THE FIRE OF PENTECOST - FATHER HAMILTON PREACHES

 

Yesterday, on the Holy Feast of Pentecost, our Chaplain, Father Joseph Hamilton, Private Secretary to Cardinal Pell, preached the following Homily at the Chapel of All Saints, Wardour Castle. We are deeply grateful to him for allowing us to share it.

“THOU HAST CONQUERED, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath”.  This, a famous quote paraphrased by the Victorian poet Charles Swinburne, takes the words of Julian the Apostate and injects them with just a little bit more vitriol. The story goes that Julian, at the age of 32, led his army into defeat in Mesopotamia. Mortally wounded with blood, covering his hands he tossed the blood in the air and famously said, “thou hast conquered, Galilean”. Julian, the nephew of Constantine the Great, Emperor in his own right for just two year’s had publicly renounced Christianity two years earlier. Turning his back on the faith he had been brought up in, he restored paganism, wrote against Christianity, and even planned to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, not for the honour of the Jewish religion but to prove the invalidity of the Christian. His poet admirer Swinburne would probably have made a good head of religious programming content for the BBC.  

 

The words Swinburne put into Julian’s mouth are that the world has grown grey from the breath of the Galilean. The breath of Jesus. The breath of God. The ruach of the Old Testament.  The breath that hovered over the waters of Genesis at the beginning of Time.  Who knows what was in the mind of the author of Genesis as he wrote those words? With the contemporary advances in physics … had he seen, was he writing of the Holy Ghost as a vast cosmic wind moving through the void, coalescing as the presence of the Trinity? Had he seen the Second Person of the Trinity making the Word of the Father reality, the fiat lux of Genesis light exploding in what today we call the big bang? 

 

The author of Genesis had inspired knowledge of the Trinity, St. Augustine in his homily on Genesis tells us that at the beginning of each of the days of Creation, the angels would contemplate the things that God would create at that day, and in the evening the angelic host erupted in a paean of praise for the things created. Our own prayers should always include an element of praise. The Gloria we have just sung does just that in the Mass … we will lift our voices again shortly to join the thunder of the seraphim and cherubim in their triumphant chorus of Holy, Holy, Holy, ... St Augustine tells us that at the last moment of creation God, says, “let us make man in our own image”; Father, Son and Holy Spirit descend over the newly created planet Earth, the Holy Spirit standing as a person in his own right, the Trinity surrounded by the angelic court.  A foretaste of what awaits us in Heaven. 

 

The primal moments of Genesis are repeated after the Resurrection of Our Lord.  He breathes upon his disciples and says to them “receive the Holy Spirit”, and on the morning of Pentecost the disciples hear a sound like a mighty wind. The breath of God, that sends galaxies hurtling out through the Universe, setting stars on fire, moving through a simple house in Jerusalem to accomplish an even more spectacular feat than the creation of the Universe – the creation of the Catholic Church. This time instead of igniting suns, he descends as tongues of flame and the breath of the Galilaean transforms the disciples, establishing the college of bishops and granting to them the fullness of the understanding of Revelation.  And those twelve simple men go out into the world and with the Gospel of Jesus Christ change the course of human history. 

 

Twelve. There are a hundred people in this Church this morning. Think of what we might do if we were filled with the Holy Spirit the way the initial Twelve were.  You might say to me –Father, that sort of stuff is not for us. To which I reply, “rubbish”. God has a plan for everyone sitting in this Church this morning. Some he has appointed to be Apostles, some he has appointed to be Teachers, some he has appointed to be Mums and Dads, some he has appointed to be Knights of Malta, he has even chosen the most unlikely to be priests.  But you know what? He wants All to be saved. He wants everyone in this Church to be happy, not just here on Earth but with Him forever in Heaven. And he wants us to get out there and show the happiness that He offers to a world that so desperately needs it.

 

We have come through very difficult period, I am sure we all know people whose lives have been claimed by the pandemic; for us who are still here, lives have been changed by the pandemic. But this morning, this Pentecost, we are here in this Church, praying for the Holy Spirit to transform our lives. We might not hear a mighty wind, tongues of flame might not appear over our heads, but if we ask, if we pray, in true poverty of spirit, “Come Holy Spirit, I give you permission to enter into, and transform my life”, then that power which descended on the Apostles at Pentecost will overshadow and enter your soul and transform you.

 

The Emperor Julian died at 32, in the prime of youth.  He had everything the world could desire. He ate the finest food, could afford the most fashionable clothes, drifted between palaces, and sought to emulate Alexander the Great. He desired the colour, encouraged the bizarreness, and indulged in the brutality of the ancient pagan, and frankly Satanic cults.  Today his is the life that is held out to us as being full, Instragrammable, Facebookable, Twitter-worthy.  And yet here he is with his last breath accusing Jesus’s breath of having turned the world grey. The world turned grey. This chapel is anything but grey – look about you! Today’s feast reveals that poor Emperor Julian had subscribed to an ancient lie, a lie that is presented to us by the world again and again … the lie is this: if you believe in God, if you believe in Jesus, if you live according to the laws and precepts God has set down, as our Church preserves and teaches, then you will not be free, you will not be able to live in technicolour; you’ll be boring, unattractive, no one will follow you on Facebook, your world will be just grey. That is a lie, that is the dangerous rubbish that the Devil whispers in our ears.

  

So here, in this chapel this Pentecost morning let’s reproclaim the Truth that countless saints and holy men and women have loved and lived, and passed on to us: If we believe in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit we need have no fear of anything – pandemics, wars, recessions, even death. If we believe in Jesus we will never be without a friend in need, and if we embrace the gifts of the Holy Spirit being poured out today, really embrace them, we will be transformed, and we as Catholic Christians can repaint the world in colours so vivid the glories of the Renaissance will pale by comparison. That is the truth of our faith. That is the truth of the Pentecost, and that is the truth of the Holy Spirit being poured out on His Church again today. Our duty this morning is get out there and proclaim it, and in doing so renew the face of the Earth. 

 

Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION - AN ETHICAL BATTLE

Only very rarely does this Blog venture into fields outside the immediate life of the Order of Saint John, and that only where there are matters directly concerning ethics and morals, where our duty of Tuitio Fidei requires a reaction.

One such arises now, an international proposal to remove in most cases the right to conscientious objection on the part of medical practitioners, (this is, as in the Great War, almost always concerned with killing people.)

The text concerned reads:

“Physicians have an ethical obligation to minimize interruptions in patient care. Conscientious objection should only be considered if the individual patient is not discriminated against or disadvantaged, the patient's health is not in jeopardy, and continuity of care without delay is ensured through effective and timely referral to another qualified physician."

In other words, conscientious objection would be limited:

* If it is considered that not performing an abortion is discrimination, it would be outside the Ethical Code. 

* If it is considered that not performing an abortion is an attack on health understood as the state of well-being.

* An objector is obliged to refer his patient to another practitioner who does not object, in other words, collaborate with what he objects to.

The burden of proof will be shifted on to the medical practitioner to justify his objection.

Please look at the information at the link HERE, and we encourage you to sign the PETITION if you feel this within your moral compass.

Finally, please pray that this advancing onslaught of evil, which threatens every ethical base in all walks of our life and even in the Church, whose Holy Motherhood some would seek to corrupt, may be crushed by the prayers of the saints. We suggest you invoke Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, newly canonised, pediatrician, and patroness of mothers and unborn children.

Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum!

Beata Maria de Phileremo, ora pro nobis

Sancta Gianna Beretta Molla, or pro nobis

LITANY OF SAINT JOSEPH - NEW INVOCATIONS

On the feast of Saint Joseph Opifex, the first of May, the Holy See has promulgated seven new invocations in the Litany of Saint Joseph, in the 150th year of the proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. These invocations are drawn from the writings of  intervening Popes.

The Congregation for Divine Worship's letter states: “On the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, published the Apostolic Letter Patris corde, with the aim ‘to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal’, in this light, it appeared opportune to update the Litany in honour of Saint Joseph, approved by the Apostolic See in 1909, by integrating seven new invocations drawn from the interventions of the Popes who have reflected on aspects of the figure of the Patron of the Universal Church.” The Congregation presented the new invocations to Pope Francis, who approved their integration into the Litany of Saint Joseph. 

The new texts have been published in Latin, we understand it is for the English bishops to prepare translations in due course.  The seven invocations might be translated as: Guardian of the Redeemer, Servant of Christ, Minister of salvation, Support in difficulties, Patron of the exiled, Patron of the afflicted, Patron of the poor. It will be seen that they chime very deeply with the spiritual and hospitaller charism of the Order of Saint John.

The new invocations are printed below in Bold.

LITANIÆ IN HONOREM S. IOSEPH SPONSI B. MARIÆ V.

Kyrie, eléison, (ii)

Christe, eléison, (ii)

Kyrie, eléison, (ii) 

Christe, audi nos,

Christe, exáudi nos, 

Pater de cælis, Deus, miserére nobis,

Fili, Redémptor mundi, Deus, miserére nobis,

Spíritus sancte, Deus, miserére nobis,

Sancta Trínitas, unus Deus, miserére nobis, 

Sancta María, ora pro nobis,

Sancte Ioseph, ora pro nobis,

Proles David ínclyta, ora pro nobis,

Lumen Patriarchárum, ora pro nobis,

Dei Genitrícis sponse, ora pro nobis,

Custos Redemptóris, ora pro nobis,

Custos púdice Vírginis, ora pro nobis,

Fílii Dei nutrítie, ora pro nobis,

Christi defénsor sédule, ora pro nobis,

Serve Christi, ora pro nobis,

Mínister salútis, ora pro nobis,

Alma Famíliæ præses, ora pro nobis,

Ioseph iustíssime, ora pro nobis,

Ioseph castíssime, ora pro nobis,

Ioseph prudentíssime, ora pro nobis,

Ioseph fortíssime, ora pro nobis,

Ioseph obedientíssime, ora pro nobis,

Ioseph fidelíssime, ora pro nobis,

Spéculum patiéntiæ, ora pro nobis,

Amátor paupertátis, ora pro nobis,

Exémplar opíficum, ora pro nobis,

Domésticæ vitæ decus, ora pro nobis,

Custos vírginum, ora pro nobis,

Familiárum cólumen, ora pro nobis,

Fulcímen in difficultátibus, ora pro nobis,

Solátium miserórum, ora pro nobis,

Spes ægrotántium, ora pro nobis,

Patróne éxsulum, ora pro nobis,

Patróne afflictórum, ora pro nobis,

Patróne páuperum, ora pro nobis,

Patróne moriéntium, ora pro nobis,

Terror daémonum, ora pro nobis,

Protéctor sanctæ Ecclésiæ, ora pro nobis,

 

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, parce nobis, Dómine.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, exaúdi nos, Dómine.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis.

 

V/. Constítuit eum dóminum domus suæ.

R/. Et príncipem omnis possessiónis suæ.

 

Orémus.

Deus, qui ineffábili providéntia beátum Ioseph, sanctíssimæ Genitrícis tuæ sponsum elígere dignátus es, praésta, quaésumus, ut, quem protectórem venerámur in terris, intercessórem habére mereámur in cælis. Qui vivis et regnas in saécula sæculórum.  Amen. 

Pro Supplicatione ad Deum in capite Litaniarum et Conclusione eligi possunt formulae A vel B pro Litaniis Sanctorum in CALENDARIUM ROMANUM ex Decreto Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticanii II instauratum auctoritate Pauli PP. VI promulgatum, Typis Polyglottis, Vaticanis 1969, pp. 33 et 37 propositis.