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1/2 March 2008
Fourth Sunday of Lent

God bless Mom!
Clearly, God must have had something special in mind to have brought us into the world by way of the love of a mother.  The bond between a mother and an infant is like no other.  Nonetheless, we simply forget those earliest years, while mothers cherish them forever.

My elderly mother has now lost much of her short-term memory.  She did ask me to pass along a sincere word of thanks to one and all for your prayers at the time of my father’s recent funeral.  One day last week she said, “I would understand if it were something trivial that I was forgetting.  How could I forget that my husband is deceased?” 

There is no easy answer to that question, but like our own lapse of memory about our infancy, we do manage to retain something in spite of our weakness.  For the times when we forget, a special reminder like Mothering Sunday can do all of us some good.  To me, what is so good about jostling the memory is that it gives us a chance to be thankful to God for Mom and to see if perhaps it might be good to be mindful of the Father’s purpose in bringing her life and mine together.  In what way has God’s own Spirit been reflected in Mom’s life?

Our love for Mom expresses itself in different ways throughout our lives.  We may wish to say thanks with flowers or a gift, as is our custom.  May I suggest that we take a few moments to also consider God’s plan for mother and child.  What is special about that plan today?  Even if a mother should be deceased, how might she now be a tool in God’s hands?  What qualities can she help to strengthen in my character?  How can I emulate the good that I see in her?

Today is a day for overcoming our forgetfulness.  Let’s make the most of it!
Fr Dwayne Bednar

23/24 February 2008
Third Sunday of Lent

JACOB’S WELL
Wells play a significant in the Bible and feature in several important Old Testament stories involving figures such as Isaac, Jacob and Moses. Water has played a crucial part in the Bible; in the Creation story, in the story of Noah, and in the escape from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. After the exile in Babylon, water became connected with the theme of renewal. In Isaiah, the desert would be changed by water into a fruitful orchard, the land of thirsts into springs. Like Amos, Isaiah compares water to the Word of God. The teaching that wisdom inculcates is seen as life-giving water.

The Psalmist writes that ,far from God, humanity is only a dry and waterless land, doomed to death.

It is hardly surprising then that the New Testament regards Christ as the one who will bring the life-giving water promised by the Prophets. That life-giving water is the life-giving teaching of Jesus and/or the Spirit. This is clearly spelled out in the gospel from John today and the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well.

In Lent, through self-denial, we rekindle our thirst for the life-giving waters. Lent is an opportunity to renew our relationship with the Word of God in Scripture, particularly through Lectio Divina, the ‘Divine Reading’, deriving from the Benedictine tradition. This ‘Lectio’ somehow enables us to touch God, to hear Jesus speak to us.

Through daily readings from Scipture we have the opportunity to get increasingly familiar with the Bible. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini writes that ‘The Bible is the mirror of our life. It tells us who we are, where we come from, where we’re going, what each days events mean, what our sufferings mean, and what excites us in the world today.’
Revd Edward Houghton

16/17 February 2008
Second Sunday of Lent

OUR NATIONAL CONSCIENCE ADRIFT IN STORMY SEAS
A month ago the House of Lords refused to reject clauses in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that allow for the creation of and experimentation on human/animal hybrid embryos.  The Lords defeated an amendment to the Bill that would have prohibited the creation of inter-species embryos, by 268 votes to 96.  They gave only two days to the debate and strong opposition to the Bill continues. Lord Tebbit said peers faced a "deep ethical dilemma" over "unnatural" experiments.  Anglican bishops in the Lords also objected, including Archbishop Rowan Williams.  Lord Tebbit said, "This is more about ethics than technology.  Because something is scientifically possible does not mean that it should be done."  Lord Alton, the Liberal Democrat peer, said, "I have always believed that life begins at conception, and after that I don't believe we should destroy life."  While attempts to amend the bill have failed, pro-life advocates have said that the entire Bill must be defeated, resting as it does on the view that human beings may be brought-to-be (let’s not say ‘created’, because only the Creator creates) and then destroyed at will for experimentation.

Those of us who attended the recent public meeting at Central Hall were struck by a number of things.  *The full house.  *The rent-a-crowd attempts to disrupt the meeting.  *The courage of Lord Alton, Edward Leigh MP, Ann Widdecombe MP and Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood, amongst other fine speakers who virtually BEGGED us to make our objections known as the Bill goes to the Commons.  They say it CAN still be kicked into touch if concerned voters everywhere lobby their MPs.

 Incidentally – I’m new to this – who ARE these rent-a-crowd professionals who attack lawful public meetings?  Who pays them to get worked-up on cue?  Central Hall was so obviously a put-up job.
Fr Tim Dean

9/10 February 2008
First Sunday of Lent

Have you the taste for bitter?
Due to the nature we are born with we all have the ability to experience four different tastes: sour, salty, sweet and bitter. However, we have almost completely eliminated all bitter taste from our diet, and have substituted it with sweets.

Sugar, artificial sweeteners and saccharin abounds. As a result we all end up with a very unhealthy imbalance in our metabolism. Our entire digestive system needs the stimulation of bitter substances in order to function properly.

Excess sugar and lots of sweet food plays havoc with our liver. Our liver is the metabolic laboratory of the body that eliminates all kinds of poisons and toxins from our system, and produces bile, a digestive juice essential for the breakdown of fatty substances. The lack of bitter substances in our liver results in listlessness, a lack of vitality and a very poor digestion.

What is true for the body is also true for the soul. The soul, like the liver, needs the bitter as well as the sweet. So, treat your body well this Lent! Treat it well by giving up one of the sweet things you crave for. Get a taste for bitter things! Lent is the opportunity to restore the balance and to regain our spiritual health.

Now, in Lent, we will taste some of the ‘bitter’ words of the scriptures: words that are anything but sweet and nice; words that will call us to repent; words that may disturb us; words that may expose our sin; words that may move us to tears rather than smiles. These bitter words, these hard sayings, are a gift from God, restoring us to health and wholeness, to sanctity and sanity.

So let’s take the opportunity that Lent brings and do some ‘bitter’ penance and produce some spiritual bile. Giving up sugar, chocolate, cream and all sweet things for Lent, is not so crazy after all. Fasting, abstinence and penance are very good for us.
Fr Slawomir Witoń

2/3 February 2008
Fourth Sunday of the Year

Lent begins this Wednesday
Lent comes early this year. Ash Wednesday falls on 6th February! You may be sure the Cathedral will be packed at all Masses. It’s as if people can’t wait to put the party season behind them and make a fresh start on a more serious note. Catholics and other Christian folk just feel in their bones that Lent is important. This is particularly true in our consumer society, in a country which seems to have more of this world’s goods, more money sloshing around than at any time in living memory. Of course, those who have very little to live on would not know what I am talking about. But when a young European banker can gamble billions in the money markets, (money he doesn’t own), and lose the lot; when manufactured goods (which were recently advertised as the latest thing) are piled high in the skips of Britain, destined for landfill sites, we all know that something is wrong.

Now Jesus moves off into the desert. Here is a place without goods or water or food, a place of scorching rocks, where no useful vegetation grows and wild animals lurk. Here in the wilderness, Jesus is tempted to be a different kind of Messiah from the one he knows he must be. Look at the cover of this month’s Oremus and you will see a picture from a little exhibition at the National Gallery. It shows Jesus being tempted by Satan. Offered food, power, wealth and dominion, he has no alternative but to say “Begone!” to his most vicious enemy. When our own temptations seem too intrusive to resist, we might remember that Jesus was offered alternatives right up to his final hours, when he was taunted to come down from the cross. “He saved others, let him save himself”, the passers-by scoffed. As Lent approaches, we approach this valiant Lord, seeking the peace and reassurance of his strength.
Fr Tim Dean

26/27 January 2008
Third Sunday of the Year

Continuity within the Discontinuity
He went and settled in Capernaum: in this way the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled. (Mt 4:14)

Time and again in Matthew’s gospel we hear of the fulfilment of scripture. This means that in Jesus the hopes of the Law and the prophets has not only been realised but also perfected. It is not so much that Jesus’ life was in perfect harmony with the scriptures, as that the scriptures are in perfect harmony with Jesus’ life.

After the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD and the loss of political control over the land, the Law (Torah) gained even more prominence in Jewish life. At that time there were several Jewish groups with different perspectives, but all had to take a position vis-à-vis the Torah. One of those Jewish groups were the followers of Jesus, and Matthew presents Jesus as the authoritative interpreter of the Torah – he is saying that if you want to understand how to practice the Law, look to Jesus.

While Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law, Paul regards Jesus as the annulment of the Law – that which is partial comes to an end. But despite differing language, emphases and understandings, the result is the same: charity sums up the Law, and now rules it and informs it. ‘He who loves others has fulfilled the Law’ (Ro 13:8). The legalistic spirit is cut away as Jesus deepens and extends its demands into the world of intention and hidden desire.

We have already seen this kind of charity at work before the birth of Jesus in the form of St Joseph who did not apply the law to its full effect in dealing with Mary when she was found to be pregnant. In Luke, Joseph is placed alongside Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon and Anna, as belonging to that branch of Judaism which often features as the subject of the writings of some of the prophets and the psalms. These are ‘anawim’ – the little ones, those whose words permeate the Divine Office everyday and who are the root from which Christianity emerged.
Revd Edward Houghton

19/20 January 2008
Second Sunday of the Year

Pray without Ceasing
This year 2008 is a special one, marking the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In 1908, the Rev. Paul Wattson, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, suggested that the period between January 18 and 25 be an octave of prayer for Christian unity, offering opportunities to meet and pray with fellow Christians of different denominations.  This year’s week of prayer will follow the theme, ”Pray without ceasing” which is a clear reference from 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18. This passage does not necessarily suggest endless prayer but it certainly allows for the possibility that prayer is an ongoing endeavour.

We know and believe in the real presence of God in our world. The Kingdom of God is upon us and we are called to repent and believe in the Good News of His presence here and now. We are called to know, love and serve Him in this life so that we may be happy with Him in the next life. We need to make real the presence of God in our world. We are told in the psalms “Be still and know that I am God.” Life for many is a crowded-out affair; rushing to work in heavy traffic, getting children off to school on time, standing in the shopping queue at the supermarket. We struggle to keep up with the pace of life. We are called however, to give time to God, to develop a personal relationship with Jesus. It takes time to become still. We have to take time out to pray, to make real the presence of God. We can pray quietly in our room, place of work, recite our favourite prayers from memory.

Our prayers should be prayers of praise and thanksgiving. We should not, however, be afraid to ask Jesus for blessings and healing in our lives. “I tell you, then, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” Everything is possible with God. Prayer in faith puts us in line with God. We must, however, not be half-hearted. Such an approach will not suffice. God can move mountains, and the outcome of prayer with faith is very often a miracle.

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist tells how he first recognised Jesus at his baptism as the “Lamb of God,” one on whom God’s Spirit rests, the Son of God. All of us who have been baptised in Christ share that same Holy Spirit, and are called to undertake the same mission-being a light to others, serving others, giving of ourselves in love. The season may be called Ordinary Time but our mission is extraordinary!”                                                                               
Sister Bridget

12/13 January 2008
Baptism of the Lord

The Baptism of Our Lord
Today we begin the Year of Matthew when, on Sundays in Ordinary Time, the readings are taken in succession from that Gospel. We do not know who the author was, but internal evidence suggests that he wrote some time after the Sack of Jerusalem on 70AD and so is unlikely to have been an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus. He was probably a learned Jew (a convert ‘scribe’?) writing for a large urban community, Antioch in Syria being the most likely centre.

It is now generally agreed that his gospel is based on that of Mark to which he added extensively from a collection of sayings of Jesus and material from the tradition of his own community. The traumatic experiences which his flock had undergone drove him to write. These were expulsion from the Jewish worship to which they were devoted (‘their synagogues’), and the massive influx of gentile converts (‘Go and teach all nations’).

The main body of the Gospel, placed between the Infancy narrative and the Passion, Death and Resurrection, consists of 5 discourses each ending ‘And when Jesus finished …’, and each preceded by a narrative section. These are: 1. The Sermon on the Mount   2. The Mission Sermon, with the sending of the 12 to ‘preach to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’.   3. The Sermon of Parables   4. The Sermon on Church Life and Order, preceded by the feeding of the multitude and Peter’s confession 5. The Eschatological Sermon on the End time and Last Judgement.

Unique to Matthew’s Passion narrative are Judas’ negotiating with the Temple authorities and his suicide, the dream of Pilate’s wife, and the earthquake. The Infancy narrative, probably the last part to be written, anticipates many of the themes of the Gospel. The Magi, for example, foreshadow the sympathetic pagan, Pilate’s wife, in her attempt to rescue Jesus. Their quest for the source of wisdom is echoed in the last verse of the Gospel, ‘Go and teach all nations.’
Before Vatican II, when there was an unchanging one-year cycle of readings, the vast majority of Gospel extracts were from Matthew. More elegant than Mark, more formal than Luke, this was liturgically inevitable. We have only to compare the short, staccato clauses of Luke’s version of the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer with the grave dignity of Matthew’s extended texts to understand why the latter are more familiar. But the present three-year cycle is a far better way of preaching the fullness of the Good News.                                               
Fr Michael Durand

5/6 January 2008
Epiphany of the Lord

New Beginnings
As a schoolboy, I went through a little ritual at the beginning of every term. I’d sharpen my pencils, clean out my satchel, polish my shoes (yes, I’d actually do that) – these were the ceremonies of Beginning, with which one celebrated, and to an extent mitigated, the return to normal time.

Most of us face beginnings in the same way. Be it the start of a new year and returning to work after the holidays, or a new job, new house, new class. We like to mark it with some preparation, some cleansing of the past, something that matches the newness of our expectations.

Of course, it may be objected, all such beginnings are illusions. We simply impose them upon the endless succession of days; they are man-made, shaped by society. We begin our New Year in January; the Chinese will begin theirs on 7 February. There is nothing cosmic about new beginnings.

But beginnings are important. Firstly, they break the relentless march of time down into portions that we can acknowledge, own, commit to. There is a thrill in a crisp new page, because it is mine to write upon. Beginnings, then, are a reminder that we can begin over, change; that we do hold our destiny in our hands. For the Christian, a new beginning is at the heart of what Christ offers us. His first public words are, “Repent” – in other words, ‘begin again!’ We can change, we must change. We are not characterised by our past, our sin, our death-prone humanity.

Secondly, beginnings remind us about God. He holds all the ages in his hands, and times and seasons begin and end with him. At the beginning of each morning, it is good to commit the new day to his care. So too, as we begin a new year, a fresh adventure, we know that we are not left unaided, but step forth with God at our side. With his help, what a wonderful chapter we can write!
Fr Mark

22/23 December 2007
Fourth Sunday of Advent

O Hush the Din, Ye Men of Strife
Christmas is a time of make-believe; not simply because Bing Crosby tells us that we will all be watching to see if reindeer really know how to fly. There is a serious aspect to our make-believing, for we could imagine that this really is a time of peace and goodwill, that the guns might fall silent, the starving might be fed, and the oppressed be visited with open handed generosity. The truth is, of course, that as we celebrate Christmas, our world is still crucified by war and hunger, by oppression and violence. When the glow of Christmas fades, and the decorations are taken down, the world will look much as it did beforehand.

On my recent visit to the Holy Land, I felt outraged that locals kept trying to sell us souvenirs when we were trying to enter the Church of the Nativity. But then, this is as it must be, for Christ was born into a world that had little time for him. Despite the angel glory, the world did not pause on the day of his birth, and men carried on their commerce with as much greed, pettiness and rage as ever they did. We celebrate our Christmas Day this year at a painful time for the world – even if we don’t switch on the radio to hear it. Much as we adore the Christ child, the rest of the world will scarcely take note.

But Jesus never thought to impose himself in that way. So fully did he enter into our sinful world, that during his life he allowed himself to be the victim of events. This is a God who does not, by and large, tell everyone to shut up and pay attention. Rather, he is a God who quietly accompanies us into the darkest places of our lives. The very manner of his birth is a sign that he shares – rather than overwhelms – our darkest and most difficult moments.

The pain and sadness all about us continues, even on Christmas Day, but we can no longer say that this sorrow has nothing to do with God. As God enters our world on Christmas Day, so he is present in it every day, joyful or sorrowful. As God was born into human suffering, so he is born in the life of every human who suffers.

O that Christmas might be more than make-believe for our world! Would that we all might truly live the peace and joy of Christmas, and hearken to those words of the Carol, “O hush the din, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.” It seems unlikely they will. But something more important has happened. God is with us, however sinful we may be, and that is not make-believe. That is real.
Fr Mark

15/16 December 2007
Third Sunday of Advent

Gaudete Sunday - A Joyful Interlude
If our preparations for the coming of the Christ Child are going well, we have every reason to rejoice on this day. That’s why this joyful Sunday with its rose-coloured vestments and altar frontals is a great reassurance to us that we are ‘on course’, moving in the right direction. We really are getting ready to go to Bethlehem and be with the shepherds on their chilly hillside, the first to hear the celestial music of the angels who transformed their world with a heavenly light.

Since we are privileged to have the Kingdom of Christ developing within us, it follows that we must live virtuously now, taking care to reflect on the great mystery in which we are participating. How sincerely we would live our faith if we were convinced of carrying God’s kingdom within us. We would want to be models of good conduct and modesty, of generosity of heart and compassion for the less fortunate in our world. We would be willing to show our commitment to Christ in our day-to-day way of living, showing ourselves loyal to him in everything we do or say.

That noble intention would also produce a second effect. We would experience the absence of anxious concern over our daily needs. “God, our Father, will provide!” we would say as the saints have done through the ages. That trust in divine providence has always been a characteristic of those persons who have really committed their lives to the service of Our Divine Lord and his mission to the world. Seek first the kingdom of God and all the rest will be added. It is this very abandonment to God’s purposes that is so noticeable in the life of Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ. As she well understood, if any one of us really has burdensome cares we have the powerful means of help – prayer. Anyone untouched by joy at this time should lighten a heavy heart through prayer. God lives in his kingdom within our souls. He will not abandon us. Of that we may be sure – now and always.       
Fr Tim Dean

8/9 December 2007
Second Sunday of Advent

Struggling with Advent
As I write this I’m munching my first mince pie of the season, and by the time you read it I shall have had occasion to eat many more. Somewhere near, Slade’s over-played ‘Merry Christmas’ is booming up the street, and from my office desk I can see the curious blue icicles that twinkle from a neighbour’s window. The Christmas fair in Hyde Park is underway, boasting a ferris wheel only a little smaller than the London Eye (sadly, Portland House blocks the view of the Cathedral) and rows of German-effect Christmas stalls. The shops, of course, have been in festive mood for weeks by now; Harrod’s Christmas teddy is called Benjamin and wears a natty fur collar. Where, in all of this, is Advent?
Advent clings on, in popular sensibilities, only in the chocolate filled calendars piled high in stores; I’m not even sure that Blue Peter makes the famous coat-hanger Advent wreath any more. In the avalanche of anticipated Christmas cheer, Advent is a frail sapling that is easily buried and forgotten.

But before we sing its Requiem, let’s remember what Advent can do for us. Firstly, it can show us that Christmas is not merely an event that took place two thousand years ago in a country far away – but that it is the key event of our history. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of a something that will be complete when Jesus returns in glory.  Advent gives Christmas a cosmic significance.

Secondly, it can help us enjoy Christmas more. Advent is a time of preparation when we can heighten our senses, get into shape (spiritually – the mince pies don’t allow us to do so physically!), and increase our wonder. It’s hard to talk of self-denial when Bing Cosby is roasting chestnuts on an open fire, but there is a rewarding element of weighing up the books in Advent: it is, after all, a penitential season - in the sense that we have to look inwards, as well as at Harvey Nichols shop window.

So, a few thoughts for Advent: read a little of the Old Testament prophets, particularly Isaiah - he’s smashing for putting Christmas into context; remember to pray each day for someone far away; try to see Christ in someone you meet today (getting a checkout assistant to smile is a good start); get to confession and make it a good one. Happy Advent.
Fr Mark

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