Newsletter for Sunday 17 March 2024

15 Mar

Passiontide

On Ash Wednesday we marked our foreheads with ashes as a sign of penance, but also to recall that we are sinners and that we deserve to return to the dust from which we were made. On Palm Sunday we will carry palms in procession commemorating Our Lord’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem which would lead to His victory as the King of Martyrs on Good Friday. But why do we have the custom, in some churches at least, of veiling images during these last two weeks of Lent?

Certainly, this veiling of images jumps out at anyone who comes to church on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, and immediately we know something is different. Up to this point in Lent we have been focusing on Our Lord’s forty days and forty nights in the desert, on prayer, fasting and almsgiving. But now we enter a period called Passiontide, when our focus is on the Passion, suffering and death of Our Lord. The church seems stark and empty, and soon Christ will be taken from us, sentenced to death and crucified. The Church will become a widow with the death of the Bridegroom, and so She puts on a veil of mourning.

The custom of veiling crosses and statues actually comes from the Gospel read on this Sunday in the traditional Latin Mass. “The Jews took up stones to cast at Him, but JESUS hid Himself, and went out of the Temple (John 8:59). So Our Lord’s enemies wanted to kill Him, but in order to escape, He hid or veiled Himself. So the conflict between the light of Christ and the forces of darkness were really heating up, but no one laid a finger on Our Lord until He permitted it. He would hand Himself over freely to His enemies at the time appointed. The exact time of His Passion and death had been fixed from all eternity.

It was after the Last Supper when Our Lord went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray that He handed Himself over. Most of the apostles were asleep, and Judas the traitor betrayed Our Lord with a kiss, at which point the soldiers moved forward to take Our Lord and arrest Him. The Gospel tells us that all the soldiers at that point were literally physically thrown back onto the ground (John 18:6), emphasising that the soldiers were powerless to arrest Christ until He allowed it. He would no longer hide or avoid His enemies because His hour had now come. The time had come for the confrontation with sin and death. And in this fight, He would use the most powerful weapon – the wood of the Cross in which Satan would be totally conquered.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Newsletter for Sunday 10 March 2024

8 Mar

The Sign of the Cross

Pope Benedict XVI once wrote, “The most basic Christian gesture in prayer is and always will be the sign of the cross.” The cross is the instrument of our salvation. And Our Lord says to Nicodemus in today’s Gospel, “The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him” (John 3: 14-15). It is the cross Our Lord is referring to here. Everyone who looks upon the crucified One with faith and love will be saved.

The sign of the cross is a very powerful sacramental, and also a prayer which was used from the earliest days of the Church. It was most commonly made with the thumb of the right hand on the forehead. They also traced the cross on food, oil and water. There is also the triple Cross which we make at the beginning of the Gospel at Mass with the thumb on the forehead, the lips and the breast. But the sign of the cross we most commonly make is putting an open right hand to the forehead, the breast, the left and then the right shoulder. The five fingers symbolise the five wounds in Our Lord’s hands, feet and side.

The early Christians found great power in the sign of the cross. Martyrs signed themselves with it as they went to their death. St John Chrysostom said, “Never cross the threshold of your houses without saying, ‘I renounce Satan and devote myself to JESUS Christ’ accompanying these words with the sign of the cross.” And St Ambrose said, “We should make the sign of the cross at each action of the day.”

The Emperor Constantine, despite the fact of being a pagan, and seeking to overthrow his enemies, called upon the true God for a sign of victory. God answered his prayer and gave him a sign of a flaming cross in the sky along with words written underneath: “In hoc signo vinces”. “In this sign you will conquer.” Immediately, he had all his soldiers make a cross and made it the banner of his huge army. Then the following night he had a similar vision in a dream – again, a flaming cross. The next morning he woke up and asked all the soldiers to paint red crosses on their shields. Then he went off to battle, which turned out to be the most important battle in the history of the world, and he won. It was the Battle of Milvian Bridge in October 312 AD. And when Constantine entered Rome as victor, he made Christianity legal, he ended the official persecution, and eventually he would make Catholicism the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The sign of the cross is also a shield against temptations and dangers to the soul. The powers of darkness flee at the sign of the cross which is why a cross is always used in exorcisms. St Gregory of Tours said, “Whatever may be the temptations that oppress us, me must repulse them. For this end, we should make, not carelessly, but carefully, the sign of the cross, either on our forehead or on our breast.” Our Lady of Lourdes taught St Bernadette how to make the sign of the cross well. At the first apparition on 11th February 1858, Bernadette took out her Rosary, but she wrote, “My arm fell back until I was taught how to make it well.” Some years later she told another nun, when making the sign of the cross, to think of what you are doing, because it is so important to make the sign of the cross fervently.

So in these dark times in which we live where evil is spreading like wild fire, let us make the sign of the cross often, and as the saints have taught us, let us make it fervently and well.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Newsletter for Sunday 3 March 2024

1 Mar

The Ten Commandments and Salvation History

On this Third Sunday of Lent, we contemplate another important stage in the history of our salvation. Two weeks ago, on the First Sunday of Lent, we read about Noah and the renewal and re-establishment of the covenant of creation. Last week, we heard how God made a covenant with Abraham and how God promised to bestow blessing upon the families of the earth through the descendants of Abraham. This week we learn about the commandments given in connection with another covenant, the covenant mediated by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. Through the Sinai Covenant, the people of Israel are welcomed into God’s family as his first-born son (Exodus 4:22). Israel is God’s first-born son, but one day the covenant blessing of divine sonship will be extended to all the nations and families of the earth. All people, and not just Israel, are called to become adopted children in God’s family.

The Ten Commandments were given to direct how we are to live in God’s family: the first three commandments focus on our relationship with God; the next seven guide our relationship with our brothers and sisters. The Ten Commandments not only guide our relationships but can be seen as part of the spiritual path marked out by God that leads to eternal life with Him. This is why we use them as tools to help us prepare to make a good Confession. Jesus teaches us that the Ten Commandments of the Sinai Covenant are a starting point and a necessary first step, but that we are called to mature in spiritual perfection and holiness in the New Covenant He brings.

The Gospel today gives us a sense of the Old Covenant being brought to fulfilment in the New. The Old Law was given to the people through Moses; the New Law and the gift of God’s grace were given to us through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us (John 1:17).

The Old Temple had become corrupt. In fact, in Jesus’ day, the part of the Temple that was called the court of the Gentiles was being used to change money and to sell animals to the pilgrims who came to worship. Jesus cleanses this part of the old Temple, built by human  hands, and points forward to the mystery of the New Temple. In the old Temple, the people sacrificed many animals and many types of animals. These sacrifices were ineffective in taking away sin. In the New Temple, there is only one sacrifice in which we share. This is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and our eternal high priest. This one sacrifice is able to take away our sins. The sacrifice we partake of in at every Mass!

Fr David Jones OLW

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Newsletter for Sunday 25 February 2024

23 Feb

Fasting and Reparation

Lent is a time when we focus especially on prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In times past, Lenten penances were much more rigorous. Today, there are only two fasting days left on the calendar. They are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday if you’re between 18 and 59 years old. If you’re sick or pregnant, there is no requirement to fast. However, if we are wise we will do more than the bare minimum.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Jonah preached to the Ninevites (Jonah 3), who fasted from all food and drink, and put on sackcloth and ashes to make reparation for their offences against God. As a result they were spared God’s punishment. Due to our sins, God has every right to destroy us, and so we need to make reparation for them. Who knows what catastrophes we may be able to avert in our world by fasting and making reparation? This was the message of Our Lady of Fatima. The sins against the unborn alone, who are the most vulnerable in society, demands we do penance and make reparation.

We ought to be aware that the Church teaches that even after our sins have been forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession, God’s justice demands we do penance to make reparation for them. When mortal sins are absolved by the priest, although the eternal punishment of Hell is removed, we still have to make satisfaction for those sins. Sin has a price and so penance must be done. Satisfaction or reparation can be done either in this life or in the world to come, hence Purgatory.

Fasting is not that difficult. If it is difficult it’s because we don’t practice it enough. It means one full meal in the day with two small snacks if needed, and no eating in between. Abstinence is to abstain from meat. All Fridays throughout the year are days of abstinence for those aged14 and above, unless it happens to be a Solemnity, such as Christmas Day. We can also fast from things like TV, social media or the internet.

Why must we fast? Our Lord speaks about fasting in the Gospels and He Himself fasted for forty days and forty nights in the desert (Matthew 4:2). It helps us to order our lower passions. If you can deny yourself something lawful, you will be in a much stronger position to deny yourself something unlawful. It also helps us to atone for our sins. Since sin is an over indulgence, we can begin to repair the damage by under indulging and denying ourselves. Fasting helps us to pray better and to be awake against the snares of the devil. It is interesting that Adam lost his battle with Satan by eating something which God had forbidden. He didn’t fast from the fruit of the tree.

Satan also tried to tempt Our Lord with food by telling Him to turn stones into bread. And He replied, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Be quite sure that during Lent Satan will try and tempt you to give up your fasting and self denial. But let’s call on Heaven to help us remain strong in our resolutions, thereby making reparation for our sins and those of the world.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Newsletter for Sunday 18 February 2024

16 Feb

Stations of the Cross

Lent has now begun, and the ‘Via Crucis’ or ‘Way of the Cross’ is a very popular Lenten devotion. Stations or the Way of the Cross are celebrated at St Mary’s every Friday during Lent after the 6.30pm Mass. The story of the Stations goes right back to the first Good Friday, when the apostles, disciples and followers of Our Lord began to tread the very same ‘Via dolorosa’ or ‘Way of Sorrows’ Our Lord Himself walked to save us. In the early centuries, Christians from all over the world would come to Jerusalem to walk the same holy road. But then Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Muslims and so this devotion became very dangerous and eventually impossible. So the Church decided that the devotion could be performed in individual parish churches.

From the earliest days this devotion was promoted by the Franciscans. St Francis had a great devotion to Our Lord’s Passion and was the first to bear the stigmata (the wounds of Christ). The Church attached Indulgences to making the Stations, at first only for the Franciscans, but then Pope Benedict XIII in 1726 extended this to the whole Church and it became commonplace to see the Stations of the Cross in all Catholic churches.

Traditionally there are fourteen Stations, and most of the episodes are described in the Gospels. A few are not, such as JESUS’ three falls, His meeting with His Mother, and Veronica wiping His face. These incidents are part of tradition which is also a sound source of history.

Every time you make the Stations of the Cross you may gain a Plenary Indulgence. The Catechism describes an Indulgence as the remission of temporal punishment due to sin whose guilt is already forgiven in Confession (CCC #1471). Every sin has two consequences: guilt and debt. In the Sacrament of Penance we confess our sins, receive God’s forgiveness and perform a penance. So through a good Confession the guilt of our sins is removed, and if we have committed mortal or grave sin which cuts us off from God, we are restored to God’s grace and thus we avoid Hell. But the debt still has to be paid. That debt is paid either in this life or in Purgatory where God heals us and undoes the damage we have done. This is where Indulgences help us, because they help us to pay the debt of sin in this life. So it’s a good idea to try and gain as many Indulgences as we can. We may also apply any Indulgences we gain to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

So how do you gain an Indulgence by making the Stations of the Cross? The Stations must be lawfully erected, which they are in St Mary’s. There must be fourteen crosses and we must meditate on the Passion and Death of Our Lord at each Station. Those unable to come to church may also gain the Indulgence by spending 15 minutes in devout reading and meditation on Our Lord’s Passion. In addition to making the Stations, one must be in a state of grace, have a detachment from all sin, even venial sin, make a sacramental Confession within a week either before or after, receive Holy Communion, and pray for the Pope’s intentions which we do at the end of the Stations anyway. If one doesn’t fulfil all these conditions, the Indulgence is partial, but one must be in a state of grace. You can fulfil all these conditions on a Friday evening by making your Confession before the 6.30pm Mass, receiving Holy Communion at Mass, followed by making the Stations.

This devotion helps us to think of what Our Lord did for us and the great love He showed in doing it. By devoutly making the Stations, it helps us to return some of that love. Be sure to try and gain the Indulgence at least once this Lent.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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