Category: Fr Rory Writes

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……………

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your divine love. 

Send forth your spirit O Lord and renew the face of the earth

Having commenced the streaming of Sunday Mass from our parish community each Sunday, we value this important development.  Lockdown at the beginning of the year was enforced because of the coronavirus, which introduced to us the possibilities of this technology as being particularly helpful and having a good outcome.  My experience of “lockdown”, especially as it happened as we drew close to Holy Week was very beneficial.  It helped me to be particularly attentive to the divine office, with the celebration of Mass giving great emphasis to the scriptures as we progressed through Holy Week.  This brings God’s salvation, and after Good Friday the focus upon the resurrection, the ascension, and especially Pentecost.

How much we need that outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit.

Two things:

One: Will be the prayerful celebration of our liturgies, with the appropriate themes that emphasise each event in the life of our journey through the Christian year.

Two: Community; communication will help us build up the community life of our parish.  The children’s liturgy has been a good help in this direction.

The coronavirus exposed our weaknesses, and brought home to me my biggest failure as a parish priest.  When I had an episode with a breakdown in my health and the loss of my driver’s licence, some of my failures became particularly glaring to me.  The great amount of help that I have received, emphasised what I always believed; a body made up of many parts working together, is truly important and is always the way forward to a good outcome.

When I came to the parish, I introduced Leaven Groups for each community, and please God, after the virus is contained we will be able to return to this.  I had been in the process of establishing “The Missing Link” when we lost some great leaders within our communities, but now please God, is the time to return to this.   I am asking three persons from each church to link together to get us off to a good start.

“You are my disciples”                         

                        Fact                                  Faith                                Feelings

The words of Jesus are alive and true as they came down to us through the ages.  So we can acknowledge that fact. 

Faith then is one of the essential ingredients that can bridge the great gap that at a time exists between this fact and our feelings.  This episode with the coronavirus highlights in a very distinct way the drama that is the life of faith.  As the churches have returned to their lockdown in Ireland, the statement by our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, sets the scene for the drama to unfold for us.  Our situation at the moment allows for “steady as you go”.  Streaming our Masses on Sunday is a God sent blessing, and can be a channel of grace as we develop our faith and grow as a community.

When we were first given the challenge to return to church for mass, because I did not have my car the people from St George’s were very active and helpful to me in arranging meetings in the garden and getting the ball rolling.  Margaret Piegrome has also been very pro-active in getting our parish list up-to-date, this is a work in progress.

This sets the scene for us now to grow as a community of faith.  The age profile with the implied complications of being over seventy sets the scene for a new generation.  Streaming of Mass and preparing for our Christmas celebration may be very helpful with this.  Some time ago as we were trying to develop our parish structure.   We established what we called the “Missing Link” as a first step in developing a plan for our way ahead.  We need to renew this link, with me having oversight for, to bring about plans to help us to work together.

This is working for God – Belief in the One He has sent.

As we have now launched the streaming of our Mass, rather abruptly, maybe not sufficiently prepared, but this could be providential, and a great opportunity to work together.  On alternate weekends we will stream the Mass from one of our churches.  So the Sunday time will vary.  It will be 9am from St George’s and 10.30am from St Wilfrid’s; weekday Masses remain at the same time and will not be streamed.  Our website will be the central point, and used well, will be a beacon for us in our communities of faith to bear witness to the life of Him who loves us.  He in turn sends us out to bear witness to Him.

Two things: 1) I belong, 2) I am nourished. 

The first is the relationship with Jesus through the church and our faith.  At the heart of all this is preparation for Baptism and the First Holy Communion.  So again one is to belong, to be part of, and two to be nourished.  Belonging is central to baptism, and is rightly a title to a very good catechetical programme that we use for First Holy Communion preparation.  The strength of this foundation is extremely important.

The second one – nourishment.

How we nourish our physical bodies determine our health and well-being.  This is equally vital to our spiritual lives, and deserves all the care and attention that we can bring to it.  Vital to all of this is ministry and please God, as life in our churches continue we will highlight our ministries.

Important ones are Readers and Ministers of the Eucharist, but these times of trial have highlighted the value of cleaners and stewards and we are deeply grateful to all those who have stepped up to the plate and are serving us so well.  Thank you and bless you always.

Our website is the central point and, please God, will be a beacon for us to bear witness together as communities of faith.  We had a very good meeting at St George’s church on Tuesday morning, and please God, it has done me a lot of good, hopefully I can do much better.  A big thank you for all the work that has been done since we returned to church from lockdown 10 weeks ago.  With earnest and deep and constant prayer, let us face the future and let our two churches be united in solidarity  and support for each other.

So after our pause, a time to move on:

When I made the decision to pause and take stock, the way ahead seemed to be what is now called “new normal”.  Our children are back at school and many are very pleased to be back.  As my niece, a teacher, said “they were over the moon” when they heard that there was no homework for September.  As might be expected, going back to school has certain consequences with a rise in the number of people catching Covid 19.  Opening the pubs was another way for coronavirus figures to increase.  How all this is managed is truly important and emphasises the risks that are taken even with social distancing.  A clear hold on the words “being responsible” needs to be taken by everyone, which should then protect the very many over 70s.  Many do come to church with a conscious, reasoned assessment of the risks they are undertaking.  The need for their protection should be considered when rules are made and thought given to adhering to them.

Being aware of the above and that there is a natural, cautious factor, or even a fearful one, which highlights the correctness of the pause and thus taking stock.  I have received positive comments from people who have not yet returned to church but are in touch, and they very much commend our website and the regulations that are in place for attending Mass.  Now the question is, how to move on?  By being more relaxed, and that does not mean being any less responsible.  I have mentioned the experience of one of our lady’s 90th Birthday, being helped by modern technology and the value of streaming.  This please God, will be our next objective.  We will be able to stream our Masses on alternative Sundays.  This is my intention and with the help of our parish, will bear fruit that will last.

I acknowledge that I fail to give clear leadership as Parish Priest, and aspects of pastoral care, but please God, I am like everybody else “a work in progress”.  Through our website, and by working together, we will have a good outcome.  For me the outcome is what is truly important, and working together is the best way to achieve this.

It is good to pause: ………….   The new announcement from our Prime Minister leaves us with a lot to think about …….. and to hope and pray for. 

The nature of the virus does call for a lot of isolation, but life, is very much designed for the opposite, to be lived together and shared.  This is passing us by.   Yes, there is a need for a grieving process, particularly for the many elderly and vulnerable who have been so badly affected, because their care cut them off from family members which is particularly appreciated.   It is essential to keep in close contact with our friends, old and new.

Fruits of pausing:  After our pause, we look forward to bearing more fruit., fruit that will last.

Stewardship:  We are coming to realise the value that this brings to the church, and so we are most grateful to those who have stepped forward.  Because of their work, we appreciate the value of welcomers, which we have experienced in the past and hope for the future. This is very much a valuable service.

Cleaning:  Not the most appealing task, but certainly one of the most beneficial, caring for people is at the heart of the service that we bring, so we are very much in the need of help – yes – Help.  We look forward to developing all our ministries, strengthening our sense of community, working better together so we may enrich our shared experiences.

Fr Kieran is looking after our Masses this weekend and we are glad and grateful to have him.

I am looking forward to an outing co-ordinated by the Children’s Liturgy at St George’s, I have very much benefited by and enjoyed outings with them in the past.