Mother Teresa’s “Dark Night”

What did it mean for her? What does it mean for us? 

Ralph Martin over at RENEWAL MINISTRIES has a wonderful article on Mother Teresa'a agony of soul. I share it with you because it might be helpful in the struggles many Christian people experience at the present time. 

Even though the main lines of Mother Teresa’s experience of “darkness” had been known for several years, the full publication of her private letters drew world-wide media coverage. (Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the “Saint of Calcutta” Edited and with Commentary by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.) 

TIME Magazine did a cover story on it. Prominent articles appeared in the NY Times and other major publications. There were many TV and radio interviews. 

Some secularists chose to interpret her talk of darkness as a sign of hypocrisy and even accused her of not really believing in God. Only a very superficial and partial reading of these letters could have occasioned this interpretation. Some believers were disturbed and confused to hear of her prolonged experience of aridity or emptiness in her relationship with God. Some thought the letters were so disturbing it was a mistake to publish them. This last concern, while understandable, is unfounded, since the letters in question are part of the official record compiled in the process of canonization and are generally made public. And by now we must know that efforts to “edit” the life or writings of a saint (as the sisters of Therese of Lisieux tried to do in the case of their sister’s writings), only detract from the awesome witness to holiness that is found, albeit in sometimes unexpected and disturbing ways. I think we will see that in the long run this widespread media attention, even with its imperfections, and the publication of these letters, will bear great fruit. 

Having read the entire book, which includes all the available letters and the sensitive and expert commentary of a priest from Mother Teresa’s own order, I am left awe-struck at the depth of Mother Teresa’s holiness. Her faith and her heroic service were more profound than I ever imagined. 

It is certainly true that while receiving remarkable communications from the Lord and deep spiritual/sensible consolation at the beginning of her mission, for almost 50 years Mother Teresa was left almost totally bereft of such consolation. She carried out her mission with almost no affective experience of God’s love and presence. She could see the fruit that her work was producing. She could see that when she spoke to her sisters and others that they came alive and grew in the experience of God’s love, but she herself for the most part felt only emptiness. 

During the first ten years of this “darkness” she was deeply troubled by it . . . Go HERE for the whole article.

Archbishop of Canterbury's homily at the basilica of San Gregorio al Celio

Your Holiness,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

It is a privilege to stand here, where my predecessors stood in 1989 and 1996, and to offer once again, as we did most recently in Westminster [and Assisi], the sacrifice of praise that we owe to the One Lord in whose name we are baptized; the One Lord who by his Spirit, brings to recognisability in each member of his sacramental Body, the image and abundant life of Christ his Son, through the temptations and struggles of our baptismal calling. 

St Gregory the Great had much to say about the peculiar temptations and struggles of those called to office in the Church of God. To be called to this service is to be called to several different kinds of suffering – the torment of compassion, as he puts it (Moralia 30.25.74), the daily awareness of urgent human needs, bodily and spiritual, and the torment of praise, flattery and status (ib. 26.34.62). This latter is a torment because those called to this ministry know so clearly their own inner weakness and instability. But that knowledge is a saving knowledge, which among other things helps us minister effectively to others in trouble; and it reminds us that we find stability, soliditas, only in the life of the Body of Christ, not in our own achievement (Homilies on Ezekiel 2.5.22) … Continue reading …

The high altar of the basilica of San Gregorio al Celio. 

Pope Benedict's homily at the basilica of San Gregorio al Celio

Refer back to last week's story HERE. This is the homily Pope Benedict preached at Vespers at San Gregorio al Celio on Saturday. 

Your Grace, 

Dear Brother Bishops and Priests, 

Dear Monks and Nuns of Camaldoli, 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

 It gives me great joy to be here today in this Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio for Solemn Vespers on the liturgical commemoration of the death of Saint Gregory the Great. With you, dear Brothers and Sisters of the Camaldolese family, I thank God for the thousand years that have passed since the foundation of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli by Saint Romuald. I am delighted to be joined on this occasion by His Grace Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. To you, my dear Brother in Christ, and to each one of you, dear monks and nuns, and to everyone present, I extend cordial greetings. 

We have listened to two passages from Saint Paul. The first, taken from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, is particularly appropriate … Continue reading …

Athanasius & the Divinity of Christ … Fr Cantalamessa's 1st Lenten homily

Long-time readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of the Papal Household Preacher and Capuchin Priest, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, who models a truly authentic blending of Catholic Faith, Biblical teaching, Patristic scholarship, evangelical preaching and pentecostal experience. He was appointed "Preacher to the Papal Household" in 1980 by Pope John Paul II. His remit was renewed in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. Fr Cantalamessa is frequently invited to speak at international and ecumenical conferences and rallies. He is a member of the Catholic Delegation for the Dialogue with the Pentecostal Churches, and currently hosts a weekly program on Radiotelevisione Italiana. 

Here is the first of his homilies for Lent 2012, preached last Friday. 

In preparation for the Year of Faith proclaimed by the Holy Father Benedict XVI (Oct. 12, 2012-Nov. 24, 2013), the four homilies of Lent are intended to give impetus and give back freshness to our belief through a renewed contact with the "giants of the faith" of the past. Hence the title, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, given to the whole series: "Remember your leaders. Imitate their faith" (Hebrews13:7).

We will put ourselves each time in the school of one of the four great Doctors of the Eastern Church - Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa - to see what each one of them says to us today, in regard to the dogma of which he was champion, that is, respectively, the divinity of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, knowledge of God. At another time, God willing, we will do the same for the great Doctors of the Western Church: Augustine, Ambrose and Leo the Great. 

What we wish to learn from the Fathers is not so much how to proclaim the faith to the world, namely, evangelization, or how to defend the faith against errors, namely, orthodoxy; but, rather, how to deepen our faith, to rediscover, behind them, the richness, beauty and happiness of believing, to pass, as Paul says, "through faith for faith" (Romans 1:17), from a believed faith to a lived faith. It will spell, in fact, growth in the "volume" of faith within the Church, which will then constitute the major strength of its proclamation to the world and the best defense of its orthodoxy. 

Father de Lubac affirmed that there was never a renewal of the Church in history which was not also a return to the Fathers. Vatican II, whose 50th anniversary we are about to celebrate, is no exception. It is interwoven with quotations from the Fathers; many of its protagonists were Patristic scholars. After Scripture, the Fathers constitute the second layer of soil on which theology, liturgy, biblical exegesis and the whole spirituality of the Church rest and draw their lymph. 

Continue reading . . .

Pray for Pope Shenouda

Please pray for His Holiness Pope Shenouda III who is seriously ill. A modern day hero of the Church, he became Patriarch of Alexandria in 1971, and under his leadership the Coptic Orthodox Church has experienced a period of rapid expansion at home and around the world. 

This has been due, not only to migration, but also to a passion for evangelisation, as Pope Shenouda has managed to impart to his people a renewed love of Scripture and the proclamation of the Gospel. Indeed, for many years, as Patriarch he personally taught Bible studies every second Sunday evening in St Mark's Cathedral, Alexandria, regularly attended by 2,000 people, and also every Wednesday evening at St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, attended by 7,000 people. His approach to the Bible is simultaneously evangelical and orthodox; and he always applies the text to the day to day Christian lives of ordinary people. 

The Coptic Orthodox Church is the Church of the ancient Desert Fathers, and  embodies an orthodox spirituality marked by celibate monasticism and asceticism, blended with a simple evangelical faith and earthy piety, with regular hours of prayer. History shows that Coptic monasticism and spirituality influenced Celtic Christianity in the British Isles well before St Augustine's 597 AD mission to the Anglo Saxons. 

It has been observed by a number of commentators that Pope Shenouda III has "opened the Church of the Desert Fathers up to the world." 

(Go HERE to Pope Shenoudda's website.)

* * * * * 

According to The Middle East Monitor 9th March, 2012 Dr. Mohamed Badie, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, visited Pope Shenouda on 8th March, wishing the Pope a speedy recovery and lasting good health:

"Dr. Badie and the Pope had a cordial discussion," said a spokesman, "with joint expressions of hope that the atmosphere of love and affection manifested during the January 25 revolution, which showed the real mettle of ordinary, decent people, would last among all Egyptians, Muslims and Copts alike."

The statement added that Pope Shenouda expressed his appreciation of this very first visit by the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood to the Holy See, and wished the movement success in the prominent role it now plays in the country’s affairs.

The visit gave the Cathedral staff an opportunity to extent traditional hospitality, which was much appreciated.

Clean-up Time!

It’s not difficult to picture the temple, the salesmen, the crowds, the confusion, the market area of the temple with easy access to town, the money-changers, the special licences and huge fees charged for selling there, with obscene profits going to those who ran the temple while the poor were shamelessly exploited. It worked smoothly, very smoothly! But then came Jesus with a heart full of love for his Father and those who were being ripped off. So, he deliberately spoiled the fun and the profits. He saw what was going on, and he got angry. He overturned the money-changers’ tables. He threw out the salesmen. He cleaned up his Father’s house. 

Actually, that was a very Jewish thing to do. 

You see, Passover was approaching, the season we’re in now, the start of spring in the northern hemisphere. And in first century Jewish society, spring cleaning was a major operation. 

At Passover - the time of unleavened bread – to make sure that the bread was completely free of leaven, the wife had to see that no leaven was left in the house. Everything had to be cleaned, dusted and washed. Then just before the Passover meal, the father did a ritualised investigation to verify that no leaven remained. (A quirky part of the ceremonial was that the wife deliberately left a little leaven in a corner somewhere so that the husband could feel useful, as, with some ostentation, he threw out that last bit.) 

The Jewish tradition regards leaven as a symbol of sin (and this was taken over by the early Church). The way leaven infiltrates and changes a whole mass of dough is symbolic of what sin does to the human heart, our network of relationships, and society as a whole. So, getting rid of leaven from the house symbolised the removal of sin. 

As we see in today's Gospel, to Jesus, what was going on at the temple was a sinful leaven corrupting worship and prayer. It obscured the love of God and the grace with which he reaches out to us. It also oppressed the powerless. Driving the salesmen and money-changers out of the temple became a sign of the salvation Jesus would bring. He would rid this world – you and me – of the leaven of sin by his death and resurrection. “Destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days,” he said. His body was the temple, and the rebuilding is his body the Church. 

Lent (which comes from an old English word meaning “spring”) is the season for our spiritual spring-cleaning. 

We hear the Ten Commandments in our first reading. Now that’s not a bad place to begin, because, as Jesus reminds us, they all have to do with loving God and one another. Each of the commandments evokes a whole range of related matters for self-examination. We can’t say, “I haven’t killed anybody so I’m OK”, because, according to Jesus, that commandment should prod us to search our hearts for hateful anger and destructive thoughts. And while the one about sex might mention only adultery, what about the way Jesus applied it not just to actions, but to our lustful thoughts and desires? And what about all the other ways we fail to show respect for sex and marriage as God intended? So, you see, it’s time for a clean-up. Let’s honestly check out the state of our lives and get everything dusted and washed. Let’s acknowledge our ingenuity in pushing God away in order to run our own lives according to what we think will be to our selfish advantage, with disastrous results in all our relationships. 

The Church asks us to “spring clean” each Lent because of the enormous capacity we have for self-deception. We are always finding new ways to rationaliise and fool ourselves. 

We’re at a turning point in Lent, shifting from penitence to redemption, to the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Let’s examine our hearts and make a conscious return to the Lord.

Letting the side down

A man was being tailgated by a seriously stressed out woman on a busy toad. Suddenly, the light turned to red in front of him.

He did the right thing and stopped, even though he just might have been able to speed through the intersection.

The woman behind nearly ran up the back of him. She hit the roof and the horn, screaming in absolute frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection.

While she was still swearing and carrying on, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious policeman. He told her to get out of the car and put her hands up. Then he took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and put in a holding cell.

A couple of hours later, another policeman opened the door of the cell. He escorted the woman to the front counter where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, “I’m really sorry for this mistake, lady. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn and swearing so loudly and giving 'the finger' to the bloke in front. I noticed the 'Choose Life' sign on the back window, the ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ bumper sticker, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday-School’ bumper sticker and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the boot.

“Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”

The Offering Of The New Law, The One Oblation Once Offered

Christina Rossetti by Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson, 1863 

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is best known for her long poem "Goblin Market," her love poem "Remember", and for the words of what became the popular Christmas carol "In the Bleak Midwinter."

Christina was born in London and educated at home by her mother. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was an Italian poet and a political asylum seeker from Naples; their mother, Frances Polidori, was the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician, John William Polidori, author of "The Vampyre." Christina’s brothers and sisters became famous, especially Dante Gabriel, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

When she was 14, Christina suffered a nervous breakdown, which was followed by bouts of depression and related illness. During this period she, her mother, and her sister became deeply involved in the Anglo-Catholic revival in the Church of England, not just in terms of worship, devotion and the spiritual life, but also in working voluntarily in what today we would call “welfare ministry.”

Christina began writing at the age of 7, but she was 18 when her first published poem appeared in the Athenaeum magazine. Her most famous collection, "Goblin Market and Other Poems", appeared in 1862, when she was 31.

Her Christmas poem "In the Bleak Midwinter" became widely known after her death when set as a Christmas carol first by Gustav Holst, and then by Harold Darke. Her poem "Love Came Down at Christmas" is also well known as a carol.

Christina continued to write and publish for the rest of her life, although she focused primarily on devotional writing and children's poetry. In the later decades of her life, she suffered from Graves Disease. In 1893 she developed cancer, and died in December 1894.

For nearly a century Christina's works were largely forgotten, until their rediscovery in the late 20th century. She is now lauded as one of the greatest poets of the Victorian age.

Go HERE to read the chapter on Christina Rossetti by Desmond Morse-Boycott in Lead, Kindly Light :
 Studies of Saints and Heroes of the Oxford Movement.

The Offering Of The New Law, 

The One Oblation Once Offered Once

(1864)

I thought to sit so high

In the Palace of the sky;

Now, I thank God for His Grace,

If I may fill the lowest place.

Once I thought to scale so soon

Heights above the changing moon;

Now, I thank God for delay—

To-day, it yet is called to-day.

While I stumble, halt and blind,

Lo! He waiteth to be kind;

Bless me soon, or bless me slow,

Except He bless, I let not go.

Once for earth I laid my plan,

Once I leaned on strength of man,

When my hope was swept aside,

I stayed my broken heart on pride:

Broken reed hath pierced my hand;

Fell my house I built on sand;

Roofless, wounded, maimed by sin,

Fightings without and fears within:

Yet, a tree, He feeds my root;

Yet, a branch, He prunes for fruit;

Yet, a sheep, these eves and morns,

He seeks for me among the thorns.

With Thine Image stamped of old,

Find Thy coin more choice than gold;

Known to Thee by name, recall

To Thee Thy home-sick prodigal.

Sacrifice and Offering

None there is that I can bring,

None, save what is Thine alone:

I bring Thee, Lord, but of Thine Own—

Broken Body, Blood Outpoured,

These I bring, my God, my Lord;

Wine of Life, and Living Bread,

With these for me Thy Board is spread.

Christina Rossetti was the model for the Virgin Mary 

in the painting ‘Ecce Ancilla Domini’ 

(The Annunciation), 1849-1850, 

by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope - more prayers for unity

Just a short walk from the Colloseum is The Celio, or Caelian Hill, one of the famous seven hills of Rome, on which is the monastery of San Gregorio al Celio. Originally this was the family villa suburbana of Pope Gregory I, who converted it into a monastery between 575 and 580. He was elected Pope in 590, and we know him as Gregory “the Great.”  

Saint Augustine of Canterbury was prior of this monastery before being chosen by Pope Gregory to lead the evangelistic mission to the Anglo-Saxons seven years later. It is no wonder that Anglicans and other English speaking Christians want to visit San Gregorio when in Rome! 

How appropriate that this coming Saturday afternoon, 10th March, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Vespers together in the monastery church, and erect there a stone Celtic cross brought from Canterbury. Given that, in the words of Pope John Paull II, the journey to Christian unity is long and arduous, it is encouraging for both Anglicans and Roman Catholics to see our leaders set the example of prayer and friendship. In spite of the obstacles about which we speak so often, according to the AFP news report, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, head of the Vatican Press Office said the prayers, as well as two joint performances by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Vatican later this month, were "a sign of moving together along the same path." 

The monastery of San Gregorio al Celio is part of the Camaldolesi Benedictine congregation, named after Camaldoli, in the northern Italian province of Arezzo, where between 1024 and 1025 St Romualdo founded a hermitage and monastery, bringing forth a new synthesis of monastic life in the tradition of the Rule of St Benedict combined with elements of the monastic tradition of eastern Christianity. 

Cherishing the ancient bond that for 1500 years has united San Gregorio al Celio and the Christianity of England, the monastery continues as a reference point for the dialogue between Roman Catholics and Anglicans. 

I visited the monastery of San Gregorio al Celio last year while doing some studies in Rome. Of interest to Australian Anglicans will be the fact that this is the community to which Peter Hughes (former Rector of St James King Street, Sydney) belongs. Below is a photograph of the two of us in the ancient monastic library.

My Brother the Pope - Interview with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS:

It wasn't always the case that Msgr. Georg Ratzinger lived in the shadow of his younger brother, Joseph. Georg was an accomplished musician, who for over 30 years directed the world-famous boys' choir of the Regensburg cathedral. Brother Joseph was a brilliant young professor, but mostly known in German academic circles. 

Now Georg writes about the close friendship that has united these two brothers for more than 80 years. Those interested in knowing more about the early life of Benedict XVI will not be disappointed. Georg's reminiscences are detailed, intimate, and warm. And while they begin with the earliest years of the Ratzinger family, they continue right up to the present day. 

To learn more about this book, go to:

www.MyBrotherThePope.comhttp://www.ignatius.com/promotions/my-brother-the-pope

Taking up our cross daily . . .

"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it." (Luke 9:23-24) 

“We all have our crosses to bear,” people say. Most of us have said it when we've been battered and bruised. And that's O.K., except that we end up trivialising the saying of Jesus. 

Is our mother-in-law (or our boss, our children, our financial situation, our boring job, our sore toe, our sickness, our ethnic origin or anything else like these) REALLY our “cross”? I don't doubt that these things can be difficult to cope with, to the point where we may feel “crucified” by them! Nor do I doubt that when we have done all we can do to change our circumstances and we’re still stuck with them the best thing is to offer our suffering to the Father in union with the suffering of Jesus, especially when we do it as intercession for others. 

But that’s NOT what Jesus is talking about here. Historically, when he said those words, the only time anyone would “take up their cross” was when they were about to die. That's what the cross means in the Bible: Death! Jesus goes on to say “. . . whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

We know that taking up our cross is not just bearing a burden because everyone bears burdens, whether or not they follow Jesus. No, the crushing burdens we bear are not our cross, especially if we have no choice with them. Jesus said that you and I have a CHOICE about “taking up our cross” and following him. The choice is between dying in order to live, or refusing to die and never knowing real life. 

Dying in order to live means being so overwhelmed by love divine that we want to put away the “old self", the old sinful nature with its evil desires, dreams, and ambitions in order to live for Jesus. 

Indeed, this is what happened at our baptism. 

St Paul says: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). 

The Easter Vigil Mass, to which we journey (or return) during Lent, is the Church’s main baptismal service. We don't merely celebrate the dying and rising of Jesus who came into this world out of love to reconcile us to the Father; we are actually JOINED TO his dying and rising - "merged" with him in that mystery, so as to have - even in this world - his risen life. That’s why the old fonts were so big. Those being baptized were plunged three times into the watery grave as happens to this day with both adults and babies in the Eastern Churches as well as in the Baptist and Pentecostal denominations.

At the Easter Vigil Mass we return to our baptism so as to anchor afresh into the love and power of the risen life of Christ. It is for us a powerful, even miraculous, renewal for which we prepare during the forty days of Lent.   

And so St Paul can say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

This is the life we have in Jesus, the life we share as brothers and sisters in him, overwhelmed by his love. It is a life that I would not trade for anything; it means everything to me. 

But - paradoxically - the Bible as well as our own experience tells us that we need to RETURN to this death often. Jesus says in our text that we must take up our cross and die DAILY (Luke 9:23). This is not because he wants to crush us, but because he wants us to be truly FREE in his love.

At different times in our lives we find it a real struggle to keep making the ONGOING choice to follow Jesus. 

So, if we are new to the life of faith, we shouldn’t be surprised if after our "spiritual honeymoon" the old nature seems to spring back to life and we fall into sin and hate ourselves for it. That happens to all of us. And even when we are seasoned disciples we endure enormous struggles and temptations. Such was the experience of the greatest saints of the Church's history. 

When this happens to us, we should deal with it by faith. We should rely only on God's grace. We should remember how much he loves us. We should find a "spiritual director" who can help us understand what is happening. We should ask others to pray for us. We should dust ourselves off (using the Sacrament of Reconciliation when necessary - a real channel of God’s healing love -), where possible make things right with anyone who has been hurt by our sin, and then refocus our gaze on Jesus. We should renew our conscious choice to DIE DAILY in a surrender of our wills to his love so as to LIVE DAILY with his RISEN LIFE. That's what it means to keep returning to the cross. (And when it seems hard, it is good to read Romans 7, where we see that at least some of the time even the great Apostle Paul had a struggle to do this!) 

Archbishop Michael Ramsey used to say that the whole of our Christian journey is a gradual releasing into our daily lives of the reality and power of our baptism, when we died and rose with Jesus. I’m sure he was right!

Margaret Barker's Fr Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture

Metropolitan Jonah, President of St Vladimir's Seminary, New York, 

presents Dr Margaret Barker with an icon 

of Christ the High Priest in gratitude for her lecture.

In May last year I drew attention on this blog to Margaret Barker, a Cambridge theologian and Methodist, whose writings are acknowledged across the Christian traditions. Visit her home page HERE. In July 2008 Margaret Barker was awarded a D.D. by the Archbishop of Canterbury "in recognition of her work on the Jerusalem Temple and the origins of Christian Liturgy, which has made a significantly new contribution to our understanding of the New Testament and opened up important fields for research." On January 29, 2012 Dr Barker gave the 29th Annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York. Her topic was OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST: THE CHURCH AS THE NEW TEMPLE. I share it with you as a wonderful introduction to her work which helps us to grasp the meaning both of the New Testament and Christian worship. 

. . . I am greatly honoured that you have invited me to give this lecture in memory of Fr. Alexander Schmemann. 

I was raised in the Protestant tradition and have for many years been studying the temple in Jerusalem, trying to recover the world view and the beliefs that it expressed. It was not until 1999 that I was first present at an Orthodox liturgy, and I had expected it to be very strange. In fact it was rather familiar. What I saw was the liturgy of the temple, much as I had imagined it from my scholarly reconstructions. Not exactly, of course, but the movements, the general ‘feel’ of the service. But I was watching from outside, so to speak. 

When I began to read the work of Fr. Alexander, I was able to glimpse, in small way, what the liturgy meant from the inside, and reading his Journals, I caught something of the Orthodox world view. I managed to find again a couple of sentences in his 1965 book Sacraments and Orthodoxy which link closely to what I have prepared for today. ‘The liturgy of the Eucharist is... the journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom... ‘Dimension’... seems the best way to indicate the manner of our sacramental entrance into the risen life of Christ’, p.29. 

It has been a pleasure to compile this lecture to honour the memory of Fr. Alexander, reconstructing something of the temple-world that has shaped so much of our Christian worship and world view, the journey into the dimension of the Kingdom. 

The writer of Hebrews described Jesus as a great high priest, and assumed, in his exposition, that the temple — its worship and its furnishings — had foreshadowed the work of Jesus, and was therefore the best framework within which to describe the person and work of our LORD. 

First, let us look at the temple itself. It is important to distinguish . . . Continue Reading . . .

Where is the lamb?

"Abraham's Offering" by Jan Lievens (Dutch painter, 1607-1674), 

Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Germany. 

Here is an analysis of today's first reading at Mass. It is by the Roman Catholic Biblical scholar Dr Michael Barber. (Go HERE to his valuable website). Dr Barber reminds us that as Christians, following the example of the early Fathers (and the New Testament itself), we read the Old Testament as pointing towards Christ. 

ABRAHAM OFFERS ISAAC 

Once Abraham's son Ishmael is banished he is left with his only beloved son Isaac. God now puts Abraham to the ultimate test, asking him to sacrifice his long awaited son on the mountain range known as Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22:1-2). Abraham obeys and sets off with Isaac on the three-day journey to the appointed place (Gen. 22:3-4). Once they get there, Isaac carries the wood of the sacrifice up the hill (Gen. 22:6). Isaac asks his father, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (Gen. 22:7). Abraham responds, “God will provide Himself the Lamb” (Gen. 22:8). But just as Abraham is about to plunge the knife into his son, the Lord spares Isaac, and makes a covenant with him, swearing to bless all the nations through his descendants (Gen. 22:11-12, 15-18). Abraham spots a ram and offers it to the Lord (Gen. 22:13-14). 

In Abraham the curse of the fall is partially reversed. Because of his disobedience, Adam triggered the covenant curses. Yet, through Abraham’s faithfulness God promises to bless all peoples. 

THE BINDING OF ISAAC 

The ancient Rabbis called this story the Aqedah – the “binding” of Isaac. They explained that this story is just as much about Isaac’s self-offering as it is about Abraham’s faithfulness. They pointed out that Isaac was strong enough to carry the wood up the mountain (Gen. 22:6). They concluded that he was a grown youth, easily capable of overcoming his decrepit father. Therefore, Jewish tradition explained that Isaac asked to be “bound” so that he would not be able to struggle against his father and crawl off the altar.

MOUNT MORIAH

The temple of Jerusalem was later built on Moriah (2 Chron. 3:1). There the people of Israel offered their sacrifices, in effect, reminding God of his promise to Abraham. The need for these sacrifices ends once Christ comes as the true Lamb of God – “God will provide Himself the Lamb” (Gen. 22:8). 

THE ONLY BELOVED SON OF THE FATHER 

The early Church fathers understood this story as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of the true only beloved Son of the Father. In fact, in the Church’s liturgy the story of Genesis 22 is read in connection with Jesus’ transfiguration. There the apostles hear God the Father say, “This is my beloved Son” (Mk. 9:7). This evokes God’s word to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love…” (Gen. 22:2). Like Isaac, Jesus is the only beloved Son of the Father, who is sacrificed for the salvation of the world (cf. John 3:16). 

Jesus offers himself to the Father in Jerusalem, where Abraham offered Isaac. Also, like Isaac, Jesus carries the wood up the mountain, fully submitting to the Father’s will (cf. Gen. 22:6; Lk. 23:26). Finally, Jesus rises from the dead on the third day, just as Abraham received his son back from the sentence of death on the third day (cf. Gen. 22:4; 1 Cor. 15:4). In fact, Hebrews 11:19 tells us that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son because he “considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead.” 

When Abraham offered Isaac, the Lord promised to bless all the nations. Little did he know that he was foreshadowing the way God would bring about that blessing. In Christ, Abraham’s words came true: “The Lord will provide himself the lamb.”

http://www.thesacredpage.com

Why is love of enemies so central to the Gospel?

This is from the Letter from Taizé: 2003/4. Go to the Taizé website to read the entire article. 

In the sixth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, immediately after the Beatitudes, Jesus urges his disciples at length to respond to hatred with love (Luke 6:27-35; cf. Matthew 5:43-48). Situated in that context, this text shows that for Luke, love of one’s opponents is what characterizes the disciples of Christ.

Jesus’ words depict two ways of living. The first is that of “sinners,” in other words, those who behave without reference to God and his Word. They act towards others according to the way others treat them; their action is in fact a re-action. Such people divide the world into two camps—their friends and those who are not their friends—and are good only to those who are good to them. The other way of living does not refer first and foremost to a group of human beings, but rather to God himself. God does not react according to the way he is treated. On the contrary, God “is good to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Luke 6:35).

Jesus thus puts his finger on the essential feature of the God of the Bible. Source of overflowing goodness, God does not let himself be conditioned by the wickedness of others. Even when forgotten or rejected, God continues to be faithful to himself; all God can do is love. This is true from the very beginning. Centuries before the coming of Christ Jesus, a prophet explained that, unlike human beings, God is always ready to forgive: “Your thoughts are not my thoughts and my ways are not your ways” (Isaiah 55:7-8). The prophet Hosea, for his part, hears the Lord tell him, “I will not give rein to my fierce anger… for I am God and not human” (Hosea 11:9). In a word, our God is merciful (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:15; 116:5 etc.); God “does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us as would befit our offences” (Psalm 103:10).

What is new in the Gospel is not so much that God is a Source of goodness, but that human beings can and should act in the image of their Creator: “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful!” (Luke 6:36). By the coming of his Son into our world as a human being, this divine Source of goodness is now accessible to us. We can become in our turn “sons and daughters of the Most High” (Luke 6:35), beings who are able to respond to evil with good, to hatred with love. By living a universal compassion, by forgiving those who hurt us, we witness that the God of mercy is present at the heart of a world marked by the rejection of others, where those who are different are despised or ignored. Impossible for human beings reduced to their own powers, loving one’s enemies witnesses to the activity of God himself in our midst. No outward commandment can make it possible. Only the presence in our hearts of divine love in person, the Holy Spirit, enables us to live in this way. This love is a direct result of Pentecost. It is not for nothing that the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:55), ends with these words: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” (Acts 7:60). In the footsteps of Jesus himself (cf. Luke 23:34), the disciple makes it possible for the sinister land of violence to be illuminated by the light of God’s love.

Lent and lobsters

Did you know that when a lobster feels its shell to be getting tight and restrictive, it finds a crevice in one of the underwater rock formations, sheds its shell and grows a new one. When it outgrows this shell, it repeats the process and continues doing so until it reaches its adult size. 

Without its shell, the lobster is in great danger. A predatory fish may eat it, or a strong current may dash it against a rock. But in order to grow, the lobster must risk its very life. 

That lobster is like us. In every area of life it is impossible to achieve success without some risk of failure. Because life is all about growth, each of us must learn to live with risk and change. Sometimes we are so afraid of failure - in our jobs, in our relationships with others, and even in our relationship with God - that we don't try anything new and so we don't grow. We haven't realised that the greatest failure of all is the failure to grow. We haven't paused to consider the possibilities of change and conversion, of reaching our real potential, because in a bizarre kind of way we feel secure and in control as we are, trudging along in our own strength. 

This Lent, let's listen for God to speak to us through the Scripture readings and when we pray. Let's move from our measured, transactional (and even stale) relationship with him to a fresh abandonment to his love. And during this process, as we feel spiritually stripped bare, exposed and vulnerable to attack (like that lobster!), let's remember just how much God loves us, and how much he wants wants us to trust him completely in every circumstance and with every detail of our lives, allowing him to draw us to himself, even as we touch others with his love.

S. David of Wales (c. 500–589)

Saint David (or Dewi, as he is known in the Welsh language) was an evangelist and monk, who became archbishop of Wales. 

He was one of many early saints who travelled around preaching the Gospel, teaching the Faith, and establishing church communities among the Celtic tribes of western Britain. He lived a frugal life, eating mainly bread and herbs. 

David was born near Capel Non (Non's chapel) on the South-West Wales coast near the present city of Saint David. He founded a monastery at Glyn Rhosyn (Rose Vale) on the banks of the small river Alun where the cathedral city of St David stands today. He was buried in the grounds of this monastery, where the Cathedral of St. David now stands, and he was was formally recognised as a saint by Pope Callistus II in 1120. 

During his 2010 visit to Great Britain, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about St David in Westminster Cathedral: 

"Saint David was one of the greatest saints of the 6th century, that golden age of saints and missionaries in these isles, and he was thus a founder of the Christian culture which lies at the root of modern Europe. David's preaching was simple yet profound: his dying words to his monks were, 'Be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things'. It is the little things that reveal out love for the one who loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19) and that bind people into a community of faith, love and service. May Saint David's message, in all its simplicity and richness, continue to resound in Wales today, drawing the hearts of its people to renewed love for Christ and his Church."

St David's Cathedral, Wales

The sign of Jonah (today's Gospel)

Here is an excellent commentary on today's Gospel. It is by Fr Matthew Duckett, an assistant priest in the Parish of Old St Pancras, London, and comes from his BLOG. 

“Just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation.” (Luke 11:29-32) 

What kind of sign is the “Sign of Jonah”? When Matthew’s gospel reports this saying of Jesus it provides an explanation, because Matthew doesn’t like loose ends and does like using Old Testament texts to shed light on Jesus. So Matthew says, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.” So the Sign of Jonah becomes the sign of the Resurrection. 

Certainly that’s an aspect of the Sign of Jonah, but Luke leaves it more open than Matthew. In fact the Sign of Jonah has many meanings. As we heard in the reading from the Book of Jonah itself, the main Sign that Jonah gave to the city of Nineveh was that he preached, “Forty more days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed, and repented, and the city was not overthrown, after all. 

So the Sign of Jonah is in the first place the sign of preaching, and believing, and repentance. And this is in fact exactly how Jesus begins his own mission. 

There is another way in which Jonah was a sign. Jonah’s story begins with him running away from the call of God, and in an extraordinary scene he’s on board a ship which gets caught in a violent storm, and the crew draw lots to see who is to blame, who has offended the gods. And they discover it is Jonah, and throw him overboard, whereupon Jonah is swallowed by the fish, and the storm ceases. 

So Jonah is also the sign of the scapegoat, the one whose apparent death restores peace and order to the little community of the boat once they have decided he was to blame and thrust him out. Which is if you like a type of what happened to Jesus on Good Friday, when he was thrust out of the city and killed by people who thought he was a blasphemer, under God’s curse, and a threat to their own society. So the Sign of Jonah is the Sign of preaching, of repentance, of the scapegoat, and of the resurrection. In all of these ways, Jesus will fulfil that sign. And although this Sign has these four different aspects, it is still one sign. What Jesus preaches is the Kingdom of God becoming real in the world through his death and resurrection. 

The gospel is preached to us and we are called to repent, because the death and resurrection of Jesus has exposed how complicit we are in the way the world makes victims and scapegoats. But much more than that, it has revealed the generosity and love of God who longs to lead us from the old way of sin and death to new life in Christ. 

In these days of Lent we seek to live more deeply the call to repentance we heard on Ash Wednesday:

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. 

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. 

Through that repentance we join ourselves to the Sign of Jonah, the Sign of Jesus, the dying and rising of Christ, through which we, and we pray this great city in which we live, will be saved.

Society of the Holy Cross ("SSC") Founders' Day

Charles Fuge Lowder (1820-1880) 

Today is "Founders' Day" of the Society of the Holy Cross ("SSC"), the oldest society of priests in the Church of England which was brought into being in 1855 by a small group of Anglo-Catholic priests led by Father Charles Lowder. Today there are more than a thousand members around the world in parishes, missions, chaplaincies, schools and other areas of pastoral ministry, committed to witnessing to the Cross of Christ by their lives and ministry. SSC is organised in Provinces under Provincial Masters elected by the Brethren. Within each Province are various Regions headed by Regional Vicars, and the work of the Society at local level is carried forward in Chapters led by their Local Vicars. Priests of the Society can be recognized by the small gold lapel cross that they generally wear. On it is inscribed the motto of the Society - in hoc signo vinces - in this sign, conquer!

The following is a slightly abbreviated form of the first chapter of In This Sign Conquer: A History of the Society of the Holy Cross (Societas Sanctae Crucis) 1855-2005, a collection of essays edited by Owen Higgs.

Charles Fuge Lowder, was born in June 1820 in Bath the son of a banker. In 1840 he went up to Exeter College Oxford. While at Oxford he attended S. Mary’s, where, like the best of his generation, he fell under the spell of the vicar, John Henry Newman, whose sermons guided him to the priesthood. Mr Lowder took a second class degree in 1843 and in the Autumn of that year was made Deacon to serve a title in the parish of Street-cum-Walton. On his ordination as a priest, by Bishop Denison of Salisbury, on the 22nd December 1844, he took up additional work as chaplain to the Axbridge workhouse.

As a Deacon he had looked into the possibilities of mission work in New Zealand. The failure to achieve this brought to the fore his other, parallel and perhaps greater ambition. He desired to work in a parish with a more advanced and catholic pattern of worship, thus he applied to become a curate at the famous ritualist centre of St Barnabas Pimlico. St Barnabas Pimlico, the most catholic building erected for worship in the Church of England since the reformation, was from its foundation a centre of ritual controversy. Bennet, the first vicar was long persecuted, and unsupported by the Bishop of London departed under pressure.

After the change of incumbents, the Revd R Liddel was the new vicar, the problems continued. The assistant curates, Skinner and Lowder carried out a splendid parish ministry but the proponents of the protestant cause were not to be persuaded by energetic evangelistic and pastoral zeal.

This parish, then a maze of slum streets had been built to serve the poor and was the most catholic parish, in both externals and teaching, in London. In the atmosphere of a daily celebration of Holy Communion, daily Morning and Evening prayer, a Sunday sung Eucharist and strict patterns of parochial visitation, Mr Lowder deemed himself to be in the best possible situation for an Anglo-Catholic assistant curate.

In due course a legal challenge resulted from a number of the furnishings that had given St Barnabas its catholic atmosphere. These included the altar cross, candlesticks, credence table, rood screen. The judgement, which went against Liddel was soon challenged on appeal. The atmosphere in parish life was however one of conflict and confrontation.

In fact, a man had been hired to walk around the area wearing a sandwich board advocating support for Liddel’s foes. Lowder, in what he described later as ‘a moment of madness’ gave some of the choir boys 6d with which to purchase rotten eggs; so armed, they assaulted the poor board carrier. Lowder appeared before Westminster Magistrates where he was fined £2.0.0, and before the Bishop of London on 6th May 1854, he was suspended from duty for six weeks. Thus one of the heroes of the Anglo-Catholic revival began his great work as a man with a criminal record and a diocesan black mark. 

Lowder went to France, later in May 1854 to spend his suspension out of the public eye. Being poor he walked, and stayed at the Seminary at Yvetôt. While there, he read Louis Abelly's Vie de Saint Vincent de Paul. This meeting with the great French Apostle of the poor marked the rest of Lowder’s life. He concluded that England was in desperate need of priests committed to the service of the urban poor of the great cities, just as S. Vincent’s Company of the Mission served the poor of rural France.

On his return to England, he completed the life of the saint and meditated on the dual need of a society far from the Gospel, and priests who lacked the structure, which was used by the Vincentians for mission. As a result he called a meeting of Anglo-Catholic clergy, hand-picked as the most trustworthy. The group of six came together at the House of Charity Soho on the 28th February 1855.They were, Charles Maurice Davies, curate of St Matthew's, City Road: David Nicols, curate of Christ Church, St Pancras; Alfred Poole and Joseph Smith, fellow curates with Lowder at St Barnabas' and St. Paul's; and Henry Augustus Rawes, Warden of the House of Charity, Soho. The meeting took place at the House of Charity in Soho. The six formed themselves into the Society of the Holy Cross and in this society and company made promises binding on them until May 1855. These were: of confidentiality in matters concerning the society, the second an affirmation of the Nicene creed, the third concerned mutual help, both temporal and spiritual, to brothers of the Society; in this way they dedicated themselves to lives of self-disciplined service, first of the poor, and the extension of the Catholic faith. Membership was to include obedience to a rule of life prior to a further major meeting in May at which the future of the new society would be decided. Lowder appeared first on the roll of members and was elected the first Master, to serve for twelve months.

Unlike many bodies founded during the second phase of the Anglo-Catholic revival, therefore, the SSC was not in original intent a devotional society; it was structured to be a rule for mission priests. It was thus from its inception original, more than a devotional society, other than a religious community, greater than a friendship circle, less than an oratory. It was an original conceit; original because the founders had no models from which to work, original because it was founded for a situation that was unique: the new outworking of a catholic priesthood whose conscious catholicity had been for centuries dormant in an English society undergoing enormous change.

Of the Society Lowder was to write in 1856, “It was so ordered also, by God's good providence, that a society of priests had lately been founded in London, called the Society of the Holy Cross. Its objects are to defend and strengthen the spiritual life of the clergy, to defend the faith of the Church, and to carry on and aid Mission work both at home and abroad.”

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Father Lowder's heroic work at St Peter's London Docks is summarised HERE.

Richard Dawkins and Archbishop Rowan Williams

It was a good discussion . . . a REALLY good one and a half hour discussion on the nature and ultimate origins of human beings at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, last Wednesday afternoon. Professor Richard Dawkins and Archbishop Rowan Williams engaged with each other and with moderator Sir Anthony Kenny respectfully and with gentle humour on matters such as genetic pre-determination, the nature of consciousness and whether or not the notion of God "clutters up" one's world view. While it was more a discussion than a debate, some very valuable points were made. 

It was the Archbishop of Canterbury at his best, and, for that matter, possibly Dawkins at his best, too. 

In reporting the event, Reuters quoted Andrew Wilkinson, a theology graduate, as saying: "It was a points victory for Rowan Williams, but not a knock-out round." Reuters also quoted a Judy Perkins: "Williams was better at engaging with the science than Dawkins was at engaging with the philosophy." 

Watch the video for yourself.

Bishop Jonathan Baker on women bishops & General Synod

Statement from the Chairman of Forward in Faith 

Feb 25, 2012 

It seemed right to leave a pause for reflection after the meeting of the General Synod in February, which devoted much time to further consideration of the draft legislation on women bishops. 

We are hugely grateful to the Venerable Cherry Vann, Archdeacon of Rochdale, for introducing the Diocesan Synod Motion on behalf of the Diocese of Manchester, and for the gracious and generous way in which she did so. This motion invited the House of Bishops to consider amending the legislation, in order to introduce provisions for those unable to accept the ordination of women to the episcopate along the lines of those contained in the amendment proposed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, which was very narrowly defeated in July 2010.

While the Manchester motion was not passed in the form proposed, the debate was a helpful one. Many members of Synod, including those from the Catholic Group, but by no means only them, spoke eloquently and forcefully in favour of arrangements whereby those unable to accept women in the episcopate, on theological grounds, would be able to continue in the Church of England with integrity and a real opportunity to flourish. It was enormously encouraging to hear the speeches of younger lay people, women and men, and younger priests, putting our case. 

It was encouraging, too, that a third of the House of Clergy and well over 40% of the House of Laity voted against any amendment to the Manchester motion, indicating significant dissatisfaction with the legislation in its present form. In the House of Bishops, 16 bishops voted against amending the Manchester motion, among them the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London and Durham, and a number of other senior diocesan bishops. A further 5 members of the House of Bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester, abstained. 

The motion which was passed in its final form still gives the House of Bishops room to take a fresh look at the legislation; and, of course, it remains true that the House of Bishops has the discretion to amend the legislation in any way its sees fit, irrespective of the voting on this particular motion in the General Synod.

We shall be praying hard now for fresh wisdom at the meeting of the House of Bishops in May, and for a willingness to listen to those many voices in Synod which urged that, for the sake of the Church of England as a whole, and her unity and mission, a way forward may be found to enable supporters of women in the episcopate and those who cannot assent to the development to move forward together. We are not there yet. Forward in Faith continues to stand ready to help in any way, that such a solution may indeed be found. 

X Jonathan Ebbsfleet 

Chairman 

First Sunday in Lent, 2012