Embertide approaching

Remember, remember
The three days of Ember;
Abolished, forgotten
Or not?

Pass my little rhyme and the link around to other blogs once you've read it :-)

Excellent Vocations Website

NYPRIEST.com

The priestly vocations website of the Archdiocese of New York is a brilliant example of how the Church can utilise modern technology to articulate it's most ancient of institutional graces. The above website shows how very far behind the English Church is in presenting the attractions of a vocation to the priesthood to young men.

Thank God!

Christ the Teacher

For good exam results!

St. Joseph of Cupertino,

Patron saint of exam candidates.

Assumption

It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without defilement thou gavest birth to God the Word. True Theotokos we magnify thee! - Hymn to the Virgin, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Seven Things

That I rather like, as tagged by Madame Evangelista:

1. Travel. I just love to visit new places. To wander around an old town on the continent, without really going anywhere, poking my head through private doorways and stumbling upon a hidden gem is just about my favourite pastime in the whole world.
2. Choral music. Pretentious, moi? Whether it's Gregorian chant, medieval polyphony, that stirring first movement of Mozart's Requiem, the peaceful self-confidence of a Choral Evensong, or indeed just about anything that is not written by John Rutter - I just can't help but feel closer to God.
3. Foreign languages. Why would anybody in their right mind limit their stories, knowledge, personal capabilities, career opportunites, spirituality and even their sense of humour to the narrow anglo-saxon world?
4. A wide vocabulary. Ok, for all my enthusaism for foreign languages, English is phenomenally interesting. It's a language of such diverse origins! For the same essential concept we almost always have a choice between (at least) an anglo-saxon and a romance word: eg, luck/fortune, gift/donation. I include in this choice words that I enjoy for the simple pleasure of saying them: "tepid", "apophatic", "lexicon", "bumblebee", "trudge"...
5. Debate. I love a good empassioned argum... *ahem* scholarly discussion. Perhaps I've said enough... Of course not! Metaphysics is particularly good fun; but what does "fun" mean in this case???
6. Long chats over a coffee. Catching up with friends I haven't seen in months is always fun, but even better on a sunny day in town with a hot cup of coffee or a nice cold drink.
7. The smell of old churches. Right, I admit this one is odd, so bear with me. Never judge a book by it's cover, but feel free to judge a church by it's scent. After a good few centuries of pious devotion and hard-working care, the smell of wood polish, communion wine and insence so permeates the wooden furniture and stone masonry that the building iteself develops an atmosphere which testifies to the continuous fidelity of a community to the Divine service. Come on, you know you agree!

For the giggles.

Apologies for the lack of recent activity. Here's something to keep you amused in the absence of anything substantial:

A potential resource for Catholic schools?

Persecution

I read an article earlier today about the persecution of the Church in Russia under Stalin. Apparently, there were more martyrdoms in 20th Century Russia than during the persecutions of the Roman Empire; 17 million Orthodox and 3 million Catholics.

Since the beginning the Church has been persecuted. Christians have died for their faith for the Church's whole 2000 year existence. The 20th Century was no different. In Russia, Nazi Germany, Spain's "Red Terror", the Armenian genocide, the Istanbul Pogrom, during the Lebanese civil war, in Coptic Egypt, Kosovo and communist China.

This continues today. Radical Islamic governments and militias in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many other nations have tortured and killed apostates from Islam to Christianity. The recent outbreak of "swine flu" in Mexico was used as an excuse by the Egyptian government to slaughter almost all the pigs in that country; all of which belonged to the destitute Coptic minority which rely on such livestock to survive. There are no signs whatsoever that our century will be any better for Christians than those previous.

What does this mean for us in the West?

1. Faith is precious. If we are strong enough, God willing, it is something worth enduring persecution for.
2. Martyrdom means "witnessing". Persecutions have always strengthened the Church.
3. We are the lucky ones. We have no excuses for our petty, day-to-day apostasies; not when Christians in Iraq risk their lives to get to Mass, or Chinese Christians risk prison for possessing a Bible at home.
4. We must strengthen our persecuted brethren. Financial aid, diplomatic pressure, humanitarian relief, and of course prayer are all things we should be contributing to the suffering Church.
5. Christianity in the West must not go out with a whimper. By watering down Christianity to make it easier for the secular West we do the persecuted Church a terrible injustice and we fundamentally weaken our position and integrity.
6. We must forgive. I loathe what Fundamentalist Muslims and Hindus often do to Christians in their country, but we shouldn't resent them for it. We must pray for our enemies. The very worst thing would be an anti-Muslim backlash in the Church.

Corpus Christi

I was lucky enough to be at the Cathedral today to celebrate Corpus Christi. The (rather diminished) choir sang Aquinas' exquisite texts for the feasts, to a variety of musical settings. The mass was ended with a short procession around the body of the Church and Benediction of the Sacrament.

There is something very humbling seeing a body of people kneel before a piece of bread. If it were anything other than what the Church teaches the Eucharist to be, then the whole exercise would have been the worst of blasphemies; and yet Jesus' stark and unbending words in the Gospels - "This is my body" - reassure me that we were not adoring mere bread.

The Latin origin of the word "sacrament" originally meant "pledge" or "oath". One of the reasons the Roman authorities were so suspicious, so I am told, of the Early Church is because Christians were observed to take "sacraments" as a group: to the Emperors this sounded like a revolutionary secret society! One can easily imagine the Roman establishment being fearful of Christians in the same way that the Papacy and Austria were fearful of the carbonari eighteen-hundred years later.

But a pledge is exactly what the Eucharist is. In John Wesley's Eucharistic hymn "Victim divine", of 1786, even an ardent Protestant observes that "Thou art to all already given... and shew thy real presence here." The joys of heaven which we will receive in the future are given to us in the consecrated elements in our here and now.

It is a privilege to observe this. As I'm not in communion with Rome (yet), it is moving to watch people return from the altar; some weep, others smile to themselves as if enjoying the company of an old friend, others simply whisper to the God they have received.

It is right and proper that there should be a day set aside to thank God for this great and life-giving mystery.

Adoremus in Aeternum

A suitably impressive procession attended by the Swiss Guard.

Today is Corpus Christi. Ignoring the liturgical vandalism which sees this medieval festival transferred to a Sunday we can nontheless enjoy a time of deep reflection on the nature of the Blessed Sacrament.



The Second Vatican Council admirably defined the Eucharist as the "source and summit of the Christian life." It is virtually impossible to overstate the importance of the Eucharist to Christians. "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." No real Christian could dare disobey such a direct command from Our Lord, given at such a significant point in the Gospels.

On Corpus Christi, we take time to pray before the Sacrament in the Tabernacle or the Mostrance, but it remains axiomatic that the Sacrament is to be received. The manner in which it is received is particularly interesting.

Nowadays the Host is received with the words "The body of Christ". A very simple statement which testifies to the objective presence of Christ in the elements. The Extraodinary Form of the Mass has the priest give the Host with the words "The body of Our Lord Jesus Christ keep your soul in eternal life." This is a more theologically interesting phrase, as it makes very clear the nature of the sacrament as a pledge of eternal life. St. Ignatius of Antioch spoke of the Eucharist being

"one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death which gives eternal life in Jesus Christ".

Cranmer's Communion service in the BCP goes even further, with bread being handed to the communicant with the words:

The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.

The words "given for thee" and "died for thee" remind us of the intimate nature of the Eucharist. We are guests at a banquet, personally invited by the host (no pun intended!).

The Divine Liturgy celebrated in the full splendour of the ancient Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

The personal nature of our reception of the Eucharist is further strengthened in the Byzantine rites employed both by the Orthodox Churches and by the Greek Catholics:

The servant of God N. partaketh of the holy precious body and blood of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, unto remission of his sins and unto everlasting life.

Speaking of the Eucharist in the East, it is perhaps useful to remember the Trinitarian nature of the Eucharist, with this quote from St. John Damascene:

"The Holy Spirit comes upon [the elements], and achieves things which surpass every word and thought..."

Just as through the Incarnation of the Word the Trinity was made intelligible to man, so through the Eucharist the Incarnate Word makes the life of the Trinity available for man to receive.

The Holy Spirit... achieves things which surpass every word and thought...

Late for Mass

As a Friday devotion I went to Mass at the Cathedral this lunchtime. Unfortunately I was more than a little bit late, arriving some ten minutes into the service, quietly taking a seat in the back pew. (See how Catholic I've become??) Anyway, a few months ago I'd have beat myself up about having been irreverent arriving late, but now I think I have a slightly more mature approach to these things. Yes, I know I should have taken more care to arrive on time, and of course I shall try to prevent it happening again. I was not overly disappointed with myself, however, because I think I'm finally coming to develop a really authentic sense of awe and reverence for the Eucharist. I knew I was late, and I knew that was a bad thing, but I was relieved and very happy to at least have been there in time to be in the presence of Christ himself.

As an interesting little aside, I did notice three women who didn't go up to receive Communion; perhaps one of them was the elusive Madame Evangelista? I wonder...