Newman House: April 2007

(Famous) Thought for the week from Cardinal Newman

Yesterday was Good Shepherd Sunday, and the annual "Vocations Sunday". This is an oft-quoted thought about vocation from Cardinal Newman

God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

An annual event at Newman House

Russell could no longer stand Chris looking like this

So he took matters into his own hands.

Like a lamb to the slaughter!

While the crowds bayed for a more thorough job!

Confirmation Mass with Bishop John Arnold

(Russell has posted Vito's photos of the Confirmation Mass on Flicker. To see all of them go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/newmanhouse/)

Confirmation 2007 Part 2

Prayer for the Gifts of the Spirit

"Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit"

Be strong and faithful!

Confirmation 2007 Part 1

Bishop John enjoying the Rite of Sprinkling

The Homily: Do something significant for Christ

The confirmands renewing their baptismal promises

The Laying on of hands

The Easter Vigil Part 4

John incensing Fr Brian, Fr Peter and Fr Casimir

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us: therefore let us celebrate the Feast!

Tom: received into full communion

The candle by the Tabernacle is lit: Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

The Easter Vigil Part 3

Ingrid is clothed in the white garment: You have put on Christ!

Four other young people were also received into full communion with the Catholic Church:

Edward is received

Kristian is confirmed

Alice: Peace be with you!

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Picture of Tom in the next post

The Easter Vigil Part 2

Delali Sefe reading one of the Old Testament prophecies

At the blessing of the Font, which was masterfully constructed for us by Russell

Ingrid is baptised (and yes, the water was warm!)

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

There was a loud burst of spontaneous applause as she emerged reborn from the waters of baptism.

The congregation being sprinkled after renewing their baptismal promises

The Easter Vigil at Newman House Part 1

The congregation waiting for the blessing of the fire

The Easter fire is blessed

Marking the Paschal Candle

Chris sings the Exsultet

Faith & Politics: Catholic Parliamentary Interns

Since 2004, Newman House has been a partner in the Catholic Parliamentary Internship scheme. Three interns spend a year working with a Christian MP, undertake a course of studies at Heythrop College. They make visits to the constituencies, to various government and EU departments and agencies, and usually pay a visit to the Vatican. Another part of their package is that they live as part of the student community at Newman House. There are two further interns who are based in Brussels.

The London interns for 2007-8 will be John Shinkwin, William Blair and Dominic Berner. We asked them to share their thoughts on being awarded their places on the scheme.

Dom Berner: “It is a very exciting prospect spending 10 months in such an eclectic and communal environment! At the same time, I am anticipating a significant challenge in helping my MP, which I’m sure, will be stimulating. I hope to learn a great deal from those I will be living with and those I will be working with in Westminster. I am so grateful to be given this opportunity, which, I’m sure will be a healthy mix of politics, spirituality and friendship!”

Will Blair: “I've always had a great interest in politics, and when I heard about the CPI scheme it sounded absolutely perfect for me - not just because of the close involvement in British Parliamentary politics (which sounds amazing!) but also the spiritual context of the programme which, I hope, will provide me with a greater means of understanding and discovering what I want to do with my life in the future - not an easy question! After 3 years at Oxford I feel I've still got a fair way to go in answering it, and I'm absolutely thrilled to have something as exciting as this scheme lined up for me in September.”

John Shinkwin: “Working in Parliament, studying ethics at Heythrop and living at Newman House seem to form a rather splendid combination. I am very excited about working for an MP, and look forward to the energetic life of the Westminster jungle, mixed with study of the theoretical basis of social action. I'm also looking forward to living and working alongside Will and Dom, and am glad that we three interns will be rooted in such an obviously vibrant community of fellow Catholics.”

The scheme is run by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for Catholic graduates, and you can find out more information about it here:
http://www.catholicchurch.org.uk/internships/

Easter Meditation from Cardinal Newman

We, too, though we are not witnesses of Christ's actual resurrection, are so spiritually. By a heart awake from the dead, and by affections set on heaven, we can as truly and without figure witness that Christ liveth, as they did. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Truth bears witness by itself to its Divine Author. He who obeys God conscientiously, and lives holily, forces all about him to believe and tremble before the unseen power of Christ. To the world indeed at large he witnesses not; for few can see him near enough to be moved by his manner of living. But to his neighbours he manifests the Truth in proportion to their knowledge of him; and some of them, through God's blessing, catch the holy flame, cherish it, and in their turn transmit it. And thus in a dark world Truth still makes way in spite of the darkness, passing from hand to hand. And thus it keeps its station in high places, acknowledged as the creed of nations, the multitude of which are ignorant, the while, on what it rests, how it came there, how it keeps its ground; and despising it, think it easy to dislodge it. But "the Lord reigneth." He is risen from the dead, "His throne is established of old; He is from everlasting. The floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. His testimonies are very sure; holiness becometh His house forever.

Surrexit Christus! Alleluia!

Easter Joy to all!

We had a magnificent celebration of the Easter Vigil. Pictures will be up in a week or so. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make the celebration such a joyous, magnificent occasion - especially Chris and all the musicians, and all who laboured all day to make the Chapel sparkle.

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Please pray for Ingrid, who was baptised, and for Kristian, Alice, Ed and Tom who were received into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Good Friday

Solemn Celebration

of the Lord's Passion

3pm

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The greatest day of infamy in human history. The only truly just man, the one human being who has been fully human, fully alive, is condemned by humanity to ignominious death, despised and rejected. This day the Cross is held before humanity like a mirror: goodness and truth have come to you, and this is how you respond. This is you, unadorned, without your fig-leaves. The Cross reveals humanity to itself.

But more importantly, the Cross reveals God to us. “God is such that he identifies himself with man, right down into this abyss and he judges him by saving him. In the abyss of human denial is revealed the still more nexhaustible abyss of the divine love”. (Jospeh Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity). Because of this revelation of divine love, we can dare to call today “Good” Friday.

St Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified around noon, and died around 3pm:

And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him... And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour. Mark 15:25, 33.

It is for this reason the Liturgy begins at 3pm. We might appropriately spend the 3 hours during which Jesus suffered in quiet prayer individually.

Today’s Liturgy is stark, dramatic and powerful. In complete silence the priest and servers enter. The priest then prostrates himself, while all kneel: we abase ourselves because humanity has abased the Lord; we fall to our knees in recognition of what humanity has done.

After we rise, the priest immediately says the Opening Prayer and we listen to the Scriptures.

The Passion is narrated as it was done on Palm Sunday, today the Passion according to St John. Again the congregation gives voice to the crowds who rejected the Lord. Each one of us rejects the Lord in some way; each one of us fails to be fully human, fully honest, fully just. No human being is an innocent bystander in the rejection of the Son of Man. Once again we kneel when we reach the moment of the Lord’s death.

After the homily we offer the Solemn Prayers of Good Friday: for the Church, the Pope, the faithful, those engaged in public affairs, catechumens, the needs of the faithful, unity, the Jewish people, those who reject Christ. These intentions are called the Great Intercessions, and we kneel after each.

Then the Cross is brought in, preceded by incense, and elevated three times. After each elevation we kneel. We kneel three times because the Lord was mocked three times: in the high priest's courtyard, in Pilate's house, and on Mt. Calvary. The Cross we use contains a relic of the True Cross, and we come up to kiss and venerate the instrument of our redemption. The priest first takes off his shoes, like Moses before God, which we might all do as well.

Meanwhile the choir sing the Improperia (the Reproaches) of Christ, in which Our Lord reminds of us all He has done for us and our ingratitude towards Him: “O my people! What have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me!” The verses sing of our salvation history and the great things God has done for us. But despite all that, the Cross stands before us: “O my people! What have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me!”

After all have venerated the Cross, it is placed on a stand, where we might spend some time in prayer at any time throughout the rest of the day, and we all sing “When I survey the wondrous Cross”.

The priest then goes to the Altar of Repose to fetch the Blessed Sacrament. We receive Holy Communion, receiving Hosts consecrated at yesterday's Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Following the Prayer after Communion, all depart in silence.

Holy is God!
Holy and Strong!
Holy and Immortal one – Have mercy on us!

Maundy Thursday

Mass of the Lord's Supper 7.30pm

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Today we begin the Triduum - the three great days which are at the centre of our salvation

The word "Maundy" is a corruption of the latin word mandatum, meaning commandment. It is the name given to today because of the Lord's novum mandatum, his new commandment:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. Jn 13: 34

Jesus gives us this new commandment after having washed his disciples' feet. It is the night before his death, his betrayer has already left the room in order to hand him over to the authorities. And Jesus declares "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him". Jn 13:31

The Jewish Passover celebrated God's act of rescue, when he set the People of Israel free from slavery and bondage in Egypt, and led them to the Promised Land. At the "Last Supper" Jesus radically transforms that story giving us the Passover meal of the new covenant: the Eucharist. We are set free from slavery to sin and are led into the promised land of our heavenly home.

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Love is at the very heart of the Gospel of our Blessed Lord. Pope Benedict has reminded us of this so powerfully by his two important teaching documents thus far: his first Engyclical Letter, Deus Caritas est - God is Love and his Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis - The Sacrament of Love.

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The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love, and tonight we celebrate this great gift to the Church, which the Lord gave us on the night before he died. The link between the Cross and the Eucharist is central to what we as Catholics believe about the Mass. This is our Sacrifice, this is the Sacrament of our Salvation.

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"Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him". Tonight's Mass begins with the hymn We should glory in the Cross of Christ, based on the entrance antiphon of the Mass. We also sing to the glory of God as the Gloria makes a brief, restrained, return this evening, having been absent from the Liturgy since Ash Wednesday.

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How is it that we can "glory" in the Cross, the great evil instrument of torture and death of the Roman Empire? It is because it is the great sign of the length to which God goes to redeem us: His only Son is himself the victim. The Cross is at the centre of the Triduum - it looms over this evening, it is stained with the Blood of the Lamb on Good Friday, it is empty on Easter Sunday. Love's redeeming work is done in all these events.

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The cross at Newman House, containing a Relic of the True Cross

A new Commandment - love one another". The message of love is deepened by the particular ritual tonight of the washing of feet. At the Last Supper, the Lord, the suffering servant, washed his disciples' feet, telling them that he was leaving them an example of service. So tonight the priest washes the feet of a representative number of the faithful in a ritual known in latin as the pedilavium. This is not only a sign of the priest's own call to serve the People of God, but a sign of the service that the Lord still renders to us, giving us the commandment to follow his example of love and service. It is a prelude to the great washing we receive in our baptism, which we will celebrate at Easter.

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Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, performing the pedilavium in Rome.

The ritual of service completed we move to the great passover meal of the new covenant: the Eucharist. As the people of Israel celebrated their deliverance from slavery, with the blood of the lamb having been signed on their doorposts, so we celebrate our deliverance from sin and death through the blood of the Lamb of God. Jesus took the bread and wine of the passover meal and consecrated them as his Body and Blood. How sublime a mystery! How great a treasure we have been given! So tonight we receive the Eucharist in joy, in anticipation of partaking of the great heavenly banquet of the Lamb of God.

But the shadows draw in, and the joyful celebration begins to give way as a more sombre mood closes in on us. There is no blessing at the end of Mass. Instead we transfer the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose, going in Procession singing the solemn praises of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The Altar of Repose resembles the Garden of Gethsemane in which the final agonised hours of Jesus are spent, before he is handed over to his enemies. He prays that most pure prayer: Father, thy will be done. And he invites us to "watch and pray". So we keep watch with the Lord. (At Newman House we also have a now established tradition of going to visit the Altars of Repose in our neighbouring churches, as a sign of our communion and fellowship). The Watch is kept until midnight, when we disperse as the disciples did. For already the day of the Lord's Passion has arrived.

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The Altar of Repose at Newman House

The Chrism Mass

One celebration in Holy Week that is largely unknown to most people is the Chrism Mass. This is meant to be celebrated on the morning of Maundy Thursday in the Cathedral, although for good reason it can also take place at another time and another place. In our Diocese of Westminster it is celebrated on the Tuesday of Holy Week at Westminster Cathedral.

At the Chrism Mass, the Bishop gathers with all the priests of his diocese for a joyful celebration. It is not often that all the priests of a diocese can get together, so the Chrism Mass is usually a time of great conviviality, a celebration of the unity of the diocese with its bishop.

The Cardinal and his auxiliary bishops: Bernard Longley, George Stack, Alan Hopes and John Arnold

There are two parts to the Chrism Mass. The first is the Renewal of Priestly Vows. This is a fairly recent addition to the ritual, and one of the fruits of the liturgical renewal following the Second Vatican Council. At the Easter Vigil we all renew the promises of our baptism, because we have died and risen with Christ. On Maundy Thursday we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, and also the Lord's commandment for us to love and serve one another. It is particularly appropriate therefore for priests to reflect on this day on their vocation, which is to love and serve God's people, and care for them especially through the celebration of the sacraments. It is also a good day for all the People of God to pray for their priests, and to pray for vocations to the priesthood.

The second part is the blessing of the oils which will be used in the coming year. The oil used is always the purest olive oil and it is blessed at the Chrism Mass to make the three holy oils:

The Oil of the Sick - used in the Sacrament of Healing. Whenever we are seriously ill (the condition being serious is important: hayfever or a blocked nose is not really serious!) we should ask a priest for this sacrament. It is a reminder to us that God never abandons us and is always longing to save us and raise us up.
The Oil of Catechumens - used to anoint those who are preparing for Baptism. It is a sign of God's strengthening those who are seeking to follow his son, and a rejection of Satan who is exorcised from those approaching baptism.
The Oil of Chrism - used to anoint the baptised at their confirmation, and those being ordained. A sweet smelling perfume is mixed with the oil, and the bishop breathes over it during the consecration prayer. Christ means the anointed one, Christian is a follower of Christ, an anointed one as well. This is the great sacrament by which we are indeed anointed, chrismated. Priests are anointed on their palms at their ordination, and bishops on their heads, a sign of their consecration to God's service. (Interesting aside: when the sick are anointed, their palms are anointed. Priests, however, are traditionally anointed on the back of their hands, because their palms were anointed at their ordination).

The ordination of Bishop John Arnold in 2006. Bishop John will be visiting Newman House to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation on 29th April this year.

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After the Chrism Mass the priests all collect their supplies of oil for use in their parishes for the coming year. We then welcome the Holy oils at the beginning of the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Maundy Thursday.