and seen of my way of living—let this be your rule of conduct. Then the God of peace will be with you." - Philippians, 4: 8-9

 

Daily Mass - the twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary time

Mass was offered this morning for the repose of the soul of James Geelan (+); may he rest in peace and rise in glory. The only other special Mass intention in the last few days was that for the Holy Souls on Thursday. 

I delight in the Judaism of the first century, the Judaism which the early Church lived, and which these Jewish Christians welcomed us, the non-Jewish (Gentile) Christians, into. Although, of course, in a modified way, as summarised in chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles. Judaism was wonderfully diverse in those last years and decades before the Temple in Jerusalem was finally destroyed. This diversity vanished with the Temple, for the now scattered Jewish communities went into survival mode and the rabbis quickly reconfigured the old religion to continue as a synagogue-only religion, and establishing an early authorised version of Scripture (the Church ignored this move and continued to use the old Septuagint version of Scripture). That's a terrible simplification, so do look for a more complete description of the reconfiguration of Judaism at that time. You may begin here, perhaps.

Even without going into that detail, we still get a bright picture of the life and culture of the Jewish people before the Wars of the late 60s, from the New Testament. The authors of the New Testament took this Jewish culture for granted, so it's always nice to learn more about what was lost. It bears repeating that Christ had not quite intended to create a new religion, Christianity, but was bringing the old religion to fulfilment. The Church still remembers this when she calls herself an heir to the original Israelite People of God at the foot of Mount Sinai:

"The word 'Church' (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. By calling itself 'Church,' the first community of Christian believers recognised itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is 'calling together' his people from all the ends of the earth." - Catechism of the Catholic Church, #751

That's why we retain for full use (alongside our New Testament documents) the Old Testament, which in the Catholic translations is more-or-less the old Septuagint used by the Jews in Apostolic times. And that is also why it's so nice to have these matched readings at Mass, these carefully arranged sets of first readings and gospel readings. We discover that, in a very real way, many basic elements of the Catholic religion already existed in expectation in the Hebrew Scriptures and can be drawn out and stand alongside their appearances in the Gospels. So, this Sunday, we come to the schoolbook Jewish command to forgive endlessly, as God forgives. This is enshrined for us in the Lord's prayer, the Our Father. But we see it today in the first reading also, from the book of Ecclesiasticus:

"Plot ill, and the ill shall recoil on thyself, springing up beyond all thy expectation. For the proud, mockery and shame! Vengeance, like a lion, couches in wait for them. For all who triumph at the ill fortune of the just, a snare to catch them, and a long remorse before death takes them! Rancour and rage are detestable things both; and the sinner has both in store. He that will be avenged brings on himself the Lord’s vengeance; watch and ward shall be kept over his sins continually. Forgive thy neighbour his fault, and for thy own sins thy prayer shall win pardon; should man bear man a grudge, and yet look to the Lord for healing? Should he refuse mercy to his fellow-man, yet ask forgiveness, should he think to appease God, while he, a mortal man, is obdurate? Who shall plead for his acquittal? Look to thy last end, and leave thy quarrelling;" Ecclesiasticus, 27:30 - 28:6

And then Christ, standing knee deep in the Jewish tradition, tells Saint Peter in the Gospel to forgive seventy-seven times, and then fleshes it out with one of his rabbinical parables. If pushed, He would have said seven hundred and seventy-seven times, but I think Peter got the message.

"...the servant fell at his feet and said, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay thee in full.' And his master, moved with pity for him, let the servant go and discharged him of his debt. So the servant went out, and met with a fellow servant of his, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver; whereupon he caught hold of him and took him by the throat, and said, 'Pay me all thou owest me.' His fellow servant went down on his knees in entreaty; 'Have patience with me,' he said, 'and I will pay thee in full.' But the other refused; he went away and committed him to prison for such time as the debt was unpaid. The rest of the servants were full of indignation when they saw this done, and went in to tell their master what had happened. And so he was summoned by his master, who said to him, 'I remitted all that debt of thine, thou wicked servant, at thy entreaty; was it not thy duty to have mercy on thy fellow servant, as I had mercy on thee?' And his master, in anger, gave him over to be tortured until the debt was paid. It is thus that My heavenly Father will deal with you, if brother does not forgive brother with all his heart." - Gospel of S. Matthew, 18: 26-35

So then, we must forgive endlessly. This is one of the great gifts of the Judaeo-Christian moral system that we have inherited. It is one of the features of the perfection that Christ calls us to, when he says that we must be perfect as God our Father is perfect. And that's all to the command; we could go into all manner of subtlety about the degree of wrong done, and the consequences of crimes committed against us and how intolerable it is for society to allow for crime to go unpunished. But the command is personal and it is, oh, so simple, if you think about it. It may not be easy to forget a wrong done, because memory remains, but if we have forgiven it and truly forgiven it, we find a peace that nobody can take from us. We must always remember the Man on the Cross, looking upon his persecutors and saying, 'Forgive them, for they do not know what they do.'

This week, Jewish communities celebrate the New Year

The Jewish calendar is not a solar calendar as our Roman calendars are, but a lunar calendar. So it travels differently from ours. This week, they celebrate the New Year, which in Hebrew is Rosh ha-Shanáh, literally, the head of the year, similar to the Italian capo d'anno. Let's see what we can learn about the Jewish New Year, from myjewishlearning.com. We could use bullet points:

• occurs at the beginning of the month of Tishrei, actually the seventh month of the Jewish Year, which is counted from the spring month of Nisan. It is characterised by introspection, evaluating the old year and preparing for the new.
• it is a two-day festival, and is followed by ten days of repentance (the days of Awe) and then the major fast day of Yom Kippur (the day of Atonement). At the beginning of the previous month, Elul, the shofar (a horn) is sounded in preparation for all of this. 
• Rosh ha-Shanah, also called the Yom Hadin (day of Judgement), when God opens the books of Life and Death (to review the past year), which are then sealed twelve days later, on the Yom Kippur. This festival is not in the Bible per se, but is linked to a royal enthronement ritual from the times of the old Hebrew monarchies. It can only guessed as to why the seventh month starts a new year: for example, as a memory from an the ancient exile in Babylon, when the Babylonian calendar was partially adopted.
• a circle-shaped (symbolising the eternal cycle of life) traditional bread called the challah is eaten, dipped in honey for sweetness. Apples are also eaten with honey.
• liturgically, the prayer book Mahzor is used in sections, each section ending in the shofar being blown. This ram's horn is a reminder of the covenant between God and Israel.

I shall make an effort, as our Jewish friends begin their new year, to learn a little more about their traditions and practices. A year ago, I found this book in a charity shop. It's time to actually read it. I think there'll be another page on this blog appearing on the sidebar in due course, centring on the Jewish religion.

Reading through Genesis - part 2

In part 1, I described how the Genesis is above all the story of the progressive shedding of polytheism and idolatry and, as Jacob, the grandson of the faithful Abraham, grows in prosperity as a result of the blessing he inherited from Abraham, he brings his whole family to monotheism in chapter 35. Now only the Hebrew God is referred to, by Jacob and by Joseph his son. Pious Jews and Catholics refuse to pronounce the ancient name of God, which simply means to be, or I am, and pronounced in Hebrew sounds like the wind in the trees. Jews simply replace the Name as they read with Adonai, which means my Lord; a similar use is also found in most Catholics bibles (excluding, unfortunately, the Jerusalem Bible).

Soon thereafter begins the Joseph story, where we discover the wickedness of Jacob's sons, and in particular the first three, Ruben, Simeon and Levi. Ruben had had incestuous relations with one of his father's wives, Bala, and Simeon and Levi had lead a genocide on a people called the Hevites, because one of them had raped their sister and later offered to marry her. Lastly, the whole lot of them had managed to sell their brother Joseph into slavery in Egypt and convinced the old man that he had been killed in the wild. The book of Genesis ends with blessings for all the sons but those first three. And the blessing on the fourth son, Judah, is memorable, and this is later very important to the claim of King David to the kingship of all Israel (for David was of the tribe of Judah), which is also central to the Messiah's claim to kingship of all nations (and all things), as David's son. Here is the blessing on Judah:

"But thou, Juda, shalt win the praise of thy brethren; with thy hand on the necks of thy enemies, thou shalt be reverenced by thy own father’s sons. Juda is like a lion’s whelp; on the hills, my son, thou roamest after thy prey; like a lion couched in his lair, a lioness that none dares provoke. Juda shall not want a branch from his stem, a prince drawn from his stock, until the day when he comes who is to be sent to us, he, the hope of the nations. To what tree will he tie his mount; the ass he rides on? The vine for him, the vineyard for him; when he washes his garments, it shall be in wine, all his vesture shall be dyed with the blood of grapes. Fairer than wine his eyes shall be, his teeth whiter than milk." - Genesis, 49: 8-12

Similar language was later used by King David, when he composed the famous Messianic psalm, Psalm 109 (110), which the priests and Religious recite every Sunday evening at Evening Prayer:

To the Master I serve the Lord’s promise was given, Sit here at my right hand while I make thy enemies a footstool under thy feet. The Lord will make thy empire spring up like a branch out of Sion; thou art to bear rule in the midst of thy enemies. From birth, princely state shall be thine, holy and glorious; thou art my son, born like dew before the day-star rises. The Lord has sworn an oath there is no retracting, Thou art a priest for ever in the line of Melchisedech." - Psalm 109 (110): 1-4

And Christ Himself quotes this psalm in his famous defence to the Pharisees:

"Then, while the Pharisees were still gathered about Him, Jesus asked them: 'What is your opinion concerning Christ? Whose son is he to be?' They told Him, 'David’s.' 'How is it then,' said He, 'that David is moved by the Spirit to call him Master, when he says: The Lord said to my Master, Sit on my right hand while I make thy enemies a footstool under thy feet? David calls Christ his Master; how can he be also his son?' None could find a word to say in answer to Him, nor did anyone dare, after that day, to try Him with further questions." - Gospel of S. Matthew, 22: 41-46

Reading the book of Genesis is always easy, because the language used is so simple. And Exodus is very similar. I would start to worry when I get to Leviticus, the priestly book. The liturgical detail there has put me to sleep in the past. The picture below is of the patriarch Jacob blessing his grandsons by Joseph, shown on the right. Joseph tried to present them by putting the older boy Manasses on Jacob's right, so he would get the blessing of the first-born. But Jacob crossed his arms over and gave his right-hand blessing to the younger boy, Ephraim. At the same time, Jacob transferred the blessing of his oldest sons, Ruben and Simeon, to these grandsons Manasses and Ephraim.

Psalm 25 (26)

I remember reading somewhere (I cannot remember where) that this was a favourite of the early Christians, and it certainly sounds like the testament of some of those bold souls who became martyrs in the early centuries. There is some beautiful language in this, so please do mark this psalm in your bibles as one that should possibly be used regularly and even memorised. For centuries until the 1970s, the last part of the psalm, beginning with With the pure in heart I will wash, was recited by the priest at Mass as he washed his hands during the offertory. In the old language, I will wash is given as Lavabo, so this party of the Mass was called the lavabo, when the altar servers went up with the water and bowl. Anyway, here it is:

Lord, be Thou my judge; 

have I not guided my steps clear of wrong? 

Have I trusted in the Lord, only to stumble on my path?

Test me, Lord, put me to the proof; 

assay my inmost desires and thoughts.

Ever I keep Thy mercies in mind, 

ever Thy faithfulness bears me company.

I have not consorted with false men, or joined in plotting evil;

I have shunned the company of the wicked, 

never sat at my ease with sinners. 

With the pure in heart I will wash my hands clean, 

and take my place among them at Thy altar,

there making thy praises known, 

telling the story of all Thy wonderful deeds.

How well, Lord, I love the house where Thou dwellest, 

the shrine of Thy glory!

Lord, never count this soul for lost with the wicked, 

this life among the blood-thirsty;

hands ever stained with guilt, 

palms ever itching for a bribe!

Be it mine to guide my steps clear of wrong; 

deliver me in Thy mercy.

On sure ground my feet are set; 

where His people gather I will join in blessing the Lord’s name.

Have just updated the prayer page on the parish website

I thought we'd give the page more content. I've put in some very basic prayers which we all know, and then a set of lists we must have at some point or other learnt in catechism class. Whether we remember them or not, they are useful items for meditation, when we say our daily prayers and when we reflect on the truth of the Faith.

Find the page by clicking here.

The church to open at last

The date is the 20th of September. It can't be any sooner, since we only received permission to open from Nottingham this morning. Please note that this is only for Mass, at 10.30 on a Sunday, at present. We shall only expand further when we are more certain of the availability of volunteer stewards for other proposed Mass timings. 

We have yet to negotiate the booking system, which should be available for our parish by the middle of next week. We shall be using the Diocesan booking service, which is online. If you know of anybody who is unable to use this service, please get them to call us on the parish telephone (01332 343777), or send e-mail somehow to the parish e-mail address. Again, bookings will only be possible next week.

I apologise for the inconvenience of these measures to ensure not only the adequately distanced seating arrangements in the church, but also the tracing system that the government wishes us to establish, in order (both) to attempt to control the spread of the virus. 

Saviour of the world

Oh, this is interesting... I've just reached Genesis, chapter 41, in my Bible in a year project and Joseph son of Jacob has just been given almost the highest honour in the land of Egypt for securing the country from the famine to come. He is given a new name by the Egyptian king which is literally the 'Saviour of the World.' 

"And with that, he took off the signet-ring from his own hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand instead; gave him robes, too, of lawn, and hung a gold chain about his neck; then bade him mount on a chariot that was next in honour to his own, and would have a herald proclaim that all must do him reverence, and acknowledge him as ruler of the whole land of Egypt. And he gave Joseph this assurance, On the word of Pharao, no one in all Egypt shall be free to move hand or foot without thy permission. He gave him a new name, calling him in Egyptian Saviour of the World." - Genesis, 41: 42-45

This is the same name that was later given to the Roman emperors, who secured the Pax Romana, the edict of peace over the whole of the then known world (from a European perspective).

And it was the name given by the Christians to the Son of God.

Later on, when famine strikes the land, the people cry for food, and Pharaoh says to them:

"When food grew scarce, there was ever a cry made to Pharao for bread, and still he would answer, 'Betake yourselves to Joseph, do what he bids you.'" - Genesis, 41: 55

This last advice has lately been given to Catholics by the Church to another Hebrew dreamer named Joseph, who has been appointed Universal Protector of Holy Church - the spouse of the Blessed Virgin.

Reading through Genesis - part 1

I shall soon have finished a non-stop run through Genesis. You may have heard it said that the Old Testament is the story of Israel's ongoing struggle against polytheism and idolatry, and it is mostly a struggle with self. Because polytheism was the way of men everywhere then, as it very much is today, and increasingly so. And it is the tendency of the chosen People to copy the culture they find themselves in and re-assume the idolatry that their ancestors had rejected. In the book of Genesis itself, we find that, although Abraham is extremely faithful to the one, true God, it is against a background of polytheism, and when Abraham encounters the three men in white in his vision in chapter 18 he recognises only one of these divine persons as the God he had encountered earlier (singular pronoun Thou), but nevertheless gives all three (plural pronoun You) an equal homage. This has led Christian authors to point to this event as an early appearance of the Holy Trinity:

"He looked up, and saw three men standing near him; and, at the sight, he ran from his tent door to meet them, bowing down to the earth. 'Lord,' he said, 'as Thou lovest me, do not pass Thy servant by; let me fetch a drop of water, so that You can wash your feet and rest in the shade. I will bring a mouthful of food, too, so that you can refresh yourselves before you go on further; you have not come this way for nothing.'" - Genesis, 18: 1-5

So, Abraham is taught devotion to the one God gradually, in the course of all those stories about him that we know so well: the gift of Isaac, the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham wishes to preserve his son from the pollution of idolatry in the Holy Land and sends him off to Haran in Mesopotamia, to find a wife among his own clan, where the true God was worshipped (although, as one among others). Then, later on, Isaac is called to obedience of the God of his father Abraham, as if asked to choose this Deity over others he was probably surrounded with and attracted to. In fact, he is favoured as a result of Abraham's devotion, rather than his own: 

"From there he went to Bersabee; and here, the same night, he had a vision of the Lord, who said to him, 'I am the God of thy father Abraham; fear nothing, I am with thee. I mean to bless thee, and give increase to thy posterity, in reward of Abraham’s true service.' So he built an altar, and invoked the Lord’s name, and pitched his tent there, and bade his servants dig a well." - Genesis, 26: 23-25

And when it came to Isaac's twin sons, Jacob and Esau, we find the old problem of infidelity to the God of Abraham, for Esau (to his parents' displeasure) married outside religion and so risked and endangered the blessing of God on the children of Abraham. Isaac's reaction was to send Jacob off to find a wife in Mesopotamia, once more. When Jacob had the vision of the staircase going to Heaven, he was in flight from his brother Esau (who meant to kill him), and he renamed the place he was at (Luza) as Beth-El (literally, the house of God), and promised God to be faithful only to Him if He were to protect him from Esau's rage:

"When he awoke from his dream, Jacob said to himself, 'Why, this is the Lord’s dwelling-place, and I slept here unaware of it!' And he shuddered; 'What a fearsome place is this!' said he. 'This can be nothing other than the house of God; this is the gate of Heaven.' So it was that, when he rose in the morning, Jacob took the stone which had been his pillow, and set it up there as a monument, and poured oil upon it; and he called the place Bethel, the House of God, that was called Luza till then. And there he took a vow; 'If God will be with me,' he said, 'and watch over me on this journey of mine, and give me bread to eat and clothes to cover my back, till at last I return safe to my father’s house, then the Lord shall be my God.'" - Genesis 28, 16-21

Through tribulation therefore, the ancient patriarchs were led towards devotion to the one God. Later, in chapter 31, we discover that Jacob's uncle Laban, whose daughters he had married, was himself a polytheist, for when Jacob travelled back to the Holy Land from Mesopotamia, his wife Rachel smuggled away some of her father's household gods:

"Upon this, Jacob waited no longer; he mounted his children and wives on the camels, and set out on his journey; taking with him all his possessions, his cattle and all the wealth he had gained in Mesopotamia; he would return to his father Isaac, and the land of Chanaan. Meanwhile, in the absence of her father Laban, who had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole his household gods from him. Jacob had given his father-in-law no warning of his flight, and it was not till he and all that belonged to him had gone away, and crossed the Euphrates, and were making for the hills of Galaad, that a message came to Laban, three days too late, Jacob has fled." - Genesis, 31: 17-22

And then we arrive at the point at which Jacob (now renamed Israel by God) decided to permanently consecrate not only himself but his entire family to the one God at Bethel, and I'll finish this post on the quote. The rest of the Old Testament is the story of Jacob's children falling away from and reconciling themselves to the one God, and that's one reason for the importance of the story of our Hebrew ancestors in the Faith: we have the same human inclinations to turn away from God, and we must repeatedly turn back towards Him. The picture below is the foundation story for Bethel (the end of Genesis 28).

"In the meanwhile, too, God had said to Jacob, 'Bestir thyself, go up to Bethel, and make thy dwelling there; there build an altar to the God who revealed himself to thee when thou wast in flight from thy brother Esau.' Whereupon Jacob summoned all his household; 'Cast away, he told them, whatever images of alien gods you have among you, purify yourselves, and put on fresh garments. We must leave this, and go up to Bethel; there we must build an altar to the God who listened to me in time of trouble, and escorted me on my journey.' So they gave him all the images of alien gods that were in their possession, the rings, too, which they wore on their ears, and he buried them under the mastic-tree, close to the town of Sichem. Thus they set out on their journey, and God inspired terror into the hearts of all who dwelt around them, so that they durst not pursue them as they went. Jacob, then, with all his clan, made their way to Luza, which is now called Bethel, and built an altar there. It was he who called the place Bethel, the house of God, because it was there God appeared to him when he was in flight from his brother." - Genesis, 35: 1-7

The English Ordinariate of OL of Walsingham

Many years ago, when I was at seminary in London, we had several former Anglican ministers who had just become Catholics visiting for several days of a week to attend classes of various types before being ordained in their various dioceses to serve as priests of the Ordinariate of OL of Walsingham, a new structure that had been established by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, who was very fond of Cardinal John Henry Newman and sympathetic to the cause of groups of Anglicans who wished to become Catholics en masse, coming into the Church along with their clerics. 

I was delighted with the whole idea of Anglicans being able to maintain their own customs and familiar ritual within the auspices of the Catholic Church, and I thought that Pope Benedict was being very kindly, very generous in a difficult position. I have got to know several Ordinariate priests since then, even in our own Diocese and they are wonderful. There are new possibilities now opening up for adaptation to other ecclesiastical communities, including the Lutherans and the Armenians. This seems to be an answer, although limited, to our repeated prayers for Christian unity. In this video below, Father Bradley explains in about twenty minutes what it's all about:

Saint Margaret Mary and the theology of suffering

I have mentioned something like this recently, and it should be a constant theme. The world does not like suffering and goes so far as to ignore suffering whenever possible. Worldly success is measured by how far we are able to enjoy life, by how much we can get out of life. But, without suffering. Which is why when some unforeseen calamity, such as a terminal illness, arrives without warning and makes the end inevitable, we're all so very sorry, even if we don't know the person who is suffering. 'Oh, how sad,' we say, 'and she's so young, too.' And what about disability? I know of heroic families that care for the disabled, their relatives and friends, and draw into the world an extraordinary love, while the world passes by and says such rotten things as, 'that person should not be alive, they are better off dead.' This is a world that campaigns endlessly for the preservation of species of animals approaching extinction, but is able to tolerate the killing of small babies approaching birth, especially when these babies are disabled, because it cannot accept any suffering for either the babies or their families.

So, I have reached to this point in Saint Margaret Mary's autobiography, where she describes a vision of heaven which she found so absolutely delightful that she was prepared to die right away and enter into that enjoyment (pp. 62-63). Then she hears the ancient Voice say something to her, and she set it down in verse. In English, the book presents it as:

"In vain thy longing heart desires

to find an entrance there,

who to this heavenly bliss aspires,

on earth the cross must bear."

God is love we are told, and we are to abide in his love. But true love endures the cross for the sake of the beloved. We live in a world that refuses to love. May we not be a part of it. We must remember the warning of Christ: 

"'Do to other men all that you would have them do to you; that is the Law and the Prophets. Make your way in by the narrow gate. It is a broad gate and a wide road that leads on to perdition, and those who go in that way are many indeed; but how small is the gate, how narrow the road that leads on to life, and how few there are that find it!'" - Gospel of S. Matthew, 7:12-14

 

Daily Masses - intentions, news on the church opening

This has been a busy week, with all the movement around the parish property, and I haven't had a chance to update the blog or even to sit before a computer. I'll quickly summarise the three intentions we've had at Mass this week. Other Masses have had the usual default weekly intentions you'll find at the bottom of the blog's side bar. On Monday, then, Mass was offered for the repose of the soul of Elizabeth McGrady (+), and on Wednesday for the Holy Souls (++). May they gain eternal rest in the embrace of the God who loves them. Mass was offered this morning for the People of the Parish, seeing as tomorrow's Sunday Mass has a personal intention.

Having received kind support from a team of volunteers in the last two-three weeks, we are now preparing the church for opening. All things being well, we shall open on Sunday the 13th of September for a single morning Mass at 10.30. We shall be requesting that you book for attendance using the website put up for the purpose by Nottingham. Please don't try to do it immediately; you will find that St. Joseph's is not available on the booking website until we have the final permission to open, which I hope to get this coming week. This booking system is unfortunately necessary at the moment, in order to fulfil the requirements of the government and the Diocese. I would like to ask that you check back on the parish website frequently for news. If for any reason we are unable to open on Sunday the 13th, we will on Sunday the 20th. According to our experience in September and with the assistance of further volunteers, we will consider a second Sunday Mass (two Sundays Masses) in October. 

I would like to thank you for your patience with the church opening. If you are able to consider it, it has been just as annoying for me to not be able to open the doors.