Category: Fr Rory Writes

I recently found this prayer from Saint John Henry Newman which speaks of the real grace we receive in the miracle of Christmas.

              “Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you; none of it will be mine. It will be you, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise you the way you love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you. Amen.”

May the Light that is Christ shine upon you, and the peace of the Christ Child be yours this Christmas.  Fr Rory and I, wish you all a happy and holy Christmas, and may God bless everyone, your families and your friends. Amen.

Let us celebrate the Feast of Christmas this year, with the fruits of our journey through Advent.

Christmas comes just after the shortest, darkest and sometimes bleakest days of the year.  It celebrates God’s salvation, which has come into our world.  The coronavirus at this time has a particularly powerful hold on us, and does represent an awareness of the greater kingdom of evil that Jesus came down from heaven to redeem and save us from.  It is always important to keep our attention on the amount of goodness and people of great goodwill who are always at work among us.

At the moment life is very challenging and difficult.  So a simple, “thank God”, for the vaccine with the hope that it brings light at the end of the tunnel.   I remain with my old faults of communication, and particular difficulty with visiting in place, so I ask for patience and understanding.

I am grateful for all the help that is provided to our parish, helping with our celebration of Mass, providing the essential service of our parish, and help with streaming, which remains a particular challenge.  Thanks be to God and to you all that financially and administratively our parish is functioning very well.  I am very grateful to you for your gifts, greetings and donations to me this Christmas.

So sincerely, thanks be to God for Christmas and for salvation, for the fruits of our journey through the Sundays’ Advent Prayers.  The First Sunday with its focus upon ‘hope’, the second ‘peace’, the third ‘joy’ and last Sunday ’love’.  Let them be the fruits of our Christmas and Bishop Richard has presented us with a vision and a challenge for the next few years, so let us give it our full attention when we return in the new year.

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat.  If you have not a penny a halfpenny will do. If you have not a halfpenny, well God bless you. 

I just realised that in nearly seventy years I had not heard or said this rhyme coming up to Christmas.  When growing up as a child it was part of Christmas.  This Christmas is so different in many ways, but its reality is much more important.  For us to realise that salvation is coming into our world, and all the children’s plays at Christmas are about this most important message.  “A Saviour is born, this day in Bethlehem”.  The Gospel with its message is what should never be lost.  Reality the world over, from the reaction to the American Presidential Election, to the advice that is given on how to respond to the virus, the human response remains the same.  Jesus addressed this by “their fruits you shall know them”.

Family is a great blessing to life.  I have a nephew who is returning from Japan and a niece returning from France for Christmas.  Obviously they have taken into consideration the requirements to isolate and parents and family are happy with it.  The outcome will be the key factor when the final verdict is in place.  Certainly the challenge that the virus has presented, with the benefit of what hindsight will bring through the validation of decisions will give greater guidance for our future.  How to be more prepared, how to give appropriate value to human dignity.  How to care for those most vulnerable, the care for children, and the different needs of the young, people with mental issues and the importance of health and wellbeing are all very important factors in life.

What about us in the life of the church?  Please God, this has presented us with a learning curve.  The challenge for us is great, confronted with our age profile, many would say it is impossible.  With the age requirements that were needed to facilitate the use of our churches for prayer, masses and sacraments, we were very short of volunteers.  Exposing a  failure which is ours.  What can we do about it is our only hope.  What I see as a two fold failure of those in authority in the church.  First, the importance of baptism with its meaning for our lives, without it, it is like trying to build houses without foundations.  The second is ministry within the church.  What the ministry of the eucharist, readers, cantors and other ministries can bring.  How a body made of many parts working together, is the key to our future in the life of our church.

In Ireland there was a well known poet, who was greatly loved and appreciated.  He was blind and his name was “Raftery an File”.  For the winter he used to move down into the south of Ireland, the prosperous part where I lived, but he really thought we were a lot of mean old people, but he much preferred to live with his own people out in the west of Ireland.

So he used to really look forward to his return there.  He left us a great rich legacy.  A poem in Gaelic.  The words were “anois teacht an earraigh”.  Now with the coming of Spring I will raise up my sail and tar eis na feil Bride… and after the Feast of St Bridget – 1st February – he would take off for happier summer grounds.  I very much identify with his sentiments.  After this most difficult year, and we still have quite a time to go to survive, we can all look forward like Raftery an File, we can also be prepared to lift up our hearts and re-launch our lives once again.

For the moment “grace and peace”.   May this holy season bless, strengthen and restore us.  I am most grateful for all the help that I am getting in spite of or maybe on account of the difficulties that we have been going through.

“These are the trials by which we triumph through the power of Him who loves us”.  I am receiving help to prepare a letter from some persons from our leaven group at St George’s.  This will be sent  out to members of our parish.  This gives me a chance to say thank you to them and to all who have helped me through the years.  Also to acknowledge how reliant I am upon receiving that help.  One of the fruits from the pandemic, is a deeper awareness of the solid foundation that our faith is built upon.

Returning to our first lockdown in March, when a stringent isolation process helped me to focus clearing upon our churches liturgy.  From the end of Lent, giving the Holy Season my fullest attention; on through Holy Week, then the celebration of the Ascension and the great promise of Pentecost .  This promise  “I am with you always”, this was so well echoed by Springwatch.  The great challenge that will be ours, when we climb our way out from the grief caused by the pandemic, there will be a great challenge from global warming that will be the consequences of human greed and exploitation.  For our church this may be more drastic, as we have experienced a great loss of credibility. 

I keep returning to a privileged time when I was in the seminary in the late sixties.  The second Vatican Council had ended and one professor in particular, together with all of us in the seminary, was inspired with the spirit of the council.  It reflected a time of great hope, but the seeds for the opposite to happen were deeply ingrained.  So the fact that the seminaries have emptied is a very important consideration and sets the scene for life following on from the coronavirus.

Again, the great assurance “I am with you always”.  We are deeply and unconditionally loved by the living God.  Our sure hope, our sure foundation, and our sure point of reference as we continue our journey of faith.  Let us have love one for another.

With the help of God we will see the beginning of the end for this pandemic with the coming of the new year.  Christmas will be very much part of the experience for this year.  So it is a very important time.  Sin in its truest, deepest  nature is recognised in the doctrine of original sin, otherwise expressed as the sin of Adam, when an evil fallen nature became part of our inheritance.  Jesus gave us its focus, and a measuring point for our human behaviour “by their fruits you shall know them, good trees bear good fruit”.

Recently, those in authority in the Catholic Church are trying to make renewed attempts to make atonement for the grave sins that were endemic in the church on account of the paedophiles, who were part of the establishment.  Some Bishops have made public penance as an acknowledgement of the injury and damage done to the lives of the faithful.  The slowness of the response adds to our grave difficulties.

Now we are presented with a great challenge, and with the help of God’s grace a new window of opportunity.  We need to identify with Christ, when after the crucifixion he called upon His disciples as He tried to impower them for His mission to bring God’s salvation.  Forgiveness is a key component of His mission.  When St Peter returned to his day job, after the shock of the crucifixion, they had fished all night and caught nothing.  They were so confused and at odds with life; they did not recognise Him.  After the miraculous catch of fish,  Peter recovers and Jesus anoints him:  “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church”.

Today we return to Peter in the person of Pope Francis; his successor, and pray for him.  Some have been very disappointed with him, especially with his visit to the church in Ireland, we must look forward to a new era in the life of the church.  From morning prayer in the divine office today the scripture reading from Romans 8.35, 37 “Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking clothes or being attacked.  These are the trials through which we triumph , by the power of Him who loves us”.   As we begin the first week of Advent, let us sow the seed of hope and trust in our hearts.  Let us be prepared for a new era with life in it, and it is only all of us together that can bring that life.  Please God, bring us the grace to begin again.

The Feast of Christ the King:  In time this will be the greatest Feast in the church’s year.  I leave the question why?

Thanks be to God, and again thanks be to God.  The first one is for the vaccine for the coronavirus which holds out light for the end of the tunnel.  The second one is for the return of my driver’s licence.  Also, thanks be to God, my insurance has not cost me an arm and a leg.  I hope and pray this will help me on the road.

On that road are two essentials:

One: Belonging:  Through the waters of baptism we belong to Jesus who has come down from heaven for our salvation.  Recognising the implications and the effects of the coronavirus can help us with the reality of the effects of sin or evil and help us deal with its consequences.  In my heart I have a constant conversation.  It focuses us upon the words “responsibility and reasonable”.  Alongside these are the essential elements a) human dignity and b) by their fruits you shall know them.

Two: Nourishment:  We see the best expression of this in providing food for our bodies, keeping the shops open and the food flowing.  I am hugely impressed by all the people who go the extra mile, indeed miles to feed those in need, they put me to shame.  When it comes to spiritual nourishment in this picture, improving this bleakness, and I have to include myself very much in this picture.  This is certainly our challenge.  This challenge has been with us for the past fifty years, and with the closing of seminary after seminary we will soon have to make an attempt to answer that question.

Our focus must be “The love of God” as first and foremost and forever.  Please God, we may be able to do this and the greatest time for us to begin is here and now.  The first week in advent begins at the end of this week.  Please God, may we make this journey truly worthwhile as we continue on our way.  Our true home is in heaven.

To be continued ………………

Please God, a real ray of light is appearing with the announcement that a vaccine for protection against the coronavirus, which is fit for purpose, is on the horizon.  This vaccine has received the necessary assessment of its potential and the pitfalls that surround it.  Having heard much of the commentary, my compass remains firmly…… Please God.

Live and learn; the capacity to never learn is real.  When a final post-mortem on this episode with the coronavirus is carried out, it will reveal that some major afflictions might have been avoided.  Some great sense of loss and emotional damage and injury will be a legacy.  From the beginning I have recognised the reality of evil that accompanies this and indeed all of the viruses.  The capacity to turn all things to good is part of the legacy that has been left to us by Jesus.  Conscious of my failures makes me very sad.  Our failures as a parish community gives us a real opportunity to live and learn together.  Let us begin to reach out to prepare for, and to embrace the opportunity that will now come our way.

When I came to this parish, I introduced “Leaven Groups”, which I hoped would serve our parishes and build up our communities.  I still believe that this is possible.   For different reasons, and the loss of some great parishioners, has left us with a lot to do.  We reached a place where “A Missing Link” to help with communication was being prepared.  Prior to this lockdown progress was being made, and we will return to this.  During lockdown the Great Feast of Christ the King will pass and Fr Kieran will  help me with the celebration this year. Then a new Advent, when I hope and pray we can begin again to live a new life of faith.

Speaking of prayers; and with my heart and soul focused upon them, a great, great sadness.  Noelle, a real treasure in our parish has died.  After a long, long battle with cancer, shared by Marianne Patel, who died two years ago.  They were outstanding witnesses to our faith and above all life.  They battled for the greater part silently with it, with strong mutual support.  Noelle had just accepted to be chair person of our Leaven Group, and then she received this devastating news.  She quietly battled; and what a battle this year has turned out to be.  Consolation, she has united with her own and our family of saints, who have reached their true home which awaits us in heaven.

Her husband, Brian, and children, Aiden and Rosin (only again for the pandemic) would have celebrated her First Holy Communion this year.  Please God, a legacy of inspiration is left to us from Marianne and Noelle that will inspire us to build better liturgies and to communicate the gifts that faith can bring.   At this time I know you would just want me to let them know that we want to offer all the love and support that our parish could bring to them at this most difficult time.  

Here we are again, another lockdown

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

At the beginning of this year when our first experience of lockdown began after Ash Wednesday, we were experiencing the season of Lent.  Then all of a sudden on the horizon was Holy Week, and I was settled into praying the Divine Office, and celebrating Holy Mass on my own.  I was also experiencing the benefits of live streaming Mass and other devotions.  The Sacred Heart church in Hove became a sanctuary.  Holy Week was a very focused fruitful time, with the passion, death and resurrection merging with our experience of lockdown.

The evenings were getting longer and the weather was very kind.  Spring watch was a God send, and a sense of light at the end of the tunnel.  The Feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost are a time of hope and renewal.  Now Remembrance Sunday is particularly appropriate.  Deacon John’s contribution is very helpful.  Like Good Friday, the focus of Remembrance is upon injury, great damage and loss.  At the heart of their experience of affliction, death may have appeared as a welcome escape.  But for us when we give it all the care and attention it deserves, it leaves us with a great sense of the virtue of Hope and the odds that people can overcome through perseverance.

To be continued …………………………..

“Let the love of God find its home in you”

I have received some positive feedback from my piece last week which is always helpful.  There is a consistent theme in the reflections.  Many years ago I received an award as I was leaving a parish, from a person that I valued very much.  It has helped me to keep a positive focus.  Always “so far, so good”.  The alternative being “so far, so bad”, this is to be avoided full stop.

The coronavirus remains a huge influence and affects all our lives.  All that I have written since the beginning of lockdown is in response to provide a way ahead.  It remains a very difficult time with much distress.  Growing up on a farm with some involvement  in the construction industry, has taught me what is most important for the best outcome.  In the building world the foundation and the footings, in farming the preparation of the ground.  The outcome is summed up “by their fruits you shall know them”.

Good trees, bear good fruit.  At this difficult time the words reasonable and responsible are being very tested.  The directions that are given with the best intentions for our health and safety are important.  That is why I try to give them serious consideration.  The “Litmus Test –  “by their fruits you shall know them”.   When we were first in the seminary, with philosophy and theology as corner stones to our study.  One of the early ideas that caught my attention was the importance attached to the phrase “the exception proves the rule”.  Unfortunately some of our rules have been so poor that they do not survive that test.  The fear being that if you make an exception it becomes the new rule.  This has certainly been a great factor in our application of the rules (Dominic Cummings incident, certainly had a great effect on this).

“Responsibility” is a constant consideration.  Reason and reasonableness goes hand and glove with it.  The amount of health and social issues highlight the success or the failure of the rules in place.  This remains a work in progress.  It is helpful to have a point on the horizon to aim for.   Christmas will begin to appear during the coming weeks.  Let us pray very sincerely that this will be a fruitful time and that the love of God finds its home in us, and may the love of God find its home in me. 

To be continued……………