Celebrating with Sts. Peter & Paul

Today is one of those extra-special feast days that really bring home what a joy and a privilege and a blessing it is to be Catholic, not least because it is a holy day of obligation and all the faithful come to Mass to worship the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and share in the fruits of his sacrifice. But the thing that seems to always strike me most of all each year is the sheet wonder that is the Body of Christ, the Church.

The antiphon for the Mass today is; "These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God." and it is that statement, that through their sharing in that suffering of Christ and relinquishing their own lives for the sake of the Gospel they have strengthened and formed the Church in ways we can never hope to. Their deaths didn't just send out a message that Jesus was worth dying for and, despite the obvious loss of two marvellous teachers and apostles for the early Christian community, the people weren't left alone. Peter and Paul testified to the awe-some power of Christ's death and resurrection in giving up themselves for his sake and enduring gruesome fates so that the faith of the community might grow and bear even greater fruit.

This feast I love because we celebrate the lives of two holy men who were totally dedicated to the work of God. I love it because we see in Peter and Paul examples of our own human frailty and what God can do to transform that if we simply say, "yes." I love it because their deaths still give us hope and strength when our faith is weak and the temptations and noise of the world seem all too much. I love it 'cause we all have to go to Mass!

Sts. Peter and Paul, pray for us.

The English Martyrs

Last Friday we celebrated the feast of some absolutely extraordinary people. People who stood up in the face of persecution, with the threat of imprisonment, torture and violent death hanging over them, and fearlessly practiced their faith. They are a source of inspiration and, more importantly, a source of strength for each and every one of us. Their witness is not confined to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but speaks to us, time and again, of the love of Christ. Their willingness to endure some of the most gruesome of fates is a profound proclamation of their love for Jesus and His Church, a direct response to His sacrifice for us upon the cross.

At Mass on Friday Fr. Aaron reminded us of this and asked us all to think if we too would be prepared to undergo a similar fate for the sake of our faith. This is a challenging and uncomfortable question and, for those of us living in the UK, one we will probably never have to answer. But the fact is (and, for me at least, this was underlined by today's second collection for Aid to the Church in Need) that the kind of persecution that these holy martyrs suffered during the reformation is still going on today in many parts of the world. In so many places people are harassed, forced to live in poverty, arrested and imprisoned, mentally and physically abused, tortured and killed for simply being Christian. In trying to live out the life that Jesus showed us, to love God and our neighbour as ourselves, they are disgracefully treated, degraded and discarded just as those martyrs a few hundred years ago. Often in the light of this suffering we feel rather helpless, we don't know how to respond, how to help those around the world who need our support so very much. As many will have done today there are charities like ACN whose mission it is to do what we as individuals cannot. But the most important tool we have at our disposal is prayer. Even though it may seem like it makes little or no difference as this suffering continues to happen over and over again it has a huge impact on the people who are in those situations. Just as when one part of the Body of Christ suffers we all suffer with it equally when one part offers encouragement the whole Body reaps the benefits. We can draw strength from the witness of the English Martyrs and our brothers and sisters all over the world can profit greatly from our prayers. So why not join me in praying the Litany of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales for all Christians suffering all over the world?

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy, Christ have mercy

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy

Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, Pray for us!

Christ hear us. Christ graciously hear us
God the Father in Heaven, Have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us
Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, Pray for us
Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, Pray for us
St. John Houghton, Pray for us
St. Richard Reynolds, Pray for us
St. Augustine Webster, Pray for us
St. Robert Lawrence, Pray for us
St. John Stone, Pray for us
St. Cuthbert Mayne, Pray for us
St. Edmund Campion, Pray for us
St. Ralph Sherwin, Pray for us
St. Alexander Briant, Pray for us
St. John Payne, Pray for us
St. Luke Kirby, Pray for us
St. Richard Gwyn, Pray for us
St. Margaret Clitherow, Pray for us.
St. Margaret Ward, Pray for us
St. Edmund Gennings, Pray for us
St. Swithun Wells, Pray for us
St. Polydore Plasden, Pray for us
St. Eustace White, Pray for us
St. John Boste, Pray for us
St. Robert Southwell, Pray for us

Holy Martyrs of England and Wales, Pray for us!

St. Henry Walpole, Pray for us
St. Philip Howard, Pray for us
St. John Jones, Pray for us
St. John Rigby, Pray for us
St. Anne Line, Pray for us
St. Nicholas Owen, Pray for us
St. Thomas Garnet, Pray for us
St. John Roberts, Pray for us
St. John Almond, Pray for us
St. Edmund Arrowsmith, Pray for us
St. Ambrose Barlow, Pray for us
St. Alban Roe, Pray for us
St. Henry Morse, Pray for us
St. John Southworth, Pray for us
St. John Plessington, Pray for us
St. Philip Evans, Pray for us
St. John Lloyd, Pray for us
St. John Wall, Pray for us
St. John Kemble, Pray for us
St. David Lewis, Pray for us

Let us pray. Oh God, in whom there is no change or shadow of alteration, you gave courage to the Holy Martyrs. Grant unto us, we beseech you, through their intercession, the grace to always value the Holy Mass. May we be strengthened to serve you in imitation of the courage of these Holy Martyrs. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

As promised...

Fr. Richard's homily from Sunday's prayer service for Christian Unity.

Prayer Service for Christian Unity 2012 at St. Mary’s, the Causeway, Horsham

In July 1995 I was ordained a deacon in the Arundel & Brighton parish of Christ the Prince of Peace in Weybridge. It was an ecumenical occasion in that there were many visitors from other churches, not only because I had been baptised and brought up in the Church of England, but because Weybridge seemed to a very ecumenical place. Mgr Benny O’Shea, the parish priest at the time, had a theory for this. The churches in Weybridge get on so well together because all their members play golf and vote Conservative.

Things in common seem to be a very important part of our journey to Christian unity. Shared culture, shared concerns, shared contributions to society and community: these are surely significant. But sometimes we can be sidetracked by those shared things (which are important but superficial) so that we cease to engage in the dialogue which is more demanding and even painful and which will ultimately bear more fruit. Indeed, the rich diversity of difference in a community like St John’s would be considered as one of our greatest strengths.   

Two months before my ordination Blessed Pope John Paul II had issued his Encyclical Ut unim sint, May they all be one. The encyclical is the highest and most weighty form of personal papal written teaching. John Paul had set the business of Christian unity as one of his priorities of the pontificate in the early 1980s. Now his thoughts were chrystalised in that authoritative document which set the course afresh for Christian unity as a priority for the Catholic Church. This demand springs from the pope’s own commitment to that dialogue between people of good will which, if neglected, becomes more of a battle for ideas. In his experience this had been a real battle, fort out, not in the lecture theatre but on the streets of his occupied city of Krakow; the regimes of fascism and atheistic communism had sort either to replace God or build a society without God. The consequences were desperate, the cost was horrific, the legacy is lasting.

The moving sight of John Paul II arriving at the church of the Gesu in Rome to sing Te Deum in thanksgiving for the old year 1992 was my first meeting with the pope we now call Blessed. My last sight of him was on looking up at the window of the apostolic palace on Easter Wednesday 2005, three days before his death. He struggled desperately to speak to us and bless us. My 1992 had led to tough decisions about my on journey of faith, and the shadow of Peter in affecting strength and unaffected simplicity falling on me had, I believe,  helped me to make those decisions. But the experience of the Church preparing to bid farewell to Il Papa, the Polish Pope had demonstrated again to the world that the desperate weakness of old men who have lived with the weakness and suffering, the doubts and the fears of so many for so long becomes the bright light of a better future.

Pope Benedict spoke at his audience on Wednesday about Christian unity.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which begins today invites all the Lord’s followers to implore the gift of unity. This year’s theme – We Will All Be Changed By The Victory Of Our Lord Jesus Christ – was chosen by representatives of the Catholic Church and the Polish Ecumenical Council. Poland’s experience of oppression and persecution prompts a deeper reflection on the meaning of Christ’s victory over sin and death, a victory in which we share through faith. By his teaching, his example and his paschal mystery, the Lord has shown us the way to a victory obtained not by power, but by love and concern for those in need. Faith in Christ and interior conversion, both individual and communal, must constantly accompany our prayer for Christian unity. During this Week of Prayer, let us ask the Lord in a particular way to strengthen the faith of all Christians, to change our hearts and to enable us to bear united witness to the Gospel. In this way we will contribute to the new evangelization and respond ever more fully to the spiritual hunger of the men and women of our time.

Worshipping God as one family

We all know how vitally important it is to pray for the unity of all Christians all over the world. Christ established one Church, one Body here on earth and is truly sad, heart breaking even, to think of this Body as being fractured, divided and separated. In the Roman Catholic Church we are especially blessed to know such an intimate closeness to Christ, a profound spiritual and physical communion that even our minds cannot even dream of fully comprehending. It is only natural, only right and proper, that we should hope and pray that one day (hopefully one day in the not too distant future) all Christians might be reconciled to one another, brought together and united into a fullness of faith. Tomorrow at 6:30pm Horsham Churches Together conclude their annual week of fervent prayer for Christian Unity. This year is all the more exciting as we are leading the service at St. Mary's C of E Church in the Causeway. Please come along and join us if you can. You won't regret it!