HOLY FATHER'S LETTER FOR THE MONTH OF MAY

The Holy Father Pope Francis has written to all Catholics throughout the world for the month of May, on the Holy Rosary, with two new prayers he asks us to use to unite ourselves to him in his own prayer.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The month of May is approaching, a time when the People of God express with particular intensity their love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is traditional in this month to pray the Rosary at home within the family. The restrictions of the pandemic have made us come to appreciate all the more this “family” aspect, also from a spiritual point of view.

For this reason, I want to encourage everyone to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May. This can be done either as a group or individually; you can decide according to your own situations, making the most of both opportunities. The key to doing this is always simplicity, and it is easy also on the internet to find good models of prayers to follow.

I am also providing two prayers to Our Lady that you can recite at the end of the Rosary, and that I myself will pray in the month of May, in spiritual union with all of you. I include them with this letter so that they are available to everyone.

Dear brothers and sisters, contemplating the face of Christ with the heart of Mary our Mother will make us even more united as a spiritual family and will help us overcome this time of trial. I keep all of you in my prayers, especially those suffering most greatly, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. I thank you, and with great affection I send you my blessing.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 25 April 2020

Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist.

Francis PP.

First Prayer 

O Mary,
You shine continuously on our journey
as a sign of salvation and hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who, at the foot of the cross,
were united with Jesus’ suffering,
and persevered in your faith. 

“Protectress of the Roman people”,
you know our needs,
and we know that you will provide,
so that, as at Cana in Galilee,
joy and celebration may return
after this time of trial. 

Help us, Mother of Divine Love,

to conform ourselves to the will of the Father
and to do what Jesus tells us.
For he took upon himself our suffering,
and burdened himself with our sorrows
to bring us, through the cross,
to the joy of the Resurrection.
Amen. 

We fly to your protection,
O Holy Mother of God;
Do not despise our petitions
in our necessities,
but deliver us always
from every danger,
O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

Second Prayer 

“We fly to your protection, O Holy Mother of God”.

In the present tragic situation, when the whole world is prey to suffering and anxiety, we fly to you, Mother of God and our Mother, and seek refuge under your protection. 

Virgin Mary, turn your merciful eyes towards us amid this coronavirus pandemic. Comfort those who are distraught and mourn their loved ones who have died, and at times are buried in a way that grieves them deeply. Be close to those who are concerned for their loved ones who are sick and who, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, cannot be close to them. Fill with hope those who are troubled by the uncertainty of the future and the consequences for the economy and employment. 

Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us to God, the Father of mercies, that this great suffering may end and that hope and peace may dawn anew. Plead with your divine Son, as you did at Cana, so that the families of the sick and the victims be comforted, and their hearts be opened to confidence and trust. 

Protect those doctors, nurses, health workers and volunteers who are on the frontline of this emergency, and are risking their lives to save others. Support their heroic effort and grant them strength, generosity and continued health. 

Be close to those who assist the sick night and day, and to priests who, in their pastoral concern and fidelity to the Gospel, are trying to help and support everyone. 

Blessed Virgin, illumine the minds of men and women engaged in scientific research, that they may find effective solutions to overcome this virus. 

Support national leaders, that with wisdom, solicitude and generosity they may come to the aid of those lacking the basic necessities of life and may devise social and economic solutions inspired by farsightedness and solidarity. 

Mary Most Holy, stir our consciences, so that the enormous funds invested in developing and stockpiling arms will instead be spent on promoting effective research on how to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future. 

Beloved Mother, help us realize that we are all members of one great family and to recognize the bond that unites us, so that, in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity, we can help to alleviate countless situations of poverty and need. Make us strong in faith, persevering in service, constant in prayer. 

Mary, Consolation of the afflicted, embrace all your children in distress and pray that God will stretch out his all-powerful hand and free us from this terrible pandemic, so that life can serenely resume its normal course. 

To you, who shine on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope, do we entrust ourselves, O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.

From the website of the Holy See. 

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 11 - THE ROAD TO EMMÄUS

Father Edmund Montgomery, Magistral Chaplain and Administrator of Shrewsbury Cathedral, offers us this meditation. We are most grateful.

Caravaggio, the Supper at Emmaus, Milan

Anticipated Sunday readings for Third Sunday of Easter (A)

For the last few weeks I haven’t been able to see properly. I’ve run out of contact lenses, and so since just before Holy Week I’ve been squinting, and I hope none of those I’ve been self-isolating with think I’m frowning or glaring at them, it’s just I haven’t been able to make out who they are! I should know better really, and just wear my glasses, I’m too vain and too stubborn.

In the Gospel we will hear on Sunday the two travellers on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognise Jesus, which in itself is incredible. These were two close followers of Jesus, in fact the wife of one of them, Clopas, was there when Jesus died on the Cross. Perhaps it wasn’t their grief, the tears in their eyes, that stopped them from recognising Jesus, but their insistence that Jesus was a failure, and that despite their expectations, he hadn’t succeeded in his mission, as one of them said with profound disappointment, ‘Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free.’ Little did he know that he was talking to Jesus himself!...

REQUIEM MASS AND FUNERAL FOR LADY TALBOT

A Requiem Mass was offered yesterday at the London Oratory by our Chaplain Father Michael Lang for the repose of the soul of Patricia Lady Talbot of Malahide, Vice-President of the British Association, Dame Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion in Obedience, Cross of Merit with Badge in the Order Pro Merito Melitense. It may be watched in video HERE. Unfortunately it has not been possible to embed it.

The funeral in Northumberland took place at the same time, in the presence of only the very immediate family, a photograph of the burial is given below. Lady Talbot is buried next to her Mother and Father.

Requiescat in pace.

MONSIGNOR ANTONY CONLON - RIP

We ask your prayers for the repose of the soul of the Chaplain of the Grand Priory, Monsignor Dr Antony Francis Maximilian Conlon, Grand Cross Conventual Chaplain ad honorem, Cross Pro Piis Meritis, who died yesterday afternoon, fortified by the Rites of Holy Mother Church.

Dr Conlon joined the Order as a Donat of Devotion in 1971, he became a Chaplain in 1980 following his ordination to the Sacred Priesthood, and was appointed Chaplain of the Grand Priory of England at its restoration in 1993, thus the first Chaplain since the Reformation, a post he has held for the last 27 years. He was appointed Grand Cross in 2015.

Educated at the Royal English College in Valladolid and the Venerable English College, Rome, he held a Licence in Church History from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. His PhD, undertaken at Heythrop College, "What Ceremony Else", was on the English Marian Restoration.

He was priest of Westminster Diocese, ordained by Cardinal Hume. Following parish ministry in London, and after a long spell as Chaplain to Newman's Oratory School, Reading, where he made innumerable converts to the Faith, including a future priest, he was Parish Priest of Goring-on-Thames, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, at the time of his death.

Please pray also for his family.

Requiescat in pace.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 10 - LOW SUNDAY - CHRIST IS RISEN, ALLELUIA!

On this First Sunday after Easter, Low Sunday, also Divine Mercy Sunday, or "Quasimodo", we are greatly indebted to our Chaplain, Father Steven Morrison, OPraem. for this meditation to lead us, as we close the Octave of Easter celebrations, into the continuation of a joyful Eastertide. We have much time at our disposal doing this Coronavirus period, let us use it wisely to the eternal benefit of our souls. This may (as ever) for some of us be our last chance.

See our post HERE on an Act of Perfect Contrition and Spiritual Communion.

SURREXIT DOMINUS VERE, ALLELUIA!

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 9 - HE IS RISEN! - EASTER MORNING

As we find ourselves still at home on Easter morning, we are grateful indeed to our Chaplain, His Excellency Alan Hopes, Bishop of East Anglia, for the following meditation upon the Resurrection of our Redeeming Lord.

The Procurator of the Grand Priory of England wishes all members of the Order, Companions and friends of the Order a very joyful and blessed Easter, and good health, in these straightened circumstances.

The Gospel tells us that on the first Easter Day, just as dawn was breaking, the women, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary, came to the tomb where the lifeless body of Jesus had been buried after his crucifixion. They had come to wash and anoint his body, a ministry which had been denied him three days before because the Jewish Sabbath was beginning. They saw that the stone placed against the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away. They entered the tomb but saw no one except an Angel who told them:

There is no need for you to be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified but he is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would. See the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has risen from the dead”.

As they returned to Jerusalem, the Risen Christ himself met them on the way and greeted them. As they fell down before him, Jesus repeats the message of the Angel:Do not be afraid!

This Holy Week and Easter has been a strange one in the present circumstances. We have not been able to celebrate this central message of God’s love for us and the whole world in our usual ways. Our churches, where we have loved to gather together to celebrate the solemn Liturgies have been closed to prevent the pandemic from getting any worse than it is. We have been reduced to watching live-streamed Liturgies. We have not been able to receive the assurance of sacramental forgiveness of sin and most of all, we have been unable to receive our Risen Lord in the Blessed Eucharist. 

However, as for the women and the disciples, the Resurrection itself teaches us that darkness is transfigured into brilliant light by God’s grace: our tears are turned into joy, our fears are turned into peace.

During the darkest times in human history, the disciples of Jesus Christ have shone as beacons of his love by persevering in faith and hope, often in very plain and ordinary circumstances. In these challenging and worrying days we are also called to persevere in our faith and hope and be beacons of our Lord’s love in our homes and communities.  

The Resurrection of our Lord assures us that no darkness - not even suffering and death can ever conquer the Victorious Christ. His Easter greeting then, as now, is, Do not be afraid!

And in Him, we have nothing to fear. Yes, our world has changed; our lives have been turned upside; we may be fearful of what the future holds for us; we may even be called to return to the Father. 

But the empty Tomb is God’s own guarantee of hope: it strengthens us in faith, by grace, to continue to radiate his love to one another, and to proclaim his truth to the world.

+Alan S Hopes

Bishop of East Anglia

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 8 - THE EASTER VIGIL

We present below the third and final meditation in Dr Antony Conlon's trilogy for the Sacred Triduum, which offers a mediation upon the solemn rites of this night, the supreme moment of our Salvation.

A very happy Easter to all our readers!

The liturgy which many in the Church celebrate tonight is in the form revised by Pope Pius XII in the 1950’s. It re-introduced the time of an evening celebration, begun after dark on Holy Saturday evening. This is considered by some –incorrectly- to be the most popular time of the celebration for the ancients.  The missal indicates that the Church in Rome where this liturgy was customarily celebrated was that of St John Lateran. This great basilica was previously known as the Basilica of our Saviour and is the mother church of all Christendom. It was the first great public place of Christian worship specifically built as such in the fourth century by the Emperor Constantine. There it was that in the centuries following the end of the early persecutions of Christians, the new Roman converts were publicly baptised and initiated into the mysteries of the Church. Submerged in the water three times, in memory of the three days of Christ in the tomb, they emerged as new members of His Church. They had symbolically died to sin to be brought back to new life with Him. 

        The liturgy of this night is the richest and the most lengthy of all the great ceremonies of this week. It begins in darkness and ends in light. This darkness is symbolic as well as real. The light in this case is not natural but is the illumination of faith, signified by a lighted candle. We have been led out of the bondage of ignorance and slavery to sin to the light of truth and the freedom of the children of God. This is nothing less than an expression in visible symbols of what has happened to us in baptism. In the early centuries, as we know from study and research, the ceremonies of baptism usually occurred during this celebration and were an essential part of it. All the great themes of the struggle against evil, and death its elder child, are apparent in the rites and prayers in use in this liturgy. This evening, I would just like briefly to mention something about the presumed origin of some of the rites and symbols associated with this liturgy. I am indebted to the works of Dr Heinrich Kellner, Heortology, A History of Christian Festivals and Mgr Louis Duchesne, Christian Worship, both written in the first decade of the 20^thcentury, for most of these details. 

          The very first part of the Vigil, the blessing of the new fire, was unknown in ancient Rome...

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 7 - THE PASSION IN LOCKDOWN

We are very grateful to Father Joseph Hamilton, Chaplain of the Australian Association, for this meditation. We are truly spoilt, and not short of material to assist us in a correct supernatural use of our time in enforced isolation. Fr Hamilton is well-known as a friend to many in our Order from the days of the Easter liturgies in our Conventual Church. He is currently living in Oxford with the Oratory Fathers while doing his PhD at Christ Church.

The talk is available either as text below or to be listened to in this video. Since there has been much to read over these days, we would encourage people to listen to this some time in the afternoon of Good Friday.

We commemorate this Good Friday ‘in lockdown’, as a society, as a Church, and as an Order. When the current crisis passes, all three will re-emerge into a changed world. For the spiritual sons and daughters of St John the Baptist, we know that as long as we have remained true to our charism and through the intercession of our Order’s Saints and Blesseds, that God will order all things for us  in this changed world.  Hence the emphasis in the in the prayer of the Order to remain true to the traditions of Our Order—that which has been passed down—traditio. Because without our traditions, without our charism, without liturgy, without a conventual culture rooted in the worthy celebration of all the sacraments, we become just a social order.  Which means that when a social crisis occurs, we have nothing to offer that is supernatural to society and we become irrelevant.  This good Friday we must be particularly on our guard against the de-supernaturalisation of the Order.  The 8-pointed cross that identifies us can only shine out in the world if it is super-illuminated by the Power of the Holy Spirit. That can only happen when we, in all humility, like Our Lord, nobly accept the sufferings and the joys that the charism brings to us...

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 6 - GOOD FRIDAY

We present below the second in the trilogy of Monsignor Antony Conlon's meditations, with our renewed gratitude.

          Last night we went in spirit to the Garden to keep vigil with the Lord in His agony. On that same night, in the first Holy Week, he was taken by force, abandoned by most of His friends and dragged before the Sanhedrin. It is to the Gospels that we turn for the recorded details of that night. They convey enough of the scene for us to envisage the worst that occurred. Our imagination may do the rest. We can also look more deeply into the account and put together from other sources what is not immediately available in that narrative.  

       The betrayal itself was done with a kiss. John’s Gospel – the one that we shall hear today – does not mention this. He desires more to show the voluntary and majestic manner of Jesus in the moment of His arrest. The other Gospels speak in Greek of the kataphilein: it was a kiss of the tender, loving kind by which Judas betrayed the Master.  The trial of Jesus – if we may so describe it- before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, is given in its outline by the Gospels with Luke adding the extra detail of a trial before King Herod. If we understand something of the custom of Jewish trials of the time, we shall observe how far short of justice this one fell. 

      The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jews. It was comprised of seventy one members, presided over by the High Priest. It included Priests, Sadducees, Pharisees and elders of the people. Under Roman jurisdiction, the death penalty could not be imposed by it but the person on trial could be declared guilty of it According to proper procedure the trial should be conducted in a manner that conserved the interests of the accused. There was a prescribed method of questioning and of the number of questions to be asked. One curious feature of legal procedure was that the accused was held to be absolutely innocent and indeed not even on trial, until the evidence of the witnesses had been stated and confirmed. Certain witnesses were debarred from giving evidence such as criminals and also the accused friends or enemies. The case must always begin with arguments for the acquittal of the prisoner. Every member of the court, in capital offence cases was supposed to give his verdict individually and acquittal required only a majority of one while condemnation required a majority of at least two. Verdicts in capital trials were not to be given by night but had to be held over until the next day to allow for a change of mind. It was illegal to convict a prisoner on his own answers. 

          These are some of the principal features of trial by the Sanhedrin that come to us from the writings of Jewish experts in their ancient legal system...

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 5 - MAUNDY THURSDAY

We are extremely grateful to the Chaplain of the Grand Priory of England for this meditation. There will be two others, on Good Friday and on Easter Day, which form a trilogy. Many of our readers will know that Monsignor Conlon needs our prayers at this time, and we are certain they are forthcoming from many quarters. We are all very grateful for his nearly 30 years of service to the Priory, and for the inestimable canon of teaching he has offered the Order over the years. May it long continue.

Pope Benedict XVI makes the point in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy that the Exodus from Egypt of the Chosen People is inseparably linked to worship. It is not primarily about a land to live in, but a permanent place in which to render appropriate homage to God according to His own mandates. Every time Moses confronts Pharaoh with God’s demand to “let my people go”; it is always followed by this reason:  that they may sacrifice, or make a feast to Him in the wilderness. (Ex. 5-10) When they have reached it, the supremacy of that aspect of this covenant is emphasised. The Book of Exodus itself devotes six chapters (Ex. 35-40) to liturgical prescriptions. The essence of the Passover is therefore indisputably liturgical. It is so in a sacrificial sense. 

          Later, in the land where they came to dwell, they continued to acknowledge this and rendered appropriate homage to God whose power had saved them. It signified both absolute dependence and obedience. The only true title deed to the territory they came to possess rested in their fulfilment of those rituals of worship commanded in their sacred writings. In the course of time a designated permanent sanctuary and a system of priesthood came into existence. The synagogue services carried on throughout Israel, Judea and the Jewish Diaspora in the first century AD had begun only in the 6th  century BC. That was the time of the exile in Babylon, when there was no Temple and therefore no sacrifices. The synagogue services continued when they came back to the Promised Land.  But they were always secondary and in addition to what was happening in the Temple. By the time of Our Lord, this was still very much the case. 

          We must bear this in mind when we come to reflect upon the New Testament narrative of the Passion.  

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 4 - SPY WEDNESDAY

As we approach the culmination of our Lenten journey, walking in our heart and our homes, with our Lord and God through the hills of Jerusalem, we are brought this year in a very real way to contemplate suffering – our own, and to make sense of it all, our Saviour's. We are grateful to our Chaplain Father Edward Corbould OSB for this paper.

A REFLECTION ON SUFFERING

Suffering sooner or later comes to all of us however much we might try to avoid it. It can embitter us or enrich us, with it we may grow as a person or we may diminish, it all really depends on how we respond to it. It can do many things for us: in the first place it can help to open us up to others in a way which very little else can. Suffering is intensely personal, we can only experience it in ourselves, we cannot experience it in others and so the wider our suffering the wider our knowledge of the suffering of others, and so the deeper can be our sympathy. It also opens us up to Christ because we can begin to understand what he suffered, not physically, although that of course is true, but through lack of success, of having the truth and yet being rejected, of being jeered at, of being deserted and let down by his friends. So suffering can bring us closer like nothing else to the person of Christ, for the personal love of Christ and trust in him are at the very center of our faith. Secondly, suffering can deepen and enrich us to see beyond the superficial and the transitory to that which is of eternal value. Put simply it can make us holy; it can transform us. Without suffering we can be like a greenhouse plant which lacks the strength to stand up to the first blast of cold air. St Paul uses the image of the athlete who submits himself to rigorous training if he is to win. These images stress in their own way that which is part of human wisdom, the law of life, that all development demands loss as well as gain, the narrowing of one part of life to achieve the broadening of the whole. No person develops towards maturity without renouncing pleasures, without suffering. the particular Christian contribution is that it is done for the overall motive of conforming us to Christ. We die with Christ in order to rise with him.  We see in the Cross two aspects of suffering, the voluntary and the involuntary; but that was not a Christian invention. Suffering was there before. It is the Resurrection that is the Christian invention. It is the great solution to the mystery of suffering and the problem of pain.

Perhaps we can go off at a tangent for a moment. We live in a world in which human knowledge and human progress ate increasing at a rate which accelerates daily. Science and technology have obtained a massive prestige, faith is seen as superstition, wisdom and truth are words that philosophers in many countries prefer not to use; ends are suspect, guilt is psychological; physical well-being, standards of living, annihilation of suffering seem to be the ultimate goals, and the very mention of spiritual welfare is met by bewildered incomprehension. In such a world death, suffering, human frailty are the last bastions holding out against the advance of science; that is significant because they are the points at which we meet Christ and his Cross. Even in this scientific age, perhaps particularly in this scientific age, it is the Cross and its transformation in the Resurrection which alone make sense of life. The point is not an academic one of finding a solution to the mystery of suffering and the problem of pain but an urgent practical one of how we deal with suffering when we meet it. Like all really important things in life it depends on our own personal decision. Do we use suffering to bring ourselves closer to others and to Christ, to sympathize with them, to try to share their suffering, or to complain, to grumble and be resentful?  In other words does in turn us in on ourselves or out of ourselves? Do we use suffering as a means for re-rooting our lives in Christ and his kingdom, or do we pine and cling to what is transitory and seems to be slipping out of our grasp? Let us pray that we may respond in a positive way to our suffering because that is the way to holiness, to happiness, to salvation. Jesus put it succinctly: ‘He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake will find it’. (Matthew 10:38-39)

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

(The image is from the Pietà by Justin-Chrysostome Samson at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane)

COMMENTS: Exceptionally this Holy Week, since we are physically separated by our imposed isolation, we shall enable Reader Comments for these meditations, for those who wish to engage in a fruitful spiritual exchange of thoughts. If this is abused, by silly or offensive people, we shall disable them, to the detriment of many.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 3 - HOLY WEEK IN A TIME OF CHANGE

The Grand Priory is grateful to Monsignor Armitage for the follow meditation, which addresses the whole Order very directly in these most unusual and troubled times. It is spoken standing   in front of the ancient priory of the Shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham, a place of refuge and solace for many in our Order. Monsignor refers to the Gospel of the Saturday before Palm Sunday (Ordinary Form), John 11: 45-56, the text of which is given below for your reference (Douai-Rheims).

The Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to John. (John 11: 45-56)

Brethren, Many therefore of the Jews, who were come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees, and told them the things that Jesus had done. The chief priests therefore, and the Pharisees, gathered a council, and said: What do we, for this man doth many miracles? If we let him alone so, all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, and take away our place and nation. But one of them, named Caiphas, being the high priest that year, said to them: You know nothing. Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this he spoke not of himself: but being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed.  From that day therefore they devised to put him to death. Wherefore Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but he went into a country near the desert, unto a city that is called Ephrem, and there he abode with his disciples. And the pasch of the Jews was at hand; and many from the country went up to Jerusalem, before the pasch to purify themselves. They sought therefore for Jesus; and they discoursed one with another, standing in the temple: What think you that he is not come to the festival day? 

For a modern translation of Mallory's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, click HERE.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us in out time of trial.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us in out time of trial.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us in out time of trial.

COMMENTS: Exceptionally this Holy Week, since we are physically separated by our imposed isolation, we shall enable Reader Comments for these meditations, for those who wish to engage in a fruitful spiritual exchange of thoughts. If this is abused, by silly or offensive people, we shall disable them, to the detriment of many.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 2 - PALM SUNDAY

Today as we sit in our homes on Palm Sunday morning, the first time in our lives for most of us, instead of processing with our palm branches, we are grateful to our Chaplain, Father Christopher Colven, for this second Meditation in this series. Let us unite ourselves together spiritually as Brethren in one holy Order, in true fraternal charity, as also with our families and friends, and all those who have gone before us on the path of Salvation.

HOSANNA! FILIO DAVID!

2020. A Palm Sunday reflection … The emotion of a crowd is not be trusted. It can change in a moment. Two thousand years ago in Jerusalem (as we hear in Sant Matthew’s account of Palm Sunday) the crowds, literally, fall over themselves to welcome Jesus. They call him a Prophet – they cheer him – they are excited by him. But the “Hosannas” are short lived – by the next Friday they are calling for the release of Barabbas and the destruction of Jesus. “Crucify him” is shouted from those same throats that had sung his praises on the Sunday. Human beings are fickle – easily influenced. Saint Paul says it: “instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want”.

Holy Week is the very heart of the year for us as Christians, for what we commemorate and celebrate in these next eight days is nothing less than the turning point of human history, the fulcrum which redefines and rebalances the whole created order, the moment of change after which nothing can ever again be the same. Back in the 9^thcentury one of the Church’s Councils, that of Quiercy said: "There is not, never has been, and never will be, a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer”. That statement goes to the heart of our confidence and our hope for we believe that God has reached out to us in Christ and raised us to a wholly new level of dignity. As the Letter to the Philippians has it: “his state was divine, yet Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave and became as men are: and being as all men are he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross”.

Jesus is human – yes – he loves with a fully human heart – he feels with a human consciousness. But his humanity is the expression in time of the Eternal God. As he says of himself: “to have seen me is to have seen the Father”. In Jesus, God takes flesh and walks and talks and moves in this world, just like any of us – but he does not lose his nature as the Second Person of the Godhead. When Jesus goes to the cross it is as a man, and as God. In his humanity, Jesus may have been limited by gender, age, culture, language and all the rest – he lives and functions at a particular time, in a specific society – but, in his Divine nature, Jesus is not limited. In some wonderful way – and one hesitates to try to put this into words – his foreknowledge as God remained intact. That signifies, that as Jesus offers himself in the atoning, self-abandonment of the Passion, there is a level at which he is conscious of human history in its entirety.

What does this mean? It means that, in some way, as Jesus died he was aware of you and me, and of all our brothers and sisters, without exception. “There is not, never has been, and never will be, a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer”. Whatever we are, whatever we have been, whatever we have still to become, already finds an echo within God, for, in his Divine nature, there is nothing beyond the understanding of his Christ, and everything has already been comprehended within the heart of the dying Saviour. God was, indeed, “bearing our faults in his own body on the cross”.

Every time we recite our Creeds, we profess our belief in “the forgiveness of sins”. What Jesus achieved on the cross, underscored in that final cry of vindication, “it is accomplished”, means that everything about us, our strengths and our weaknesses, our joys and our sorrows, our wrong choices as well as our right ones, have already been raised to the Father. – “when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all things to myself”. Saint Rose of Lima can say that “apart from the Cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven”. How right she is – for Christ draws us after himself – his is a universal invitation – there is no one excluded from this reconciliation … except those who choose to exclude themselves.

Each of us has a decision to make as we stand on the threshold of Holy Week. Christ wants to take us into his Passion as never before – to give us fresh insight into the mystery of the Cross. Will we let him? Clearly this must be a Holy Week unlike anything we have ever known. Circumstances mean that we cannot share as we would wish in the liturgical life of the Church, but we can consecrate these days in a special way through our sense of loss and deprivation. We can come to a fresh understanding of that notion, much loved by Saint John Paul 11, of the “domestic church” where we try to reproduce the rhythms of the Church’s prayer in our own homes. It also does us well to remember the point which Cardinal Nichols has made that our temporary sacramental quarantine is the norm for so many of our brothers and sisters in other parts of today’s world who are denied the sacraments through conflict, persecution or indeed a lack of priestly ministry. “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Oremus pro invicem.

(The painting shows a fresco from Assisi by Pietro Lorenzetti)

COMMENTS: Exceptionally this Holy Week, since we are physically separated by our imposed isolation, we shall enable Reader Comments for these meditations, for those who wish to engage in a fruitful spiritual exchange of thoughts. If this is abused, by silly or offensive people, we shall disable them, to the detriment of many.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR REDEMPTION 1 - THE ANNUNCIATION

As we prepare to enter Holy Week, this long week of temporary sadness, on this day traditionally kept as Our Lady of Sorrows, when our Blessed Mother contemplates the fulfilment of the prophesy of Simeon that a sword will pierce her soul, and sees, within that loving heart, these events of her Son's Agony in the Garden, of Calvary, of Golgotha, leading to the joy of His Resurrection on Easter Day, we would do well to meditate again upon the first event of our Salvation, namely the Annunciation, the incarnation in her virginal womb of that Son who will hang upon the Cross a week from today. Her "Fiat", her "Yes", was a Yes to Calvary, and also a Yes to Easter and to our Redemption.

Accordingly we are extremely grateful to our Chaplain, Monsignor John Armitage, Rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, for the opportunity to study again the homily preached at the Shrine on the feast of the Annunciation last week, amidst the joyful celebrations of the Re-consecration of the Dowry of Mary. Let Mary lead us to her Son.

This is the first of a series of Meditations for Holy Week and Easter. The next will be on Palm Sunday, by Father Christopher Colven.

SOLEMNITY OF THE ANNUNCIATION 2020

“Here are the questions to which I should like every reader to give his close attention: ….let him note how, with the gradual relaxation of discipline, morals first subsided, as it were, then sank lower and lower, and finally began the downward plunge which has brought us to our present time, when we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.”

“When we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.”

These words were written by the Roman Historian Livy around the time of the Annunciation. It teaches us two vital truths, first that there is nothing new under the Sun, history is there to teach us so that we may learn, this is called wisdom; secondly that in the midst of the sometimes painful events of history amidst the chaos and fear “The Word became flesh and lived among us”.

In the midst of turmoil, we seek news, we want to know what is going on, we are glued to our radios, televisions and the internet waiting announcements. These are important because they give us information, that may save our lives and the lives of people around us.

But today we celebrate another type of announcement that is called the Annunciation. It is the encounter between God’s messenger Gabriel and the Virgin Mary...

HOME ABORTION - DIY BABY KILLING - UPDATE

Following our post yesterday HERE, we are very pleased to publish now a text received from RIGHT TO LIFE UK

"The UK Government has just announced that they have given in to the abortion lobby and made the biggest change to abortion provision since 1967: introducing telemedicine abortions where ‘DIY’ abortions will be performed at home by women on themselves without a doctor or other medical professional present.  

"The very substantial change has been announced without any public consultation, parliamentary scrutiny or debate.  

"Previously, abortions could only take place in hospitals or abortion clinics approved by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Under the new temporary policy, doctors will be able to prescribe abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) over the phone or video (e.g. Facetime or Skype).  

"Women will then perform their own abortion at home by taking both abortion pills, meaning they will be left to deliver their own dead unborn child at home without direct medical supervision. The Department of Health and Social Care made it very clear last week that this was a dangerous change to the law which would likely make it much easier for women to be forced into an abortion by an abusive partner.  

"Sadly the Government has now given in to the demands of the abortion lobby and they are going ahead with this.  

"We need to ensure that it is clear to the Government that the public are very upset about this decision and that it should be revoked as soon as possible.  

"Once you have emailed your MP, please do let friends and family know to email their MP too. 

"Thank you for your help on this."

"Right To Life UK"   

Click here for RTLUK link to email your MP now

or CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR M.P. to write your own letter.

Please write also to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, Westminster, London SW1A 2AA, email HERE  This proposal is a rapist's charter, and will endanger countless vulnerable women. (Please note that the Downing Street email link requires you to verify your email by clinking a link in the reply they send you afterwards.)

And remember to pray daily for this. In the end, prayer alone will change things, and warm the frozen hearts of the people who promote evil. Campaigns only work when they serve people's perceived interests, they are not converted. Ask the Holy Ghost, and Our Lady and Saint Joseph to turn their hearts to the love of Christ.

O Holy Ghost, inflame our hearts with love.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us. 

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, Patron of the Family, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, Protector of the Family, pray for us.

FEAST OF THE SEVEN SORROWS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

In aliquibus locis, the Friday after Passion Sunday was celebrated as the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Church of the Holy Cross, Salamanca.

COLLECT

O God, in whose Passion the sword, according to the prophesy of Simeon, pierced through the most gentle soul of Mary, the sorrowful and glorious Virgin and Mother, mercifully grant that we, reverently commemorating her piercing though and suffering, may, by the glorious merits and intercessions of all the saints standing by the Cross, attain unto the happy effects of Thy Passion. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.