Thoughts from our Chaplain - Not to us, Lord, but to you…!

When Manchester City had won the Premier League I sent congratulations to my girl friend in Aberystwyth. Don’t worry she is in her eighties! She is a fan but not a fanatical one. When I saw the scenes of the euphoria and adulation, I was beginning to wonder what it was all about. For some fans their players become not just heroes but idols.

Football becomes their religion and their players become their gods. Just imagine all the money that is spent on going to watch game after game. Could some of it not be spent on some more useful causes?               

I was reminded of all this when I read the loving reflection by Sr Melannie Svoboda, S.N.D. in Living Faith for May 19^th. She is reflecting on Paul’s and Barnabas’ visit to Lystra. They have cured a man who had been lame from birth. Immediately the people who saw it treated them as gods coming down from heaven in human form. The missionaries tried desperately to convince them that it was not them but Jesus who procured the miracle, saying that they themselves were mere mortals as they were.

The football fans have their idols. Have we them too? We shouldn’t. And we should have only one and he is not an idol, he is our God or our Creator, Saviour and Redeemer.  So with the psalmist let us say and pray “Not to us, Lord, but to you be the glory now and for ever. Amen.                                                                          

Fr Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm.

St Simon Stock

Today is the feast of St Simon Stock one of the first Carmelites to come to Europe from the Holy Land.

Simon was an English man probably from Kent, and helped the Carmelites change from hermits to being part of the new movement of friars. He was prior general of the Order and died in Bordeaux in 1265. Tradition has it that in those difficult days of transition, Simon had a vision of Our Lady who promised to protect the Carmelites and that the Carmelite habit would be a sign of her care.

It is from this tradition that the Brown Scapular devotion grew, and that wearing the Scapular (a smaller version of the habit) was a way of being open to Mary’s care. It was also a sign of Christian commitment. The Scapular is now a world-wide devotion.

Since 1951, St Simon Stocks relics have rested at Aylesford Priory, and are housed in a beautiful reliquary created by the Polish artist Adam Kossowski. Thousands of pilgrims come to Aylesford every year to pay honour to St Simon Stock and Our Lady.

St Simon of England pray for us.

The National Shrine of Saint Jude is currently selling a number of saints’ prayer cards that were created and printed in the early years of this peaceful place. They are all beautifully prepared, in full colour and mostly A7 size or larger. Most of them include a prayer to the saint on the back. You can purchase these, here. 

Fr Wilfrid McGreal, O.Carm

Thoughts from the Chaplain: Transforming suffering!

On Tuesday of this week I had the privilege of presiding at the Mass of our Provincial Chapter. The night before Fr Wilfrid had handed over the office of Provincial to Fr Antony Lester. Tony had thanked Wilfrid very much for his gentle leadership over the past six years, which could not have been an easy time for him. Let us keep both of our brothers in our prayers.

What struck me in the readings of the day was St Stephen’s courage by which he addressed the people, the leaders and the scribes. Quite clearly a man filled with the Holy Spirit. He said “You stubborn people, with your pagan hearts and pagan ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit” and I thought “Food for thought here”. We might not be pagans, but how many idols are there in our life? And that surely is a way of resisting the Holy Spirit.

This made me think of Fr James McKarns’ reflection in Living Faith for this Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter. He reflects on how suffering can transform us. He writes “Whether physical, mental or emotional hurts, the better we endure the cross, the more Christ-like we become. Accepting suffering means not running toward it, but through it…Our Saviour has said we will save our souls through patient endurance.”

Let us remember our sufferings don’t have to be in vain. We can offer them up with Jesus, not just for our own good, but for the good of all.                                                                  

Fr Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm. 

Thoughts from our Chaplain: Where is God in this?

It was Tuesday 29^th April and I was reading The Guardian. What stunned me were the contrasting stories of two teenagers.

On the front page and continuing on page 3 the heading is “Boy, 15, held after teacher is killed in classroom”.  On page 6 there is a short article with the heading “Teenager’s cancer fund passes £3m mark”. In order to give our youngsters the rewards they deserve you would have thought the articles should be in reverse order and we should have been told much more about the brave initiative of Stephen Sutton.

Three years ago he was diagnosed with terminally ill bowel cancer. He set up the Teenage Cancer Trust and hoped to raise £10,000. From his hospital bed he told the paper “To celebrate still being here after this crazy week, to celebrate this wonderful journey called life, and to celebrate being part of raising over £3m for the charity, here is a huge thumbs-up from me!”

By now we all know of the tragedy that happened in a Catholic school in Leeds: a beloved teacher of Spanish with forty years of dedication to her job, Anne Maguire, who was due to retire this September, was stabbed in front of the class and died shortly afterwards.

We can all see the Holy Spirit at work in Stephen’s endeavour. Several classmates of the murderer might well have wondered “Where is God in this?” By now we don’t know what made the youngster flip. However, let us hope and pray that something enormously good will come from this event too.

Fr Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm. 

Happy St George's Day

The National Shrine of Saint Jude is currently selling a number of saints’ prayer cards that were created and printed in the early years of this peaceful place. They are all beautifully prepared, in full colour and mostly A7 size or larger. Most of them include a prayer to the saint on the back. You can purchase these, here.

In this blog, we have already discussed St Garmon, but today as it is St George's day so we thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about the famous saint. Pictured below is the beautiful prayer card for St George.

Since Easter often falls close to Saint George's Day, the church celebration of the feast may be moved from 23 April. In England where it is the National Saint's Day for 2014 the Anglican Catholic calendars celebrate Saint George's Day on the first Monday after Easter Week, so on 28 April 2014 the Feast day will be celebrated at church.

Saint George (c. 275/281 – 23 April 303 AD) was born in Lydda, and  was a soldier in the Roman army and was later venerated as a Christian martyr. Saint George became an officer in the Roman army in the Guard of Diocletian. In hagiography, Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic (Western and Eastern Rites), Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on 23 April, and he is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints.

Why is he England’s Patron Saint?

The earliest documented mention of St George in England comes from the venerable Bede (c. 673–735). He is also mentioned in ninth-century liturgy used at Durham Cathedral.  Early (c. 10th century) dedications of churches to St George are noted in England, for example at Fordingham, Dorset, at Thetford, Southwark, and Doncaster.  In 1222 the Synod of Oxford declared St George's Day a feast day in the kingdom of England. Edward III (1327–1377) put his Order of the Garter (founded c. 1348) under the banner of St George. This order is still the foremost order of knighthood in England, and St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was built by Edward IV and Henry VII in honour of the order.

In his play Henry V, William Shakespeare famously invokes the Saint at Harfleur prior to the battle of Agincourt (1415): "Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'" At Agincourt many believed they saw him fighting on the English side.

St George's Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century. The Cross of St. George was flown in 1497 by John Cabot on his voyage to discover Newfoundland and later by Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1620 it was the flag that was flown by the Mayflower when the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

George's prayer card can be found here.

Thoughts from our Chaplain: Newness!

I was rather curious to see whom Magnificat had chosen for its Easter Sunday meditation. Well, its editors didn’t disappoint me, because it is none other that Pope Francis himself.

He talks about the newness the women experienced after the death of Jesus and how newness can make us fearful and thus, like the apostles, we would prefer to hold on to our own security. However, the Pope writes, “Let us not be closed to the newness that God wants to bring into our lives.”  

This made me think of Emma Taggart (a parishioner here) who was received into the Church during the Easter Vigil. She received the sacraments of adult Christian initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. What a privilege, but also what a responsibility! It is a great privilege of what God does to us: in baptism giving us a share in his divine life, in confirmation bestowing on us the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Eucharist giving us the Body and Blood of Jesus. The challenge is of course to respond as fully as we can to those gifts. This doesn’t count just for Emma, but for each one of us.

I was pleased to see so many at the Easter Vigil, who came to support Emma and, more importantly, to have a newness in their own faith journey to say a very fervent “I do” to our baptismal promises. It made for a very happy Easter indeed.

Fr Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm. 

Thoughts from our Chaplain: Mission Possible

This weekend we are celebrating two events. Firstly Palm Sunday, commemorating the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and, secondly, the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The official title for these two celebrations is Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord. Personally I have always found it a great pity that in the liturgical reforms these two were lumped together. It has always given me the feeling that justice isn’t being done to either event and that the whole thing becomes rushed. I much preferred the way it was, i.e. Palm Sunday on the 2^nd Sunday before Easter and Passion Sunday the Sunday before Easter. Anyway we have to deal with what we have got. 

Magnificat has a special issue for Holy Week and in his reflection on Palm-Passion Sunday the Cistercian monk Fr Simeon writes, “….why exactly is it that suffering should bring about redemption”. He suggests to expand the meaning of suffering from simply “undergoing pain” to include “the willing activation of all the passions of the soul”, intended to put love in the place of the beloved’s refusal to love. Christ redeems us because he passionately embraces our rejection of him with a love unto death, and he will not let go of us”. 

Let our intention be not to let go of him who on Palm Sunday of the Passion fulfilled the will of his Father and thereby fulfilled his mission. With his grace our mission is possible too. Have a fruitful celebration of Holy Week.                                            

Fr Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm.