living as one

Mary, give us Jesus! Grant that we may follow

him and love him! He is the hope of the

Church and of all humanity!

He lives with us, in our midst,

in his Church! With you we say: ‘Come, Lord Jesus.

’May the hope of glory which he has poured into our hearts bear

fruits of justice and peace!

Adapted from Ecclesia in Europa, 125

Daily Meditations and Group Reflections on the nature of the ChurchFirst Sunday of Lent - Holy Saturday (Year C)

Living As One

Acknowledgements

Living As One

Nihil Obstat: Father Anton Cowan Imprimatur: The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster Date: Ash Wednesday 17th February 2010

The Nihil obstat and Imprimatur are a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.

Writing Group: Dr Mark Nash, Fr Michael O’Boy, Mrs Margaret Wickware; Sunday Scripture Backgrounds: Fr John Deehan; Saturday Lenten reflections: Fr Richard Parsons/Mrs Margaret Wickware. With thanks to Mr Mathew D’Souza for facilitating the distribution of the ‘exploring faith’ booklets.

The Westminster Diocesan Agency for Evangelisation is grateful to Darton, Longman & Todd for permission to use Scripture texts from the Jerusalem Bible © 1966 Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Company Ltd and to the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A for use of the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright © 1993 and 1989. Extracts from The Catechism of the Catholic Church are reproduced by kind permission of the Continuum International Publishing Group. Excerpts from The Divine Office © 1974, hierarchies of Australia, England and Wales, Ireland. Excerpts from the English Translation of the Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Image on the front cover: Communion of the Apostles (1512) by Luca Signorelli, Museo Diocesano, Cortona. Image on back cover: Altarpiece, central panel (c.1437) by Fra Angelico from the Church of St. Dominic, Perugia.

Produced by The Agency for Evangelisation, Vaughan House, 46 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QN. Tel: 020 7798 9152 or email: [email protected]

Published by WRCDT, copyright © 2010, Diocese of Westminster, Archbishop’s House, Ambrosden Avenue, London SW1P 1QJ

Designed by Julian Game

Print and distribution arranged by Transform Management Ltd: [email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Foreword

Much of what we say in church Sunday by Sunday can become part of an unthinking routine. How often, for example, do we stop to think about the words we use and what they mean? Last year many of us appreciated the opportunity which Your Kingdom Come gave for reflecting on the words of the ‘Our Father’ and the implication which the praying of the Lord’s Prayer had for our approach to the whole question of justice, peace and the coming of God’s Kingdom.

This Lent the group sessions and daily meditations provided in Living As One offer a similar opportunity. Taking some familiar words from the Creed we will reflect on the nature of the Church, exploring what we mean when we say that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. In doing so we will also reflect on the challenge of Living As One asking ourselves who it is we are called to be at one with, how we live as one, and the example which Mary, Mother of the Church, sets before us.

In presenting Living As One to you I am mindful of the prayer that Christ offered to the Father for his disciples on the eve of his passion ‘that they may be one, as we are one’ (John 17: 11). This Lent, as you journey with Christ through the desert, may you hear more clearly Christ’s call for the unity of the Church, and may you be drawn into a deeper communion with Him whose body, the Church on earth, we are.

Yours devotedly

The Most Reverend Vincent NicholsArchbishop of Westminster

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About this Book

We are told in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that God created the world for the sake of communion with him, and that the Church - the assembly or meeting of men and women in Christ - brings this about (CCC, 760). It is in and through the Church that Christ’s saving work continues; it is in and through the Church that the ‘holy and sanctifying humanity’ of Christ: his reconciling us to God, continues. The Catechism also tells us that because our communion with each other is rooted in our union with God, the Church is also the sign and means, ‘the sacrament’, by which the unity of the human race will be achieved (CCC, 774-775).

Unity, our living as one, in communion with God and with each other, is of the essence of the Church. Over the next six weeks we will reflect on this aspect of the Church’s life and nature. In Week One we will consider who it is that we are called to live in communion with. Then, having asked how we are to live in communion (Week Two), we will consider the underpinning of the Church’s unity exploring what is meant when we describe the Church as one and holy (Week Three), catholic (Week Four) and apostolic (Week Five). Finally, in Week Six, we will look to Mary, Mother of the Church and exemplar of what it is to live in communion with God and man.

As usual this faith sharing resource contains a mixture of group sessions and daily mediations. Whilst the group sessions and weekday meditations follow the outline mapped out above the weekend meditations follow a slightly different pattern. On Saturdays we will consider different aspects of Lent and on Sundays we will provide a background to the gospel of the day.

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Week One

In this first week of Living As One we will ask ourselves a simple question. Who is that I am called to live at one with? In doing so, we will reflect on our understanding of family, Church and community.

Chilandri Pantokrator, XIIIth Century, Chilandri (Athos)

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OpeningPrayers

Leader: O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?

Group: Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;

Leader: who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, Group: nor take up a reproach against their neighbours; in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honour those who fear the Lord;

Leader: who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent.

All: Those who do these things shall never be moved.

From Psalm 15

For a brief few moments in silence let us think about the people and situations we wish to bring before the Lord. Let us also think about what we hope to gain from this time together. We pray, too, that the grace of God fill our hearts and minds today and in the week ahead.

Let us listen carefully to the Word of the Lord,and attend to it with the ear of our hearts.Let us welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice.

St. Benedict of Nursia (c.480-c.547) adapted

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Group Session One – Who are we called to live as one with?

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ExploretheScripturesMatthew 5:43-48 (New Revised Standard Version)

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

ForreflectionIn his 2008 book, The Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell claims that the key to success in any given field is, to a large extent, a matter of practising a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. For three years, at just over 60 hours per week, we can master anything we desire. Practice, as they say, ‘makes perfect’.

The most obvious problem with the ’10,000 hour rule’ is that not every skill requires the same amount of time to master. Indeed, there are some things in life that we can spend 70, 80 or even 100 years doing and never feel that we have perfected. How then do we approach this reading? How do we approach Jesus’ instruction to strive for perfection? Do we ignore it as impossible, conscious of our faults or do we seek to approach each day and every encounter as grace-filled opportunities for growth?

We are all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) in which Jesus had much to say about what it is to be a good neighbour. The love shown by the Good Samaritan stands in sharp contrast to the callousness of the priest and Levite who passed on the other side. It is all the more impressive because, unlike the priest and Levite who shared the traveller’s faith, the Samaritan had relatively little in common with the injured traveller. He was not a member of the man’s family, he was not a

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friend, he was not a co-religionist and they came from different cultures. What impelled the Good Samaritan was no bond shared save their common humanity and his desire to do good.

FromEvangeliumVitae(The Gospel of Life)87. In our service of charity…we must care for the other as a person for whom God has made us responsible. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to become neighbours of everyone (cf. Luke 10:29-37), and to show special favour to those who are poorest, most alone and most in need. In helping the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned – as well as the child in the womb and the old person who is suffering or near death – we have the opportunity to serve Jesus.

What factors have influenced your decisions to help or not to help others? Who has surprised you with the help they have offered and given? Where, and in what situations, have you found it difficult to see the face of Christ in others?

ClosingPrayers

Leader: Aloud or in the silence of our hearts let us bring to the Father our thanks (pause)…

Leader: In sorrow let us ask the Father for forgiveness (pause)…

Leader: With confidence let us entrust to the Father our cares and concerns (pause)…

All: Our Father…

The final part of our closing prayer today is taken from the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. As the leader reads the following we each trace the sign of the cross with our thumb on another’s forehead:

Leader: Receive the cross on your forehead. It is Christ himself who now strengthens you with this sign of his love. Learn to know him and follow him.

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99

While the shoulders are being signed:

Leader: Receive the sign of the cross on your shoulders, that you may bear the gentle yoke of Christ.

While the hands are being signed:

Leader: Receive the sign of the cross on your hands, that Christ may be known in the work which you do.

All: Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

Leader: Almighty God, by the cross and resurrection of your Son you have given life to your people. We have received the sign of the cross: make us living proof of its saving power and help us to persevere in the footsteps of Christ. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.


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Backgroundtotoday’sgospelreading (Luke 4:1-13)In writing his gospel Luke’s underlying concern was that the Christian community should direct its energy to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world around it. For this reason Luke tells the story of Jesus’ temptation with a different emphasis to Matthew. Whereas Matthew sees the temptation of Jesus as the point of his being in the wilderness, Luke implies that Jesus is led there by the Spirit in order to prepare for his own mission; a mission where the devil is never far away, trying to undermine his sense of purpose and resolve. What is true for Jesus will be true for the Christian community; preparation is essential, and there will be temptation.

The devil tries to distract Jesus from his goal on three fronts, exploiting possible areas of weakness. The temptations focus on the natural human desire for material things, for power and influence, and the desire to force God to follow one’s agenda. In response Jesus brings together three quotes from Scripture providing a kind of strategy for mission. ‘Man does not live by bread alone; You shall worship the Lord God and serve only Him; You shall not put the Lord to the test’.

In Luke the order of the temptations is arranged so that they conclude in Jerusalem. Luke will make much of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the city where Jesus’ mission is accomplished, and from where the Good News of Jesus Christ will go out to the whole world.

Father, through our observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son’s death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives.

Opening Prayer, First Sunday of Lent (C)

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First Sunday of Lent

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Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’ But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’

Matthew 12: 47-50

Caring for family may seem the most obvious or natural thing in the world, but it is equally true that what comes most readily is often the thing least cherished. At first glance Christ seems to be approaching his familial relations in a rather cavalier way, assuming, much as we can do, that family relationships – parent-child, brother-sister – will withstand the sorts of behaviour that other friendships will not tolerate. In this instance, however, far from being dismissive of family, Christ is striving to extend and enrich our understanding of the family to which we belong and are called to be at one with. For him it is the ties that are established and then strengthened by our doing the will of God, as much as the ties that are given to us by birth, that are to be attended to by those who claim to be members of his family.

Bestow upon us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

St. Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-1274)

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First Week of Lent – Monday

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He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest,

Luke 10:2

Often we can ask the Lord for help without reflecting on what it is he might be calling us to do. Grace, as the expression goes, builds on nature. In other words ‘grace’, which could be described as the loving action of God, does not work in a vacuum, where what we say and do is of little consequence. We pray for the vocations, the labourers, to serve our parishes and proclaim the gospel, but what is it that we are prepared to do to build up our parishes; that those who are drawn in may encounter a worshipping and generous community which lives the love of Christ, and where the call to communion has been embraced?

O Lord my God, who created me in Your own image and likeness, grant me this great grace, so necessary for my salvation, that I may overcome my fallen nature. Grant, O Lord, that Your grace will always go before me and all who need your help, through Jesus Christ Your Son. Amen.

Adapted from Thomas À Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter 55

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First Week of Lent – Tuesday

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Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

1 Corinthians 4: 15-17

These words of St. Paul to the church at Corinth follow his reflection on the ministry of the Apostles. Like Paul, who sent Timothy to the Corinthians, today’s apostles, the bishops, relate to those in their care through the priests they send to the various parishes of their diocese. The parish priest, as it were, is the bishop’s emissary or co-worker, responsible for maintaining the link between the people and their bishop. In living as one with our brothers and sisters in Christ, in building up the body of Christ in our parish, we are also called to communion with the local bishop whose is responsible for the teaching, governing and sanctifying of the local church. It is for this reason that he is named and prayed for in the Eucharistic Prayer.

Lord our God, you have chosen your servant Vincent to be a shepherd of your flock in the tradition of the apostles. Give him a spirit of courage and right judgement, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care may he build your Church as a sign of salvation for the world. Amen.

From the Roman Missal, Prayers for the Bishop

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First Week of Lent – Wednesday

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We have no eyes for the visible, but only for the invisible; for visible things last only for a time, and invisible things are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

Reflecting on the nature of the Church, and who it is we are called to live in communion with, it is easy to forget those who have ‘gone before us marked with the sign of faith’. With the angels and the saints, the faithful departed are part and parcel of the community, the Church that gathers around the altar at the Eucharist when we, this side of eternity, glimpse the Heavenly Banquet. For us the ‘moving on’ that bereavement challenges us with is not a ‘moving on’ that erases someone, as if they have never existed, or with whom our relationship has ended. On the contrary, it is a ‘moving on’ shaped by the belief that they gather with us at the Eucharist and that in prayer there are still things that we can do for each other.

May the choir of angels welcome them and lead them to Abraham’s side. May the Lord enfold them in mercy. May they find eternal life.

May the angels lead us into paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome us and take us into the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.

Adapted from the Rite of Funerals

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First Week of Lent – Thursday

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May your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.Judges 5:31

As our childhood horizons are broadened we begin to appreciate that people come in all shapes and sizes. Part of our growing up means developing the gifts that will help us sustain relationships with those whose background, experience and religion might be radically different from our own. In the making of these friendships we can learn a lot about ourselves as well as other people, coming to appreciate the common threads, the universal questions and cares that run through the lives of believers and non-believers alike. Just as the Sun brightens the day, bringing things to light, revealing colour and beauty, so too with our friendships where always and everywhere, and without exception, we will encounter another created in the image of God.

FromGaudiumetSpes(On the Church in the Modern World)1. The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man.

Lord, lighten the heavy burden of my sins, like a bright lamp, guide me along the right path. Let your good Spirit guide me in the right way and may my works be in accordance with your will. Let it be so, right to the end, Amen.

St. John of Damascus (c.665-c.750)

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First Week of Lent – Friday

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In Lent the tone of our churches and worship is changed. The ‘mode’ is thoughtful and reflective. There is less music and no flowers while the vestments and hangings are generally purple. The homilies are concerned with penitence, calling worshippers to a ‘renewal’ of heart and mind to be demonstrated through prayer, fasting and charitable acts. From the tenth century, in order to help people visualise their break with God, a break that would be reconciled through Jesus’ death and resurrection, some churches hung a cloth between the sanctuary and the main body of the church. Nowadays, towards the end of Lent some churches will cover the statues and crosses.

As well as being called to look inwardly during this sombre season of penance there is also an atmosphere of expectation as we look forward to the celebration of Easter and Christ’s resurrection. The Catechumens and Candidates, who became the Elect at the beginning of Lent, will undertake their final preparations for Baptism and Confirmation.

Through our annual Lenten observance, Lord, deepen our understanding of the mystery of Christ and make it a reality in the conduct of our lives. Amen.

Concluding Prayer, Lent Sunday Week 1, Divine Office

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First Week of Lent – Saturday

Week Two

Living as one with others is no easy task. In this second week we reflect on the challenge of living in communion with each other. Here we will acknowledge the need to follow the call of Christ and our need of his help.

Fra Angelico, St. Lawrence dispensing alms (1447-49), Cappella Niccolina, Vatican

OpeningPrayers

Leader: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

Group: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go.

Leader: O that you had paid attention to my commandments!

Group: Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains.

All: Glory be…From Isaiah 48:17-19


Let us listen carefully to the Word of the Lord, and attend to it with the ear of our hearts. Let us welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice.


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Group Session Two – How do we live as one?

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ExploretheScriptures Acts 2:37-47 (NRSV)Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’ And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Before the passage is read again by a different person you may wish to share a word, an image or a phrase that has struck you. These thoughts can be shared further after the second reading.

ForreflectionAccording to Tertullian, one of the Church Fathers who lived around the beginning of the third century, the way in which the early Christians lived caused others to comment. ‘See’, others would say, ‘how they love one another’. This love as Tertullian goes on to relate, and as today’s Scripture shows, was manifested in a variety of ways – in sharing what they possessed with each other, being mindful of each others needs, and in praying and worshipping together. The image one is left with is of a close knit, readily


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identifiable community, whose common way of life was attractive to, and not exclusive of, others.

Reflecting on the life of these early Christians one may well be struck by the consistency which seems to have marked their lives; how, that is, they practiced what they preached, sharing all they had in common. Here, however, a more fundamental principal seems to have been at play; for the early Christians also realised that following Christ impacted on every single aspect of their lives. It touched on their day to day life and was to be lived at home as well as in the temple. Often, we can live our faith as if it can be summed up in the saying of prayers, the occasional good deed, going to Mass and giving to the collection. In other words, it can be a ‘weekend’ or part-time endeavour, manifested in a part of my life but not others. If we are to ‘live as one’ in Christ we too must accept that all of our life should be orientated towards Christ and each other; that every decision we make should bear in mind – the Church, the body of Christ - and all that it believes and cherishes.

How, through the week, do you feel connected to Christ and the Church? What role does the Church – the body of Christ, the community of believers – play in your everyday life and decision making? How are you able to communicate to others the role the Church plays in your life?

FromEvangeliiNuntiandi (On Evangelisation)15. For the Christian community is never closed in upon itself. The intimate life of this community - the life of listening to the Word and the apostles’ teaching, charity lived in a fraternal way, the sharing of bread - this intimate life only acquires its full meaning when it becomes a witness, when it evokes admiration and conversion, and when it becomes the preaching and proclamation of the Good News.


ClosingPrayers




All: Our Father…

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellows throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy. Amen.

Pope Paul VI (1897-1978)

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Backgroundtotoday’sgospelreading (Luke 9:28-36)In this passage Luke presents us with a story which even Jesus’ closest disciples did not begin to understand until after his resurrection. ‘While Jesus was praying’, says Luke, ‘the form of his face became “other” and his garments became dazzlingly white’. The scene reminds us of Moses’ return from Mount Sinai when, having conversed with God, his face became radiant, reflecting the glory of God. Only after his resurrection did Jesus’ disciples realise that they had encountered one greater than Elijah, the greatest of Israel’s prophets or Moses; in meeting Jesus they had met the Son of God, the One who is the glory of God and so demands that we ‘listen to him’.

Luke also draws our attention to the conversation about Jesus’ passing or Exodus, which will take place at Jerusalem. It refers to the suffering and death of Jesus, and presents it as an even greater liberation for the human race than the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea.

The devil had tempted Jesus with the glory of power. Luke implies that true glory comes from God and shines out in the Son who is faithful to God to the point of giving his life on the cross. In so doing he has passed through death and now, through his Holy Spirit, leads all those who follow him to God.

God our Father, help us to hear your Son. Enlighten us with your word, that we may find the way to your glory.

Opening Prayer, Second Sunday of Lent (C)

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Second Sunday of Lent

The gifts he gave were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.’

Ephesians 4: 11-13

A little further on St. Paul reminds the Christians in Ephesus that it is important for everyone to play the part they have been called to play, ‘as each part… working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love’ (Ephesians 4:16). At home, at work, within the Church Paul’s message can be a challenging one, especially where the work we have been called to appears less glamorous, less exciting, less important than another’s. At the same time however Paul reminds those who have been called to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers should undertake their work in a spirit of service; one that facilities the work of others, ‘the saints’, and which has as its purpose the unity of the body rather than any personal gain.

FromPopeBenedictXVI,22ndWorldYouthDayMessage,2007

My dear young friends, I want to invite you to ‘dare to love’. Do not desire anything less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death for ever through love (cf. Revelation 5:13).

Heavenly Father, grant me the grace of knowing what you have called me to do, and in knowing this, my vocation, of living it out in service of those you will set before me this day. Amen.

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Second Week of Lent – Monday

We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbour for the good purpose of building up the neighbour…May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15: 1- 2, 5-6

‘When the going gets tough the tough get going’. ‘Let’s separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff’. ‘Let the weakest go to the wall’. Darwin’s theory of natural selection - where the fittest survive – is summed up in a variety of commonplace phrases and reflected in the workings of the free market economy. In Christ, however, we have one who held up those whom others despised – the sick, the sinful, the poor – as examples of faith to be followed. As Christians, concerned with the building up of the body of Christ, we are called to see with the eyes of Christ; to affirm what is good and holy in others and to refute secular definitions of strength.

Heavenly Father open my eyes to the good in others, that I may see in them the beauty of your creation, the face of your Son, and all that you seek to teach me. Amen.

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Second Week of Lent – Tuesday

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As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.

Colossians 3:12-15

If we are to live as one, we must follow Christ’s example: loving as he loved, forgiving as he forgave. In his encyclical or letter ‘God is Love’, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that the only way of loving as Christ calls us to love is to get on and do it. Like anything else in life, like any muscle we seek to strengthen, or activity we want to be good at, the only way of getting where we want to be is through practice and perseverance. Almost certainly there will be failures and setbacks, but these tend to occur where the foundations haven’t been laid; where we have striven to forgive without making forgiveness and love a regular part of our everyday lives. Indeed, it will be difficult to forgive the big things where even the small forgivings of everyday life are passed over.

Heavenly Father help me to persevere, to strive where my will is weak, and to begin again where I have failed, that whatever I lack in love, I may put right in the trying. Amen.

Second Week of Lent – Wednesday

At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning…If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?

Acts 10: 44-48

In this passage Peter responds to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, putting aside the distinctions which the early Jewish believers drew between themselves and the Gentiles. With Peter we are called to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit who, as this instance relates, refused to discriminate between one group of believers and another.

Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do. Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure: until with thee I have one will to do and to endure.

Edwin Hatch (1835-89)

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Second Week of Lent – Thursday

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone’. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.

Acts 4: 8-12

Echoing Christ’s own words, Peter refers to Christ as the cornerstone, the foundation upon which the whole building relies. To live as one, to live in imitation of Christ, we must first live at one with Christ. It is Christ who stands at the heart of all that we have in common; who makes of those who follow him brothers and sisters, and who shows us how to be truly and fully human.

Prayer, where we speak to Christ, Scripture where the life, work and words of Christ are proclaimed, the Sacraments where Christ is made present, and the Church or bride of Christ – all these have been given to us that we might be tied into Christ, and being tied into him, we might be united with one another.

FromtheCatechismoftheCatholicChurch775. The Church’s first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God. Because men’s communion with one another is rooted in that union with God, the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race. In her, this unity is already begun, since she gathers men ‘from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues.’

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Second Week of Lent – Friday

Lord Jesus Christ draw me ever closer, that I may live in communion with you, and that my living with you, within the family of the Church, will shape my living with others. Amen.

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Second Week of Lent – Friday

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Second Week of Lent – Saturday

In the Western Church, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues for forty days until Easter, but excludes Sundays. Originally, the period of fasting in preparation for Easter did not, as a rule, exceed two or three days. However, by the time of the Council of Nicaea (325) forty days were already customary.

When the Evangelists Mark, Matthew and Luke (Mark 1:13, Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:2) related Jesus’ forty days (and nights, Matthew 4:2) in the wilderness they were making a direct comparison to Israel’s forty years journeying from Egypt to the promised land of Israel (c.1200BC). In the wilderness of Sinai the Israelites received God’s law (Exodus 20:1-17) but went on to disregard this precious gift, disobeying God by worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-10). Jesus, in contrast, remained faithful to God’s law. He did not obey the commandments of Satan (Matthew 4:10). Jesus was tempted like us in every way possible but he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). Lent, then, is a call for us to reject the disobedience of Israel and to cling to the life which Jesus offers.

God our Father, you bid us to listen to your Son, the well-beloved. Nourish our hearts on your word, purify the eyes of our mind, and fill us with joy at the vision of your glory. Amen.


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Week Three

This week we will explore what is meant when we say that the Church is one and holy. In particular we will see that the unity and holiness of the Church is rooted in Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit.

Andrei Rublev, The Hospitality of Abraham (c.1410) 30

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OpeningPrayers

Leader: Jesus, Risen Lord

All: We gather in your name.

Leader: Jesus, Good Shepherd


Leader: Jesus, Word of life


Leader: Jesus, friend of the poor


Leader: Jesus, source of all forgiveness


Leader: Jesus, Prince of peace


All: Lord Jesus Christ, you call us together in faith and love. Breathe again the new life of your Holy Spirit among us that we may hear your holy word, pray in your name, seek unity among Christians and live more fully the faith we profess. All glory and honour be yours with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.


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Group Session Three – we believe in a one and holy Church

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ExploretheScripturesJohn17:20-26 (North American Bible translation)‘I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.

‘Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.’

Before the passage is read again by a different person you may wish to share a word, an image or a phrase that has struck you. These thoughts can be shared further after the second reading.

ForreflectionThe word koinonia (coy-no-knee-ah) is used frequently in the New Testament to describe relationships within the early Christian church. Its primary meaning is one of fellowship, sharing in common and communion. As Christians we are called to koinonia. ‘If you have any encouragement from being united in Christ, if any comfort from love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose’ (Philippians 2:1-2).

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Scripture commands us to be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), honour one another (Romans 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13), spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), offer hospitality (1 Peter 4:9), and love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 4:11-12).

Over recent years the world has changed considerably. The pace of life has accelerated, the public role of religion diminished and the Church cannot assume that its voice will be heard. In the face of such challenges, there is even more need for all Christians to be ‘one in spirit and purpose.’ While we profess belief in one, holy Church; division within that Church is plain to see. The pain of such division, which can divide families and friends, is often palpable. It is important that we feel such pain, for without it we would not be stirred to work towards the unity for which Christ prayed.

Yes, let us rejoice in what we Christians can do together: joint prayer, acting together on issues of social justice and common witness – though weakened in the eyes of society by our division. All of this is partial though, koinonia-in-part, but we should not give up hope. Let us continue to pray and strive for that time when our unity may be complete, as we wait for that time when we can break bread together.

How have the divisions in Christianity impacted on your life or the lives of those close to you? What ecumenical activities are you aware of? As the whole Church seeks unity, what more can you do as a parish?


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FromtheCatechism 819. Many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: ‘the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements.’ Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church.

ClosingPrayers




All: Our Father…

May the Spirit of the risen Lord empower our hearts and minds to bear the fruits of unity in the relationship between our Churches, so that together we may serve the unity and peace of the whole human family. May the same Spirit lead us to the full expression of the mystery of ecclesial communion, that we gratefully acknowledge as a wonderful gift of God to the world, a mystery whose beauty radiates especially in the holiness of the saints, to which all are called. Amen.

From the Catholic-Orthodox Ravenna Document (2007)34


Backgroundtotoday’sgospelreading (Luke 13:1-9)The gospel passage for this Sunday comes from the central section of Luke’s gospel, the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem. Luke uses the journey to give a sense of direction and purpose to the sayings and teachings of Jesus which reveal the mind of the one who is prepared to give his life in Jerusalem for the salvation of the world.

Jesus will adapt his words to different audiences. To his disciples he gives positive instructions on how to follow him. To the crowds he gives warnings, and calls them to conversion, a change of mind and heart in response to the words of the Son of God. With his opponents he engages in confrontation.

While Jesus moves purposefully to Jerusalem, and his own death, he hears about people who have died in the same city, without warning, in political reprisals and a major incident involving the collapse of a building. Jesus refutes the popular piety which says that the people must have brought the disaster on themselves; instead he focuses on repentance and conversion as a requirement for all.

The fig tree and the fruit it bears is a symbol of the person who is invited to conversion and repentance. Whereas in Mark and Matthew the fig tree that bears no fruit is immediately cut down, in Luke, as Jesus heads to Jerusalem, the tree is given time. There will, however, be a cut-off point. Remembering the devil’s temptation about putting God to the test, the appropriate response to Jesus’ teaching is to listen to him and turn over a new leaf, not to delay and take God’s compassion for granted.

Father, you have taught us to overcome sins by prayer, fasting and works of mercy. When we are discouraged by our weakness, give us confidence in your love.

Opening Prayer, Third Sunday of Lent (C)

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Third Sunday of Lent

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Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.’

Genesis 1:26

Made in the image of God who is three Persons but one God, we are most completely ourselves, most happy, when we live in communion with each other, thus imitating the union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In short, who and what we are, what makes us ‘tick’, cannot be fully understood without reference to God. What is true of us, is also true of the Church. The Church is one because it too cannot be understood apart from God – the one God who is its source, the Son who is its founder and the Holy Spirit who is its soul – who permeates its life and members, making his home with those who keep his word (John 14:23).

FromGaudiumetSpes24. The Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, ‘that all may be one… as we are one’ (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God’s sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Roman Missal, Gloria

Third Week of Lent – Monday

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‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him.

Matthew 14:29-31

While the other disciples shivered and panicked, trying to battle the storm by their own strength Peter, at the Lord’s command, gets out of the boat. When his strength fails him, he reaches out and trusts in Jesus’ power to save. Echoing God’s promises to the Israelites, ‘I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people’ (Leviticus 26:3, 11-12) and ‘know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go’ (Genesis 28:15), Jesus promised that he would always be there for his disciples; ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them’ (Matthew 18:20).

FromtheCatechism811. This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic. These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission. The Church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realise each of these qualities.

Dear Jesus, flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may be a radiance of yours. Amen.

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801- 1890)

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Third Week of Lent – Tuesday

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I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Romans 7: 15

St. Paul knew he was as sinner, but he also knew that one man’s obedience, that is Christ, had set things straight, opening up the way to righteousness (Romans 5:19-21). The Church has been described as a hospital for sinners, a refuge for those striving after but yet to attain holiness. Certainly, many people have led holy lives, but the Church is not holy because of their presence, rather it is holy because Christ joined the Church to himself; gifting to her his Holy Spirit and the life of grace – to which the Sacrament of reconciliation is key - through which the Church’s members are drawn back to him.

FromPaulVI,CredoofthePeopleofGod(Solemni Hac Liturgia)

19. She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, in all their distress it was no angel that saved them; but your presence in your love and in your pity you redeemed your people; we pray that you may lift us too and carry us in all our days. Amen.

Adapted from Isaiah 63:938

Third Week of Lent – Wednesday

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When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:14

Who can honestly say that they understand everything about Christ and, because of this, that they know everything that there is to know about God? The answer is no one. God cannot be summed up or contained. Even so, at the end of his life, Christ promised that he would send us the Holy Spirit to help us understand his teaching and mission. Though invisible, it is through the Spirit that we are guided into truth that Christ himself, whose abiding presence underpins the unity and holiness of the Church, continues to teach.

FromtheCatechism797. What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church. To this Spirit of Christ, as an invisible principle, is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of the body are joined one with the other and with their exalted head; for the whole Spirit of Christ is in the head, the whole Spirit is in the body, and the whole Spirit is in each of the members.

Glory be to him who can keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and happy. To God, the only God, who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord, be the glory, majesty, authority and power, which he had before time began, now and forever. Amen.

Doxology from the Letter of Jude 24-25

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Third Week of Lent – Thursday

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Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more… As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me… Apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:2, 4-5

As we move through Lent we will have one eye on Easter and the Lord’s resurrection. However, we do not journey through Lent, and will not recall the Lord’s Passion, while forgetting that wherever we are in the Church’s year the Lord is Risen here and now. Time and again the Church uses a dual language. We celebrate Advent, preparing for the birth of Christ, but Christ has already been born; we look to the coming of God’s Kingdom but the Kingdom has already arrived in the person of Jesus Christ. In the same way we speak of one, holy Church. Certainly, the Church is already one and holy, because of Christ, but much as sin masks our being created in the image of God, so it is with the Church. In a certain sense therefore our profession of one, holy Church could be described as hopeful; a looking forward to the time when this unity and holiness will be as evident in the members of the Church as it is in Christ.

FromtheCatechism769. ‘The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven,’ at the time of Christ’s glorious return. Until that day, ‘the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world’s persecutions and God’s consolations.’ Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will ‘be united in glory with her king.’

This, then is to watch: To be detached from what is present, and to live in what is unseen; to live in the thought of Christ as he came once, and as he will come again; to desire his second coming, from our affectionate and grateful remembrance of his first.

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801- 1890)

Third Week of Lent – Friday

Aside from those who are dieting, the idea of foregoing food or fasting may seem strange. Yet Lent is not about slimming or losing weight to improve one’s personal appearance for the idea of fasting is rooted in Christ’s forty days in the desert. Moreover, fasting goes beyond the consumption of food helping us focus on some fundamental questions: how is my relationship with God? Who am I, and what am I doing with my life? Do I need to change, and how?

In his letters to the early Church, St. Paul used the analogy of training for a sporting event. Fasting is a way of training our bodies for the crown of eternal life (1 Corinthians 9:24-7). Similarly, the catechetical instructions issued by St. Cyril (Bishop of Jerusalem – c.AD 349-387) to those preparing for baptism encouraged them to think deeply about the Sacraments, in particular the Eucharist, their membership of the Body of Christ, the nature of penitence and the hope of heaven and the life everlasting. Not a bad agenda for us as we explore Lent in our own time.

God our Father, in your infinite love and goodness you have shown us that prayer, fasting and almsgiving are remedies for sin: accept the humble admission of our guilt, and when our conscience weighs us down let your unfailing mercy raise us up. Amen.


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Third Week of Lent – Saturday

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Week Four

Generally speaking the word catholic is associated with a particular tradition within Christianity, yet ‘catholic’ means universal or all embracing. In professing our belief in one, catholic Church we recognise that the Church has a universal mission but we are also faced with the painful reality of the divisions that mark the Body of Christ, the Church, here on earth.

The Council of Jerusalem, detail from the St. Peter window, Cologne Cathedral (c.1870)

OpeningPrayers

Leader: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Group: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

Leader: In love he predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Group: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

From Ephesians 1:3-7




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Group Session Four – we believe in a catholic Church

ExploretheScriptures Acts 15:1-4 (Jerusalem Bible translation)Then some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved’. This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the problem with the apostles and elders.

All the members of the church saw them off, and as they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they told how the pagans had been converted, and this news was received with the greatest satisfaction by the brothers. When they arrived in Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church and by the apostles and elders, and gave an account of all that God had done with them.

ForreflectionThe disagreement referred to in this passage took place at Antioch where some were insisting that gentile believers needed to be circumcised. Paul and Barnabas sided with those who opposed this suggestion, but in order to resolve the issue they approached the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. This gave rise to the first Council of the Church at Jerusalem where the debate was settled in favour of those who argued against circumcision. The generous provision which the Council of Jerusalem made for the gentile or pagan believers, and the way in which the Church at Antioch resorted to the wider church are early expressions of the Church’s ‘catholic’ or universal nature; a nature which looks outward, which sees the church’s work in terms of a mission to all peoples, and which looks to the unity of all believers, rather than the interest of any particular community,

From early on, the individual Christian communities, had a real sense of their being related to the communities of believers elsewhere. In the example already touched upon these concerned discipline and doctrine, but the sense of being connected or obligated to the wider community also had practical implications. Thus, earlier on in Acts, having been warned of an impending famine, we find the Church at Antioch sending relief to the believers in Judea (Acts 11: 27-30).

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Mindful of how the church at Antioch operated it may be worth reflecting on how we work today. In Week Two we reflected on the role which the Church – the Body of Christ – plays in our individual decision making. Here we might usefully ask how the wider church – neighbouring parishes, the deanery (a grouping of local parishes of which your parish will be one) and the diocese as a whole – impacts on our parish life. Do we, for example, adopt a narrowly parochial approach, looking to our own needs or concerns?

The catholic or universal nature of the Church implies that we should consider the needs of other parishes and communities. How as a parish have you worked with other local parishes or responded to the needs of those further away? How might you develop a spirit of solidarity with your brothers and sisters in other local parishes?

ClosingPrayers




All: Our Father…

Let me love you, my Lord and my God, and see myself as I really am: a pilgrim in this world, a Christian called to respect and love all whose lives I touch, those under my authority, my friends and my enemies. Help me to conquer anger with gentleness, greed by generosity, apathy by fervour. Help me to forget myself and reach out toward others. Amen. From the ‘Universal Prayer’ attributed to Pope Clement XI

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Fourth Sunday of Lent

Backgroundtotoday’sgospelreading(Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)As Jesus prepares the disciples for mission, he says that they will be surprised by who listens to the words of Jesus (and their own words) and who refuses them. On the one hand notorious public sinners, like the tax collectors, will respond positively, while the religious elite, the Pharisees and the scribes, will be hostile. Today’s parable recounts the hostile reaction of the religious elite who see Jesus eating with well known sinners.

In response Jesus tells a parable about the rupture and restoration of relationships in a family situation. There is the younger son who demands his rights from his father, in the form of his inheritance, despite the damage that this may do to their relationship. He soon squanders his cash – losing his independence – and in doing so becomes even more alienated from his father, ending up as a labourer on a pig farm. Then there is the father who, by letting his son go his own way, suffers pain and a loss of esteem. Far from becoming bitter or hostile, or giving up, he looks into the distance for his son. Then, when the son returns out of sheer need not expecting to be forgiven, the father welcomes him back and, before he has time to repent, restores the son to his place in the family. Finally there is the elder son who is outwardly loyal to his Father, but nurtures a bitterness and sense of injustice that eventually explodes in the face of his father’s generosity.

The parable only reveals its true meaning when it is read as a justification for Jesus’ ministry, which was about reaching out to sinners. Jesus reveals a God who is willing to go out and embrace even those who transgress his own laws. Notice how Luke uses the language of death and resurrection. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die for both the elder and younger son, so that all who are lost may be found, and all who are dead through sin may be brought to life.

Father of peace, we are joyful in your Word, your Son Jesus Christ, who reconciles us to you. Let us hasten towards Easter with the eagerness of faith and love. Opening Prayer, Fourth Sunday of Lent (C)

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Fourth Week of Lent – Monday

And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

Matthew 28:18-20

When we say somebody has ‘catholic’ tastes we mean that their interests are diverse or wide ranging as opposed to narrow or exclusive. Quite literally, the word catholic means universal. It is something that touches on everything, is comprehensive rather than partial. The Church is said to be catholic for two reasons: Firstly, because Christ is present in the Church and because she receives from Christ everything that is necessary or needed for our salvation; and secondly, as today’s Scripture text reminds us, because the Church has a mission to all peoples.

If I was to describe my interests and past times to a stranger would they receive any inkling of my being Christian and Catholic?

FromLumenGentium (On the Church)13. It was for this purpose that God sent His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, that he might be teacher, king and priest of all, the head of the new and universal people of the sons of God.

Heavenly Father, strengthen and protect those you have called to the missionary life. Keep them hopeful in rejection and faithful in adversity, that their joy and steadfastness may draw all peoples to Christ. Amen.

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Fourth Week of Lent – Tuesday

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

John 10:16

It is easy to think of the Church in terms of the fellow Catholics who gather with us at Mass on Sunday. However, when it speaks of a catholic Church, the Church has in mind something bigger than the gathered assembly of baptised Catholics. Responding to the question ‘Who belongs to the catholic Church’ the Catechism concludes, ‘All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God…And to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by God’s grace to salvation’. Far from some kind of sectarian affirmation, our professed belief in the one, catholic Church, must be for every catholic and baptised Christian, a reminder of the painful divisions that have come to mark Christ’s Church on earth. Indeed, Christ has only one body, and there can be only one Church which, in its catholic way, embraces all who have heard his voice.

How have you been helped, inspired and challenged by the witness and dedication of other Christians?

Lord, help us to live in a manner worthy of our calling; that we may witness to your truth and work to bring all believers together in the unity of faith and the fellowship of peace. Amen.

Adapted from the Missal prayers for the Unity of Christians

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Acts 1: 8

Ultimately the Church is catholic because of the action of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who, as today’s passage concludes, builds us together spiritually ‘into a dwelling place for God’. The Church is catholic, universal, all embracing, because being drawn in is not a matter of ritual or tradition, such as circumcision, but first and foremost the work of the Holy Spirit; a Spirit which fills the universe (Wisdom 1:7), which blows where it will (John 3:8), which cannot be controlled or hemmed in. Our belonging to the Church is not something we have earned or achieved. It is something that has been gifted to us; it is a work of the Holy Spirit, who opens us up to the life of grace, draws us together in Christ and leads us to God.

How have you experienced the Holy Spirit at work in your life? Do you experience your belonging to the Church as an obligation to be endured or as a privilege which brings with it a unique status?

FromLumenGentium13. For this too God sent the Spirit of His Son as Lord and Life- giver. He it is who brings together the whole Church and each and every one of those who believe, and who is the well-spring of their unity in the teaching of the apostles and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Holy Spirit of God, search me and fill me. Holy Spirit of God, search me and fill me. Holy Spirit of God, search me and fill me. Amen.

Fourth Week of Lent – Wednesday

Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

Acts 2:7-8

Young people should be like this, grandparents should be like that. Whether we are young or old the pressure to fit in and to conform to certain stereotypes of how we should be can be immense. Indeed, even where we personally refuse to conform to certain stereotypes, it’s easier to deal with others who conform. Think, for example, of the embarrassment that ‘trendy’ parents can be. A sense of belonging is vital to us, yet belonging, as the events of Pentecost show, is not a matter of cloning. Yes, we share core beliefs, but in being catholic, there is an openness to the variety of ways in which these are expressed and celebrated.

How and where has my particular sense of what is right or respectable blinded me to what is good in other individuals or cultures?

FromPopeJohnPaulII,GeneralAudience,2January1991Here we can observe that the Holy Spirit is Love, and to love someone means to respect everything that is a priority for the beloved. This especially goes for language which generally demands sensitivity and respect, but it also holds true for culture, spirituality and customs. The Pentecost event was attentive to this demand and manifested the Church’s unity in the multiplicity of peoples and in cultural pluralism. The Church’s catholicity includes respect for the values of all.

Heavenly Father, open my heart and mind to all that is good and holy, and grant me the grace of rejoicing in the richness of creation and worshipping you in spirit and in truth. Amen.

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Fourth Week of Lent – Thursday

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Fourth Week of Lent – Friday

‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.’

Matthew 16:18

In establishing the Church, Christ gave Peter, a particular role or status among the Apostles. Today of the 2 billion Christians in the world 1.1 billion are in communion with Peter’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI. The vast majority of these belong to the Latin Rite, using the same rites or liturgy as the Pope. However not all Catholics, in communion with the Pope use the Latin Rite. Approximately 16 million members of the Catholic Church are what are called ‘Eastern Catholic’. These have their own laws, customs and style of liturgy. These Eastern Catholic Churches can be divided into five types: Alexandrean which include the Coptic and Ethopian; Antiochean including the Syrian, the Maronite and the Syro-Malankara; Armenian; the Chaldean including both the Chaldean and the Syro-Malabar; and finally the largest group of Catholic Churches the Byzantine which includes the Byelorussian, the Bulgarian, the Greek, the Hungarian, the Italio-Albanian, the Melkite, the Romanian, the Ruthenian, the Slovak, the Ukrainian, the Krizevei, the Albanian and the Russian Byzantine Catholics.

FromtheCatechism834. Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church of Rome ‘which presides in charity’. For with this church, by reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord’. Indeed, ‘from the incarnate Word’s descent to us, all Christian churches everywhere have held and hold the great Church that is here [at Rome] to be their only basis and foundation since, according to the Saviour’s promise, the gates of hell have never prevailed against her’.

Father of providence, look with love on Benedict our Pope, your appointed successor to Saint Peter on whom you built your Church. May he be the visible centre and foundation of our unity in faith and love. Amen. From the Roman Missal, Masses and Prayers for the Pope

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St. Luke highlights that Jesus was ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ (e.g. Luke 4:1) and that the main events in his life were accompanied by prayer (e.g. Luke 9:28). As we make our prayerful Lenten journey these two features must be considered together: prayer and the Spirit.

Openness to the Spirit, God’s creative force, his wisdom and prophetic power, puts us in the right frame of mind for prayer. Once we have opened ourselves to the ‘giver of life’ we can pray, but how? Luke tells us that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray (Luke 11:1) he began with an affirmation of God as ‘Father’ (Luke 11:2). This affirmation allows us access to God in a twofold way: first to declare God’s greatness and transcendence but, at the same time, to relate the intimacy we have with him as Father whose name we revere. From here we thus ensure that our prayers are not selfish but always exposed to the divine will. As Pope Benedict XVI remarks, in his book Jesus of Nazareth, ‘the Our Father is always a prayer of Jesus and that communion with him is what opens it up for us’. During Lent it is communion with Christ that we should strive for in and through our prayers.

Lord God, in your surpassing wisdom you reconcile us to yourself through your Word. Grant that your Christian people may come with eager faith and ready will to celebrate the Easter festival. Amen.


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Fourth Week of Lent – Saturday

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Week Five

This week we will reflect on what we mean when we say that the Church is apostolic, reflecting in particular on the Church’s faithfulness to what the first Apostles received from Christ and in turn, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, pass on through their successors, our modern day bishops.

Tiziano Vecelli (Titian), Pentecost (c.1550), Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

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OpeningPrayers

All: Praise the Lord!

Leader: How good it is to sing praises to our God; who builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds.

Group: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.

Leader: He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

Group: He declares his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his decrees.

All: Praise the Lord!From Psalm 147




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Group Session Five – we believe in an apostolic Church

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ExploretheScriptures 1 Peter 2:1-10 (NRSV)Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

ForreflectionIn 2004, archaeologists discovered a pair of 30 million-year-old fossilised hummingbirds in southern Germany. These birds were perfectly recognisable and unaltered by the vast time that had past since their lives ended all those years ago. Like these remarkable birds, the faith transmitted to us by the apostles and the Church Fathers remains perfectly recognisable, yet is anything but fossilised. While the language of the liturgy, the architecture of the places of worship, the role of the laity may have changed, we can instantly identify with what Justin Martyr wrote in AD 150 (only 50 years or so after the last New Testament books):

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On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.

On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, ‘Amen’. The Eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.

The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of all who are in need.

We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our saviour Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.

Fidelity to tradition marks the Church, and what characterises tradition is a faith lived not fossilised, a faith open to the times but staying true to God. Our Faith is built on the foundation handed on by the Apostles to the Fathers of the Church, and then received and further explored by the great Christian doctors… as Pope Benedict writes, the safeguarding and handing on of the deposit of faith means ‘dynamic faithfulness to a light received’ always alert to the signs of the times and the language needed to proclaim Christ’s truth (Caritas in Veritate, 12).

As Christians we are a journeying people. We are called to growth and change. In the midst of change we are also called to faithfulness and there are values or beliefs that remain the same though we may express them differently. What core values are you conscious of handing on?

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FromDeiVerbum (On Divine Revelation)7. But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors, ‘handing over’ to them ‘the authority to teach in their own place.’ This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2).

ClosingPrayers




All: Our Father…

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord who was conceived of the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day, he rose again he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.Amen. Apostles’ Creed

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Backgroundtotoday’sgospelreading (John 8:1-11)In the story of the woman taken in adultery we have another story about death and resurrection as we move closer to Holy Week. In the time of Jesus the penalty for a woman caught in the act of adultery was death by stoning. When the woman is brought to Jesus she is as good as dead. Her guilt is not in question. Her life is in ruins and her good name is shattered. Thanks to the intervention of Jesus she can take up her life again, no longer under the threat of condemnation; her relationship with God restored.

The prosecutors test Jesus to see if he is willing to go against God’s laws as enshrined in the Scriptures. Moreover, it is implied that if Jesus asks for leniency he is condoning what was regarded as one of the gravest sins because it threatened the very fabric of society. It is for this reason that Jesus says, ‘Go and sin no more’.

This is an unsettling text, because it emphasises that God’s mercy is greater than his law. But the story illustrates vividly a major theme of St. Paul, that the Law on its own, while it can educate people in the right way, cannot give life. Indeed, in the case of the woman taken in adultery the letter of the Law would have led to death. As we move towards Holy Week, we are invited to follow the Christ who forgives when all condemn, who renews what seems to be destroyed, and who by rising from the dead has restored our life.

Father, help us to be like Christ your Son, who loved the world and died for our salvation. Inspire us by his love, guide us by his example, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Opening Prayer, Fifth Sunday of Lent (C)

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Fifth Sunday of Lent

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And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Mark 1:18-20

When they responded to Jesus’ call the Apostles could not have known what the next three years, let alone the ministry to follow, would have in store for them. Theirs was an instinctive ‘yes’ to a charismatic and compelling figure whom they acknowledged as a Rabbi or teacher. We could spend a lot of time planning our futures, organising God out of existence, but in the Apostles we have a powerful example of men surrendering their lives to an uncertain future. Let us use this Lent to hear Christ’s call and learn to trust in his voice.

In simple trust like theirs who heard, beside the Syrian sea, the gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word, rise up and follow thee.

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92)

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Fifth Week of Lent – Monday

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And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?’

Mark 4:13

The Apostles were Jesus’ travelling companions and closest friends, journeying with him. Yet, despite their closeness to Christ they frequently failed to understand what he said. As well as journeying with Jesus in a physical sense the Apostles had to make an interior journey, growing in faith and understanding. We, like the Apostles, can fail to understand, and like them are called to grow in faith and understanding. May they and their successors be our guide, helping us to know and to love Jesus.

Simon Peter, fisherman – pray for us Andrew, brother of Simon – pray for us James and John, sons of Zebedee, ‘sons of thunder’ – pray for us Philip from Bethsaida – pray for us Bartholomew and Simon the zealot – pray for us Thomas the twin – pray for us Matthew, tax collector – pray for us Thaddaeus, son of James, also called Judas – pray for us James, son of Alphaeus – pray for us Matthias, successor of Judas Iscariot – pray for us Mary, Queen of Apostles – pray for us

Mark 1:16-20 and 3:16-19, Acts 1:26

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Fifth Week of Lent – Tuesday

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They prayed and said, ‘Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Acts 1:24-26

It could all have ended with the apostles. They could have jealously guarded their friendship with Jesus. They could have, out of fear and trepidation, remained in the upper room. That blessed Twelve, however, came to understand by the grace of the Spirit that the love of Christ was meant for all and was not just a gift for them alone. Thus after the death of Judas in the Bloody Acre (Acts 1:20), the remaining disciples resolved to let someone else, Matthias, take his office (see Psalm 109:8). When we recite in the Creed that we believe in a Church apostolic, we profess belief that modern day bishops are the successors of Matthias and Peter, of James, John and the others, whose witness to the saving power of Christ and whose office will be passed on until the end of days.

FromtheCatechism765. The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the Twelve with Peter as their head. Representing the twelve tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. The Twelve and the other disciples share in Christ’s mission and his power, but also in his lot. By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church.

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Psalm 33:30-22

Fifth Week of Lent – Wednesday

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Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

2 Timothy 1:13-14

St. John of the Cross wrote that in Jesus God ‘spoke everything to us. He has no more to say’. The task of explaining what God has revealed about himself was handed to the Apostles by Christ who promised that they would have the help of the Holy Spirit. The Church is apostolic because it remains faithful to the sound teaching or ‘good treasure’ handed on by the Apostles. Obviously, how this sound teaching is taught will differ from generation to generation because each generation has its own way of learning, but it is the responsibility of those leading the Church, and all its members, to remain faithful to the treasure that has been handed on. ‘Nothing will be added, nothing taken away’, but is always to be articulated in a compelling manner by the Church ‘the pillar and ground of truth’ (Mater et magistra, 1).

FromtheCatechism84. The apostles entrusted the ‘Sacred deposit’ of the faith (the depositum fidei), contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church. ‘By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practising and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful.’

O Lord, our God, we pray that the peace of your Son may rule in our hearts. We ask for unity, called as we are to life in one body. We give thanks and pray that your Word may dwell in us richly; we ask, O Lord, for the wisdom to teach and counsel one another even as we sing to you our thanks.

Based on Colossians 3:15-16

Fifth Week of Lent – Thursday

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Fifth Week of Lent – Friday

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.

1 Timothy 4:14

As the cells in our bodies die, they are replaced by new ones. Some scientists have suggested that, on average, the cells in our body are replaced every seven years. The component parts of our body change but fundamentally we remain the same. So too it is the same for the Church. Cardinal Newman once wrote that he built his life on ‘the infinite variety, and ever changing, and growing nature of God,’ anything unchanging he continued ‘is by its nature truly “dead” and of no value.’

Each generation, the cells, come and go but the Church, the body of Christ remains – truly alive. To it, to the successors of the Apostles, is entrusted the task of bringing people into the fold, of helping those who remain to be connected with Christ, the life-giver, to learn and to love him so that all may bear fruit.

FromDeiVerbum7. God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.

Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away; but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Psalm 102:25-28

Every time we share in Christian prayer, especially in the Eucharistic celebration, we should be aware of our connectedness with others. We are asked to consider the world in its entirety: famine, war, natural disaster and violence and also the community in which we live. By doing this we become more aware of the sanctity of all human life, humanity created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and of Jesus as Redeemer. Such reflection will influence what we believe about God and humanity and how we should behave in the light of that belief.

One important way in which we can demonstrate an awareness of others is through our Lenten almsgiving. Almsgiving has been a feature of Christianity from its very beginning (e.g. 2 Corinthians 8:1-7; Acts 2:43-47). That said, Jesus was well aware of the dangers that almsgiving may present. It could lead us to feelings of self importance and pride. As with prayer and fasting, almsgiving must be ‘in secret’ for any ‘reward’ that we might expect from the Father will be given to us ‘in secret’ (Matthew 6:2-4).

Lord our God, your Son so loved the world that he gave himself up to death for our sake. Strengthen us by your grace, and give us a heart willing to live by that same love. Amen.


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Fifth Week of Lent – Saturday

65Wendy Ryan, Golden Mary (2006), wendyryanfolkart.blogspot.com

Having reflected on the nature of the Church, this Holy Week we look to Mary, the Mother of God, Queen of the Apostles, and exemplar of what it is to live in communion with God and man.

Week Six (Holy Week)

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OpeningPrayers

All recite the following litany together, praying for humility and faithfulness:

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, hear us.

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver us, Jesus. From the desire of being loved, deliver us, Jesus. From the desire of being honoured, deliver us, Jesus. From the desire of being praised, deliver us, Jesus. From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver us, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated, deliver us, Jesus. From the fear of being despised, deliver us, Jesus. From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver us, Jesus. From the fear of being forgotten, deliver us, Jesus. From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver us, Jesus.

That others may be esteemed more than us, Jesus, grant us the grace to desire it. That others may be praised and we unnoticed, Jesus, grant us the grace to desire it. That others may become holier than us, provided that we may become as holy as we should, Jesus, grant us the grace to desire it.

Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930) adapted




Group Session Six – Mary, Mother of the Church

ExploretheScriptures Luke 2:25-35 (NRSV)Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’ And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

ForreflectionFor centuries Mary has been the subject of great works of art. Less well-known iconographers, the great masters of renaissance paintings and their successors have all provided us with many opportunities to contemplate her beauty. Yet, as it happens, in most of these masterpieces, Mary is doing exactly that – contemplating.

Although we may initially be quite taken by the rich blue paint generally used to adorn our Lady, often it is her face that draws us into the scene whether it be a representation of the Annunciation, the Nativity or a depiction of the above passage: the Presentation in the Temple. Always, she is seen treasuring these events and ‘pondering them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19). Moreover, Holy Scripture does not attribute many words to Mary. There is no quick, superficial remark that can so easily trip off the tongue when faced with the unknown. Instead, in silence, she looked not to what is seen but what is unseen – to the very heart of these events (2 Corinthians 4:18).

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No doubt, Mary wondered why she was chosen to be the Mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ, yet in faith, she readily accepted God’s plan for her. Without hesitation, she said ‘yes’ to the angel’s announcement that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she was with child. Placing her trust in God, she began her journey with Christ to the Father. Shortly after the birth of Christ, Mary and Joseph visited the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in keeping with Jewish Law. It was there, this place of great hope for generations of Israelites that the elderly prophet, Simeon proclaimed Christ as salvation to all peoples, Jews as well as Gentiles. In doing so, he spoke directly to Mary foretelling, not only Christ’s eventual passion, death and resurrection but also her own painful sharing in this great mystery.

In this age of sound bites, quips and now ‘tweets’, Mary’s silence may seem rather out of step. Yet, just as Mary took time to ponder all things in her heart, we, too are called to consider thoughtfully the words of Holy Scripture and the Church’s teachings. Although the message may not always have been immediately clear to Mary, she responded by entrusting her whole being to God. With Mary as our model, we, too, are invited to respond in trust to the gift of faith given to each one of us at baptism - to keep company with Mary on our own pilgrimage of faith.

How easy is it for you to find a time and place for quiet reflection? What have you found helpful? Where have you been quick to talk or act when silent consideration may have been a better course of action?

ClosingPrayers




All: Our Father…

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Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, in celebrating the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is our special joy to echo her song of thanksgiving. What wonders you have worked throughout the world! All generations have shared the greatness of your love. When you looked on Mary Your lowly servant, you raised her to be the mother of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, the Saviour of humanity. Father, we bless you and we thank you for the gift of your Son and the example of his mother.

Preface of the Blessed Virgin Mary II, adapted

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Palm Sunday

Backgroundtotoday’sgospelreading (Luke 19:28-40)In this passage of Luke’s gospel Jesus reaches the climax of his journey to Jerusalem. People in the ancient world would read this text as the story of a king coming to take possession of his city. Yet Jesus does not display the trappings of earthly kingship. An earthly king would not allow himself to be seen riding a young, untrained donkey, and he would hardly welcome the poor garments of his subjects as appropriate covering for his mount. On the other hand Jesus displays an acute awareness of what is going on in other people’s minds, and a very real sense of authority, even if it is not an authority derived from social status. He sits on a donkey on which no one else had ever sat, thus fulfilling the Old Testament requirement that nothing given to God should be second-hand.

Luke is suggesting that this is no ordinary visit, but the visitation of the Lord described in Zechariah’s hymn (Luke 1:68-79) as ‘the dawn from on high’. Jesus makes his entry to Jerusalem as the visitor from heaven, the chosen representative of God, to redeem and save his people. But the very people he is coming to redeem will reject him, and ultimately Jesus will fulfil his mission from God by dying on the cross.

The cries of the crowd, Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven, echo the song of the angels at the birth of Jesus, only now the peace of which they speak is realised not only on earth, but in heaven. The final part of God’s plan for our salvation is about to be fulfilled, when Jesus will pass through death from earth to heaven, and then his power and authority, transmitted through the Holy Spirit, will know no bounds.

Hosanna to the Son of David, the king of Israel. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Entrance Antiphon, Palm Sunday (Matthew 2:9)

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Rejoice, you who enjoy God’s favourLuke 1:28

On reading the Palm Sunday account of Jesus’ entry in to Jerusalem, we heard that the cheering crowds were out en masse, celebrating the arrival of the one whom they assume will be a new head of state, a king who will unite the ancient tribes of Israel. [An image – somewhat akin to modern day celebrations in wake of a change in governing parties – may have come to mind.] In some ways, the matter of rejoicing suggested by the angel Gabriel to Mary was not dissimilar. Being a young, devout Jewess, Mary would have been fully aware of the promises made to Abraham and her ancestors. Yet, just as the crowd in Jerusalem did not fully comprehend Jesus’ kingship, Mary did not initially understand her place in God’s plan. However, living in faith and hope that God’s promises would be fulfilled, she trusted in his goodness - trying to align her life and understanding with God’s plan for her. Would that be your response?

FromRedemptorisMater (Mother of the Redeemer)14. To believe means ‘to abandon oneself’ to the truth of the word of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing ‘how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways’ (Romans 11:33). Mary, who by the eternal will of the Most High stands, one may say, at the very center of those ‘inscrutable ways’ and ‘unsearchable judgments’ of God, conforms herself to them in the dim light of faith, accepting fully and with a ready heart everything that is decreed in the divine plan.

Let the world their virtue boast, their works of righteousness; I, a wretch undone and lost, am freely saved by grace; Other tide I disclaim, this, only this, is all my plea, I the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

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Monday of Holy Week

For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little while.

Romans 15:24

In the 21st century, travel is simply a part of life – from daily commuting to and from the workplace to long distance air travel for vacations. Mary, however, would not have been so accustomed yet, on hearing the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, she went in haste on a four-day trek through the hill country to the locality of Ain-Karim, south of Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, there was the arduous trip to Bethlehem, followed by the flight to Egypt. Moreover, there were the annual visits to the Temple in Jerusalem in the company Joseph and Jesus. These physically demanding journeys echo not only her own personal pilgrimage of faith taking place in her heart but also that of the Church – the People of God who take part in the same pilgrimage of faith - moving ever closer to heavenly union with Christ, her son.

FromRedemptorisMater25. It is precisely in this ecclesial journey or pilgrimage through space and time, and even more through the history of souls, that Mary is present, as the one who is ‘blessed because she believed,’ as the one who advanced on the pilgrimage of faith, sharing unlike any other creature in the mystery of Christ.

All-powerful God, you show mercy to those who love you and are never far from those who seek you. Remain with us, your servants, and guide our way in accord with your will. Shelter us by day, give us the light of your grace by night, and be with us always on our journey to you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Blessing for Pilgrims, adapted72

Tuesday of Holy Week

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The mother of Jesus said to him. ‘They have no wine’. Jesus said, ‘Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.” His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

John 2:3-5

In his encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, Pope John Paul II pointed to the wedding at Cana as a ‘first announcement of Mary’s mediation, wholly directed towards Christ’ (RM, 22). Given that a shortage of wine would greatly embarrass the bride’s family, Mary brought forth the human needs of the bridal couple to Jesus. While addressing her as ‘Woman’ to indicate that she is now Mother of us of all the living (Genesis 3:20), Jesus sounds rather reticent about performing his first miracle to launch his public ministry. Yet, just as Mary interceded on behalf the bridal couple at Cana, she continues on bringing our wants and needs to Christ. Her few words, initially spoken to the servants, continue to guide each one of us in our daily living.

FromRedemptorisMater21. Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself ‘in the middle,’ that is to say she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows that as such she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she ‘has the right’ to do so. Her mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary ‘intercedes’ for mankind.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen

Wednesday of Holy Week

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Holy Thursday

Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near herJohn 19:26

Mary carried her son in her womb, raised him to manhood and followed in the crowds through the years of his public ministry. Even in those unbearable final days, Mary followed Jesus closely when he was forced to carry the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. She did not desert him but stood steadfast at the foot of the cross fortified by faith and secure in the knowledge that her son’s suffering had great purpose (given Simeon’s words to her in the Temple all those years ago). From the moment of fullness, when the Holy Spirit infused the human form of Jesus Christ in her womb, Mary was forever inextricably connected with the mystery of Christ. Just as she gave life to his earthly body, Mary is forever mother of the Church – the body of Christ – as a model’ in the matter of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ (RM, 5).

FromRedemptorisMater23. The Mother of Christ, who stands at the very centre of this mystery - a mystery which embraces each individual and all humanity – is given as mother to every single individual and all mankind… And so this ‘new motherhood of Mary,’ generated by faith, is the fruit of the ‘new’ love which came to definitive maturity in her at the foot of the Cross, through her sharing in the redemptive love of her Son.

Mother of God, remember us as you stand near him who granted you all graces. Help us for the sake of your Son, the King, the Lord God and Master who was born of you. Remember us, most holy Virgin, and bestow on us gifts from the riches you have been granted.

St. Athanasius (c. 293-373)

75

Good Friday

Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son. Then to the disciple he said ‘this is your mother.’

John 19:26

Together with St. John, Mary stood lovingly at the foot of the cross in those final moments before Christ gave his most precious gift – his life - for our salvation. The joy of Christ’s birth may seem but a distant memory on this sorrowful day. However, it is from that moment when Christ came down to earth to share in our humanity that Mary also became OUR mother, now revealed to us in Christ’s final words. Through the sacrament of baptism, we are joined with Christ, and become his adopted brothers and sisters, then we become children of Mary, mother of all.

FromtheCatechism967. By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity. Thus she is a ‘pre-eminent and… wholly unique member of the Church’; indeed, she is the ‘exemplary realisation’ (typus) of the Church.

Your cross we adore, O Christ, and in your resurrection we praise and glorify: You are God. We know no other besides you. It is your name that we proclaim. For through the cross joy has come into all the world. Ever blessing the Lord, let us sing his glory: for, having endured the cross for us, he has by his death trampled death.

Adapted from Byzantine hymn

76

Holy Saturday

In his gospel account, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke is anxious that we should understand the idea of ‘journey’ or ‘movement’, whether it be Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem through Samaria (Luke 9:51-19:27) or the missionary journeys of Peter, Philip and Paul. During Lent ‘journey’ and ‘movement’ are our themes too: journeying towards heaven; movement in mission. We are a missionary Church and a missionary people. We bring the Good News of Jesus Christ: his person, message and love to humanity.

Today, Holy Saturday, is the quietest day of the Church’s year. There are no daytime services and the church is dark, reminding us of Christ’s descent into death. This is time for reflection, a time to focus on our weaknesses and to strengthen our resolve to live like Christ, to fulfill our baptismal calling to live out his threefold mission as priest, prophet and king. While our own baptism may seem but a distant memory, the Holy Saturday Vigil gives us an opportunity to renew our baptismal promises. At the start of the Easter Vigil, the fire from which we light the Pascal candle is fueled not only by wood but by our resolve to journey, to rise from the dead with Christ – to be the light for the world.

Almighty Father you command us to awake from our slumbers, to arise from the dead. You made us not to be held prisoner in the underworld, nor to be held captive in sin. Help us to rise, and go forward; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person. Amen.

Adapted from a reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

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79

Notes

80

Notes

Acknowledgements

Living As One

Nihil Obstat: Father Anton Cowan Imprimatur: The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster Date: Ash Wednesday 17th February 2010

The Nihil obstat and Imprimatur are a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.

Writing Group: Dr Mark Nash, Fr Michael O’Boy, Mrs Margaret Wickware; Sunday Scripture Backgrounds: Fr John Deehan; Saturday Lenten reflections: Fr Richard Parsons/Mrs Margaret Wickware. With thanks to Mr Mathew D’Souza for facilitating the distribution of the ‘exploring faith’ booklets.

The Westminster Diocesan Agency for Evangelisation is grateful to Darton, Longman & Todd for permission to use Scripture texts from the Jerusalem Bible © 1966 Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Company Ltd and to the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A for use of the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright © 1993 and 1989. Extracts from The Catechism of the Catholic Church are reproduced by kind permission of the Continuum International Publishing Group. Excerpts from The Divine Office © 1974, hierarchies of Australia, England and Wales, Ireland. Excerpts from the English Translation of the Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Image on the front cover: Communion of the Apostles (1512) by Luca Signorelli, Museo Diocesano, Cortona. Image on back cover: Altarpiece, central panel (c.1437) by Fra Angelico from the Church of St. Dominic, Perugia.

Produced by The Agency for Evangelisation, Vaughan House, 46 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QN. Tel: 020 7798 9152 or email: [email protected]

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Mary, give us Jesus! Grant that we may follow

him and love him! He is the hope of the

Church and of all humanity!

He lives with us, in our midst,

in his Church! With you we say: ‘Come, Lord Jesus.

’May the hope of glory which he has poured into our hearts bear

fruits of justice and peace!

Adapted from Ecclesia in Europa, 125

Daily Meditations and Group Reflections on the nature of the ChurchFirst Sunday of Lent - Holy Saturday (Year C)

Living As One

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