Catholic Church welcomes IICSA report into abuse

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has welcomed the report, published today, (10 th Nov) from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, relating to the institutional response of the Church in its duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation.

Read more and access full statement here: https://www.rcdea.org.uk/catholic-churchwelcomes-iicsa-report-into-abuse/

Remembering those – military and civilian - who have died in war and because of its consequences, pray the Beatitudes:

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
• Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land
• Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
• Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill
• Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy
• Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God
• Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God
• Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Covid-19 disease is having many negative impacts on our society, over and above the suffering of those who have contracted it, and grief over those who have died from it. Anxiety and fear are everywhere. How do we cope with it, especially since we are urged by shops and social media to spook one another on Halloween and after? I listened recently to an audiobook version of the late John O’Donohue’s Walking in Wonder. That night I dreamt I had a conversation with him about Fear and Death. A wise advisor, this poem records what he had to say:

Dark Companion
A dreamt conversation with the late John O’Donohue

A dark companion waiting at our birth, you said, lifelong at our side, Death’s mantle hides insistent fear’s root and source, as we tread across the years on roads we fool ourselves will lead in time to finding him.

For our pretence is twofold: to assume we walk to death, when he’s hand in hand with us; and to think fear’s a thing that’s ours to suffer, own, command and overcome. Fear, you say, is death’s tenacious sister, working to enable death’s triumph.

Fear is the Dark side of wonder.  Wonder’s Light hosts the means to fend off fear, exchange obsessive gaze on darkness’ entrancing secrets, to bathe in the Light’s greater truth:  “Could we but see through eternity’s dark glass, discern the form of everlasting life, death’s hollow valedictory as we pass could no longer wound as with a knife.”

The Light, of course, is God’s Love.                                         TC

Although millions, or even billions of people may already be saints, All Saints' Day tends to focus on known saints -- that is, those recognized in the canon of the saints by the Catholic Church. All Saints' Day is also commemorated by members of the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as Lutheran and Anglican churches.

Generally, All Saints' Day is for us a Holy Day of Obligation. Other countries have different rules according to their national bishop's conferences. The bishops of each conference have the authority to amend the rules surrounding the obligation of the day.

The practice of commemorating the Saints grew in the early days of the Church and was celebrated on the Sunday After Pentecost. All Saints' Day was formally instituted by Pope Boniface IV, who consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs on May 13 in 609 AD. Boniface IV also established All Souls' Day, which follows All Saints. The feast remained on May 13 until Pope Gregory III (731 – 741) changed it to November 1st.

Both Simon and Jude were ordinary men who were chosen by Jesus himself to teach others about God’s love and to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Their lives help us to understand that even the most average people can become saints when they decide to follow Jesus. Both of these men were known by other names during their lives. Simon was often called “the Zealot.” A zealot is a person who is strongly committed to something. In Simon’s case, he firmly believed in the importance of people following Jewish law. Once he met Jesus, his life was changed. Simon is the patron saint of woodcutters, tanners and sawyers.

Jude was also known as “Jude Thaddeus.” People used this formal title so that he was not confused with Judas, the Iscariot. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases and desperate situations. People often pray to Jude when they feel that there is no one else to turn to. They ask Jude to bring their problem to Jesus.

Simon and Jude travelled together to teach others about Jesus. Because of their eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ miracles and his death and Resurrection, many people became believers and were baptized. Simon and Jude died for their faith on the same day in Beirut. Jude’s body was later returned to Rome where it was buried in a crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica.

October 18th is St Luke’s feast.  The great evangelist, as he is also known, was a citizen of Antioch in Syria, is said to have been one of Jesus’ first seventy two apostles and was a close friend of St Paul, who thought a lot of him and refers to him in the letter to the Colossians and in other letters.  

He is, of course, known to us as the writer of one of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. He is the only one who gives us the parable of the prodigal son and so gives us this clear and moving example of God’s love and mercy.  

St Paul tells us he was a physician (Colossians) and no doubt his professional skills were of great service to Christ’s followers, both in treating ailments and, through private practice on the wealthy, as a source of income.  

In present times, doctors and other healthcare workers are absolutely vital to us as we face the threats not only of Covid-19, but the myriad other ailments from corns to cancer than afflict us. May we then remember St Luke and think of our doctors as respected and beloved physicians.

“Authentic simplicity implies both detachment and renunciation. The Desert Ascetics …. Deliberately withdrew from a society and a church that had been corrupted by power and materialism. In the desert, these athletae Dei, or ‘athletes of God’ gave themselves fully to ascetic practices and continual prayer, both of which paved the way that leads to union with God. ……

In contrast to the questions we might ask of ourselves today, they asked themselves instead: How much more can I renounce? What can I do without? How can I learn to love as Christ did, with true compassion and without judging others? And, ultimately, How can I truly love my God?

Seeing all things through the ‘prism’ of simplicity inspired the early ascetics to become living embodiments of the truth emanating from the Gospel. This view is antithetical to the falsehood of the ways of the world. While Society, then and now, stressed the accumulation of possessions, the manipulation of others, the glorification of the individual, and the exaltation of the self, the desert ascetics found perfect contentment in the practice of …. simplicity, humility and frugality. Such practices made ample space within for God’s love and his Kingdom.”
                                  Blessings of the Daily • Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette

‘Turn off the lights’, ‘Don’t put the heating on, put on more clothing.’ ‘Walk, don’t use the car’ – these are some of the many ways in which we are encouraged to live simply. They are laudable and practical steps we can take. However, they scarcely touch the simplicity, humility and frugality Brother Victor-Antione describes. the present restrictions because of the pandemic does give us an opportunity to review that value of what we (used to) do in ‘normal life’. How much have we done without and what real difference has it made? What more could we do without? How much more could we give up? How can we make amends with the people we have fallen out with? How can we stop grumbling? And what would we have instead? Hopefully, more time for chatting with God. More time for listening to God. More opportunity to experience and share His love.                          TC

Last week I wrote about ‘waiting’ and its two meanings. This week is about ‘attend’ and its derivative, ‘attention’. Fear not! This is not the start of weekly lessons about words and their etymology. ‘Attention’, “attending’ and “attend” are all linked to the idea of waiting in a way that is crucial for anyone trying to meet God, especially through the Mass. To “attend” is derived from the Old French ‘atendre’ meaning ‘to wait for’, ‘to expect”, (Modern French ‘attendre)’. In turn this is from the Latin for ‘give heed to, stretch toward’: in other words “stretching one’s mind toward something’ or ‘concentrating’.

‘Waiting’ and ‘attending’ share the idea of’ expecting something to happen. However, waiting is passive, and comes to an end when something expected happens. Attending is the opposite: it is active and the person who ‘attends’ does more than letting time pass by. To attend they must ‘stretch’ their mind towards what is happening. For example, we may wait for the priest to enter, come to the altar and begin the Mass. From that point onward, we should engage in its celebration. It is unfortunate that nowadays “attend” carries with it the meaning “be there and watch”. We might ‘attend’ a wedding, or a wrestling match (there is a difference!) or the opening of parliament or the placing of wreaths on Remembrance Day. We are there, but not expected to take part, just to observe. Perhaps we sometimes think like this about going to Mass. “Oh I’ll think about it on Sunday, after I’ve been to Mass.”

Equating ‘attending mass’ to no more than “going to mass” or “being at mass” is understandable, but disappointing. Mass is the opportunity to meet and embrace Christ, experience His love for us and commit ourselves to his service. We cannot do this unless we plunge ourselves into the liturgy of the Mass, paying attention to each of its elements and taking an active part, not only in prayers, hymns and responses but also in concentrating on what is said, sung and preached – “stretching our minds to grasp their meaning” and hearing – not just listening to – God’s Word. Really, we should leave church after Mass exhausted by the effort we’ve put into it – tired but joyful that once again we have encountered God through his Son.
                                                                                       TC

There are two meanings to “waiting”, depending on which preposition you use: “waiting for” means allowing time to go by until something happens: “waiting on” means serving someone, usually with food and drink.

I have experience, supported by what others have told me, of the habits of Parisian waiters. At a typical café, one can wait for the waiter to wait on you. They will then wait for you to pay and give them a suitable tip. Typically, this experience is spiced up by the waiter waiting for you to get his attention and decide to wait on you. All Parisian waiters go through a rigorous training programme to qualify for their jobs, though I’m not sure ‘Making the (foreign) Customer Wait’ is part of it. If not, they learn the art very quickly: - it is clearly an entertainment which they value as a diversion from the ennui of their daily work. I wonder sometimes whether it is actually a gift of the Holy Spirit God’s reminder to us that we have to be patient wait for things. We wait for blessings, we wait for love to come along, we wait for a pay rise, we wait for death and salvation, and so on. Also Parisian practice is a good reminder that though some may serve us, none are less than us, and, in fact, we are all servants – of God and of one another.

At this moment we wait for the ‘end’ of the Covid 19 disease, and a return to ‘normality’, even though the signs are that we face creating a new ‘normality, if only because Covid 19 is not going to go away. Our new ‘normality’ will include learning how to live side-by-side with it waiting for outbreaks which, hopefully, will be better managed as we learn more and more about its treatment.

Becoming more patient and more resilient, then, is a big challenge for generations brought up to expect instant gratification who will be in a time when ‘waiting for’ becomes both important and critical. Except in one respect. No, Parisian waiters have not been blessed by the Holy Spirit. Their practice cannot be God-given, since God does not want to place us in contexts where impatience (from ‘waiting for’) and resentment (for ‘waiting on’) breed sins of intemperance and anger. God is Love. A love we need not wait for, since it is available to us all the time. All we have to do is to stretch our hands out to grasp it, and our souls will be filled with His Love. Simple!
                                                                             TC

What is it?
World Communications Day was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encourages us to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motion pictures, radio, television and the internet) afford the Church to communicate the gospel message.  

Where did it come from?
The celebration followed the Second Vatican Council, which realised it must engage fully with the modern world.   

Why it is celebrated every year?
In setting it up on Sunday 7th May 1967, less than two years after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI wanted to draw attention to the communications media and the enormous power they have for cultural transformation.  

Engaging with the communications world
Increasingly aware of the world as a global village and the power of the media as a free market place for philosophies and values, the Church has sought to be in there with its message and to use the media to proclaim the values it sees are beneficial for human development and for the eternal welfare of people.  

Analysis and action
Two important documents of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications – Communio et Progressio (1971) and Aetatis Novae (1992) have presented an analysis of the world of the communications media and made recommendations for the Church’s action.

This year Pope Frances has a special message:  “I would like to devote this year’s Message to the theme of storytelling, because I believe that, so as not to lose our bearings, we need to make our own the truth contained in good stories. Stories that build up, not tear down; stories that help us rediscover our roots and the strength needed to move forward together. Amid the cacophony of voices and messages that surround us, we need a human story that can speak of ourselves and of the beauty all around us. A narrative that can regard our world and its happenings with a tender gaze. A narrative that can tell us that we are part of a living and interconnected tapestry. A narrative that can reveal the interweaving of the threads which  connect us to one another.:                                     
                                                                    Message from His Holiness Pope Francis  

Get the whole of Pope Francis’ Message from http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/papa-francesco_20200124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html - it’s a good read!

Those who have visited the Holy Land and seen the Shrines and other holy places will probably have been to Bethany on the Mount of Olives and seen the place from where Christ is said to have ascended into heaven. This place of wondrous joy is also remarkable because one can see, it is claimed, the print of Our Lord’s foot in the ground. I can’t remember whether it was the right or left foot. What was remarkable was that it was about 20 inches long!  It is things like this that can undermine religion and the faith on which it is built. It can disillusion those who have a literal  view of the events described in the Bible. It can confirm the scepticism of those who reject Christianity or, indeed, all religions. It can encourage a pick-your-own attitude to belief, making it adapted to individuals’’ preferences, rather than embracing the whole rich and rewarding scope of faith, and the teaching of the Church.  

I doubt there are many people who believe that Jesus had 20” feet. Equally it would be no surprise to find that the majority of Christians dismiss the ‘relic’ as, at best, a misunderstanding, and, at worst, a trick to squeeze a bit more money from tourists. Both reactions miss the point, because this is a symbol, rather than a true representation of our saviour’s anatomy. Whist we can be aware of symbols (such as road signs) we are used to interpreting them for their relationship to the ‘real’ world. We think we see a representation of an outsize foot and respond by reference to our understanding of foot sizes that humans have. That’s understandable, but irrelevant. In terms of faith and what we believe, we need to ask what it could mean to have such an image before us. Perhaps it is meant show, not how big, but how great God is, or how powerful Jesus was – or both.  

This time of the year celebrates five great events and mysteries of our Faith: Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, The Most Holy Trinity and the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The truth of each lies in what we are asked to believe and the strength of our belief is to be found in what the Church teaches, and our reflections on the meaning of these events. For example, why should God visit the apostles in the person of the Holy Spirit to ensure they understood their missionary role? What is the significance of the fire at Pentecost? Reflecting on these things and reading about them can help us understand both their actual and symbolic roles in our Faith.                                                                                                      
                                                                                    TC

• “Some Christians seem to have a very limited image of the Holy Trinity: nasty God the Father in heaven, lovely Jesus … and the bird! While the creeds teach that there is one God in three persons, they act as one in creating, saving and inspiring.” [Richard Leonard The Tablet 25 April 2020]

This is important if we are to understand plagues and other disasters and what they might mean. In ancient times, plagues, floods, earthquakes and other unexpected catastrophes were often interpreted to mean that God was saying something, usually by way of warning or punishment. That belief has lasted, so that, for example, people took the Black Death (a fourteenth century pestilence) as God punishing the world for its sins. This belief in God the Awesome Avenger lingers today in some communities, and in some people’s beliefs.

Such vindictive action is nothing to do with the Christian God. As Richard Leonard points out in his article, “Jesus never sends a plague, a natural disaster, or turns anyone into a pillar of salt. If Jesus isn’t into murderous retribution, nor …… is God the Father. Jesus is the incarnate correction to false views of how God works in the world.”

It makes sense doesn’t it? If God is Love, and loves us so much that he asks his Son to take human form to guide us to a better understanding of that love and to sacrifice himself for the sake of that love, it makes no sense whatsoever to believe that the same God would act so punitively towards us.  God did not send us COVID-19, whatever its origins. It is in great part the result of poor human practices and bad decisions.

“Spiritual sanity in these difficult days rests in seeing that every moment of the day God does what he did on Good Friday: not intervening to prevent humanity killing Jesus, but not allowing evil and despair to have the last word.”   [Richard Leonard ibid.]                                                                                                    

                                                                     TC

As the lockdown continues, the stress of having very limited freedom of movement and action is affecting people differently. Each of us, I guess, can get low and fret for an end to the restrictions. That end seems as far away as ever. This is particularly the case if we get bad news. For example, I have just heard that a very good friend has tested positive for the virus.  Shocking and painful though this news is, I find some help in the writings of Blessings of the Daily:  

“There are moments when one arrives at a point of despair and senselessness. But those moments are always God’s hour. It is then that he is most at work in us. It is out of sheer despair that I gaze at Jesus, both Crucified and Risen. I see the marks of his passion, the wounds he endured during his crucifixion, and, suddenly, I see this human body that endured so much suffering being transformed by the power of God into the glory of the Resurrection. He …. is rewarded precisely because of his immense sufferings…. It is this that gives me hope to look beyond my own struggles, my limitations, my own sense of despair …... As Christ’s disciples, we are called to follow him through his death into his Resurrection…. It is through faith that I can see light at the end oi the tunnel.”                                                                

                                                      Blessings of the Daily Brother Victoire-Antione d’Avila-Latourette  

We are never alone on our journey. Even at the darkest times. Jesus is with us, just as he was with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, as we hear in today’s Gospel. Like them we may not always recognise his presence, but our faith tells us he is there, with crook and staff, the inspiration of our courage, the guardian of our hopes, the shepherd of our souls.                                                                                  

                                                                      TC

The Bishops of England & Wales have declared this year a Year of the Word called ‘The God Who Speaks”. During this year we are encouraged to re-discover the Word of God in our Bibles and renew our love for Scripture. To help us do this I will make available each week a resource sheet called ‘The Wednesday Word’. The sheet contains the following: Sunday’s readings and guidance for a prayerful reading of scripture in order to prepare more fully for the. coming Sunday’s Mass.  

Sheets are at the back of the church and available at the website http//www.wednesdayword.org/

Please watch this space for news of other initiatives throughout the year. A deanery retreat day on the Bible is also planned for later this year.

In Western Europe, it has been customary for many centuries to include the name of a saint when naming a child– usually as the first personal name, and again after Confirmation. In the UK, there is a wide variety of first names given to boys and girls, but the most popular names seem to remain constant.

For example, the ten most popular name for girls in 2000 were, in order  of  popularity:  -Chloe,  Emily,  Megan,  Charlotte,  Jessica,  Lauren,  Sophie,  Olivia, Hannah, and Lucy.
18 years later the ten most popular girls’ names were: Olivia, Amelia, Ava, Isla, Emily, Mia, Isabella, Sophia, Ella, and Grace.

What seem to be significant changes are not so revolutionary, since all these names were in the top 50 list for both years. We may be in for some startling changes next year, if you accept Harper’s Bazaar’s forecast that the top ten will be Adah, Reese, Mika, Paisley, Amina, Teagan, Nova, Aura, Pearl, and Billie, completely different from what went before.

So what is happening to the convention of naming children after saints? It seems that parents now resist pressures to name their children after their parents or relatives. Instead, a growing habit is to find attractive, or interesting, or ‘celebrity,’ names. This is a pity. The use of saints’ names has a purpose over and above carrying on a ‘family name’. By naming a girl Elizabeth, or a boy John, one is seeking a spiritual ‘sponsor’ and role model for the child. (That is not to suggest that choosing ‘Catherine’ brings with it a wish for the child to be martyred! Rather it offers St Catherine’s depth of faith as a model.) Getting to know about one’s patron saint is a splendid – and often exciting – way of learning about how Christians put their faith into practice and the spiritual strengths they have to support their actions. In a community where multiple faiths (and none at all) flourish, using a Christian name is a way of declaring our identity as children of God. Getting to know more about our patron saints can also lead to more reflection about whom we name when we say In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

The Lord knows full well how His children have limited the time they have for each of the many tasks they put upon themselves to the point of exhaustion. This seems especially true today when life seems lived at breakneck speed.

So, in May we have the chance to slow a little, take time out from the daily hustle. This is because May is the Month of Mary, Christ’s Mother and, thus, the Mother of the Church.

She is the example, as well as the guide and inspiration, of everyone who, in and through the Church, seeks to be the servant of God and our sisters and brothers, and the obedient agent of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We have no evidence that Mary rushed about trying to do an impossible number of things all at once; nor that she scolded anyone; nor that she gossiped, argued or nagged to get her way. She took Time and did not let Time take her.

For Mary, God’s way determined her way (as in the Annunciation): she also knew that what she could not do, her Son would (Cana). Most of all, she understood that love - not the overbearing pressure of time - is the foundation and framework of a satisfied life,. Love springs from Faith and Mary lived a life of faith and piety. Piety is the virtue that protects us from reducing faith to unfeeling, loveless dogma and mindless praying.

So May is the time to renew our acquaintance of and love for God’s Mother. Saying one Hail Mary thoughtfully, or the Litany of Mary, are simple ways of renewing our reverence for her and reminding ourselves of the selfless, patient and faithful way she responded to God’s plan for her.

May this be the example we can follow in peace, freed from stress, now that the earth yields its fruits for us once more.

According to tradition, in an apparition to Lady Richeldis, the Blessed Virgin Mary fetched Richeldis’ soul from England to Nazareth during a religious ecstasy to show the house where the Holy Family once lived and in which the Annunciation of Archangel Gabriel occurred. Richeldis was given the task of building a replica house in her village, in England. The building came to be known as the "Holy House", and later became both a shrine and a focus of pilgrimage to Walsingham.

In passing on his guardianship of the Holy House, Richeldis' son Geoffrey left instructions for the building of a priory in Walsingham. The priory passed into the care of the Canons Regular of S Augustine, sometime between 1146 and 1174.

An immensely popular place of pilgrimage during the middle ages, the shrine was destroyed during the Reformation and restored in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Slipper Chapel is now the centre of what has become the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady and is regularly visited by people from the English dioceses and beyond. In mediaeval times this was the last staging post, where pilgrims began a 1 mile barefoot walk to the Shrine in the village. (Hence ‘Slipper’)

Carfin Lourdes Grotto, is a shrine in Scotland dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, and was created in the early twentieth century. The "Carfin Grotto", as the shrine is locally referred to, was the brainchild of Father, later Canon, Thomas N. Taylor (died 1963), parish priest of St. Francis Xavier's Parish in the small, mining village of Carfin, two miles east of Motherwell.

Following a trip to Lourdes, Canon Taylor's vision was to build a religious memorial in honour of Our Blessed Lady. Since its opening in the early 1920s, the "grotto" has attracted pilgrims in the hundreds of thousands. For the past 90 plus years, the grotto shrine has offered a pilgrimage season with Sunday processions, rosaries, outdoor masses and dedicated Feast Day events which runs annually from early May until late September. 

The evening of Thursday, 21 August 1879, was a very wet night. At about 8 o'clock the rain beat down in driving sheets when Mary Beirne, a girl of the village, accompanying the priest's housekeeper, Mary McLoughlin, home, stopped suddenly as she came in sight of the gable of the little church. There she saw standing a little out from the gable, were three life-size figures. She ran home to tell her parents and soon others from the village had gathered.

The witnesses stated they saw an apparition of Our Lady, Saint Joseph and Saint John the Evangelist at the south gable end of the local small parish church, the Church of Saint John the Baptist. Behind them and a little to the left of Saint John was a plain altar. On the altar was a cross and a lamb (a traditional image of Jesus), with adoring angels

This is now Ireland’s National Marian Shrine, and is a popular pilgrimage centre, especially for those with illnesses or disabilities. 

Legend tells how, in the Middle Ages, a beautiful statue of Our Lady, her Son on her lap, and a burning taper in her hand, appeared on the banks of the River Teifi in Cardiganshire. Any attempt to move the statue to the parish church in Cardigan resulted in its reappearing at the spot where it first appeared. It became a place of pilgrimage and St Mary’s church was built on that spot in 1158. The original statue was destroyed in the Reformation.

At the beginning of the 20th century, monks from Brittany gave their abbey church the name of Our Lady of Cardigan and revived the devotion. They made the same dedication to the small church they built in Cardigan in 1912 The monks left in 1916 and the devotion lapsed.

In 1952, Bishop Petit learned that there had once been a shrine in Cardigan and decided to restore it. He commissioned a new statue, which was blessed in Westminster Cathedral in 1956.

The Shrine of Our Lady of the Taper is now the national shrine for Wales and parish for the people of Cardigan and surrounding areas. 

22 July was the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, one of the most maligned of Christ’s followers. Her name may refer to the town of Magdala a fishing village in Galilee, and she is mentioned in all four of the Gospels. In fact, she is mentioned by name twelve times, more than most of the apostles, and any other non-family women. Luke’s gospel (8:2-3) describes her as one of the followers of Jesus, contributing to his ministry out of their own pockets. This suggests that she was probably well-off.  Both St Luke and St Mark write that seven demons had been driven out of her. In all four gospels she witnessed Christ’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection. As a messenger who brought news of the risen Christ to the apostles, she became known as the apostle of the apostles.  

In later centuries, numerous myths and false accounts of her life and relationship to Jesus destroyed her reputation, regardless of the testimony of the Gospels. A central theme in the later story of Mary Magdalene was that she had been a prostitute (and, therefore, an object of scandal). This was reinforced by Pope Gregory I’s error in confusing her with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed ‘sinful woman’ who washed Christ’s feet (Luke 7:36-50) These falsehoods were refuted by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and Pope Francis raised her memorial to the status of a Feast in the Calendar in 2016.  Nonetheless her status as a promiscuous woman has remained in popular culture to the present day.  For example, the 2011 Film Resurrection portrays her as an experienced prostitute. It seems that bad-naming women and destroying reputations is an older game than social media trolls could ever have imagined.  

Let us then celebrate St Mary Magdalene’s Feast on Wednesday next, rejoicing in the fact that she followed Christ and was trusted as the first to bring news of His Resurrection to the apostles and the world. Let us pray, too, for all those women who have suffered loss of dignity, abuse and degradation.                                                                                  

                                                     TC

22 June: SS John Fisher (1469 – 1535) & Thomas More (1478 – 1535)
Both were martyred for opposing Henry VIII’s decision to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and pronouncing himself head of the Church of England. Both were very senior and important people in the government of England. St John was the Archbishop of Canterbury and St Thomas was Henry’s Chancellor. Their stories have been told and retold many times, sometimes with accuracy, at other times as unfounded attempts to prove that these saints were rogues.   

23 June: Saint Etheldreda (636-679)
Also known as Æthelthryth or Audrey, Born in Exning, she was an East Anglian princess, a Fenland and Northumbrian queen and Abbess of Ely Her father was King Anna of East Anglia, and her sisters were SS Wendreda and Seaxburh both of whom eventually founded abbeys.

Etheldreda founded a double monastery in Ely. These were destroyed in 870 by invading Danes.  

24 June: The Nativity of St John the Baptist
The Nativity of John the Baptist is one of the oldest festivals of the Christian church, being listed by the Council of Agde in 506 as one of that region's principal festivals, where it was a day of rest and, like Christmas, was celebrated with three Masses: a vigil, at dawn, and at midday.  

The Nativity of John the Baptist on June 24 comes three months after the celebration on March 25 of the Annunciation, and six months before the Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus. The purpose of these festivals is not to celebrate their exact dates, but simply to commemorate them in an interlinking way. The Nativity of John the Baptist anticipates the feast of Christmas.

The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales are a group of Catholic lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under various laws enacted by Parliament during the English Reformation. Their names are listed below. They died for the Faith as did many Protestants under Queen Mary.  
• Saint John Almond
• Saint Edmund Arrowsmith
• Saint Ambrose Barlow
• Saint John Boste
• Saint Alexander Briant
• Saint Edmund Campion
• Saint Margaret Clitherow
• Saint Philip Evans
• Saint Thomas Garnet
• Saint Edmund Gennings
• Saint Richard Gwyn
• Saint John Houghton
• Saint Philip Howard
• Saint John Jones
• Saint John Kemble
• Saint Luke Kirby
• Saint Robert Lawrence
• Saint David Lewis
• Saint Anne Line
• Saint John Lloyd
• Saint Cuthbert Mayne
• Saint Henry Morse
• Saint Nicholas Owen
• Saint John Payne
• Saint Polydore Plasden
• Saint John Plessington
• Saint Richard Reynolds
• Saint John Rigby
• Saint John Roberts
• Saint Alban Roe
• Saint Ralph Sherwin
• Saint Robert Southwell
• Saint John Southworth
• Saint John Stone
• Saint John Wall
• Saint Henry Walpole
• Saint Margaret Ward
• Saint Augustine Webster
• Saint Swithun Wells
• Saint Eustace White  

You can go online in a search engine/web browser and find out more about them. Some are Welsh, when Wales was considered part of England.

May 3rd was the feast day of two apostles, about whom little is known, Saint James and St Philip. 

This James is known as James the Less, the son of Alphaeus, to avoid confusion with the other James (the Great) son of Zebedee. 

We know a little more about Philip, who is mentioned frequently in the Gospels. He was from Bethsaida, as were Peter and Andrew. He probably first heard of Jesus through being a disciple of John the Baptist. Jesus seemed to trust him greatly. Selecting him to find food for the multitude.  

“I am forever grateful to St Philip for some of his questions to Jesus, because it is in Philip’s request, “Lord show us the Father” that Jesus elaborates on his relationship to his Father, one of the most beautiful texts in the Gospel of John.  

Jesus said to him “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever  has seen me has seen the Father”                     John 14: 8-9, 11  

“Often, when at prayer, I seem to get nowhere. I then glance at the large ikon of Christ, the Pantocrator, in our chapel and reflect on Jesus’ response to Philip….  

“I know I cannot comprehend God, that his mystery is beyond me, but I know that in the Ikon I see Jesus. Trusting his words, I know in an inexplicable way that in seeing Jesus I also see the Father.”                                                                 

                                                             Blessings of the Daily Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette  

St James is the patron saint of apothecaries; pharmacists; dying people; fullers; pastry chefs. 

St Philip is the patron saint of hatters and pastry chefs.

St. Catherine of Siena was born during the outbreak of the plague in Siena, Italy on March 25, 1347. She was the 25th child born to her mother, although half of her brothers and sisters did not survive childhood. Catherine herself was a twin, but her sister did not survive infancy. Her mother was 40 when she was born. Her father was a cloth dyer.  

At the age of 16, Catherine's sister, Bonaventura, died, leaving her husband as a widower. Catherine's parents proposed that he marry Catherine as a replacement, but Catherine opposed this. She began fasting and cut her hair short to mar her appearance. Her parents attempted to resist this move to avoid marriage, but they were unsuccessful. Her fasting and her devotion to her family, convinced them to relent and allow her to live as she pleased. Despite Catherine's religious nature, she did not choose to enter a convent. Instead she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, which allowed her to associate with a religious society while living at home.  

Something changed her when she was 21. She described an experience she referred to as her "mystical marriage to Christ.” Such mystical experiences change people, and St. Catherine was no exception. In her vision, she was told to re-enter public life and to help the poor and sick.  She immediately went into public to help people in need. She often visited hospitals and homes where the poor and sick were found. Her activities quickly attracted followers who helped her in her mission to serve the poor and sick. She was drawn further into the world as she worked, and eventually she began to travel, calling for reform of the Church and for people to confess and to love God totally. She became involved in politics, and was key in working to keep city states loyal to the Pope.  

She died in 1380, aged 33. She is the patroness against fire, illness, and of the United States, Italy,  miscarriages, people ridiculed for their faith, sexual temptation, and nurses.

It is something of an oddity that we celebrate St Stephen’s feast day at Christmas, some thirty years before he was martyred. Yet, it is in the third week of Eastertide where we read of his reproof of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council which had accused him of “speaking against this holy place (The Temple) and the law”.

In his response he turned the tables on his accusers, claiming that they were the ones who, with their ancestors, resisted the Holy Spirit and persecuted prophets. Naturally this did not go down well, and the council members drove him from Jerusalem and stoned him to death.

What Stephen did before the council was to stand up to those who had been responsible for the legal murder of Jesus. You have become his betrayers, his murderers.” [Acts 7,51-8.1] As such it is a message to all Christians to stand up in defence of our Saviour. The stones we face today are the jibes, lies, and objections hurled at Our Lord and at us, his followers, each ‘stone’ intended to hurt with dismissal, denial and claims that our faith has no meaning or goodness.

As the stones rained down on him, Stephen knelt in prayer: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” [Acts ibid.] Even as an agonising death overtook him, he called for mercy on his persecutors, as Christ did on the Cross.

Before this, Stephen had been an active follower standing for Christ, busy in synagogue and meeting places bringing the Good News to fellow Jews and irritating the Establishment to the point where they decided to get rid of him.

In these ways - standing up to Christianity’s opponents, being humble in praying for their salvation and standing amongst non-believers proclaiming the Good News - he is the very model of an active Christian we should all aim to be.
                                                          TC

Felix of Burgundy, also known as Felix of Dunwich (died 8 March 647 or 648), was the first bishop of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christ-ianity to the kingdom of East Anglia.   Felix travelled from his homeland of Burgundy to Canterbury before being sent by Honorius to Sigeberht of East Anglia's kingdom in about 630. On arrival in East Anglia, Sigeberht gave him a see at Dommoc (possibly Walton, Suffolk or Dunwich in Suffolk). Felix helped Sigeberht to establish a school in his kingdom "where boys could be taught letters". He died on 8 March 647 or 648, having been bishop for seventeen years. His relics were translated from Dommoc to Soham Abbey and then to the abbey at Ramsey. 

Patron saint of sailors, merchants, repentant thieves, archers, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, and students

On December 19th, we celebrate the memorial of St Nicholas. Like many early saints we know little about St Nicholas. He was born (c. 270) into an affluent Greek family in Myra (now Demre, in Turkey) and, after becoming a priest at an early age, became Bishop of that area, and served there until his death c.343. Over the centuries, many tales have been told about his life and miracles, although there is little evidence to support the claims made for him in most of these.   

The most famous story is about how he rescued three sisters from the threat of becoming prostitutes. He heard about a devout man who had lost all his money; his three daughters had no dowry and no prospects of marriage. Instead, they would be sold into prostitution. Rather than humiliate the man by a display of his generosity, Nicholas visited the man’s house over three nights and, on each occasion, threw a bag of gold coins through an external window. This meant that the girls would each have a dowry and could marry. From this and other tales, he became renowned for his generosity, modesty and discretion.   St Nicholas’ descendant is, of course, Santa Claus, who secretly visits families at Christmas to give them gifts. As the commercial world has kidnapped Santa,   

Saint Nicholas’ purpose in helping the poor has disappeared under an avalanche of goods. This misses the point: St Nicholas was motivated by two things: first, following Christ in aiding the poor (”Blessed are the merciful’); second, following Christ in respecting the poor. So, as you go about giving presents this year, think like St Nicholas, not ‘Santa’, and seek out someone who needs your gift. This doesn’t have to be money…A CAFOD World Gift given under a relative’s name may be a blessing for a poor person elsewhere and a blessing for the relative. Or again, ten minutes talking to a lonely person may be a bigger, better gift than a box of chocolates. 

He was an Irish monk who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia. Born in Ireland, he established a monastery at Rathmat, on the shores of Loch Corrib, and then journeyed to England where he founded another at Burgh Castle, near Yarmouth.
Remembered especially on January 16th.

St Antony is the originator of the monastic life. He was born in Egypt: when his parents died, he listened to the words of the Gospel and gave all his belongings to the poor. He went out into the wilderness to begin a life of penitence, living in absolute poverty, praying, meditating, and supporting himself by manual work. 

He suffered many temptations, both physical and spiritual, but he overcame them. Disciples gathered round him, attracted by his wisdom, moderation, and holiness. He lived to be 105, and died in 356.
Remembered especially on January 17th.