Blogging - labels, tags . . .

I've just added a gadget to the side-bar which links to all the various 'tags' or 'labels' that you see underneath each post.  You'll find it right at the bottom of the side-bar at the right-hand side of the page.

I hope you'll find this useful.  The idea is that it will help you if you are looking for a post on a particular subject.

Rather a pleasing side-effect is that it shows how many posts have been written with the same 'label' and the more the subject has been blogged about, the larger the font of the label.

It was encouraging to see certain 'favourite' important topics that have been covered more frequently than others.  For example; 'Confession' 26 times! The same number for 'Feast Days'. And 'Liturgy', 'Holy Mass' and 'Marriage' all come in at 12 mentions each.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions . . . 

An Excellent Talk on the Holy Mass . . .

Last night about 50 of us gathered in St Ann's parish hall to welcome back Fr James Bradley and to listen to his talk on the Holy Mass.  It was good to see quite a few of our Confirmation candidates present too.  I'm sure they gained a lot from the evening.

I think I can safely say that we were not disappointed.

Fr James gave a detailed explanation and exploration of the Holy Mass, taking us through the liturgy of the Mass beginning at the very beginning with the priest vesting in the sacristy and guiding us through the introductory rite, to the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist and finally to the dismissal at the end of the Mass.

Looking at people's faces, I would say that all present were following Fr James' exposition closely and with great interest.

Fr James also spoke at some length about the reception of Holy Communion at Mass; about the way in which we physically receive Holy Communion, our internal disposition and our state of worthiness.

After speaking for almost an hour, which seemed to fly by, Fr James took some interesting questions from some of those present including a question on the new translation of the Missal and the position of the cross at the centre of the altar, as seen in Masses celebrated by Pope Benedict, and now by many other priests around the world.

We are now looking forward to our third and final talk from Fr James in this series which will be on Tuesday 5th February when the subject will be 'Prayer'.

I do hope to see the hall full once more.  All are welcome.

An idea for the Year of Faith . . .

Are you looking for ways to deepen your knowledge and understanding of our Catholic faith in this Year of Faith?

This looks like an ideal way to do this. 'School of Faith' is a new study course on the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the Year of Faith.

There are 12 talks from a variety of excellent speakers.  You can go to any individual talk or register for the full course.  The course runs from 9th January to 23rd March 2013 and takes place at the Archdiocese of Southwark's Centre for Catholic Formation in Tooting Bec Road.

I do encourage anyone who is interested to go along.  I'm sure you will find it very helpful.

Fr James Bradley - Talk on Reconciliation . . .

I hope you all have these dates in your diary:

Tuesday 6th November:  Fr James Bradley on Reconciliation

Tuesday 4th December:   Fr James Bradley on The Holy Mass

Tuesday 5th February:     Fr James Bradley on Prayer

Fr James Bradley is a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and much in demand as a speaker.   We are very fortunate that he has kindly agreed to come and give us three talks on key subjects of great importance to all of us.

Those who were able to attend the beautiful opening Mass of our Forty Hours Devotion will recognise Fr James as the celebrant on that occasion.

Although primarily arranged for the parents of our First Holy Communion children and our Confirmation candidates as part of our sacramental programmes, everyone is invited to attend any or all of the talks.   Especially in this Year of Faith when Pope Benedict has encouraged all of us to look more deeply at our Catholic faith,  I do urge you to come along if you possibly can to hear what Fr James has to say. It would be lovely to have a full hall on each of these Tuesday evenings.

All of the talks begin at 7.45pm and will be finished by 9.00pm.

Advanced notice.  Tuesday 5th March:  Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith on Marriage and Family Life.

Please make sure you have this date in your diary too.  Fr Lucie-Smith is a priest of our diocese and writes regularly for the Catholic Herald.

Why 'Forty' Hours . . . ?

Someone kindly left a comment on my last post about our recent 40 Hours Devotion asking about the origins of the devotion.  Here is a brief explanation of the reasons and history behind the 40 Hours Devotion.

For us Catholics, the Mass is our central act of worship.  It is an act that participates in the eternal reality of Our Lord's passion, death and resurrection.  Many Catholics also wish to be able to pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass.  

The Second Vatican Council upheld and strongly encouraged adoration of the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass.  Such devotion arises from the Sacrifice of the Mass and serves to move us to both sacramental and spiritual communion with Our Lord.  Blessed John Paul II repeatedly highly recommended public and private devotion of the Blessed Sacrament including procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of Corpus Christi and the 40 Hours Devotion.

The number 40 has historically, since very ancient times, signified a 'sacred' period of time. 

The rain during the time of Moses lasted 40 days and nights; the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years before arriving at the Promised Land; Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days before beginning his public ministry; we observe Lent for 40 days and we also remember the tradition 40 hour period from Our Lord's burial until his resurrection.

40 Hours Devotion . . .

On Thursday Our 40 Hours Devotion came to end with a beautiful Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This was followed by a Mass of Thanksgiving for all the graces poured out on our parish during the 40 Hours. I have no doubt that these are many and we shall see their impact in the days, weeks, months and even, years to come.

After the parish Mass, many of those present came together in our parish meeting room to celebrate and reflect on their experiences whilst enjoying a cup of tea or coffee and a piece of cake.

It was wonderful to see the excitement and joy on people's faces as they talked about the recent 40 Hours Devotion. All the comments I heard were very positive. People were very moved by the beautiful Solemn Mass of Exposition on Tuesday evening.

I was delighted that Fr James Bradley of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was able to accept my invitation to preside at the Mass and also to preach. I know many people were impressed with the beautiful liturgy and gained a lot from Fr James' homily.

Another very encouraging 'fruit' of the devotion was the number of people who came for Confession over the three days. A great blessing.

Several people commented that they felt sad that it was all over and many asked, 'when can we do it again?'

Of course we will do it again - next year, God-willing.

The 40 Hours Devotion provides a wonderful opportunity for us all to grow in holiness individually and for the spiritual growth of our parish as a whole.

In our world today, where we are see evil all around us, where there is a decline in devotion to the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament, and where many no longer see the need for Confession, this is even more important than ever.

40 Hours? Year of Faith? Jubilee Year? What's it all about?

There does seem to be a lot happening at the moment; both in our own parish and in our diocese, and even in the Catholic Church as a whole.

I'm sure it might be confusing for some people, and as it's not possible to do more than publicise events in the weekly bulletin I thought I'd make an attempt to 'flesh out' some of the events I refer to in the title of this post.

Firstly, the 40 Hours' Devotion.

As the name suggests this is a period of continuous Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance on the altar for 40 hours.

It is quite an undertaking for a parish the size of ours but we have held the 40 Hours Devotion very successfully not once, but twice in recent years which is very encouraging as it is an indicator of a parish with a healthy spiritual life.

In 2011 we held the 40 Hours Devotion in thanksgiving for the 75th Anniversary of our parish. This year we have planned our 40 Hours Devotion to prepare for the Year of Faith which begins in October 2012. Please see the sidebar of this blog for the dates and times of our 40 Hours Devotion and also the link to the Year of Faith.

I'm delighted that Fr James Bradley has agreed to preside at the opening Mass on Tuesday 4th September.

Fr James is a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. I know some of you will know a little about the Ordinariate and for some it will be a complete 'unknown'. We are looking forward to hearing a little about the Ordinariate when Fr James comes to see us but meanwhile you may like to have a look at their website to get ahead of the game.

Here is a very helpful explanation of the establishment of the Ordinariate taken from the website:

'In November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum Coetibus' stating, "In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually and corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favourably to such petitions. Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realisation."

Thus on 15th January 2011 The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was erected by decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the then Fr Keith Newton was appointed as its first Ordinary. Fr Keith Newton has since been elevated to Monsignor Keith Newton.

I hope my brief introduction has whetted your appetite to learn more and you will come along to our opening Mass on Tuesday 4th September at 7.00pm. All are warmly invited. Bring your friends!

I have gone on rather more than I had intended with my introduction to the Ordinariate. I'm afraid I have let my enthusiasm run away with me.

I will give you a very brief summary of The Year of Faith here and hope to come back to the subject soon in more detail.

Do please follow the link and 'read all about it' as newspaper vendors always used to say. Do they still say that, I wonder?

On Sunday 16th October 2011 Pope Benedict announced a 'Year of Faith' to run from 11th October 2012, the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, to 24th November 2013, The Feast of Christ the King.

In his Apostolic Letter, the Holy Father states, 'We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.'

To assist us to achieve these aims there will be talks given by a variety of speakers at parish, deanery and diocesan level, small group meetings and a variety of material in the form of booklets, videos and other materials. Do please keep your eyes on our parish noticeboards, website, Facebook etc. for ways that you can become involved in this exciting Year of Faith .

Finally, just a brief word about the Jubilee Year to avoid confusion. This is to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of our own Diocese of Arundel and Brighton which will actually be in 2015.

Leading up to 2015, we shall be looking at some of the major Documents of the Second Vatican Council, beginning with the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium).

Once again you can learn more about the Jubilee Year by following the link. There will also be small groups, talks and other ways to become involved.