Friday, February 19, 2021

STATIONS OF THE CROSS



Here are links to a traditional way of praying the Stations of the Cross. The Scripture readings given at each station make it suitable for using alone as a private devotion, or in church with a group.


The first pdf HERE is suitable for use on an iPad or similar device.


The second pdf HERE is for printing on A4 paper double-sided, then folding and stapling to make up a booklet




A SIGNIFICANT PILGRIMAGE


Over the last few weeks I’ve had conversations with a range of people who have not grown up in any organised faith community, but are clearly on a spiritual quest. For some it has been one result of the pandemic and the questions it has provoked about meaning, transcendence, connectedness, community and love. Then I came across the story of well-known British writer Paul Kingsnorth on ‘Honey and Hemlock’, the blog of John Sanidopoulos. Kingsnorth says that his ‘increasing determined search for Truth’ led him to embrace Christian Orthodoxy. Last month he was baptised in the Romanian Orthodox Church. Sanidopoulos writes:


A few weeks ago I was sent a link to the OAQ page on author Paul Kingsnorth’s website, where he writes the following:


'I have never been a scientific materialist. My suspicion that there is more to the world than modernity will allow for has informed my sensibility since I was a child, and was the backdrop to all my environmental activism and writing.


'Over the last decade, I have been on an increasing determined search for Truth which – as for so many lost Western people – has taken me to all quarters. For five years I studied and practiced Zen Buddhism; I’m still grateful for the insights that accorded me, but there was something missing. In search of what that something might be, I explored Daoism, mythology, Sufism, traditionalism, Alexandrian Wicca and all sorts of other bits and pieces. They all taught me something, but not enough.


'Then, in 2020, as the world was turned upside down, so was I. Unexpectedly, and initially against my will, I found myself being pulled determinedly towards Christianity. It’s a long story, which I might tell one day. Suffice it to say that I started the year as an eclectic ecopagan with a long-held, unformed ache in my heart, and ended it a practicing Christian, the ache gone and replaced by the thing that, all along, I turned out to have been looking for. In January 2021 I was baptised and received into the Eastern Orthodox Church. I don’t know where the path leads from here, but at last I know how to walk it.'


Here is a little bit more about Kingsnorth’s baptism from the website of the Romanian Orthodox Church:


‘I first discovered Christian Orthodoxy four years ago when I walked into a small church in Bucharest. That powerful experience stayed with me, but I could not have known that it would lead me on a journey that would lead to me becoming a member of the Romanian church,’ Paul Kingsnorth told Basilica.ro.


He was baptized on the feast of Theophany on January 6th by his spiritual advisor, Father Tudor Ghiţă, the parish priest of the Romanian community in Galway.


‘I felt both joyful and peaceful afterwards… and cold! But a stronger sense that I had arrived somewhere I was meant to be. My receipt into the church has been a great privilege, and the [Romanian] community here in Ireland has been so welcoming to me and my family,’ confessed the writer.


Father Tudor Ghiţă said he never tried to convert the writer. They met at the Romanian Orthodox Monastery of Shannonbridge, Ireland, and had some long talks.


‘He was determined to enter Orthodoxy, but I advised him to moderate his enthusiasm and not to expect to see angels flying through the church,’ said the Romanian parish priest of Galway. He wanted to make the writer understand that being a Christian is permanent work and the joy you feel is supposed to be one of a spiritual nature.


‘He is an obedient spiritual son,’ Father Tudor Ghiţă added. ‘He observes the fasting days, reads the recommended prayers and makes full prostrations.’



MORE ABOUT PAUL KINGSNORTH 

He is 49 and has lived for several years in the rural parts of Galway, Ireland. He runs a family farm which he works by using traditional methods, such as cutting hay with a scythe, just like Romanian peasants did formerly.


He wrote visionary fiction books and essays on the environment. Between 2009 and 2017, he established an environmental activism project entitled Dark Mountain. But he says he has never been a Marxist materialist, like many other members of this movement.


'I have never been a scientific materialist. My suspicion that there is more to the world than modernity will allow for has informed my sensibility since I was a child, and was the backdrop to all my environmental activism and writing,' he wrote.


Conservative writer Rod Dreher describes him as ‘one of the most talented and visionary writers of our time.’


Journalist Aris Roussinos calls him a ‘profoundly religious’ author and ‘England’s greatest living writer.’


Go HERE to the website of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Galway


'As a Western newcomer to Orthodoxy, I have a lifetime’s learning journey ahead of me, but I already feel like I have arrived home.'



Thursday, February 18, 2021

A reading from S. Clement for Ash Wednesday


Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and I had prepared a homily based on the Mass readings, stressing that the individual and communal dimensions of our Lenten penitence go together. But throughout the day I put my homily aside and decided to read instead the following passage from S. Clement’s Letter to the Corinthians, from the day’s Office of Readings. Here it is: 

 

Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ and recognize how precious it is to God his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world.

 

If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God’s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God’s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not of God’s people.

 

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath: As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance. 


He added this evidence of his goodness: House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, “Father,” and I will listen to you as a holy people.

 

In other words, God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarrelling and jealousy which only lead to death.

 

Brothers, we should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, we should act in accordance with the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit says: The wise man must not glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just. 


Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance. Be merciful, he said, so that you may have mercy shown to you. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you treat others, so you will be treated. As you give, so you will receive. As you judge, so you will be judged. As you are kind to others, so you will be treated kindly. The measure of your giving will be the measure of your receiving. 


Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. As Scripture asks: Whom shall I look upon with favour except the humble, peaceful man who trembles at my words?

 

Sharing then in the heritage of so many vast and glorious achievements, let us hasten toward the goal of peace, set before us from the beginning. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of peace and all his blessings.


* * * * * * * * * * *

Clement was the third successor of S. Peter as Bishop of Rome from 88 to c.99 A.D., when he was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea.

 

The majority of scholars date his letter to the Corinthians in the last decade of the first century, although there are others who argue for an earlier date, even in the late 60s or early 70s. Writing on behalf of the Roman church, Clement responds to ongoing problems in the Corinthian church. The letter challenges those in the wrong to repent and change their ways. It is firm, but very pastoral in tone, referring to apostolic teaching and ministry, grounded in many Scripture passages.


Clement’s Letter to the Corinthians was so respected in the early Church, that in some regions it was read at Mass interchangeably with  the writings of the Apostles. That’s not surprising when the words of S. Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130–c.202 A.D.) are taken into account: ‘[Clement], as he had seen the blessed apostles, and had been conversant with them, might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes.’




Wednesday, February 17, 2021

LENT 2021


Catholic Christians take seriously the season of Lent, as we prepare to share the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings, and then experience afresh the great joy of his resurrection. 

From one point of view Lent is our annual spiritual ‘check-up.’ Remembering the capacity we have for self-deception, the discipline of Lent is meant to help us face realistically our shortcomings and sins, and concentrate on getting right with God. Sometimes that can be hard work!

Lent 2021 is likely to be a real challenge for each one of us - perhaps even the most difficult Lent some of us have known, on account of the emotional, spiritual and even physical exhaustion of the pandemic and its lockdowns. I know I’m not alone in thinking that the trudge of the last eleven months has seemed at times like one long drawn-out wearisome Lent.

‘Why do we need more?’, I hear some of you ask!

That would be a reasonable question, except for one thing - a dimension that we so easily forget - that the Church regards Lent as a special healing time in her year. Like the father in the story Jesus told about the 'prodigal son', the main thing we know about God is his love for us. He wants us to return to him. He want to pour his healing love and blessing upon us. So, penitence is not all there is! If we allow him to do so, Lent is also when God binds up our wounded hearts and his love becomes real to us again.

Of course, there is the personal and individual dimension to this, as the Gospel for Ash Wednesday points out. But the other aspect of Lent - as seen in the Old Testament reading from Joel - is our penitence and openness to the Lord as a community. In other words, real renewal is a matter of our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. This 2 minute video makes the point very well:


The blessing we are using at the end of our Ash Wednesday Mass says it all:

May God the Father, in his mercy,
grant all of you,
like the prodigal son,
the joy of returning home.
Amen.

May Christ, our model of prayer and life,
guide you through this Lent
to true conversion of heart.
Amen.

May the Spirit of wisdom and strength
sustain you in your struggle against evil,
and enable you to celebrate with Christ
the victory of Easter.
Amen.

And may almighty God bless you,
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Saturday, February 6, 2021

C.S. Lewis on WHY WE SHOULD READ OLD BOOKS


In 1944 Sister Penelope Lawson, of the Community of S. Mary the Virgin in Wantage, (simply as ‘A Religious of C.S.M.V’) translated and edited S. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation. A new edition was published by S. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, New York, in 1989.] Go HERE for the entire text. The Introduction by C.S. Lewis includes this wonderful section on why we should read old books (The paragraphs have been broken up into smaller ones ‘for the convenience of the modern reader’).

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. 


The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. 


The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.


This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself. 


Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. 


A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. 


If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why—the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. 


In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity (“mere Christianity” as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. 


It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones. 


Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. 


Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions. 


We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. 


None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. 


People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.