SERMON FOR BLESSED GERARD

The Feast of our Founder Blessed Gerard was celebrated solemnly at the Assumption, Warwick Street. This is also, of course, in this place, the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, King of England, whose shrine is barely a mile way. At the end of Mass the relic of Blessed Gerard's jawbone was exposed for veneration. This was the first occasion upon which the new Grand Prior presided from the throne. Ad multos annos!

The Mass was preceded by the Grand Priory General Assembly, and followed by a Reception in the Chapter Room.

The sermon was delivered by Monsignor John Armitage, Chaplain of the Grand Priory, who also celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Here is his text.

We are faced with the problem of good men and women! Each one of us has in our heart the desire to be a good person, but God does not create us to be be good, but to be like himself, to be like God. St Athanasius stated that “God became Man in order that Man might become god” He creates us in his image, presenting us with every gift we need.  

In order for us to be like God, we have to embrace, and use these gifts that we may be shaped into the true likeness of God. The challenge we face is that we do not use the gifts for the purpose they were given, that is for God’s greater glory, but for our own.  When our first parents walked with God in paradise, the image and likeness of God was in harmony in their hearts. The moment when they ceased to walk in harmony, they had to hide; the unconditional love offered by their creator was broken, the invitation to walk side by side with God was shattered. The re-union of humanity to God, whose “measure of love is to love without measure”, would be restored only in the person of Jesus Christ who prayed “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me”. In Jesus Christ we are invited once again to walk with God in unity and peace. Blessed Gerard chose to walk with his Lord, “Cor ad cor loquitor “ heart speaking unto heart. 

Who do we walk with as we seek to use the gifts that God has given us? In whose name do we carry out the works of the Order? The answer lies in the first reading “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed…” 

In the face of the disunity of our broken world, the change and decay that is all around us, we must constantly keep our eyes on the one in whose name we serve, for “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” This name is the source and the summit of our unity, and leads us along the path to healing and serving the sick and the broken so that the “people who are walking in darkness will see a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned”

Christ enables us to bring such light, the man of God whose feast we celebrate today, in the midst of the darkness of his age, “lit a candle rather than cursed the darkness”. In his humility he recognised his weakness and placed his trust in God and God alone. His radical service of the sick and the poor was the consequence of a great heart, the root of all true nobility. Trust and greatness of heart enabled Gerard to listen to “what the Spirit was saying to the Church” at a particular moment in history. This manifestation of the Spirit, our charism, inspires us to defend the Body of Christ which is the Church,  as we serve the Body of Christ who are Our Lords the sick and those most in need. This charism became a gift for all time, thus we celebrate today for “Charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit …. They benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of all, and to the needs of the world. …They are wonderfully rich graces for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ” Gods glory lights up our world when humble men and women of great and noble hearts are fully alive “with authentic promptings of this same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms.^” 

In keeping with the charity of our charism we must work for unity, for the only way to build fraternity is by accepting each another as brothers and sisters in the Lord, as we seek to be obedient and open to what the Spirit is saying to the Order as this time.  We seek to strengthen those things that unite us and in charity and humility seek the wisdom to address the challenges that always arise in the face of the renewal and reform. Without the unity Christ prayed for we walk alone, our service to Our Lords the sick is seriously weakened. We are all different, we see things differently, the Spirit transforms our differences we may become united. E pluribus Unum, out of the many come one!  This is the work of the Spirit, and it brings light to humble and noble hearts “So, a prisoners for the Lord, let us seek to live a lives worthy of the calling we have received. Let us be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace..” 

Let us pray for all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on us! As we pray together, our respect for one another grows, as does our shared concern for unity. From this will flow true fraternity in our service of the Gospel, meeting needs, challenging injustice, and demonstrating mutual respect with a willingness to listen and to dialogue.  Then the witness we give will speak loudly to the society in which we live and will support our shared proclamation of the words of the Lord that when you did this to least of my brothers and sisters you did it to me.  “For the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and indeed will do even greater ones than these,…for …whatever you ask in my name I will do”

Blessed Gerard, pray for us.

Saint Edward the Confessor, pray for us.

LORD ALTON'S SPEECH

The annual dinner for members of the Order in Britain was held last Friday at Boodle's. The guest speaker was Lord Alton of Liverpool. We are very grateful to him for providing the text for a wider readership.

Your Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen, first I want to thank you for inviting me to be your guest this evening, not least because it gives me the opportunity to thank you for the huge contribution you have made over the centuries to the well-being of so many vulnerable people.

I live near a village in Lancashire which has a direct link to your Order. In medieval times and for 300 years until its dissolution by Henry VIII the Knights came to Stydd, near Ribchester, and created a hospice for pilgrims – some of them with incurable diseases such as leprosy – a disease that you continue to work to irradicate in developing parts of the world. In the hospital of St. Saviour, they received love and care from the brethren as part of their religious commitment to God. The small chapel still stands and is reputed to be where the martyred remains of St. Margaret Clitherow were secretly buried. Close by is the barn church built at the end of the eighteenth century thirty years before Catholic emancipation.

In Stydd chapel there is an octagonal font which features the shield of Sir Thomas Newport of Shropshire, a preceptor of the Order – and who is buried in the Knights Hospitaller citadel in Rhodes. And the second shield is of Sir Thomas Pemberton, a later preceptor. 

Stydd chapel reminds me of the centuries old commitment of the Knights to care and welfare. Today through your work in hospitals, and hospices – and work with disabled people, the destitute and the homeless you are continuing in this vital life saving work.  In England, the modern hospice movement, inspired in no small part by the tradition of the Hospitallers and illustrious Dame Cicely Saunders - nurse, social worker, physician, and writer – was a response to those who wanted and still attempt to legalise euthanasia.

All of us know that the one certainty in life is death. Perhaps the death of Her Majesty the Queen – with her son and daughter at her bedside – having lived a life of service until the very end - has given us all the chance to consider again what we used to call a good death – and your Order has an opportunity to meet a real need of how we can prepare to die well.  

Care and kill can never be used as synonyms. But it’s not good enough to simply oppose something. You have to offer radical alternatives such as high-quality palliative care. That has always been part of your mission and as proponents of euthanasia continue to try and force through legalisation  we have to do two things – demonstrate that to die with dignity you do not need a doctor to kill you; and, secondly, point to the lack of safeguards and dangers to the frail, disabled and elderly which have become routine in jurisdictions such as Holland where there are more than 6000 people euthanised each year – including for minors with psychiatric illnesses. Or Canada, where an army veteran recently telephoned his health authority looking for help and was directed to information about how to end his life.

Your Order’s work running over 60 care homes in the UK provides a wonderful exemplar of a Christian response to the end of life, where one is treated with love and respect and is helped and guided both physically and spiritually through the twilight and eventual dusk of this, our earthly life.  Top quality care homes and palliative care are essential for us to maintain the argument that euthanasia is not the answer.

And the same is true at the beginning of life too. We have just passed the bleak milestone of 10 million abortions in Britain – more than one every 3 minutes, some right up to birth – including 90% of all babies with Down Syndrome. 

I vividly remember attending a performance of Blue Apple Theatre company in Westminster, – whose cast comprises disabled people - and which was organised by the Order of Malta Volunteers.  Their award-winning leading actor, Tommy Jessop’s rendition of Prince Hamlet’s soliloquy, and those famous words, “To be or not to be” – take on a special meaning when uttered by Tommy. For anyone with Down Syndrome – and for millions of others - that indeed is the question.  I particularly salute the work of the charity Right to Life, and I thank those members of the Order who have done so much to support its life saving work.

But beyond your caring work the Order has a mandate to defend the Faith.

 As a schoolboy I read a gripping account of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565 and was captivated by the heroism of the Grand Master, Jean de la Valette, and his brother Knights Hospitaller as they countered Ottoman attempts to impose Islam throughout Europe. On his tomb in the city named in his honour appear the words “Worthy of eternal honour…. the shield of Europe.”

This paved the way for the victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, in which the Knights played such an important part. GK Chesterton wrote a rollicking epic poem commemorating the defeat of the Turkish Sultan’s attempts to seize and control the Mediterranean Sea.

“They have dared the white republics
Up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round
The Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad
For agony and loss,
And called the kinds of Christendom
For swords about the Cross.

As in any conflict a heroic figure emerges, and in Lepanto Chesterton unapologetically points us to the illegitimate Don John of Austria who was undoubtedly the hero of Lepanto – whom Chesterton describes as the “Last Knight of Europe”.

In this, perhaps Chesterton was wrong – for in every succeeding age unexpected heroes emerge and some of them, like Don John, spring from unlikely origins.

Who, just two years ago, would have believed that an obscure former comedian in Ukraine would rally his people and lead Europe in the defence of the sovereignty of nations, the rule of law and democracy? But that is precisely what Vladimir Zelensky has done.

And what if Churchill had been judged by his first 60 years – and by serial failures and mistakes – he would be a footnote in our history books rather than acclaimed as the greatest of our Prime Ministers.

In Lepanto Chesterton encourages its readers to rise “tiny and unafraid” from their “nameless thrones” and to hear the song that was first sung “when all the world young.” 

He knew that in remembering a battle for the soul of Europe, 450 years ago – when the religious and cultural heritage of Europe was in the balance - it might inspire and challenge future generations to think about what they must do in their own time and in their own ways to defend those same values and beliefs which we hold and are passed down by all those who have sung the same song celebrating the inestimable value and dignity of every human being made in God’s image. 

None of this is to glory in conflict or war – quite the reverse. My father and grandfather both had to fight in terrible wars. My uncle died in the RAF. Cities like Liverpool Coventry and the East End of London suffered appallingly through aerial bombardment.

But who can doubt the justice in fighting against a destroyer, like Hitler, who sought the destruction of the liberties and freedoms which we hold dear? And who can doubt that too often good people choose to be quiet until it is too late?

We remember our past, we tell one another our stories, so that we can avert the repetition of past errors. We may not care for some of those commemorated on plinths or with statues but rather than acts of vandalism or endless campaigns seeking to cancel people and cancel history we use our energy and our gifts to understand what went before and to challenge contemporary injustices and present dangers.

When Croesus, the King of the Lydians, went to the Oracle at Delphi he asked what was the most important thing a man should know: “Know who you are” came the reply. Similarly, the prophet Isaiah says we must remember the rock from which we were hewn. When we succumb to collective amnesia and forget who we are it leads to the sort of identity crisis which seems to plague contemporary society.

Today, so many new challenges to our way of life demand the same heroism of Jean de la Valette, or Don John of Austria or the countless men and women who have dedicated their lives to withstanding the assault on what we hold dear – with the assailant often insidiously arriving unnoticed in carpet slippers.

Those challenges demand the tiny and unafraid to give voice and to use our opportunities and privileges to speak and to act. 

You have a special mandate to defend Faith. One in eight Christians worldwide live in countries where they may face persecution. Among this number, 309 million Christians are living in countries where they might suffer very high or extreme levels of persecution. On average, every day, 13 Christians are killed for their faith, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned, and 5 Christians are abducted for faith-related reasons. In the 21st century, it is still not possible to practice religion or belief safely. 

Think of the 50-70,000 Christians held in North Korea’s labour camps; the Nigerian Christians murdered by Boko Haram; the Christian girls abducted, raped, and forcibly converted in Pakistan; the endless discrimination in so many countries, which morphs into persecution, then into crimes against humanity and in places like Northern Iraq finally into outright genocide.

As a Sovereign entity, your Order has recently joined the International Religious Freedom Alliance, and took park in the Ministerial on Religious Freedom hosted by the UK Government in June, and I understand the Order is considering the appointment of its first Ambassador for Freedom of Religion or Belief.   I commend you for this important work.

Unsurprisingly, I want to end by mentioning China.

Unsurprising the CCP has sanctioned me and my family and six other parliamentarians for speaking out against their atrocities against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, the destruction of Tibetan Buddhism, the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, the destruction of Hong Kong’s democracy and freedoms and the daily threats to the peaceful people of Taiwan.

Since 2001, on over 400 occasions in Parliament I have raised the violation of human rights in the People’s Republic of China. From the 1980s on I have highlighted the appalling one child policy – where forced abortion and sterilisation of women was used to enforce a disastrous policy which made it illegal to have a brother or a sister.

Back in 2008 I drew attention to 8,000 executions in the PRC and the failure to provide benchmarks to demonstrate whether the “golden age” diplomacy which would be promoted so assiduously by the Coalition Government was delivering anything of substance. I specifically cited Mao’s belief that “religion is poison.”  In 1980 as a young MP, I had managed to get to Shanghai, where its brave bishop, - later secretly made a Cardinal, in pectore, by Pope John Paul II - Bishop Kung was spending 30 years in Chinese prisons for defying attempts by China's Communist government to control Catholics in the country through the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association. I met brave underground Catholic and Protestant Christians.

I have also travelled to Western China, Tibet, and Hong Kong to see the situation for myself.

Although willing to see if Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms and the “two systems one country” agreement for Hong Kong would create new possibilities for religious freedom, political and democratic rights, and the rule of law, I remained sceptical.

It soon became obvious that once Xi Jinping became CCP Chairman, he was more interested in becoming another Mao with the declared aim of extending his CCP ideology worldwide.

On its recent 100th anniversary it was estimated that the CCP has been responsible for killing 50 million people.

Since Xi became the CCP leader in 2013 the human rights of all of China’s citizens have deteriorated further.

Hong Kong’s brave 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, now arrested and facing fines and further charges that could lead to prison, has frequently warned that the leopard had not changed its spots.

In Hong Kong young and old Catholics, along with many others, are incarcerated in prison or awaiting trial – including the Catholic publisher of Apple Daily Jimmy Lai, and the Catholic father of Hong Kong democracy Martin Lee KC.

Others I also know personally include the young democracy campaigner, Joshua Wong and the acclaimed lawyer and former legislator, Dr. Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee. 

 The National Security Law in Hong Kong is being used to create outrageous parodies of justice. A conflation of show trails and kangaroo courts have verdict decided in advance by judges who are simply an extension of the CCP.  False allegations have become a tool for targeting formerly Hong Kong’s free press, former legislators, and pro-democracy activists whom I met when I was part of the international monitoring team in the last free elections in 2019.

It would be foolish to believe that Cardinal Zen – who has been treated as a troublesome priest in the mould of Thomas Becket - will be treated any differently. The UK Government says, “we are seeing the implications of this sweeping legislation, including the chilling effect on freedom of expression, the stifling of opposition voices, and the criminalising of dissent.”

If you want to know what it is like to be a believer in China ask Archbishop Cui Tai - jailed intermittently since 2007,  

Ask the courageous citizen-journalist and lawyer, a Christian woman, Zhang Zhan, who is festering in a CCP prison for seeking the truth of the origins of Covid 19 in Wuhan.

Ask Chinese Christians if they are surprised by the reported plans of the CCP to ‘contextualise’ the Bible to make it more ‘culturally acceptable’ and the requirement for Christian preaching to be adapted to include the core values of socialism. Ask those Christians who have now been subjected to forced indoctrination in mobile ‘re-education camps.’ Or ask Pastor, Wang Yi, of Early Rain Church, imprisoned for refusing to comply. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have called for his immediate and unconditional release. Ask the 23 million besieged people of Taiwan; ask His Holiness the exiled Dalai Lama. Ask the up to 50 million Chinese Christians who have suffered persecution including the “increasing persecution” of Catholics since 2018, noted by the US Commission of Inquiry on China. Ask the 1 million Uyghurs of Xinjiang incarcerated and used as slave labour - the most glaring example of State-authorised atrocities in recent history. Why are we so indifferent to evidence of the destruction of a people’s identity; of mass surveillance; of forced labour and enforced slavery; the uprooting of people; the destruction of communities and families; the prevention of births; the ruination of cemeteries where generations of loved one had been buried? Escaped Uyghurs attested to degrading treatment, torture, human trafficking, forced labour, forced sterilisation, and forced abortion. The UK’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Mirvis describes it as ‘an unfathomable mass atrocity." Don’t we care about people being forcibly indoctrinated to believe that you, your people, your religion, your culture, never existed – and the certainty that through ethno-religious cleansing, you will cease to exist? 

Those whose signature is written across these monstrous crimes know the name that describes all of this. The word is Genocide.

How easily we forget.

Recall how, in Europe, bureaucrats identified who was a Jew, confiscated property, used their victims as slave labour, scheduled trains to uproot them from their homes and communities, and deprived them of livelihoods and positions in society; and how German pharmaceutical companies tested drugs on camp prisoners, confiscated personal property, shaved heads, sent hair, jewelry, and other artefacts as trophies, and then made prisoners build their crematoria. All of that is happening today on what the UK has described as “an industrial scale."

In the 1930s political leaders and tainted corporations – and the calculating machines which owned them –danced obligingly around Hitler and didn’t give a tinker’s damn about what was happening to the incarcerated Jews.  The Uyghurs are in a comparable position today.

After the War new demons emerged. Incapable of learning the lessons of appeasement the West turned a blind eye to many of the excesses of Stalin and Soviet Communism. The new doctrine was termed Ostpolitik - which sought closer economic and political ties with Soviet Communism and in return agreed to be quiet about the repression of the citizens of those countries.

Ultimately, in the 1980s, it was the spiritual inspiration and heroic leadership of St. John Paul II, trenchantly aligning himself in solidarity with democracy and the rule of law which became the catalyst for peaceful revolution.

Like Cardinal Zen, John Paul had experienced suffering first hand, knew what he was dealing with, and had no intention of becoming one of Lenin’s “useful idiots.”  And nor should we.

If you want to understand the situation of the Church in China I commend to you Cardinal Zen’s book, entitled “For Love of My People, I Will Not Remain Silent”. As he risks his freedom can we do any less? (Link HERE)

The denial of religious freedom is always a litmus test of the nature of a society. It is hated by totalitarians, authoritarians, dictators and ideologues and terrorists – from North Korea, to Iran, from Nigeria to China. Conversely, it is also true that where religious freedom is promoted it creates the most stable and economically prosperous societies.

Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights insists that everyone has the right to believe, not to believe or to change their belief.  In so many parts of the world, it is a right that is honoured only in its breach.

 The famous Christian axiom, ‘preach all the time, and sometimes even use words’, pertains well to the Order of Malta.  The work you do, as members and volunteers, for the most vulnerable people in society is a tremendous witness to our faith that every human being has inherent worth and dignity, but sometimes we must also use words to speak up and defend those rights and inherent dignities.  In the spirit of those who resisted in the Great Siege and who fought at Lepanto, I can think of no worthier current and pressing cause, for your noble and illustrious Order than to give voice to all those whose suffer today in domains where this fundamental right of religious freedom is denied.

Thank you for inviting me.

Cardinal Zen's book "For Love of My People I Will Not Remain Silent: On the Situation of the Church in China." is available HERE.

WARDOUR - FR MONTGOMERY'S SECOND PAPER

  

The first paper in this two-part meditation is given HERE.  We are grateful to Fr Edmund Montgomery for his insights into our Faith, an to the Faith of the Martyrs in this land.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our First Conference we heard how the true understanding of martyrdom is to ‘bear witness’ and we explored both martyrdom in this sense in Scripture, in tradition, and in our lives, too.

A witness in Court, as we know, is required to affirm: ‘I swear by almighty God, that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.’ They are on oath before God that their testimony is true.

To be a martyr is to be a witness. To be a witness is to be obliged to tell the truth. So that our lives may tell the truth, we must live lives of integrity: faithful to the Lord’s commands, the teaching of His Church, and the obligations we have taken on as members of the Order. It all has to be, as it were, a seamless garment: we claim to be Catholics, good, then we must show that by the conduct of our lives, otherwise our witness testimony will be seen to be unreliable; we claim to be members of the Order, good, then we must show that by the conduct of our lives, otherwise our witness testimony will be seen to be unreliable.

But we also witness to each other. St Paul put it like this, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’11 St Paul literally writes, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of martyrs...’

Our testimony, our witness to each other than encourage or discourage each other. To be absent from Mass, to not support our parish priests, to be never amongst those who volunteer that can be a real counter-sign to our witness as Catholics; to be absence from Order events, to not support our confreres, to not be involved in the works of the Order unless it fits with our social lives or plans for recreation that can be a real counter-sign to our witness as members of the Order.

St John, writing in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, sees a vision of heaven, ‘After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.’12 The multitude in heaven, that is – everyone in heaven – are dressed in white and holding palm branches. The palm branch, as you know from Christian iconography and symbology is the attribute of the martyr. St John foresees that everyone in heaven is a martyr. We get to heaven if we bear witness. The testimony of our lives is written by our deeds and our testimony bears witness to what we truly believe is important, our real priorities, where we consider our true energies should be directed. Please God these all align with our duties as Catholics and our obligations in marriage and family life, religious profession, ordination, and to the Order.

Let me share with you an episode from Penal Times here in England of a case so famous and so instructive in the Law it became almost a maxim of law in citing precedent. A number of Catholics attended a clandestine Mass, offered in secret as the Mass and priesthood were both outlawed under Elizabeth Tudor.

Nevertheless, these faithful Catholics, huddled around a makeshift Altar, took the risk – took their lives in their hands – by seeking out the Mass in a time when to attend would mean imprisonment for the laity and certain death for the priest. However, this Mass was a trap. The priest sent to ‘say’ the ‘Mass’ was, in fact, an agent of the Crown, and as the ‘Mass’ began, so the guards fell on the gathering, arresting all present. At their trial, the Catholics were defended by an excellent lawyer, Edmund Plowden, who challenged the basis on which they were arraigned.

Plowden admitted that it was contrary to the law to assist at Mass and to do so carried grave penalties. Yet, argued Plowden, how could there be a Mass? The so-called ‘priest’ was an agent of the Crown, there was no priest, and if no priest, no Mass, and if no Mass, no crime. The brilliant argument won the acquittal of the accused. And the legal principle, challenging the basis of a charge, has passed into legal parlance as ‘The case is altered, quoth Plowden’!

The bravery of those Catholics who ventured out to attend Mass, mindful of the grave penalties attached to breaking the Penal Laws, gave witness – they were true martyrs. They need not shed blood to be shown to be so, rather the courage of their witness is the authentic understanding of martyrdom.

Let us put ourselves ‘on trial’ by way of an Examination of Conscience: if the charges read that we were both Catholics and members of the Order of Malta, to convict us, there would need to be evidence ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. What would acquit us? A ‘reasonable doubt’ that we are authentically living and daily striving to be good Catholics and good confreres of the Order. It can be a helpful way to consider our responsibilities as baptised persons and our particular state in life as well as the obligations attached to belonging to the Order, too.

But let me offer a word of encouragement to you also. I have been deliberately challenging in my choice of topic and the message I wanted to share with you today: that true martyrdom lies in bearing witness and that our lives – and our deaths – must testify to what we believe. We must take seriously our obligations and our responsibilities to God and to each other because we can be a source of encouragement of discouragement to each other by whether our example is edifying or otherwise.

It is certain that by the faithfulness to God and your lives of prayer you have been, and will continue to be, the witnesses or martyrs that the Lord desires us to be. The courage that the martyrs showed in the last moment as they were lead to the scaffold was only possible because they had already lived heroic lives and so, in the end, their death was a consequence of how they had lived. Their martyrdom began not with the first foot on the ladder to the scaffold but by their daily decision to love God above all things and to love their neighbour as they loved themselves. The true path to martyrdom is a desire to put to death all those parts of your heart and mine that cannot be offered to God or that God cannot bless. In this, the martyrs are not so different to you and me. The daily struggle of martyrdom and the aspiration that our lives give testimony and true witness that we live what we believe requires that we are willing to accept a form of martyrdom that requires us to seek authenticity and integrity in our lives as Catholics and as members of the Order.

From the perspective of Eternity, we will see on the Last Day at the General Judgment the consequences of both sin and grace, the impact that each of our lives and our choices for God or otherwise have had on the lives of others, on the course of human history, on the unfolding of God’s Divine Will and the effect of our witness and the testimony of our lives. I am confident that, through God’s grace, Divine Providence will both help us to strive for the good and given we all fall short, that God’s Providence will correct what we have omitted, undone, or deliberate chose to do, contrary to His Will.

But let us not forget that we have deep and serious obligations to God and to each other. We must renew these commitments and ask for God’s grace every day to carry them out. But more than this, we must decide, choose, to fulfil them. When this is a struggle, or requires effort, or makes us need to change our plans or make sacrifices, then let us see in this our own small martyrdom, and overcome these struggles with something of the same courage by which our forebears lived and ultimately, died for the faith.

Let’s commit ourselves to be authentic martyrs, true witnesses bearing testimony to what we believe by the manner of our lives, asking the prayers here of Ss Peter and Paul and the martyrs whose relics are only feet away from us, Ss Primus and Secundus, as we conclude:

Our Father – Hail Mary – Glory Be

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

11 Heb 12:1-3
12 Rev 7:9

WARDOUR RECOLLECTION - REPORT AND FIRST PAPER

Last Saturday saw the annual recollection at Wardour Castle, attended as ever by an unusually large number of members of the Order and friends, this day is always a great success. We are deeply grateful to Lord Talbot of Malahide for his kind welcome, and to Fra' Richard Berkley-Matthews for his generosity at lunch in his beautiful garden in Tisbury. Fra' Richard extends his thanks to the team of volunteers who make this day possible.

Saturday was the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham in the English Calendar, and Holy Mass, sung in English, was celebrated accordingly. The chapel’s statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, donated by a Dame of the Order, was on the Sanctuary.

We are also greatly indebted to our chaplain, Fr Edmund Montgomery, for his two wonderful papers, and for driving five hours from his busy parish in Ellesmere Port.

We give below the text of the morning paper. The afternoon paper will be published separately.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I would like to add my own words of welcome to those gathered for this Day of Recollection here in this special place at Wardour Castle, soaked in the history of our Catholic faith, and a period of intense persecution and the sacrifice of so many martyrs. By the Tabernacle here we have flanking each side as though heraldic supporters the two Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, martyrs of Rome, and beneath the Altar two martyrs, known to God, but whose names are unknown, adopted as ‘Primus’ and ‘Secundus’ by those who built this Chapel.

Let’s begin our Day of Recollection well by seeking the intercession of our Lady of Philermo, St John the Baptist, Ss Peter and Paul, the martyrs enshrined in the Altar here, Blessed Adrian Fortescue, Blessed Gerard, and all the saints and blessed of our Order:

Our Father – Hail Mary – Glory Be

When I asked Fra’ Richard what I might speak on today, he suggested that given the history of Wardour and the magnificent Chapel, I consider speaking about our Catholic past and the ‘Faith of our Fathers, living still, in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword’. The whole period of what we might call ‘Recusancy’ or ‘Penal Times’ we know well through our schooling, our reading, knowing the history of our country and of our Order. I want to embrace that invitation and broaden it slightly to understand what our forebears endured and what the sacrifice of their lives means for us, five centuries later.

PHOTO REPORT ON THE VICTORY MASS AND INSTALLATION OF THE GRAND PRIOR

(Click any photograph to enlarge)

Now that the funeral of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth is past, and may we continue to pray for her soul, we are happy to offer the report upon the Victory Mass, held the day the late Queen died, Thursday 8th of September. Holy Mass of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called in the Order "Our Lady of Philermo", was celebrated at 11.30 am at the Church of the Assumption and Saint Gregory, Warwick Street, used as a Conventual Chapel of the Order.

Mass was celebrated in the gracious presence of the Lieutenant of the Grand Master, His Excellency Fra’ John Dunlap, who during Mass installed HE Fra’ Max Rumney as the 58th Grand Prior of England. The Lieutenant was attended upon by Fra’ Duncan Gallie and Fra’ John Eidinow, now a member of Sovereign Council.

During the Gospel the Lieutenant held a sword in honour of the victory at the Siege of Malta, following a custom on this Feast in the Conventual Church in Valetta, on which day the Master held the sword of Grand Master de la Valette at the throne.

The Investiture, in the usual way, took place after the singing of the Gospel. The supporters to the new Grand Prior were Grand Prior emeritus Fra' Ian Scott, and Fra’ Julian Chadwick. Following the new Prior being led by the hand by the Lieutenant to his throne, members of the Grand Priory, knights in Justice and in Obedience, came forward to make the customary homage of Obedience. 

Holy Mass was offered by our Chaplain Fr Richard Biggerstaff, assisted by Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem and Fr Edmund Montgomery. The homily was preached by the Chaplain of the Grand Priory, Monsignor John Armitage, who is also Chaplain to BASMOM; the text was published HERE last week.

Mass was attended by the President of the British Association, HE Lady Celestria Hales, and two former Presidents, Peregrine Bertie and Richard Fitzalan Howard, and the Chancellor and officers of BASMOM.

The Grand Priory was delighted to welcome members of the Diplomatic Corps; the Apostolic Nuncio was represented by Mgr Ervin Lengyel, Counsellor. Also among the guests were Knights of St Gregory, members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the Constantinian Order of St George; the Venerable Order of St John was represented by the Chancellor, Dr Gillian Willmore.

The music was performed by the 'Ensemble Pro Victoria', under the direction of Toby Ward, Master of Music of the Grand Priory, who was also organist. The Mass setting was Missa pro victoria a 9 by Tomas Luis de Victoria and the Offertory Decantabat populus by Orlando di Lassus. At Holy Communion were sung Ego flos campi and O salutaris hostia by Guerrero. During the homage they sang Job tonso capita by Clemens non Papa.

A Reception was held after Mass in the Grand Priory's Chapter Room and Library and in the Chalonner Hall, by gracious permission of the Rector, Fr Mark Elliott-Smith.

The Lieutenant was very pleased to be able to meet many people involved in the life and work of the Order in Britain, and in the evening attended the Companions' Soup Kitchen in St James's Spanish Place. The Order in England is very honoured to have been able to welcome him. During the evening the death of the Queen was announced, and the Rector, Monsignor Philip Whitmore, led members of the Order and our guests in silent prayer for the repose of her soul. May she rest in peace.

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us

Blessed Gerard, pray for us

Blessed Adrian Fortescue, pray for us

Lady Celestria with her Chancellor and the past Presidents

The Sword of State in procession

Entry of the new Grand Prior with his predecessor

Before the Oath

The singing of the Gospel, the Genealogy of Christ

The Lieutenant holds a sword during the Gospel,
in honour of the Victory of the Siege of Malta

... and returns it

Swearing the Oath, with hands on the Missal

Signing the Oath

The new Grand Prior on his throne

The Homage

Monsignor Armitage's sermon

Censing the Lieutenant at the Offertory 

Singing of the Inviolata at the end of Mass,
following the custom of Conventual Masses in Valetta

HE the Lieutenant with the President of BASMOM
in the Chapter Room

The Grand Prior at work in the evening

The Lieutenant with Mgr Whitmore and
Paul Letman, Chairman of the Companions

Teatime

IN THE SERVICE OF OUR FELLOW MEN - ON THE DEATH OF A QUEEN

Queen Elizabeth II as a girl, by Philip de Lázló

Lord , now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.

 

An old lady, a very old lady, has died. As you might expect, her children, her grandchildren, her great grandchildren, her friends and relations mourn her. They find consolation no doubt in the old lady's unshakeable Christian faith. Perhaps they remember the words of the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes we have just heard read whose magnificent poem echoes down the centuries, and find solace after a long life well lived in his words from which none of us can escape: there is a time to die. Thus a beloved person is lost to those around her who loved her, and is mourned, as we all may hope and wish to be mourned.

 

That is all perfectly normal.

 

So what is it that is happening to us and to many, many millions of people not just here in the United Kingdom, but around the world, which makes this old lady's death leave us feeling so profoundly moved and so bereft? Why is it that we feel such genuine and heartfelt grief? This is not normal; this is extraordinary.

 

It is not that the old lady was some titanic writer or scientist, some politician or soldier who had led nations to triumph or glory, some Mandela or Tolstoy or Newton or Napoleon. Not at all. She was an honest, decent, hardworking woman with a sharp sense of humour and a heavenly smile; an iron memory for faces, a fascination with people, a great expertise in bloodstock, an affection for this place which she often visited, and a quiet but profound Christian faith, the rock on which she built her life. Could we find other people, whom perhaps we know and love ourselves in our own families with similar qualities? Yes, we could, though we would be very hard pressed to find someone who was her equal in expertise on breeding race horses.

 

So what is going on? Why is the death of this one old lady, our late Queen Elizabeth II, so profoundly moving? Not just here in Britain, but around the world? Because it is profoundly moving, and if you do not feel it, there is perhaps something a little missing in you.

 

The answer I think is this. Through the genetic lottery of hereditary monarchy she had, not of her choice, laid upon her a task, from which she could not honourably escape, of almost intolerable weight. The task was to inhabit a role - and I use the word borrowed from the theatre deliberately - a role which meant that every day of her long life was constrained and shaped and observed; which meant that she sacrificed virtually all her freedom and voluntarily circumscribed her own individuality; a role which made us all feel that we owned her.

 

What was this role, and who was the ruthless playwright who scripted it?

 

Well, the role was to embody, physically, the values and traditions of the nations of which she was sovereign. And do it forever, for all her life.

 

Who wrote this terrifying script? The answer to that is: look in the mirror. We did, her peoples. We insisted she undertake it, and were often very quick to criticise from the cheap seats if we detected - usually wholly unfairly - any falling off in her performance.

 

Could she have refused the part? Yes, in theory she could, her uncle did, though she regarded such escapism with contempt. Could she have made a mess of it and failed our expectations? Yes indeed she could have done - a good many of her ancestors did make a spectacular mess of it. But she - did not. Aged not much older than you boys, at her twenty first birthday, she looked her future in the eye, accepted it, and pledged her life to fulfilling the role we had laid on her for the rest of her life.

 

Now you may say - "it was just a role - you've said it yourself, Provost - all play-acting processions and stage-set palaces" . But if you do say that you misunderstand in a profound way what it is that makes a nation, a people, a community, a family even, work.

 

Let me tell you one story from my own life to illustrate what I mean. When I was Minister of State in the Foreign Office during and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I had the honour to receive in my grand office, which overlooked Whitehall and the Cenotaph, the first Foreign Secretary of free, non communist Poland.

 

It was the day of the opening of Parliament. We held our talks, while outside there was the noise of the preparation of the great procession when the monarch, escorted by the Household Cavalry, travels in the royal coach from Buckingham Palace to Parliament. There were bands playing, commands shouted, the clash of arms coming to the Present. It became clear to me that my Polish colleague wanted to watch the parade rather than to talk to me. So we put our papers aside and stood by the window and watched. He turned to me, this hero of anti communist resistance, who had helped free his country and said: "Minister, what we are watching matters. The communists robbed us of our rituals".

 

He was right.

 

He might have quoted Shakespeare; Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida:

 

There is a mystery - with whom relation

Durst not meddle - in the soul of state,

Which hath an operation more divine

Than breath or pen can give expression to.

 

No society or community can survive long without the rituals which embody what Shakespeare calls the state's soul - the ideals and dreams to which that society wishes to aspire, though all societies fail much of the time to achieve them. As another book of the old Testament puts it: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

 

Some countries choose as Britain does, to have a hereditary constitutional monarch whom we require to embody that vision, that soul of our community, of our nationhood. Without thinking, often, what we are asking, we lay upon an individual human being what is a tremendous duty. We choose the person in an ancient way, by heredity, and require them to undertake the near impossible task of representing the sort of values to which we aspire and then to keep those values themselves safe from what Winston Churchill called the rancour and asperity of party politics - rancour and asperity which are inseparable from democracy but which, unless they are bounded by some sense of shared service to the national community can shake a nation to pieces.

 

So there we have it. This old lady - one of us, one of the ordinary human race - had that burden laid upon her, that extraordinary duty - to represent the very soul of the nation - of all the nations she served - to keep that soul safe and separate from the necessary power struggles beneath - and by becoming the very exemplar of service to give us something to love and to serve, and yes, sometimes something even to die for - and to do all this as a real, living, breathing, person. That is what she accepted all those years ago and having accepted the burden, she carried it all her long life without missing a beat.

 

That is what she did. And I think no one in the thousand years and more of our monarchy, ever did it better. That is why we, and all those millions feel bereft, and why we are right so to feel.

 

Now this strange ancient institution of monarchy provides also the antidote to the feeling of loss that so many feel. It comes, this antidote, much in the same way that it comes in many families. On the day that my own beloved mother died, some years back, another of her great grandchildren was born: life goes on. On the day that the Queen died, King Charles succeeded and in his own powerful and moving words on Friday made clear not only that he well understands the burden that he now carries on our behalf, but accepts it and will to the best of his own ability, carry it as his mother did. So we mourn, but we also celebrate: the story goes on. All the values of service, self-effacement, and duty, often so under-rated in the rat-races for power, money or fame which surround us, find a new quiet champion on whom we place the old burden, and who we look to with hope to carry on the work.

 

So that is why so many millions mourn: it is our way of saying "thank you" and for showing that we understand how well that quietly heroic old lady represented to us and for us all that is best in us. It shows that we know in our hearts that without such a rock of service on which to build our fractious human society so much will be lost. It reminds us that without that vision of duty and shared obligation, the people may indeed perish.

 

Thank you.

We offer the Sermon above, with acknowledgment and gratitude, but without apologies. It was preached by the Provost of Eton College, Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, on 11th September to the boys of that School, the beginning of Term. It sums up the spirit in which all members of the Order should approach their service of our fellow men. Only an accident of history has separated our beloved Order from our equally beloved Monarchy. The Catholics of Great Britain have never allowed that accident to separate them from the service of all that is good in this Realm. Let us pray for Queen Elizabeth. May She rest in peace.

HOMILY FOR THE "VICTORY MASS", AND INSTALLATION OF THE GRAND PRIOR

The sermon preached by Monsignor John Armitage, Chaplain to the Grand Priory of  England, on the occasion of the Installation of Fra' Max Rumney as the 58^th Grand Prior of England, by Fra' John Dunlap, Lieutenant to the Grand Master, at the "Victory Mass", The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Priory's Conventual Chapel of the Assumption and St Gregory Warwick Street, London, on September 8^th 2022. Further photographs of this glorious ceremony will follow in a later post.

“Brethren, we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” In a world that seeks fulfilment by seeking what I want, the Church is the witness, that the good we encounter in our world, is the result of the God who works for this good through those who love him, for the whole of creation is called according to his purpose. Only love can give our lives meaning and purpose, and our true fulfilment is a consequence of not doing what I want, but seeking, sharing, and doing what we need, building the common good of all humanity.  The Church has its fair share of those of us who do what we want, but our Order has been greatly blessed by those whose lives had been dedicated to building up the body of Christ, living witnesses of what we need, these people we call saints.  

Our founder Blessed Gerard, was known by his contemporaries as “the humblest man in the East, a servant of the poor, devoted to pilgrims, of simple appearance, but shining forth with his noble heart.” In the darkness of 1941 Pope Pius XII in an address to the Order, explained the true meaning of nobility. “In these poor, these orphans these wounded these lepers, lie you own title deeds of nobility, received at Bethlehem from the King of Kings who being rich became poor, that by his poverty you might be rich.”

In every moment in time there is a grace to be found, and the history of the Church shows us that it is in the darkest moments that God’s grace is most profound. “For where sin increased, grace increased all the more,” Romans 5:20 

When Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine to evangelise the pagan English, Rome was a dark and dangerous place, the Roman Empire was collapsing, the barbarians were at the gates, plague was rife, yet the successor of Peter sent a frightened monk to the edge of a crumbling empire. Pope Gregory understood the wisdom of the modern saying “Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

Augustine built a monastery, it was the spiritual foundation, lighting the flame of faith for his companions to spread the Good News in a dark and dangerous land. All works of the Gospel must be based on firm spiritual foundations which from time to time must be renewed. 

The Holy Father calls us to a Spiritual Renewal, but such a renewal presupposes a spiritual legacy, this legacy has inspired the men and women of our country to respond to the call of the Gospel and the charism  of our founder from the foundation of the Grand Priory in 1144, through the martyrdom of our brothers, Blessed Adrian Fortescue, David Gunston and Thomas Dingley after the suppression of the Grand Priory in 1540. The blood of these martyrs was the seed that would lead to the restoration of the Order in 1875 with the establishment of the British Association and the restoration of the Grand Priory of England in 1993.

Whatever the darkness humanity faces, whatever the trials and tribulations of the followers of Jesus, Peter and his successors, the rock on which the Church is built, reminds us “that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” There will be darkness and confusion, from time-to-time we are faced with challenges, but for those of noble heart and humble demeanour, God’s grace enables them to "Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church,” not through their own plans or human projects but according to Gods purpose, as he works for the good with those He has chosen. 

The saints and martyrs of our Order were heralds of the Gospel, men and women of noble heart, experts in humanity,  for they were grounded in prayer, and shaped by their love and service of the Sick and the poor. The Preface of Saints tells us that “the Church is renewed in every age by raising up men and women outstanding witnesses of your unchanging love. They inspire us by their heroic lives and help us by their constant prayers to be the living sign of Your saving power.”  

The renewal of our beloved Order will be the consequence of lives that defend the faith by serving the sick and the poor. These heroic lives, founded on fidelity to prayer, will as they have always done, renew the Church and renew our Order. We pray that the renewal will inspire a new spirit of vocational openness, discernment and generosity, to the Professed life, and Obedience and a spirit of loving service that will inspire men and women to join as members or volunteers in the service of those most in need. 

As we stand on the threshold of this new chapter in the ancient tale of Christ’s hospitality, may we, your poor servants, take to heart the words of St Bernard that “the measure of our love will be to love without measure.” 

The BIRTH of Mary, and the YES of Mary brought the light of Christ to shine upon us. This light is experienced only through a human encounter, for the Word became flesh and lived among us. Therefore, the world waits for women and men, who have said yes to God, who are beacons of light to those who live in darkness. 

Today we wish to say Yes, as Mary said yes, to say Yes as Gerard and our martyrs said Yes, to say Yes in the footsteps of the thousands of members of our Order who over the centuries have served the poor and the sick and protected the Church by their example and loving service, always at a cost to themselves, and sometimes at the cost of their very lives! 

Today we commend our dear brother Max to the care and intercession of Our Lady of Philermo, Blessed Gerard, and all the saints and martyrs of our Order and assure him of our prayers, and for Lady Celestia Hales as the new President of BASMOM, may the Lord bless them and strengthen them in the days to come. 

It is a joy to welcome our beloved brother Fra' John Dunlap and we assure him of our prayers and fraternal loyalty at this moment of Grace in the life of our Order.

Each moment in history demands great sacrifices, acts of love and kindness, acts of graciousness and radical generosity to address the darkness that so besets our world. The challenge of renewal within our beloved Order, is about the revitalisation of the personal and generous response in the lives of its members. May the Grand Priory and the British Association, united in our common cause of service to Our Lords the Sick, embrace this moment of grace. 

May Peter, who in the midst of a storm walked on the water and started to sink and was saved by the Lord, strengthen our faith and courage. May Gerard’s humility and nobility of heart inspire us to lives of service and may Mary the one who was “greatly troubled” at what the Lord was asking of her remind us of Gabriel’s words, that the holy spirit will come upon us so there is no need to fear, for nothing is impossible for God. 

At this point Mary's YES and openness to God's will in her life, brought salvation to a fallen world. She “conceived the Lord in her heart before she conceived him in her womb.” In the heart of Mary the Church was born, in the heart of Mary, the Church is sustained, with her words “do whatever he tells you.” The heart of Mary teaches us that all renewal begins in our own hearts. May we conceive Him on our hearts, so that we may bring His love to a fallen world and dedicate ourselves once again to the defence of the Church by our unconditional service of our Lords the Sick. 

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Blessed Gerard, pray for us.