Author Archives: John Andrews

Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

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A faith that is eager and firm

Cornelius was made bishop of the church in Rome in the year 251. He fought against the Novatian schismatics, and established his authority with the aid of Cyprian.
  The emperor Gallus sent him into exile, and he died at Civitavecchia in June 253. He is buried in Rome.
Cyprian was born in Carthage and spent most of his life in the practice of the law. He was converted to Christianity, and was made bishop of Carthage in 249. He steered the church through troubled times, including the persecution of the emperor Decius, when he went into hiding so as to be able to continue looking after the church. In 258 the persecution of the emperor Valerian began. Cyprian was first exiled and then, on the 14th of September, executed, after a trial notable for the calm and courtesy shown by both sides.
  Cyprian’s many letters and treatises shed much light on a formative period in the Church’s history, and are valuable both for their doctrine and for the picture they paint of a group of people in constant peril of their lives but still determined to keep the faith. One of his letters, addressed to Cornelius, is read in today's office of Readings.

Our Lady of Sorrows

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His mother stood by the cross

The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord’s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say to Mary: And your own heart will be pierced by a sword.
  Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus – who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours – gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering.
  Or were those words, Woman, behold your Son, not more than a word to you, truly piercing your heart, cutting through to the division between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is given to you in place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple in place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a mere man replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your most loving heart, when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours, hearts of iron and stone though they are!
  Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants.
  Perhaps someone will say: “Had she not known before that he would not die?” Undoubtedly. “Did she not expect him to rise again at once?” Surely. “And still she grieved over her crucified Son?” Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.
St Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor

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they are not Angles, but Angels...

the famous quip, attributed to St Gregory, works in Latin (his native language) as well as English - he would have spoken

Non Angli, sed angeli.

The story is that he sent Augustine (feast day last Thursday) to England because he saw young slave children in the market in Rome. There were other reasons to send August to England (as we came to be known) and Pope Gregory may have had an invitation from King Aethelberht of Kent. In what feels like a step too far, he is also said to have made another pun on the roman province that the children had come from, Deira. He went on to add that they would be rescued from de ira (from the wrath).

Certainly many English churches, including of course our own, are dedicated to this Pope Saint, who for whatever reason decided to send the good news here in 596 AD. He also wrote including a manual on Pastoral life.

Tuesday of week 22 in Ordinary Time

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Christ died for us so that we might live with him.

The first letter to the Thessalonians is likely to have been the first letter written by St Paul (of those that have survived, he probably wrote many more letters!).

Paul and his correspondents lived within a hostile and pagan culture - sounds familiar? The letters are full of encouragement and advice on how to survive. Paul had founded the christian community at thesalonika on his journeys (See Acts chapter 16). Then as he continued on his travels he wrote to them and very probably got letters back from them (how sad it is that these are not preserved!).

Todays' text from Chapter 5 of the letter encourages us to not worry about when that day will come for our return to heaven. We need to trust, have faith - we will be where we belong in God's own good time.

St Teresa Margaret Redi of the Sacred Heart

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The mother of St Augustine

Teresa Margaret was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 1747 of the noble Redi family and baptised Anna Maria. At the age of nine, she was sent to a boarding school run by Benedictine nuns, St Apollonia’s in Florence. At the age of sixteen, as her time of schooling came to an end, Anna Maria discerned a call to religious life. During this time, in a quiet experience of prayer it became clear that she was called to the life of Carmel. She entered the Discalced Carmelites in Florence in 1764, taking the name Teresa of the Sacred Heart. Her writings and charity within the community attested to a deep interior life. On one occasion she writes of a special contemplative experience concerning the words of St John, “God is Love.” She worked with care and compassion in the community infirmary. A sudden onset of ill-health, in 1770, ended with her death, aged twenty-three.

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

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1 Corinthians 1:1-9; Psalm 144(145):2-7; Mark 6:17-29

The beheading of St John the Baptist is hardly a cheerful story, it shows humanity at its degraded worst. Originally told by Mark, who was much less condemnatory of Herod and rather more of the women involved in the story, through abbreviation of the story Matthew clearly puts all the blame onto Herod. In contrast, Mark goes into detail about the courtly drama that led to the murder of John and moves the blame more unto the women involved.

In Mark's Gospel there is no immediate reaction from Jesus about John's death. The next episode sees the apostles reporting to Jesus all that they had been doing, and Jesus is immediately concerned for their welfare, and takes them away to rest - a post ministry retreat we would say nowadays. So Mark treats the beheading of John in an isolated way, just it seems reporting the facts and leaving the response to us.

Perhaps Mark was trying to present to his readers the nature of Jesus' love for us, so strong that his own grief is of no importance to him. For our part we need to remember in our dark hours, when we might feel alone in bereavement or that very real sense of loss when we hear of murder, death and evil in the world today - that our Saviour Jesus also had those feelings. Through his Love, Jesus made healing the path through his bereavement. Through His love, we can make our path through our own loss.

Enquiry 3 – Who is Jesus?

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These are the session notes for Thursday 28th August.

One of the questions that came up concerned the nature of Christ's real human nature and simultaneous real divine nature. Here is a very short clip from Bishop Barron who explain the two natures of Jesus and the council of Chalcedon of 451.

The Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD was the fourth ecumenical council, convened by Emperor Marcian to resolve Christological debates, specifically the nature of Jesus Christ. It defined Christ as one person in two distinct natures, fully divine and fully human, without confusion, change, division, or separation. This declaration, known as the Chalcedonian Definition, affirmed the teachings of previous councils and set doctrine for the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. However, it created a lasting schism with the Oriental Orthodox churches, who held a different view on Christ's two natures and one will.
https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/bishop-barrons-commentaries/how-can-jesus-be-both-god-and-human/

READINGS FROM THE YOUCAT FOR THIS SESSION

Please click here for general advice about the YouCat and how to use the readings. Here are the readings that go with this week’s Sycamore session:

  • #86 to #112 – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus [13 pages]

NB the numbers (#) refer to paragraph numbers in the YouCat and not to page numbers. The number in [square brackets] at the end tells you roughly how long this passage is in terms of the pages you need to read (excluding picture pages).

 

LONGER READINGS FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

If you have more time, and if you want to go deeper into the topic of this session, you can follow up by exploring the longer Catechism of the Catholic Church. See the standard online version here, and a digital “flip-book” edition here. Here are the readings that go with this week’s Sycamore session:

NB the numbers (#) refer to paragraph numbers in the Catechism and not to page numbers. Click on the links themselves to read the paragraphs in the online version.

 

WISDOM FROM THE BIBLE

Mark 1:32-34

“That evening, at sunset, they brought to Jesus all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons”.

Matthew 7:28-29

“Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

Luke 9:22

Jesus says to his disciples: “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised”

John 11:25-26

Jesus says to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”.

John 19:16-19

“So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’”

Luke 24:5-6

The angels say to the women at the tomb of Jesus: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

Acts 10:39-41

St Peter says: “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:3-5

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”

 

Films and Key Ideas

4A – He came to bring life to the world

The four Gospels in the bible are historical accounts of the life of Jesus, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are based on eye-witness testimonies.

You see Jesus touching the lives of people in extraordinary ways. In the village of Bethsaida, he touched the eyes of a man who was completely blind, and healed him. In the town of Nain, when he saw a woman grieving for her dead son, he touched the body, and the man was brought back to life.

When a storm lashed against the boat he was in, he shouted into the wind and the waves and brought everything to a sudden calm. In the village of Cana, when there was no drink left at a wedding, he turned water into wine.

These miracles are not just fairy tales or myths. There were hundreds of witnesses. The people of Galilee were not fools. They knew how to spot a fake wonderworker.

When he taught, they felt that the wisdom of God was speaking through him. When he forgave sins, they felt that the mercy of God was reaching out to touch them. When he prayed, it seemed that there was no distance between earth and heaven. He was fixing a world that had somehow become broken.

And wherever he went, he brought people together and invited them into his friendship. No-one was excluded, apart from those who excluded themselves. He called this unusual community the Church.

Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. It was as if he was opening a door into a completely new way of life. He called it the Kingdom of God. It was something the Jewish People had been promised for many centuries, and something that all people were secretly longing for.

4B – The Saving Death of Jesus

Christians believe that Jesus gave his life for us by dying on the cross, and then rose from the dead on the third day, in the glory of the resurrection.  His death brings us peace with God, and the hope of eternal life. It brings healing. And it brings forgiveness for what the bible calls sin, which is all the wrong we have done and all the harm we have caused. But why did he have to die?

The Son of God became human because he wanted to be with us. He wanted to enter into the deepest reality of human experience; to share not just our joy but also our loneliness, our suffering, our darkness; so that no-one, anywhere, could ever say they had been abandoned by God.

He let himself be tortured and executed like a common criminal. It was a desire to come close to all those who suffer, and lead them out to a better place.

Imagine if you discovered that you were only alive because someone had given their life for you. Well this is the reality. Jesus offered his life on the cross for each one of us, personally. He did this out of love – love for each one of us, for you, for me. He carried on his shoulders the weight of every human sin and the burden of every human suffering.

The cross of Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. It undoes all the damage that has ever been done and sets us free. It was of infinite value because the one saying Yes was the Son of God. All we need to do is to unite our yes with his, and try to love him in return.

4C – The meaning of the Resurrection

Christians believe that Jesus died and was raised to life on the third day by God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. He appeared to his friends and disciples – teaching them and sharing his life with them.

After forty days, he was taken up into heaven, body and soul, to be with the Father. Then, on the feast of Pentecost, he sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church, so that all people could share in this new life.

When he rose from the dead, Jesus did not just come back to his old life; he entered into a completely new way of being. His human body is now glorified, sharing in God’s eternal life. This is a new creation, freed from suffering and death. The resurrection is a symbol of hope, a sign of God’s victory over sin and evil.

As Christ rises from the tomb he lifts us out of the spiritual darkness that we are in, bringing us to a place of safety. We just need to reach out and take his hand.

The death and resurrection of Jesus are not just stories. It’s amazing to discover that Jesus Christ is alive. That he died out of love for me and for you, personally. That he rose from the dead out of love for me and for you, personally. And that he invites us to share his life in a very personal way.

We can respond to this amazing knowledge by taking a step of faith. It simply means to put your trust in Jesus Christ. To say to him, aloud or in your heart, “Jesus, I believe in you”; or even “Jesus, help me to believe in you”.

Saint Monica

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She was born at Thagaste in Africa of a Christian family. She was married young, to Patricius, and among her children was Augustine. He had a brilliant intellect and uncertain morals and his wayward spiritual career saw him at one time a Manichee and then a Neoplatonist. With many tears she prayed unceasingly to God for his conversion and her prayers were answered shortly before she died. She had a deep faith and outstanding virtue and is a wonderful example of a Christian mother.
Collect
O God, who console the sorrowful
and who mercifully accepted
the motherly tears of Saint Monica
for the conversion of her son Augustine,
grant us, through the intercession of them both,
that we may bitterly regret our sins
and find the grace of your pardon.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Our Lady of Częstochowa

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Although not in the liturgical calendar for our diocese - It is I feel worthy to remember her today. Precious to many Polish people, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa is represented in a fine Icon - and our Parish Church is blessed by a fine copy of this painting near to our Lady's Altar, at the front of the Church. Cheltenham has a faithful Polish community, some originating from WWII and the formation of GCHQ in the town, others more recently arrived.

The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is a revered icon of the Virgin Mary housed at the Jasna Góra Monastery at Częstochowa, in Poland. It has been venerated for at least 600 years and many miracles are attributed to the intercession of Our Lady. Częstochowa is the most popular shrine in Poland and a noted centre of pilgrimage.
Ballade to Our Lady of Częstochowa
Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold
  And very Regent of the untroubled sky,
Whom in a dream St Hilda did behold
  And heard a woodland music passing by:
  You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
  And this is that in which I mean to die.
Steep are the seas and savaging and cold
  In broken waters terrible to try;
And vast against the winter night the wold,
  And harbourless for any sail to lie.
  But you shall lead me to the lights, and I
Shall hymn you in a harbour story told.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
  And this is that in which I mean to die.
Help of the half-defeated, House of Gold,
  Shrine of the Sword, and Tower of Ivory;
Splendour apart, supreme and aureoled,
  The Battler’s vision and the World’s reply.
  You shall restore me, O my last Ally,
To vengeance and the glories of the bold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
  And this is that in which I mean to die.
Envoi
Prince of the degradations, bought and sold,
  These verses, written in your crumbling sty,
Proclaim the faith that I have held and hold
  And publish that in which I mean to die.
Hilaire Belloc

Monday of week 21 in Ordinary Time

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You turned to God from idols, to wait for his Son whom he raised from the dead.

The first letter to the Thessalonians is one of many written by the apostles to the growing communities of believers in the good news in 1st Century Palestine. No doubt there were many more letters written than we have surviving copies, and most of the ones we have were written or attributed to Paul. They are masterful examples of pastoral care. The recipients were persecuted for their faith - the letters are overflowing with encouragement and courtesy. As a result they are very 'readable' to modern ears. They certainly repay many times over the small effort required to pick one of them up and read it through.

If you do - read it as addressed to you personally. Take the advice, and be reassured by the love evident in the writing from Paul.