Thoughts from the Chaplain - Ordinary time

December was a time of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus and on the 25th December, the day finally arrived and we gathered at midnight around the crib to honour and worship the new born infant.  The joy of these festivities then spilled over into the Christmas octave and the remembrance of Saint Stephen, the Holy Family, the Holy Innocents, St Thomas Becket; ending with the churches great Feast of Mary, Mother of God. This year all the feasts seemed to tumble one on top of another and before we knew it were celebrating the Baptism of Jesus and the Christmas season came to an end and Ferial or Ordinary time had arrived.

Let us reflect for a while on this ‘Ordinary’ time.  First of all it certainly isn't ordinary, it just happens to be outside the two great feasts Lent/Easter and Advent/Christmas but there its ordinary-ness ends. In the first two weeks since ‘ordinary’ time started we have had two major events in the Gospel readings.

On January 17th; 2nd Sunday in Ordinary time we heard about the Wedding at Cana when Jesus transformed 6 large jars of water in to wine to allow the wedding celebration to continue.  This Gospel passage has a number of unusual features.  First of all, this miracle is done almost as a favour to prevent the steward and the bridegroom from being embarrassed by the wine running out it is not customary for Jesus to perform a miracle merely to help friends avoid embarrassment. Secondly, this is the only time in John's gospel when we have Mary asking her Son for a favour. And finally, Jesus addresses his mother as "woman, which is not the way one addresses one's mother, then or now. These aspects of the reading point out to us that there is a deeper symbolic meaning to this passage, something of which the Jews were very fond.  So let us look at the examples:  Jesus could have easily told the steward he should have prepared better or to go and get some more wine.  But no, He tells the servants to fill the jars with water.  This shows his sense of compassion which was to be so important in all his ministry;  Jesus calling his mother ‘woman’ is his using the term by which Eve was referred; Mother of all the living as Genesis says;  he is recognizing in Mary the role of ‘new Eve’ because she is his mother and he represents a new creation.  Finally, when Jesus resists her request because his "hour has not yet come", we are reminded of the only other place in John's gospel where Jesus addresses his mother as "woman", and that is when his "hour has in fact arrived" (19:26-27) when he sees her standing at the foot of the cross with the disciple ‘whom he loves’.

On 24th January; 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time we have in our Gospel reading Jesus standing up in the synagogue and reading from the prophet Isaiah – nothing unusual there.  However having sat down Jesus then says “This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen”.  The people in the synagogue were astonished because Jesus was applying a text which is interpreted as referring to the Messiah to himself; in other words the one who is reading this to you is the Messiah; Isaiah was prophesying my coming.

We can see from these two readings that this time is far from ordinary in the usual sense of the word.  If we sit with the Gospels of the Sunday masses and reflect on them: pulling them apart; teasing out the meaning; and the hidden symbolism which the evangelists have used.

New statue of Saint Jude

Pope Francis asking Matt: "Is that for me?"

We recently gave one of our brand new statues of Saint Jude to Pope Francis! Would you like to own the new statue of Saint Jude?

Our new statue of Saint Jude is based on the famous statue by Adam Kossowski at the Shrine. Beautifully sculpted in Italy - this is a perfect item for you or your family. Only a 100 are currently available, so this item is very rare. 

"The statue arrived safely and it is lovely" - Kathleen

"I absolutely love this statue and it will have a special place in my home" - Andrew

Beautiful and looks so life-like, thank you so much to all" - Sarah

Price includes post and packing, buy yours today! You can order from our shop.

Gift Shop Sale: 15% off selected items

**This sale is now finished**


From 30 December 2015 until 4 January, we are offering the friends of Saint Jude 15% off some of our items via our on-line shop only. All items on sale include postage and packing, and most are listed below. Please click on item to purchase, or visit our on-line shop if you wish to purchase other items. These special prices are only available on-line.

Friar Beyond the Pale - Biography of founder of Shrine, signed by author

Saint Jude picture, beautifully framed

Saint Jude notelet pack

Shrine DVD

Shrine Guide

Saint Jude pillar candle

Bronze medal - designed in Lourdes

Plus much more, visit our on-line shop to take a look!

Offers are only available to UK and Ireland customers.

Thoughts from the Chaplain - Holy Door

Since the year 1300 when Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Holy Year, the Catholic Church has regularly celebrated “Holy Years,” usually every twenty-five years, except for special circumstances.

A major aspect of the Holy Year has been that of pilgrimage either to Rome or to a number of doors which have been opened in diocese around the world to make a symbolic entry through the Holy Door; to make reparation for sin and to renew the conversion of one’s life.

Christ identified Himself as the door, saying.  “Truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.    I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:7, 9).  Using this symbolic image Jesus tells us that the only way to the father is through him, the only begotten Son, the saviour.   Another aspect is the phrase ‘they…will come in and go out and find pasture’.  In other words this going through the gate is not a one-way journey.  We enter, are strengthened with grace and then go out to bring this grace to others through our actions.  There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into this life of communion with God:  This is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation.

Passing through the Holy Door is to open oneself to the transforming grace of God and to confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Son of God, Lord and saviour who suffered, died and rose for our salvation.

Therefore to pass through the door from the outside of St. Peter’s into the basilica is to pass from this world into the presence of God, just as in the old Temple of Jerusalem, the High Priest on the Feast of Yom Kippur passed through the veil covering the doorway of the Holy of Holies to enter into the presence of God to offer the sacrifice of atonement.   Moreover, to pass through the door is to confess with firm conviction that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Lord, and the Saviour who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation.

Pope Francis announcing the opening of the Holy Doors  says “To experience and obtain the Indulgence, the faithful are called to make a brief pilgrimage to the Holy Door, open in every Cathedral or in the churches designated by the Diocesan Bishop, and in the four Papal Basilicas in Rome, as a sign of the deep desire for true conversion. Likewise, I dispose that the Indulgence may be obtained in the Shrines in which the Door of Mercy is open and in the churches which traditionally are identified as Jubilee Churches. It is important that this moment be linked, first and foremost, to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist with a reflection on mercy. It will be necessary to accompany these celebrations with the profession of faith and with prayer for me and for the intentions that I bear in my heart for the good of the Church and of the entire world”.  So we can see that the thoughts of Holy Father in his pastoral role as Bishop of Rome go “to all the faithful who, whether in individual Dioceses or as pilgrims to Rome, will experience the grace of the Jubilee. I wish that the Jubilee Indulgence may reach each one as a genuine experience of God’s mercy, which comes to meet each person in the Face of the Father who welcomes and forgives, forgetting completely the sin committed”.

Fr Kevin Melody, O.Carm, represented the Prior Provincial of the British Province and opened our Door of Mercy at the National Shrine of Saint Jude on 13 December 2015. Photos below.

Thoughts from the Chaplain - Advent and the Year of Mercy

There is a natural connection between the season of Advent and the mercy of God. During Advent we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In him, we experience the mercy of God incarnate. The mercy of God is revealed in his Son who became one of us in order to fully experience what we experience, the life within an extended family; the dignity of human labour; the sense of rejection and being misunderstood; the pain of suffering during his passion; the sense of desolation as he cries out My God why have you deserted me; the loneliness of death.  It is in this that we see the full depth and breadth of God’s Mercy.

“At times we are called to gaze even more attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s action in our lives. For this reason I have proclaimed an ‘Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy’ as a special time for the Church, a time when the witness of believers might grow stronger and more effective.” (Misericordiae Vultus, no. 3)

These words are from the Bull of Pope Francis announcing the Year of Mercy which starts on 8^th December 2015.  He calls us to be more aware of and to respond to the mercy which God has bestowed upon and that to accomplish this we need to take time to reflect, to look inside ourselves.  Advent is an ideal time to do this as we prepare to celebrate the incarnation of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus; that ultimate sign of mercy which becomes so clear as he goes to the cross for our sakes.

So the question is: ‘How do we go about respond to this mercy? As a beginning we need to acknowledge there is a problem: we cannot see – how often do we look at something and see what is in front of us but totally miss the true significance of what we are seeing. This is often the case when we fail to see the image of God in our neighbour; we cannot hear – we hear the words but filter them so that we do not listen and grasp the true meaning of what is being said to us. Often we are so busy with our own concerns and the everyday noise of the world that we cannot hear what God is trying to say to us; we cannot speak – we may be very articulate about our favourite topics or our work or politics are culture but when it comes to our faith, to what we believe we have trouble finding the words to express it; we do not know how to walk the paths of God – it is so easy to in our spiritual lives to behave as we do in a supermarket.  We wander through and pick up the things that attract us, that are easy, that do not challenge us and leave the rest.  We need to see, to hear, to speak, to walk with God but we cannot do these alone. In short we need God’s mercy.  And what better time to say yes to that mercy than during this season of Advent.

Photo(s) of the Month - December 2015

We are continuing our celebration of sixty years of ministry at the National Shrine of Saint Jude with our photo of the month. This month, we are pleased to show some photos of the new Shrine Information Centre, which was opened by the Archbishop of Southwark, Most Rev Peter Smith in October. 

The Saint Jude management team with the Archbishop and Mayor of Faversham

Archbishop Peter Smith unveils the new plaque

One of the letters congratulating the Shrine on its sixty years.

 

The Archbishop and Mayor of Faversham look at the new display in the Shrine Information Centre

You can view many more photos taken by Johan via the Carmelite Flickr site, here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbcarmelite/albums/72157660526533822, and read the report about the Feast Day, here: http://carmelite.org/index.php?nuc=news&func=view&item=1229

Photos (c) Carmelite Charitable Trust and Johan Bergstrom-Allen

‪#‎GivingTuesday‬

Today is ‪#‎GivingTuesday‬ (1st December in 2015), which is a global day of giving. After the sales of Black Friday and the online shopping boom on Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday is an opportunity to come together to show the world why it’s good to give. Whether it’s making a donation, volunteering your time or just spreading the word at the start of the Christmas shopping season, #GivingTuesday is a call to action for everyone who wants to give something back.

If you want to donate towards the work of the National Shrine of Saint Jude, please take a look at our on-line shop, here: tinyurl.com/stjudeshop or for other ways to donate, please visit:http://www.carmelite.org/index.php?nuc=content&id=120

THANK YOU