Today is the Anniversary of the late 56th Grand Prior of England, Fra' Fredrik Crichton Stuart. Of your charity pray for the repose of his beautiful soul, and invoke his intercession for the future reforms of our beloved Order. The Rosary pictured is the one he held when he died.
Talk 2 : St. Joseph the Worker
Order of Malta Lourdes Pilgrimage
1 May 2022
Some of you are aware that my last parish was Hatfield. The Salisburys were always very gracious: he as Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, where I was chaplain; she as a parishioner. It troubled me that many of the international students had never even heard of Hatfield House and had certainly never visited the place. I determined to rectify that, but felt some students might have been discouraged by the entry fee. So, I asked Lady Salisbury was there any chance of a discount? ‘Absolutely not,’ she replied. ‘You must all come for free, and I will show you round myself.’ She kept her word.
The Salisburys were not always so tolerant of Catholics. A century earlier they were distinctly unimpressed when a member of the family, Algernon Cecil, became a papist. To compound the crime, the new convert grew a beard. Hugh Cecil challenged his cousin:
‘Algernon, why have you grown that absurd beard.’
Algernon defended himself: ‘Our Lord had a beard.’
Hugh was having none of it: ‘But Our Lord was not a gentleman.’
We have to face facts.
Today is the anniversary of the death, the heavenly birthday, of Charles I of Austria, the last Emperor, King of Hungary, and Blessed of our Order. Today is also the feast day of Blessed Nuno Alvarez Pereira, Prior of our Order.
He was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II on 3rd October 2004. Pray for the continuation of his cause of sainthood, and for his intercession for our world today.
We are indebted to Monsignor Philip Whitmore, former Rector of the Venerable English College, for the Lenten Recollection he preached to the Order last Tuesday, in the presence of the Procurator of the Priory, Fra' Max Rumney, of the President, Chancellor and Vice-President of the British Association, and many knights and dames, in the Lady Chapel of St James's Spanish Place, by grace of the Rector.
For the benefit of those members of the Order unable to be present, the text is given below. We extend our prayers and commiserations to the two members of the British Association who had intended to make the Promise of Obedience that evening, but were unable due to having Covid. May they soon be fully recovered and pursue their religious conviction
The evening concluded with Sung Compline of the Little Office, for which we are grateful to Fr Stephen Morrison, OPraem, for his melifluous services as Hebdomadarius.
We would ask for the prayers, as a matter of obligation, of every member of our beloved Order tomorrow, the Feast of Saint Joseph, on which day senior members of our Order, including our Procurator, will be meeting the Holy Father to further discuss the ongoing reforms of the Order.
FASTING IN LENT
Monsignor Philip Whitmore
As we heard in the Gospel on the first Sunday of Lent,
Jesus was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry.
During Lent, we join Our Lord in his fast of forty days. I want to speak to you tonight about fasting. We’re asked, as you know, to include in our Lenten observance prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and of the three I think fasting is probably the one people find most difficult. Difficult, not only to do, but difficult even to understand why we do it. Of course it’s important for us to be able to explain the reasons why we Catholics do the things we do and why we believe the things we believe. “Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you”, as we read in the first letter of Saint Peter. Because even if there are plenty of people today who find our faith baffling, you only have to scratch the surface to discover that most of them are searching for a way to make better sense of their lives. So there’s a great opportunity for us, and a great challenge, to find a way of getting our message across to people who are hungry for the truth. Obviously, the better we understand it ourselves, the better equipped we are to do that. So let’s focus this evening on the ancient practice of fasting, and try to see how it fits into the grand scheme of our faith and our spirituality. Our faith should touch us on every level of our being, and fasting obviously affects us right down there in the gut.
Members of our beloved Order, with its long maritime history fighting the forces of Evil in the form of our fellow men, will have no trouble relating their spiritual lives to the Gospel of last Sunday, the small boat on the Sea of Galilee overcome by waves as Our Lord slept. We live again in such times today, both in the Church, and in our Order.
Many of our readers, especially those who have been to Lourdes or worked in the Spanish Place Soup Kitchen, will know the Reverend Gwilym Evans, former Master of Music of the Grand Priory, and now a Deacon, to be ordained Priest, Deo volente, in June this year. Pray for him.
The video below is the stirring homily on Holy Mother Church and Christian Hope he preached last Sunday at the Masses at the shrine church of St Mary's Warrington – "This boat cannot sink!"
We are invited most particularly at this time to pray for our Holy Father Pope Francis. Readers of this Blog are firmly encouraged to have a Mass said for Him, or ideally a Novena of Masses, and not to omit daily prayers for the person of the Holy Father, in addition to their prayers for His intentions.
This seems most especially fitting as we approach the old feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome (next Tuesday), which intiates the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, which closes with the Conversion of Saint Paul.
TU ES PETRUS, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam; et portae inferi non prevalebunt adversus eam; et tibi dabo claves regni coelorum.
V. Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Francisco.
R. Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.
Oremus. Deus, omnium fidelium pastor et rector, famulum tuum Franciscum, quem pastorem Ecclesiæ tuæ præesse voluisti, propitius respice: da ei, quæsumus, verbo et exemplo, quibus præest, proficere: ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi credito, perveniat sempiternam. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.
THOU ART PETER, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.
Let us pray. O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, he may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Last evening, the Vigil of the Epiphany of the Lord, by ancient custom the Church blesses water, the most powerful of the holy water of the Church's year, with powerful exorcisms over the water and the salt, to provided supernatural protection for the faithful against the demons who prowl around to destroy our souls.
A function which belongs to a prelate, the blessing was solemnly celebrated for us by the Abbot of Farnborough, Dom Cuthbert Brogan OSB, at the church of St James Spanish Place, by kind permission of the Rector, who assisted in choir.
Dom Cuthbert spoke beforehand as follows.
I was reminded solemnly in the sacristy that when the order of service says sermon it does not mean sermon, but means instead some short words of instruction. So here we go!...
We celebrate in these days the Epiphany one of the great Theophanies or shewings forth of the God head. So many and so rich are they that the church down the ages has unwoven the various shewings and given them their own feasts or gospels - and so we have the visit of the wise men, the wedding feast at Cana, and the Lord's baptism in the Jordan by John, in Jordane a Joanne - as the antiphon beautifully puts it.
In the baptism all three Persons of the Trinity are revealed - the Father's voice, the spirit as a dove, and Jesus himself goes down in to the waters. But why should he be baptised? He who has no sin. At first John protests, and in a wonderful hymn, Romanus the Melodian, the chief cantor at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, explains this. John thinks it must be a trick. He knows that in the Old Testament anyone who approached God died on the spot. The psalms tell that they melt like wax who approach God, that the one who tried to save the Ark died on the spot. And so he is naturally reluctant to touch our Lord.
But St Ephrem the Syrian wiring in the fourth century tells us why Jesus went down in to the Jordan. So that he could leave his divine life there. Wherever there is a baptism he says the waters are transubstantiated into the waters of the Jordan and the neophyte, the new Christian, emerges clothed not with Adam's shame but with the restored brightness, the image and likeness of God given him at creation, “quoniam in Jordane lavat Christus ejus crimina.”
The old rituals refer to the ceremonies of this night as being according to the customs of the Oriental Churches. We know how the Orthodox today love to plunge into freezing water to celebrate this feast.
What do we do tonight? With the Church's solemn exorcisms and prayers we bless chalk and salt and water, and we go to our homes armed with these powerful weapons. St John Chrysostom in the fourth century attests to Christians taking holy Water home on this night. And just as the Israelites marked their doors with blood as a sign of salvation so we chalk our doors with the holy cross and the letters CMB - meaning Caspar Melchior and Balthasar - the three wise men - asking also God's blessing for the coming year. CMB also can mean Christus Mansionem Benedicat - may Christ bless this house.
So there you are - now duly instructed, we proceed to the sacred ceremonies.
The ceremony may be watched in the video below. It begins at 1:13:23.
A solemn Requiem Mass was held for our late brother Fra' Matthew Festing, 79th Prince and Grand Master of our Order, at the Church of the Assumption and Saint Gregory, Warwick Street; we are very grateful to Father Elliott-Smith, Rector, for his hospitality. The celebrant and preacher was Father Ronald Creighton-Jobe of the London Oratory, who has probably known Fra' Matthew longer now that most other members of the Order; he was assisted by Fathers Gerard Skinner and Gary Dench. We are grateful to a young member for the transcript of the homily, printed below. The music was provided by the choir of the Assumption, under the direction of Keith Brown.
The Mass may be watched in the video below.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Many of you were at Mass when Fra’ Richard [Berkley-Matthews] made his Solemn Vows and it was a very joyful occasion. And in a sense, I want to suggest to you that we are also here for a joyful occasion, praying for the repose of the soul of Fra’ Matthew and now of [his elder brother] Michael. But first we rejoice that Almighty God called him to Himself at the right time. It is always the right time when God calls us. But somehow it was particularly suitable. The last time I saw him, just before he went to Malta, he was surrounded by the young of the Order, and Matthew came alive – he always found the young very touching. He said, “I am going to Malta. After all, I tried to promote as best I could the Professed and now the Solemn Professions have been freed, I am going.” I said, “is that wise”, and he said, “Probably not”.
Well in the end it probably was wise, in God’s sight, because there he was, amongst his own, in that very remarkable church, Matthew just after was taken to hospital, died, and is buried in the crypt of the Grand Masters. And let us not forget that he was the 79th Grand Master.
As we look back on his life, he would be the first who wouldn’t want us to spend the time talking about it. But like many priests, when someone says that, inevitable one does talk about it because it is right and proper in order to encourage us to the virtues that he practised.
I remember Fra’ Matthew when he was made not the first Grand Prior but the restored Grand Prior after all those centuries, and he said to me afterwards, “What on earth do I do as Grand Prior?” I said, “You do your best”, and he did. And then after the funeral of Fra’ Andrew, and we were having a welcome drink in the Plaza Hotel, I said to him, “You do realise, that it is possible that you will be elected Grand Master”. He said, “Don’t be so stupid!”. And he was. And again, he said, “Now what do I do?”. “Do what you have always done: do your best,” and he did. Within his limitations (and we all have limitations), he tried to serve God, to love Him. He had a deep devotion to Our Lady, and he tried to help our Lords the Poor and the Sick.
He was very good with the Poor and the Sick, with sometime rather unusual consequences. I remember him going to visit Our Lords the Poor at the Termini Station in Rome. He didn’t look too well-off himself, and one of the Poor said, “That poor old thing there, they ought to do something for him.” Matthew liked that very much.
The other thing I remember (sorry about the anecdotes), is that when he was first elected, he came to Cortona in Tuscany where I was staying with friends. He had never been there. If you have ever been there, it is all up and down with hills, and he wasn’t best pleased about it (you will all recall a certain… linguistic tendency that Matthew could have). When we arrived at the celebration which was about the importance of the Order in Cortona (there were two Grand Masters) we were together, and our host in Cortona had his jacket and tie on, and Matthew didn’t, of course. When we arrived at the reception, they assumed it wasn’t Matthew who was the Grand Master, but our host. And he liked that too. Because humility has to be genuine, and it has to be heartfelt, and lived with a certain joy. Matthew had it.
I can’t say (and he would certainly not have said) that he always felt joyful in Rome for various reasons. Let’s say, Rome was a little too complicated for him, so he would escape from time to time. His attempts to learn Italian were not vastly successful either, but caused a certain amount of joy and merriment amongst the Italians because unlike the French (we shouldn’t say this), the Italians don’t mind you making a hash of their language. But all the time he did his best in circumstances and in a context in which he was never entirely at home. We know where he was at home: he was at home in Northumberland, and he was also very at home in Lourdes. He loved Our Lady and there he could help the Sick in a very practical way. As you know, he off-loaded them at the station for many years, and he continued to do that when he was Grand Master. Again, the Sick didn’t have the slightest idea who he was. As he got weaker physically, he still insisted on going [to Lourdes]. Again, he overheard someone say, “O look at that poor old thing, why don’t they do something for him.”
Well, God did something for him: He gave him a great possibility to exercise patience and forbearance, under extremely difficult circumstances. And he did it, with obedience and with determination to try to do God’s will. And that’s all that any of us can ask for: to try to do God’s will. And so frankly we don’t have to mourn.
We do mourn his physical presence (and there was a lot of it). We also mourn his capacity for affection: like many Northerners, he didn’t know quite how to express it sometimes, but he was a deeply affectionate man and loved his friends, and depended on their prayers and friendship. And that is why he didn’t always realise the complexities with which he had to deal with in various circumstances, because he tended to think well of people.
We are very grateful to be here tonight to have this opportunity and he would have most of all appreciated our prayers for him, and to be surrounded by (what I am sure is true) a deep sense of affection.
It is sad too that we are mourning Michael, but again: a thoroughly good man. Rather different in temperament to Matthew in some ways, but with that straightforward love of our Blessed Lord and Our Lady which he always felt he had particularly inherited from his mother’s family, the Riddells.
So, dear Matthew, we pray for you. My instinct is that he won’t have very long (whatever that means in terms of eternity) in purgatory, because he suffered. He was not always well-treated. But, in the end, neither was Our Blessed Lord, and we follow the Crucified Saviour who makes sense of pain and sorrow and suffering.
And so we can say with heartfelt devotion: Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him – may he rest in peace. Amen.
Homily preached by Silvio Cardinal Tomasi C.S. at the Funeral Mass and entombment on Friday 3rd December 2021 in the Conventual Church of Saint John of Jerusalem, now the Co-cathedral in Valletta, of Robert Matthew Festing, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 11 March 2008 to 28 January 2017.
Mr. President, Your Excellency, Lieutenant of Grand Master Fra’ Marco, Excellencies, dear members of Fra’ Matthew’s family, dear confreres, dear friends.
First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to our Holy Father Francis who asked me to personally preside over this celebration in his name, and I add my personal greetings and thanks: to the President of the Republic of Malta, George William Vella; and to Archbishop Scicluna for having allowed this celebration and the entombment of Grand Master Festing in the Crypt of the Grand Masters of this glorious cathedral basilica dedicated to our patron saint, Saint John the Baptist.
As a faith Community we are gathered in this beautiful and historical cathedral to say farewell and commend to God the Bailiff Grand Prior, Knight of Justice and former Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and former Grand Prior of England, Fra’ Matthew Festing. A person of deep Christian convictions, Fra’ Matthew was aware and proud that in his mother’s English recusant family line is included Blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue, Knight of Malta, martyred in 1539. Through the choice of becoming a Knight of Justice, Fra’ Matthew dedicated his life to the mission of the Order, a mission that has remained constant through the centuries: Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum, the defence of the Faith and service to the Poor. History doesn’t stay still but it constantly moves forward. Indeed today’s battles are fought by the Order not with the sword but with the more effective weapon of charity toward the Poor and the Sick. The Order is therefore engaged with its Professed, its Members in Obedience, its large number of Knights, its volunteers and Dames, in the vast field of the world in promoting justice, creating peaceful coexistence, aiming at realizing the dream Pope Francis has often placed before our eyes that we are all brothers and sisters, a fundamental message of the Gospel.
Fra’ Matthew Festing, 79th Prince and Grand Master of our Sovereign Military Order of Malta, had been elected in March 2008 and retired in full obedience and with great humility and discretion in 2017.
Fra’ Matthew had as one of his priorities to promote more vocations as Knights of Justice and Providence called him to eternal life when he came to Malta where a solemn profession was celebrated after many years of interruption.
This circumstance sends us a message at this moment when the reform of the life of the Order is underway, and will lead us to an updated Constitution and a Melitensis Code. It is a message that calls us to root ourselves in the religious identity of the Order and to pray that the Lord may send generous vocations to continue the mission of the Order in fidelity to the inspiration of Blessed Gerard, who formed a new religious family of lay religious in the Hospital in Jerusalem for pilgrims, sick people and people without resources, about one thousand years ago.
Fra' Matthew through his obedience and prayer life leaves us a legacy that strengthens the Order and invites us to follow the same path.
The fruitful cooperation of the various categories of persons who together carry on the original charism of the Order is a strong witness of the united spirit and action that moves us on. As we look around this Island, there is plenty of evidence of its Christian tradition, beginning with the refuge provided to the Apostle Paul after his shipwreck. Storms and conflicts have not disappeared and they mark the course of our existence. There is no surprise in this, but mutual love and respect has always to prevail.
Fra’ Matthew contributed his part in pursuing this dream by encouraging the Order around the world.
If the whole Church takes up this missionary impulse, She has to go forth to everyone without exception. But to whom should She go first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear indication: not so much to our friends and wealthy neighbours, but above all the Poor and the Sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked, “those who cannot repay you” (Lk 14:14). There can be no room for doubt or for explanations which weaken so clear a message. Today and always, “the Poor are the privileged recipients of the Gospel”, and the fact that it is freely preached to them is a sign of the Kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our Faith and the Poor. May we never abandon them.
After nine centuries, the mission of the Order continues to inspire and to advance on the main road of the Church, faithful to her teaching, and to all those who like Fra’ Matthew – and may he rest in peace - tried without fear of their own limits to implement the Gospels’ message. Amen.
Requiescat in pace
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| Cardinal Tomasi imparts his blessing to the Conventus after Mass. |
The Holy Mass for the feast of Blessed Gerard was celebrated by our Chaplain Father Stephen Morrison OPraem, at St James's Church, Spanish Place, by grace of the Rector. Fr Morriosn also preached. The text is given below.
Saint John's Day was celebrated as a High Mass, with the Chaplain of the Priory, Monsignor John Armitage assisted by Fathers Stephen Morrison OPraem and Gerard Skinner.
Monsignor Armitage's homily is given below.
HOMILY ST JOHN’S DAY 2021
Zechariah, the Father of John the Baptist, doubted the message of Gabriel that his wife Elizabeth would give birth. "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur." Zechariah loses his voice. Contrast the next visit of Gabriel to Our Blessed Lady at the Annunciation, for this was the encounter where Mary found her voice. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to his Word.”
A voice lost and a voice found. Zechariah’s voice will only return when the words of the Angel come true. Marys “yes” was given for she was open in her heart to receive this gift for she had “conceived him in her heart before she conceived him in her womb”.
Mary is troubled by the words of the Angel; Zechariah doubts the words of the Angel. Our Lady’s faith reassures her to put her fears aside, Zechariah’s doubt, silences him, he will not speak again until he sees, the words fulfilled in the birth of his Son John the Baptist. The words of Jesus to Thomas ring true. “Doubt no longer but believe.”
Our Lady and Zechariah, although they respond differently to the Angelic invitation, eventually arrive at the same point. It is a point of prayer and thanksgiving that became the foundation of the Churches daily prayer - Mary's Magnificat and Zechariah’s Benedictus. It doesn’t matter where we start on the journey, our faith and the mercy of God will always bring us to the encounter with the one who calls us friends.
Mary's Son will bring “his mercy on those who fear him from age to age and fill the hungry with good things.” Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son will tell of the one who is to come who has visited his people and redeemed them, thus saving his people from the hands of those who hate us, giving us the mercy that was promised to us by our fathers. Mary is the bearer of the Word incarnate, Elizabeth will be the bearer of the Voice which will proclaim his coming. Mary the Mother of Mercy, Elizabeth the Mother of the prophetic voice who will proclaim our delivery from our enemies so that we might serve him without fear.
These two patrons of our beloved Order, Our Lady and St John the Baptist, both announce the mercy of God, through the forgiveness of our sins, this is the proclamation of the Good News, for he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.
The Hospital in Jerusalem was under the patronage of St John the Baptist. Since the earliest days of our Order his words “He must increase, and I must decrease” has lived in the noble hearts of our brothers and sisters, who like John have stepped aside to make a way for the Lord. Mary’s faith and John’s humility are the very spiritual foundation of our relationship with Jesus. Our vocation as a member of the Order calls us to “step aside” and to give all, to follow Christ so that we may serve “Our Lords the Sick”; we are called to “step aside” from our doubts and fears, that we may be instruments of the Mercy of God; we are called to “step aside” from ambition and greed so that we may share what we have with those who have nothing, we are called to “step aside” from the hardness of heart that restricts the flow of God’s grace and generosity in our life, so that we may become experts in humanity who by our loving service have penetrated the depths of the hearts of the men and women of today, sharing their joys and their hopes, their anguish and their sorrows, thus we defend the Church, by serving the Sick and the poor.
The renewal called for by our Holy Father Pope Francis is a spiritual renewal, that must be rooted in the hearts of every member, or it will not bear fruit. Many fine words might be said and written, but they will fall on barren soil, hardened hearts. “You renew the Church in every age by raising up men and women, outstanding examples of your unchanging love.” These words from the preface of saints must become the heart of our own personal renewal, where we will understand Why we do, what we do. What we do in the service of Our Lords the Sick and Holy Mother Church must be grounded in prayer and truth, and the fruit will be a radical generosity arising from a humble contrite heart the fountain of all nobility. Prayer will change us, the truth of the Word of God and the teaching of the Church will set us free, and radical generosity will bring to life the words of Our Lord, “when you did this to the least of your brothers you did it to me."
We do not seek to renew the Order for the sake of the Order, we seek to embrace the words of Our Lord. “I have come bring you life and life in abundance” and we wish to share this abundance in the service of our brothers and sisters in their need.
The challenges we face today are challenges that all of humanity faces in these difficult times. Governments and humanitarian organisations provide material resilience in the face of need, but man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. As servants of the Church, we are witnesses to the Spiritual resilience which is the Body of Christ; once again we gather around the Sacrifice of the one who says, “This this is my body and I give it to you.” Let us “step aside” from our fears and anxieties.
St John the Baptist, pray for us
Our Order owes much of its liturgical origins to the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us.
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