Why This Blog Exists

I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church, the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world.

Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this "digital continent".

Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the "Good News" of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds! The Pope accompanies you with his prayers and his blessing.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Then I Must Obey, Then I Must Follow Him

Let's try another approach to the entry I had on Sunday. What we shall do is simply ask the question: Is becoming a Catholic an individual or a corporate decision? The obvious answer seems to me to be that a corporate group comes and individually each member decides on their own personal integrity to sign up or not. So a group who decided they wanted to be reunited to the Catholic Church whose orders were not accepted by the Catholic Church would have to submit individually to the Catholic Church's teaching. Each individual would have to be looked at on their own terms due to all sorts of possible personal issues that may need addressing. Each would then have to be received and confirmed. These are individual decisions. When they take place would be up to the individual who seeks to be united to the corporate body.

The Catholic Church is not Anglican for obvious reasons. It is much more hierarchical than some may be willing to see or find suitable to their taste. The point that is important for someone who is asking the question for themselves about becoming a Catholic is to recognise that becoming a Catholic is to accept the Church as she is in her authority. When one comes to accept that authority and sees the truth that lies within that authority, while feeling the pain and tension of separation and loss by not being united to her, the question must be asked how long is one called to live with that? Is there a point in which perhaps we ask ourselves whether or not we are living true to ourselves? One of the things I often try to remind my children of when I speak to them about Christian virtues is the very important issue of integrity. I tell them that integrity is basically doing the right thing when nobody is looking. It is living in the truth of who we are and being settled with the sacrifice integrity sometimes asks us to make. I tell them that only we can make the decision to do this.

Then, as I teach my children the lesson of integrity as I work to nurture that virtue within them I must always be ready to live it out before them as well. My children asked me over the last few months of this year when they saw me struggling with issues or overheard me speaking to their mother why I didn't just become a Catholic since we really were Catholics. From the mouths of babes!

The temptations to which we are exposed to is primarily to be autonomous and choose for ourselves what we like or dislike. I have heard this many times in the context of ecclesial life by comments from priests who say they are more a S. Peter man than S. Paul or who believe S. Paul got many things wrong when writing about relationships or whatever. What happens to a group when we advocate a party mentality? When this happens in the context of the Church it loses its identity as HIS Body and becomes 'my party'. The Holy Father speaks of conversion stating that,

Indeed, the essence of conversion lies precisely in the fact that I cease to pursue a party of my own that safeguards my interests and conforms to my taste but that I put myself in his hands and become his, a member of his Body, the Church.

What I was concerned about not doing was to live by a theory of a party system that only answered to my 'personal' expectations and taste. It was not about my choosing what suited me in the form that I was willing to accept it. I could not have the externals of Catholicism without the heart of its authority backing me up and supporting what I did and believed about a Catholic life. At one point the question was brought to me as to whether or not I could give a congregation in the C of E my complete heart for a five year period. I asked myself, could I do this without constantly looking over to the other side of the Tiber knowing that my heart was lacking something by not being in full communion? I could not answer this question in the affirmative so rather than take on something in the future where my heart would in part be somewhere else I knew it was time for me to make the final leg of the journey God started me on in my theological pursuits 18 years ago.

This brings me to something very important about the question of faith in my life and what that meant. The Holy Father reminded me that faith

is not the selection of a programme that is to my liking or the joining of a club of friends in which I feel understood but is a conversion that transforms me and my taste along with it, or at least makes my taste and my wishes take second place. Faith penetrates to an entirely different depth than can be attained by a choice that pledges me to a party. Its power to change is so far-reaching that Scripture designates it as a new birth (1 Pet. 1:3; 23).

So, a party was nothing more than a self-governing society that attempts to organise itself along the lines acceptable to all its members democratically determined by the mechanisms of minority and majority. There is a quotation on the lower left column of this blog that speaks to this sort of an issue. Do give it a read. What happened then with regards to a decision about what I was to do was to come to the conclusion that my faith was not a decision about a cause that I liked and was willing to sign up to and support. For to do so was to actually be a sole actor who simply was trying to arrange my own house to be comfortable and that would hopefully appeal to as many as possible. I came to see that I could not confuse the Church with a party programme. Faith requires from me something much more than this. I abandon my taste and I submit myself to Him. The answer was made clear and it was a decision only I could make, 'Then I must obey, then I must follow him, even when he leads me where I do not wish to go' (Jn. 21:18).

Over at rorate caeli there is a fantastic quotation from the Holy Father's Vespers homily on Ss. Peter and Paul about how to think like an adult as a Catholic. Fantastic.

In the last few decades, the expression ‘adult faith’ [fede adulta, 'grown up faith'] has become a widespread slogan. It is often used in relation to the attitudes of those who no longer pay attention to what the Church and her Pastors say — which is to say, those who choose on their own what to believe or not to believe in a sort of ‘do-it-yourself’ faith. Expressing oneself against the Magisterium of the Church is presented as a sort of ‘courage’, whereas in fact not much courage is needed because one can be certain of receiving public praise.

Instead, courage is needed to adhere to the Church’s faith, even if it contradicts the 'order' of today’s world. Paul calls this non-conformism an ‘adult faith’. For him, following the prevailing winds and currents of the time is childish.

For this reason, it is part of an adult faith to dedicate oneself to the inviolability of life from its beginning, thus radically opposing the principle of violence, in defense precisely of the most defenseless. It is part of an adult faith to recognize the lifelong marriage between one man and one woman in accordance with the Creator’s order, re-established again by Christ. An adult faith does not follow any current here and there. It stands against the winds of fashion.

Benedict XVI

Pulled Post

If anyone is wondering what happened to the post I removed it. I am sorry to have to had to do this as I believed it was a valuable debate that could have been had with charity and objectivity as individuals are challenged about their decisions in the public realm when coming into communion with the See of Peter. I am completely confident in my decision to become a Catholic and will happily write what I hope to be encouraging posts about the theology underlying my decision and the joy I experience at being a Catholic and many other topics including issues in apologia of my move. The Holy Father encouraged the Internet and blogs to be used for the evangelisation of the Catholic Faith and this blog aims to be a positive contribution for that cause.

Converting to Catholicism is not a Move to Stop Thinking

To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think. It is so in exactly the same sense in which to recover from palsy is not to leave off moving but to learn how to move. The Catholic convert has for the first time a starting-point for straight and strenuous thinking. He has for the first time a way of testing the truth in any question that he raises. As the world goes, especially at present, it is the other people, the heathen and the heretics, who seem to have every virtue except the power of connected thought. There was indeed a brief period when a small minority did some hard thinking on the heathen or heretical side. It barely lasted from the time of Voltaire to the time of Huxley. It has now entirely disappeared. What is now called free thought is valued, not because it is free thought, but because it is freedom from thought; because it is free thoughtlessness. --G.K. Chesterton The Catholic Church and Conversion

The Catholic Church: A Magnet of Truth

Many questions are raised when an Anglican priest converts to the Catholic Church. What 'attracted' me to the Catholic Church was Truth and Authority. Our world is in dire need of truth and so often other ecclesial communities run from the truth. Periodically, we do that in our own private lives as well because when we have to really face the truth and the man in the mirror, if you will, it can be painful and one may need to become humble and admit wrongs. Working on a PhD in Eucharistic Sacrifice and looking at Andrewes as an ecumenist with Rome caused me to read Catholic theology much more sympathetically. That sympathetic reading turned me from fear to seeing the assurance of truth given in the Church that is backed by real apostolic authority. What freedoms does this truth bring? As a Catholic there are no more endless qualifications about my strand of ecclesilogy; there is no more looking over my shoulder when I teach or write about Catholic morality; there is no more endless wrangling about sacramental realism and assurance; but there is a church that I no longer have to defend or defend myself because I now have a Church that defends me. Theologically and ecclesiologically this is a magnet of truth. The only thing that alarmed me before I took my final step to act was the alarms in my head that what I was pondering was so very true. This is exactly Chesterton's point in his conversion. That is what I experienced at St. Peter's tomb that Friday morning on 17 April 2009.

No, I don't check my brain in at the door of the Vatican. But, my personal brain doesn't have the last word either. Where is the beauty in truth? I can now say to my wonderful six children, 'we don't do this or that because the Church says that is not true and in the best interest of God's people. And now my children don't respond, 'then why do some who lead the church do this or that if it is wrong?' In an age of disbelief, the truth of the Church is a magnet not only for me but for my family. Previously I, much like Chesterton, pulled against the Church out of fear; now I find myself being pulled towards it all the more.

I went back this evening and read the 197 comments of welcome and this reminded me of how the magnet of truth will attract many others eventually. I was not the first to swim from Anglicanism and I certainly won't be the last. There are so many courageous men and women who went before me which honestly helped to give me the courage to do the same. When people are honestly seeking truth and eventually come near the truth of the Catholic Church, its magnetic pull will unite Christians to the truthfulness of all that was feared. G.K. Chesterton describes it beautifully.

He has come too near to the truth, and has forgotten that truth is a magnet, with the powers of attraction and repulsion. He is filled with a sort of fear, which makes him feel like a fool who has been patronising "Popery" when he ought to have been awakening to the reality of Rome. He discovers a strange and alarming fact, which is perhaps implied in Newman's interesting lecture on Blanco White and the two ways of attacking Catholicism. Anyhow, it is a truth that Newman and every other convert has probably found in one form or another. It is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church.

The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair. The man has exactly the same sense of having committed or compromised himself; of having been in a sense entrapped, even if he is glad to be entrapped. But for a considerable time he is not so much glad as simply terrified. It may be that this real psychological experience has been misunderstood by stupider people and is responsible for all that remains of the legend that Rome is a mere trap. But that legend misses the whole point of the psychology.

It is not the Pope who has set the trap or the priests who have baited it. The whole point of the position is that the trap is simply the truth. The whole point is that the man himself has made his way towards the trap of truth, and not the trap that has run after the man. All steps except the last step he has taken eagerly on his own account, out of interest in the truth; and even the last step, or the last stage, only alarms him because it is so very true. If I may refer once more to a personal experience, I may say that I for one was never less troubled by doubts than in the last phase, when I was troubled by fears. Before that final delay I had been detached and ready to regard all sorts of doctrines with an open mind. Since that delay has ended in decision, I have had all sorts of changes in mere mood; and I think I sympathise with doubts and difficulties more than I did before. But I had no doubts or difficulties just before. I had only fears; fears of something that had the finality and simplicity of suicide. But the more I thrust the thing into the back of my mind, the more certain I grew of what Thing it was. And by a paradox that does not frighten me now in the least, it may be that I shall never again have such absolute assurance that the thing is true as I had when I made my last effort to deny it.

May God help us all to be faithful to the truth that sets us free! The last phase before truth finally wins is the fear of knowing how true the Catholic Church is. This is because the Catholic Church will turn our world inside out.

Cardinal Newman: The Via Media and a Link to Postmodernism

G.K. Chesterton once reminded us that when one believes in everything one really believes in nothing. Modern Anglican struggles about truth and its place in dogma are seriously affected by the Via Media approach to truth. Extremes are bad and so the mean is defined by the masses which determine what the signifiers in language signify that really only lead to other signifiers thus meaning that truth is never static or concrete. If that didn't make sense, welcome to postmodernism. To believe in objective truth lands one in the category of extremism. So what we do is defer and postpone coming to a conclusion of any real meaning. Just in case this sounds familiar, the struggles surrounding the Anglican communion appear to fall into this category. Within postmodern thinking there is no unified whole in which we can call 'reality' and the result is that people come to give up on looking for a universal truth; for at the end of the day there is nothing more than two people holding a host of conflicting interpretations created by the postmodern linguistic world. Therefore, this means there is no final criterion by which to evaluate reality and behaviour because all interpretations are equally valid.

What Newman seemed to come to terms with is what I have come to see as I considered the question of authority in my journey of being received into full communion with See of St. Peter. What is interesting for my understanding was my coming to see that in actuality the absence of the objective truth of the church backed by a principled authority loses the centre the Via Media claims to want to hold. The Catholic faith is the grand narrative of God's activity in human history. But, what Newman also came to realise was that universal truth is not discovered by reason alone. All interpretations are not equally valid. What does one do? Newman is helping in showing the problem here.

And now you will ask me, what it is I saw in the history of primitive controversies and Councils which was so fatal to the pretensions of the Anglican Church? I saw that the general theory and position of Anglicanism was no novelty in ancient history, but had a distinct place in it, and a series of prototypes, and that these prototypes had ever been heretics or the patrons of heresy. The very badge of Anglicanism, as a system, is that it is a Via Media; this is its life; it is this, or it is nothing; deny this, and it forthwith dissolves into Catholicism or Protestantism. This constitutes its only claim to be recognized as a distinct form of Christianity; it is its recommendation to the world at large, and its simple measuring-line for the whole field of theology. The Via Media appeals to the good sense of mankind; it says that the human mind is naturally prone to excess, and that theological combatants in particular are certain to run into extremes. Truth, as virtue, lies in a mean; whatever, then, is true, whatever is not true, {375} extremes certainly are false. And, whereas truth is in a mean, for that very reason it is very moderate and liberal; it can tolerate either extreme with great patience because it views neither with that keenness of contrariety with which one extreme regards the other. For the same reason, it is comprehensive; because, being in a certain sense in the centre of all errors, though having no part in any of them, it may be said to rule and to temper them, to bring them together, and to make them, as it were, converge and conspire together in one under its own meek and gracious sway. Dispassionateness, forbearance, indulgence, toleration, and comprehension are thus all of them attributes of the Via Media. It is obvious, moreover, that a doctrine like this will find especial acceptance with the civil magistrate. Religion he needs as an instrument of government; yet in religious opinion he sees nothing else but the fertile cause of discord and confusion. Joyfully then does he welcome a form of theology, whose very mission it is to temper the violence of polemics, to soften and to accommodate differences, and to direct the energies of churchmen to the attainment of tangible good instead of the discussion of mysteries...

At the same time, though it may be unwilling to allow it, it is, from the nature of the case, but a particular form of Protestantism. I do not say that in secondary principles it may not agree with the Catholic Church; but, its essential idea being that she has gone into error, whereas the essential idea of Catholicism is the Church's infallibility, the Via Media is really nothing else than Protestant. Not to submit to the Church is to oppose her, and to side with the heretical party; for medium there is none. The Via Media assumes that Protestantism is right in its protest against Catholic doctrine, only that that protest needs correcting, limiting, perfecting. This surely is but a matter of fact; for the Via Media has adopted all the great Protestant doctrines, as its most strenuous upholder and the highest of Anglo-Catholics will be obliged to allow; the mutilated canon, the defective Rule of Faith, justification by faith only, putative righteousness, the infection of nature in the regenerate, the denial of the five Sacraments, the relation of faith to the Sacramental Presence, and the like; its aim being nothing else than to moderate, with Melancthon, the extreme statements of Luther, to keep them from shocking the feelings of human nature, to protect them from the criticism of common sense, and from the {378} pressure and urgency of controversial attack. Thus we have three parties on the historical stage; the See and Communion of Rome; the original pure Protestant, violent, daring, offensive, fanatical in his doctrines; and a cautious middle party, quite as heretical in principle and in doctrinal elements as Protestantism itself, but having an eye to the necessities of controversy, sensible in its ideas, sober in its tastes, safe in its statements, conservative in its aims, and practical in its measures.

What I would hope to see is a good theological discussion of this issue that to me is nicely articulated by Cardinal Newman. A critique such as this is not at all to say that I have not cherished my time as an Anglican because I have; for without Anglicanism I would have never been on the journey that led to the deep mystery of the Catholic faith. The teaching of Holy Scripture and tradition reflected upon and deepened by our use of reason, backed up by the authority of the Church is the real centre from which all truth flows.

Communio: Was I Lying When I Was An Anglican?

When one makes a decision as we have recently made with regards to our ecclesial move and our making it public, one opens himself to critics and people's opinions. That is fair enough. Criticism comes with the territory of public ministry and writing so long as criticism is substantial based upon all the facts and is not defamatory of someones character I gladly welcome it. I have found it is always best and most peaceful when people simply ask questions rather than making assumptions. I say all of this as a precursor to one of the more substantive theological reasons that moved me to make this decision when I did.

As someone who embraced fully the Catholic movement in the CofE from a personal conviction through prior study as a Presbyterian Protestant minister in the States, I came to love the Catholic faith as a result of its beauty expressed in the Anglo-Catholic movement. I therefore am very grateful for all that I have learned to love over the past seven years as I journeyed into understanding more of the Catholic Faith. Two books as a Protestant minister really affected me in my journey into the Catholic movement in the CofE. One was Thomas Howard's book Evangelical is not Enough! and the other was Alexander Schmemann's book For the Life of the World. I read these two books 9 years ago. Then eight years ago Professor Bill Tighe sent me Dom Gregory Dix' book The Shape of the Liturgy and that was it for me as the journey got well under way. While I was reading these works I was also very much into biblical theology and imagery for liturgy at the time and read a lot in this area along with the biblical theology written by Bishop Tom Wright. His books The NT and the People of God and Jesus and the Victory of God were very instrumental in my journey as well. There were of course many many others but this is only to say that my journey into the Catholic Church is a journey that is much longer than my five plus years in the UK.

So, why did I make this move when I did? What theological reason gave me the push to jump? At the heart of my conversion were two issues that are very much connected. One is the obvious issue of authority and the second is the heart of it for me and that is communio. Now these issues are my personal struggles theologically that I wrestled with. But I want to focus on the issue of communio and the issue of authority that is very closely connected and inseparable with it can be discussed at another time.

First of all before I begin with my understanding of the communio issue that drove me to jump when I did, I need to say that the critique of the ecclesial solution for me is not a personal critique of my friends who remain in the Anglo-Catholic movement in the CofE. I believe they do so with great integrity. That being said, we often talked about an ecclesial solution to an ecclesial problem with regards to the question of women bishops and priests. As an Anglo-Catholic, I sincerely bought into the ecclesial idea of the Catholic structure of a priest in union with his local bishop. That is very important in Catholic ecclesiology and there is a bit of an issue that I began questioning with regards to my not being in communion with the diocesan but a provisional one due to issues of sacramental priesthood. At the start, this structure brings up many Catholic questions about ecclesiology but I saw the necessity of it due to difficult circumstances in a broad church. So, I embraced the ecclesial oddity.

Where things began to really challenge me was the relationship of the particular to the universal. That was where the Bishop of Chichester's address at the February 2009 FiF assembly struck a nerve within my ecclesial thinking. If it's not provision we were after but communion then the question of the particular in relation to the universal was now before me. To tie everything to the local and not also consider the theological relationship to the universal was not in my mind to give an ecclesial solution to an ecclesial problem. Communio means a whole lot more than merely the local relationship. I began to see as the Holy Father points out that the Church 'cannot become a static juxtaposition of essentially self-sufficient local Churches.' For to do so allows the local to lose its apostolicity. So, the question of unity moulding the communio moved me from the local to the universal. What I did not feel appropriate was to become a Catholic as a last resort and a response to some provisional structure that allowed me to simply exist in something that did not theologically hold the same view of the unity between the local and universal. What I theologically was wanting to know on that day in February was how any sort of provisional structure was going to hold together the vertical and horizontal. The only conclusion I returned to again and again in my head was the unity of the one Church in all places. Belonging to the local church in my Anglican situation did not allow me to belong to all in the world or even within my own communion. For my family and myself, I came to desire more as I watched what seemed to be the Anglican communion unravelling around the world. Something key to unity was lacking that would or could ever hold it together. I was longing to be at home everywhere and so the real ecclesial answer to an ecclesial problem was forcing me deeper into apostolic unity.

In order for there to be the 'ligature' (Benedict XVI) of catholicity the local must remain united to the universal. Can a community really give itself its own bishop? I was stopped in my tracks. The loss of this most important element of communio where the local is in union with the universal was the ecclesial solution to an ecclesial problem for me. I watched closely the inability of the Anglican communion to hold to account her communion partners for the apostolic faith where it was impossible to keep these provinces in line with catholicity meeting after meeting after meeting. So, I asked why this was so. The answer is communio; the local being organically united to the universal without which the church is wounded where she is to be most Catholic. So, what would be right later was right now and so for the sake of my family and spiritual care of them we jumped and swam. Faith does explode the self-absolutization of individualism and I concluded harmony with the testimony of faith with the successor of S. Peter is the answer to the issue of an ecclesial problem needing an ecclesial solution.

So, it was my decision that it was not about me building my own church. It was not about a party within a church. The Church is the Church of Christ, his body. Everything in my mind with regards to ecclesiology came to see that I had to personally do all to avoid any sort of attachment that would obstruct communio. I was not lying but seeking the prayer for unity of Jesus--a question Newman himself answered.

A Year For Priests: Archbishop Vincent Nichols

Source

Year of the Priest: St. John Vianney on the Priesthood

The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there: we may as well pray at home. " When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice there is no religion.

When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul. " If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept. " "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest. " "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord. " O God! O God! how Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Cure of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him.

If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St. Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul. " At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass. "

What joy did the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. John Vianney

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus


I. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." Behold I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of...... (here name your request)
Our Father....Hail Mary....Glory Be to the Father....Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.


II. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you." Behold, in your name, I ask the Father for the grace of.......(here name your request) Our Father...Hail Mary....Glory Be To the Father....Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

III. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away." Encouraged by your infallible words I now ask for the grace of.....(here name your request) Our Father....Hail Mary....Glory Be to the Father...Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of you, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, your tender Mother and ours.
Say the Hail, Holy Queen and add: St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us.
-- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

The Year of Priests

The Year of Priests is to begin very shortly and so I thought a piece I read in 2008 on priesthood by the Holy Father might begin to prepare us as we pray for bishops, and priests and for more vocations over the next year. We pray for holy priests.

Lastly, two other aspects are part of service. No one is closer to his master than the servant who has access to the most private dimensions of his life. In this sense "to serve" means closeness, it requires familiarity. This familiarity also bears a danger: when we continually encounter the sacred it risks becoming habitual for us. In this way, reverential fear is extinguished. Conditioned by all our habits we no longer perceive the great, new and surprising fact that he himself is present, speaks to us, gives himself to us. We must ceaselessly struggle against this becoming accustomed to the extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, always recognizing our insufficiency anew and the grace that there is in the fact that he consigned himself into our hands. To serve means to draw near, but above all it also means obedience. The servant is under the word: "not my will, but thine, be done" (Lk 22: 42). With this word Jesus, in the Garden of Olives, has resolved the decisive battle against sin, against the rebellion of the sinful heart. Adam's sin consisted precisely in the fact that he wanted to accomplish his own will and not God's. Humanity's temptation is always to want to be totally autonomous, to follow its own will alone and to maintain that only in this way will we be free; that only thanks to a similarly unlimited freedom would man be completely man. But this is precisely how we pit ourselves against the truth. Because the truth is that we must share our freedom with others and we can be free only in communion with them. This shared freedom can be true freedom only if we enter into what constitutes the very measure of freedom, if we enter into God's will. This fundamental obedience that is part of the human being - a person cannot be merely for and by himself - becomes still more concrete in the priest: we do not preach ourselves, but him and his Word, which we could not have invented ourselves. We proclaim the Word of Christ in the correct way only in communion with his Body. Our obedience is a believing with the Church, a thinking and speaking with the Church, serving through her. What Jesus predicted to Peter also always applies: "You will be taken where you do not want to go". This letting oneself be guided where one does not want to be led is an essential dimension of our service, and it is exactly what makes us free. In this being guided, which can be contrary to our ideas and plans, we experience something new - the wealth of God's love.

Change in Commenting

I am very sorry to have to announce that the comments will now all have to be approved by me before posting them. I never wanted this blog to be one of those but due to some malicious and false accusations circling about my journey to Rome I will now approve comments. I am open to productive dialogue and disagreement but some of what has occurred has been libelous and so I am now approving the comments. Please still comment as I will publish all those that are helpful even if disagreeable to my postings. Thank you for your patience.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Swimming the Tiber and Trusting in the Church

Making decisions and acting on the will that is involved in our having faith in the Church is not always easy. I must say that my experiences thus far have been joyful, hopeful but not without some anxiety and uncertainty. That does not mean any second guessing of my decision at all. What it means is that God wants to strip me of everything that I hold onto outside of himself so that he becomes the absolute one to whom I place my trust for all things. The reason this swim is always a conversion that is individual in its spiritual scope is that God works within his community on individuals to make them more into the image of his Son. I believe St. John of the Cross would describe this as our staying in the centre of our humility. There seems to me that a bit of a desert experience is always needed for each individual who decides to follow their conscience. Sometimes we want to say that our trials come because of some deficiency in others' abilities. But, I am not so sure that is always true. Sometimes, and I think most of the time, the Holy Spirit brings us to the desert for a bit so that we get a sense of the mystery in the crosses we carry. That sense is our becoming more conformed into the one who emptied himself of all for us.

I think people, particularly clergy, who make a decision to cross the Tiber need to come to serious terms that it does not mean there won't be scars from the swim. But that is not because some person or our Lord wants to inflict unnecessary pain upon us. God wants every part of us committed to him and he wants us to be completely free from our feeble attempts to hold on to our securities so that when we step out in radical obedient faith we know he will catch us when we fall. That fall may be longer than one expected and the net may not become visible for a good part of the fall but the promise is he will mend the net to catch us.

This brings me to the title of my post on our faith in the Church. Cardinal Newman spoke of our faith in the Church when he himself made the decision to be reunited to Peter. To trust God is to trust his Church. What that does not mean is that there will be perfection which is due to the human element of the Body of Christ. There will be disappointments and at times one may experience the impact of original sin. But, says Newman

Trust the Church of God implicitly, even when your natural judgment would take a different course from hers, and would induce you to question her prudence on her correctness. Recollect what a hard task she has; how she is sure to be criticized and spoken against, whatever she does; recollect how long is the experience gained in eighteen hundred years, and what a right she has to claim your assent to principles which have had so extended and so triumphant a trial. Thank her that she has kept the faith safe for so many generations, and do your part in helping her to transmit it to generations after you.

'It is I: be not afraid.'

When I sink down in gloom or fear,
Hope blighted or delay'd,
Thy whisper, Lord, my heart shall cheer,
'Tis I; be not afraid!'

Or, startled at some sudden blow,
If fretful thoughts I feel,
'Fear not, it is is but I!' shall flow,
As balm my wound to heal.

Nor will I quit Thy way, though foes
Some onward pass defend;
From each rough voice the watchword goes,
'Be not afraid!...a friend!'

And oh! when judgement's trumpet clear
Awakes me from the grave,
Still in its echo may I hear,
'Tis Christ; He comes to save.'

Journey Home to the Catholic Church: I Have Jumped into the Tiber to Swim Across

I am writing to make the announcement that I am becoming a Roman Catholic along with my wife Rhea and our six children. I realise that this decision is going to make some really happy, some very sad and others possibily angry. But, I have made the decision with the deepest sense of integrity and by conscience. I would like to share a bit of my faith journey though there are many gaps here, it is descriptive of my heart over the past few months. This is not particularly an academic account of what I have done in my studies but rather the spiritual wrestling that went on within me. The announcement was made this morning in all three parishes where I serve and is now a matter of public knowledge. My reception into Holy Mother Church is forthcoming.

My PhD studies really set me on my Catholic journey in a deep theological way though I did not realise it at the time. I have been looking at Bishop Lancelot Andrewes as a catalyst for ecumenism with the Catholic Church in the area of Eucharistic sacrifice. Andrewes was in regular dialogue with S. Robert Bellarmine SJ and it is in this dialogue and Andrewes’ other writings that I saw how Catholic he was with regards to the Eucharist being the Christian offering which consisted of more than a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It was and is propitiatory as well as other things.

Through my time of study in Catholic sacramental theology and viewing my own priestly ministry within this theological framework the question of communio began to frequently come to mind. I had fully embraced Catholic sacramental theology and believed that I could be a Catholic in the Church of England and planned on retirement from the C of E later in life. With all that is going on around the Anglican Communion presently, and particularly within the C of E and how she makes decisions on matters of doctrine, I began to ask questions about authority. As a theologian praying for reunion with the Holy See the question I was now asking was, ‘on whose terms does this reunion take place?’

What I became aware of was that it was almost impossible to say 'the Church teaching is' within the Anglican church because there are so many various opinions on matters of sacraments, liturgy, morality, scripture etc. What I did not want to experience anymore was proclaiming the teaching of the Church only to end up defending myself rather than the Anglican church defending me. This has become an ever-increasing impossibility that is no secret to the entire Anglican world. My preaching would always be seen as a matter of personal opinion rather than having the authority of the Magisterium that backs up what I teach publicly. Of course there is dissent in the Catholic Church but it is always that, dissent towards what Mother Church proclaims as authoritatively true. It is the truth of Mother Church that I embrace as my own deep personal faith.

In January of this year I began to seriously pray about my journey and was moving deeper into the question of communio. What was God saying to me and why did he bring me all the way to England to have me consider the possibility of becoming a Catholic? What about the last 19 years of my life and the pursuit of serving him in full-time ministry? What do I do about the ever-increasing reaffirmation and sense of call to vocational priesthood? These items I took to prayer with Ss Bede and Cuthbert at the Durham Cathedral each Friday during Lent. There I prayed for requests given to me by people from around the world and my own spiritual journey was a part of this prayer ministry. I gave myself to Mary and her Son and said ‘please lead and guide in the way you want me to go either by remaining a priest in the C of E or a move to the Catholic Church’. At this time I scheduled my retreat during Easter week to make a spiritual journey and pilgrimage to Rome. I had a number of meetings there with priests and a former Episcopal bishop (Father Jeffrey Steenson) who had converted from Anglicanism as well as an American Catholic priest who is in Rome finishing his PhD on the Pastoral Provision of the late Pope John Paul II.

In my heart, I knew that I had grown to love and believe the Catholic faith as it was taught in the Catholic Catechism. On my final day in Rome on 17 April 2009 I went to the tomb of S. Peter and knelt and prayed for quite some time. I knew in my heart I was a Catholic and asked what it was that was keeping me from converting. All sorts of fears ran through my head and I felt very restless there and at times just knelt quietly asking S. Peter to pray for me because I didn’t know how or the way to go. At the end of this time I went over and knelt at JPII's tomb and asked him to please pray for me as I was scared to make a journey like this with a wife and six children not knowing how God would provide for us.

After praying with JPII, I got up and went to S. Peter’s tomb again and there with conviction of heart signed the Roman Catholic Catechism stating ‘This is the Faith of the Church and this is my Faith’, and signed my name with the day's date. Before leaving the Basilica I walked over to the statue of S. Peter with the key in his hand, rubbed his foot, and said, ‘I am going out to find the way, open the door and make this happen and pray for me as I make this journey.’

One week later I was in a meeting with a couple of Catholic bishops in London. I had made the commitment in my heart that coming home to the Catholic Church was God’s plan for me. I have now made the biggest jump I have ever made in my life and I am trying really hard not to struggle too much as I fall while waiting for God to catch me. The one thing that has not changed in my heart but has only grown over the past nine years is my desire to remain in England as a Catholic. This desire has been confirmed through much prayer and discernment and all signs point to us remaining in England for the entirety of our lives. For numerous reasons, I am discerning God calling me to the southern region of the country, which has been my plan for three years. London will be our new home and if I am ever to be priested in the Catholic Church it is where I will be incardinated.

Though my time in Rome had quite a bit of emotion as I prayed, what I actually came to see was the end of the wrestling with these questions in my mind and heart. It was now time to act on what my conscience was saying to me for some time. It was time to surrender myself and submit to Mother Church knowing in faith that God would open doors. Here I saw the connection of what communio meant and how the union with Mother Church was now bringing me closer to Jesus where I am no longer to be in a party that is merely catholic-minded but am coming into communion with the Church of Jesus Christ which is in union with Saint Peter. This is my salvation. What I mean is that though I have continually been drawn closer to Jesus through worship, sacraments, and the cure of souls, this decision to move is a conversion to Christ that I have not yet experienced. I am now beginning to see how closely this final decision has drawn me to Jesus where what began ten years ago as a love discovered within the ceremonial beauty of worship has been God’s instrumental means of uniting me to the Catholic Church.

Finally, this leads me to my vocation to the priesthood and the cura animarum. I realise that I do not come to the Church making demands. I come offering my life to Jesus and to the Church as I seek his will for my life. For the time being, I am simply giving up being the teacher and am now becoming the student of Mother Church. What she does with me is in the best interest of her and God's kingdom. As I said, the family is preparing to move to London in the near future to begin a new life of ministry and service. There will be more details forthcoming as things become confirmed to me.

There are many people to whom I owe much thanks. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity Bishop Tom Wright entrusted to me by giving me the privilege of serving God in the Durham Diocese as a priest. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the wonderful people of my parishes in Brandon, Ushaw Moor and New Brancepeth. I am grateful for my family of brothers in the SSC, FiFUK and our PEV's for seeking to maintain the Catholic faith in the C of E. I am grateful for the support my Anglican spiritual director, Canon Arthur Middleton, has given me over the past five years. I am also thankful for the support given to me the past few years from Father Peter and Brian my colleagues. For the latter part of this journey I am grateful for my new Catholic spiritual director Father Gerard Bradley who teaches at St. John's Seminary Wonersh and Gerard Hatton a soon-to-be candidate for ordination. My deepest gratitude goes to the wonderful woman who said 'yes' to my question over sixteen years ago. She has given me six wonderful children and all of them have a deep Catholic faith and serve Christ as witnesses to his love. Rhea meant her vows 16 years ago and has followed me throughout our marriage as my best friend, supporter and wisest critic. She is so grateful to finally be becoming Catholic as her family did a few years ago. Lumen Gentium reminded me that, Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved. And so, I swim with my family entrusted to me by God. The process of our reception is now well under way.

There will be much more to come but this blog is now a Roman Catholic blog. I will continue to write within the framework of de cura animarum. Please pray for us as we pray for all of you!

UPDATE COMMENT: Can I go ahead and thank every one of the readers, commenters and those hundred or so private emails welcoming us home and promising us your prayers. Thi has been absolutely incredible to see the reception we are receiving. Please do keep praying while we sort out a home, work, schools etc. Keep them coming because they mean so much to us and we are saving them. One day when I write up my own apologia I will use them. Right now, as there have been the inevitable bumps along the way, they are floatation devices for us. What I mean is, sometimes crossing the Tiber looks like an easier swim than it really is. I told my Catholic bishop that I sometimes feel like the Tiber has stretched as wide as the Atlantic and I've been cast into the middle and told to swim. He said, 'yes, Jeffrey but there are devices out there to keep you above water, grab onto them and do not fear.' All of you are those devices that we are grabbing onto because of your love for us as we make this journey. So from all the Steels, thank you very much!!

There are some blogs that people have sent me about my move that the readers may be interested in. Here, here and here. If you have blogged this story please leave a link in the comment box. I cannot keep up with the mail and comments!

Completing the Swim by the Grace of the Body and Blood of Jesus

It has been one week today since I said my final Mass as an Anglican priest. I woke up early this morning and have had some time to think and mediate on the beginning of a new life. Behind me hangs my vestments and linens that I am preparing to pack away and they remind me of the mystery of God's call upon our lives. There is a wonderful mystery about all of this particularly as we prepare to go to Mass at 11:00 am this morning for the first time as a family preparing to be received. This morning I have been contemplating and meditating on the connection of the Trinity last week and Corpus Christi Sunday this week and how on this Solemn Feast we enter the Catholic Church as new members of the family for the first time. As someone who has thought deeply about the Eucharistic Sacrifice over the past several years and is coming to the very end of my thesis, I find a special message to us from God today about the strength of the Body and Blood of Jesus for us as we make the final swim to reception.

This morning we walk into a whole new world that feels deeper and broader than one can possibly fathom. I have been to Mass all this week and prayed for the grace and strength of the Body and Blood to feed me and nourish me by the desire in my heart to share communion with our Lord and with his beloved family. I feel like a stranger being invited to the Upper Room awaiting for the appearance of Lord whose invitation said, 'come and dine with me.' There is great anticipation and hope even in the bearing of the crosses that come and will come. This day together in Mass for the first time as a family, seeking reunion with Mother Church, is a day where we look to enter more fully into communion with the person of Jesus and to have a deeper encounter between us, him and the whole Church. Today begins our life of assimilation into Jesus' and his into ours in a new and profound way. And for this reason we adore Him, the Beloved.

Corpus Christi Sunday for me is the beginning of a deeper communion and adoration to follow Jesus who goes before me as we make the final leg of the journey home. He leads the procession and we follow his glorious presence showing us the way. In the great processions going on around the world on Thursday and today we are gathered up into them to walk in the path Jesus is making for us. Though I continue to swim with a number of uncertainties of home, job, future, etc, I am not uncertain that He is with me till the end of the age and that he will be with me today at Mass to give himself to me as I give myself to him. It is the response to the command, 'Take and eat.' At Mass is the visible sacrifice of Jesus offered for the life of the world processing before us and beckoning his faithful to 'come and see and taste the goodness of our God.' The mystical immolation is offered for the forgiveness of sins and the strength we need to walk the road of Jesus in faith and obedience. The eternal offering of Christ is made present and Mass looks forward eschatologically to the great heavenly banquet where all crosses in this life are united to the glory of the Risen Lord.

And so, we begin our new lives today with Mary, the Mother of our Lord who shared her own flesh and blood with Jesus looking to be penetrated ourselves with his presence, praying to her for strength as we seek to follow him more faithfully day by day as members of His Mystical Body. He Leads the Way and says, 'Come, Follow Me.' And to each and every one of us he says, 'Do Not Be Afraid!'

Swimming the Tiber and Praying

As anyone will know, the journey home brings with it waves and currents as you cross the Tiber. My case has unique circumstances and one that has become very important. I am asking all the kind readers to pray for this intention and that our Father will make things more clear very soon. Thank you!

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother look down in mercy upon England, thy dowry, and upon us who greatly hope and trust in thee.

By thee it was that Jesus, our Saviour and our hope was given unto the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more.

Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross, O Sorrowful Mother, Intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold, they may be united to the Chief Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son.

Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith, fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee in our heavenly home.

AMEN.

Composed by Cardinal Wiseman

The Cross: The Road to Unity

With the recent news of my crossing the Tiber I can only imagine that some friends who have yet to make this decision or think about this decision might wonder about the cost. I think we all know that there is a real cost to conscience. That cost can become our Cross. For Christ to come to the road of the resurrection he had to first travel the road of the Cross. Leaving priesthood and everything behind in order to seek unity in the Catholic Church is a Cross I am embracing. What I wonder is whether all cradle Catholics understand how an Anglo-Catholic views priesthood. To be honest, I am not so certain it is much different from how a Catholic priest understands his priesthood. There are obvious debates about the validity of Anglican orders etc and this is not the point or question I want to raise. I write simply to say that those who have yet to decide on the decision I have made should not be viewed as cowards. Rather this gives me an opportunity to explain why this Cross of leaving priesthood is a cost that is difficult to make. I believe understanding and listening is in order here.

One of the central aspects of Catholic priesthood is the concept of 'dying in order to live'. As an Anglo-Catholic priest I embraced that vocation of dying to live in the way I viewed my calling. I believed at my ordination to the priesthood that I was ontologically changing and my self-identity was changed to embrace a road of the Cross of dying in order to live in my service of Christ in the church. As I journeyed through the ordination rite the symbols of my new identity were applied to me visibly to show what I fully believed was happening to me invisibly. A real change in who Jeff was took shape in my new vocation as an Anglo-Catholic priest. This formation was the beginning of a lifelong formation where I would move more deeply into the priesthood of Christ within my own life. When I received the Paten and the Chalice as gifts from the people of God I believed that the act was the symbol given to me by Christ as a gift to offer the one offering of Christ on Calvary at the Altar where he became really present in his priestly love. With the anointing of my hands with oil I was imparted with the grace of blessing God's people with the priestly blessing of Jesus himself. I was handed the scriptures to authoritatively proclaim all that is within them for the good of God's people in the training of righteousness and the responsibility that goes along with the priestly teaching ministry. As I prayed my office each day I would pray it with the intention of being formed more into Christ's priestly calling to know the Father as he knew the Father. When I laid down at night, signed myself with the sign of the cross, I would often thank God at the end of a tiring day for the gift of vocation to sacramental priesthood. The one obvious difference is that I could tell my wife next to me how much I loved my vocation.

What I would hope that cradle Catholics would understand about Anglo-Catholic priesthood and the priests who live out that vocation is that the thought of dying and not being buried in their vestments of their vocation where their bishop would celebrate their Requiem Mass is a very painful thought. I believe this really needs to be heard and understood. What I want us all to be careful of is that those who have not yet decided to swim is not often out of cowardice but a strong belief of who they are. The psychology and sociology of identity is worth a lot of consideration and time here and these men need our prayers and support because a day may come when they too grab hold of their identity and nail it to a Cross. I hope that when they do, and those many who have done so before me, will continue to be honoured, loved and welcomed with the love and welcome I have received. Most of all, I hope the difficulty of losing one's identity and vocation is handled graciously and not triumphalistically.

I will not cease praying for my brother priests and their people that I have left for the communio that I am convinced Jesus has called me to seek. In the West we live in difficult times and circumstances philosophically and psychologically. There is a lot to be said about understanding one's identity as a priest is such a sea of confusion.

As I continue to pray for my brethren I am also reminded by B.C. Butler that 'The message of Christian history is that the way to come to Christ is to belong to the koinonia; and that hearing Christ and believing him who sent him entails, not as a distant aspiration but as a here-and-now urgency, seeking membership in that koinonia.' I have been told numerous times that my new koinonia has her own problems and her own scandals about her and until she gets her own house in order arguments may be put forth to remain outside her. But, like Butler says,

'if the Church never will be what she ought to be, then an inescapable question arises: Is it not our duty to join her without more ado and to lend our aid to her continual 'purification' from within her ranks? For, imperfect though she is and will always be, she is the divinely given and guaranteed, new and supernatural, historical reality within which and by means of which God's eternal purpose for the salvation of all men and the supernatural elevation of his creation is being accomplished.'

Many people have written to me to ask if I am seeking priesthood in the Catholic Church. Here is the way I am looking at it. I have taken my identity as a priest to the road of the Cross in order that I might find myself on the road to resurrection. If the Catholic Church, in her authority and wisdom from God seeks to give me the gift of priesthood then I will embrace the vocation returning again to the way of the Cross where we die in order to live. The priest lives the road of the Cross first and foremost with and for his people so that together they may travel the road of resurrection. God bless our Pope, Bishops and priests; we love, honour, appreciate and pray for you, please pray for us!

Reception into the Catholic Church

I have just come from meeting with Father Tony here in Durham who will be receiving us into the Catholic Church. The date of our reception is Saturday, 18 July 2009 at St. Cuthbert's church, Durham. Please remember us in your prayers and again, thank you to each and every one of you for your love, kind welcome, prayers and support. All of you are dear to the Steels during this time. Thank you and God bless all of you!

Tiber Swimming and Seeing the Other Side

Since my announcement on Sunday that we were becoming Roman Catholics the blog visit count went over 7,000 in two and half days! I simply cannot believe that. Thank you to all of you who visited, wrote emails and gave wonderful welcoming comments in the comment section. We are joining a big family and sense your warm welcome. The reception process is under way and when we are received I will put some family photos on the blog.

There is a way that the Catholic bloggers can help me do some blog adjustments. What I mean is that if all of the readers here will leave links to excellent Catholic sites that you find helpful and particularly theologically helpful I would appreciate it. I am working on the blog so that it maintains a high theological standard along with some helpful pastoral links in order that this blog may be a useful Catholic blog as it has been useful during my Anglo-Catholic days. If you would leave the links in the comment I will work on the blog during my evening hours. For my UK readers, would you please link up parish websites so that area of the blog can be to a higher standard?

Again, thank you for your prayers and good wishes. We need them at this time. I should also mention that next Monday night at 22:00 BST I am giving a radio interview on Radio Maria, Madrid, Spain that will be translated into Spanish. It should be able to be picked up on line at their web site. The interview has to do with my conversion story that was posted on Sunday. They were very gracious and I am looking forward to being with them. Radio Maria is here and here.

Specific Prayer Requests For Steels

I am completely overwhelmed by the gracious emails, comments on the blog and the numbers of visits to my conversion story. I can say that since I posted my story yesterday morning the blog has received nearly 4,000 visits!! That is absolutely amazing when I am used to only about 350-600 per day on average. To all of you who posted such gracious responses to your own blogs about my story, thank you very much. The emails with invites for 'family days' and help getting settled have brought tears to our eyes. We feel like we are becoming a part of a very big family.

It is so nice to get emails from families who say they also have six children or even more. When making this jump I was told to hang on to things around me to keep me floating and this has been so amazing because all of you appeared out of nowhere it seems. Thank you for your generosity and loving support for us. The prayers and Mass intentions mean everything to us right now as we feel like we are in a very in between stage of ecclesial life. But, this Sunday our family will worship together in a Roman Catholic parish in which we are preparing to be received.

All of my duties officially ended today and tomorrow morning I begin attending daily Mass in a Catholic parish. On Thursday I meet with the priest to begin discussing the process of our reception. Please pray for this time of transition as I move from saying daily Mass to a whole new way of life as a Christian.

Thank you all!

Meet the Pope on Facebook

You won’t get an email saying Pope Benedict added you as a friend and you can’t "poke" him or write on his wall, but the Vatican is still keen to use the networking site Facebook to woo young people back to church.

A new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, has gone live, offering an application called "The pope meets you on Facebook", and another allowing the faithful to see the Pope’s speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.

The Vatican’s World Communications Day this Sunday is devoted to communicating the gospel with new technologies.

"We recognise that a church that does not communicate ceases to be a church," said Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican’s Social Communications department.

"Many young people today are not turning to traditional media like newspapers and magazines any more for information and entertainment.

"They are looking to a different media culture, and this is our effort to ensure that the Church is present in that communications culture."

Users of the new site can select from more than a dozen "virtual postcards" with pictures of the pope and messages from him on faith, love and life specifically aimed at young people, and send them to other users.

The Catholic Church, which has seen vocations to religious life decline and church attendance fall, has already turned to the Internet.

Last January the pope became one of the oldest people to have his own YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/vaticanit.

The pope, known to write most of his speeches by hand, while his aides manage his forays into cyberspace, has even admitted that the Vatican does not use the Internet enough.

Story found here.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols on School Education

As a father of six and whose children attend Catholic schools, I find the words of Archbishop Nichols very encouraging indeed. At my recent school assmebly I spoke on the virtue of honesty in cultivating relationships since the children were looking at relationships in school. I think children learning the cultivation of a virtuous life in school is why I want Christian education for my children. We shall pray for our Christian faith schools to remain faithful to their ethos and help parents to build a virtuous generation to have the strength and courage to rebuild a virtuous society. Here is Archbishop Nichols' own words. Read it all here.

In his address he said that Catholic schools have a crucial role to play in cultivating virtues such as honesty, justice and compassion: Using the words of St Paul, he talked of the ‘supreme advantage of knowing Christ saying: “such a supreme advantage of knowing Christ, gives rise to a way of life which we believe fosters true virtue, true, steady life- building habits of mind and action. That’s what virtue is. It’s those habits of mind and action which genuinely serve the common good.; like honesty and justice and compassion and courage and prudence and temperance; that ability to moderate and use all things with good judgment.”

“There are plenty of indicators in our society today that we need such civic virtues in addition to regulation. Schools are the places where such virtue is generated or where it is neglected.” ‘A genuine service to society’ Archbishop Nichols went on to say that: “Today we live in a society that tends to instrumentalise everything. In other words, everything is broken down to clear objectives and attainments and each is given a price. Once this really takes hold then education has truly entered the market place. We are finding ourselves considered as nothing more than consumers and suppliers.”

Where Would Newman Be Today?

A question about the Anglican church's faithfulness to teaching the dogmatic truth for all time was a concern that Cardinal Newman had. His gracefulness towards all he learned from being an Anglican is clearly seen in this piece written by him. Anyone who has spent time in the C of E and gotten beneath her tat can find a great historical love for her theological past but it is becoming more openly debatable as to how much of that substance remains that moved Cardinal Newman to speak these words. I say that with self-critical evaluation realizing that there is a real danger lurking that is preying upon the church. Looking at the distance from Newman's writing to today, I must wonder how he might evaluate this outlook in the present situation. Secularism's great rise of influence on the church and her mission opens the door for a lot of speculation as to how Newman would now respond. The point about the nation bringing the church down to its level is more true than we can imagine I believe. It's not happening; it has happened. Will she rise above it? Now that there are 4 million Catholics in England, any guess as to what his critique would be today? This question is an interesting one for discussion. It's an open question for friendly speculation. Newman was quite the man in his day and daily I ask for his prayers for me and the Church.

UPDATE: I just saw this blog from Fr. Ed Tomlinson SSC. It makes the point really.
A portion of the writing referred to above follows:

In no other sense surely; the Church of England has been the instrument of Providence in conferring great benefits on me;—had I been born in Dissent, perhaps I should never have been baptized; had I been born an English Presbyterian, perhaps I should never have known our Lord's divinity; had I not come to Oxford, perhaps I never should have heard of the visible Church, or of Tradition, or other Catholic doctrines. And as I have received so much good from the Anglican Establishment itself, can I have the heart or rather the want of charity, considering that it does for so many others, what it has {342} done for me, to wish to see it overthrown? I have no such wish while it is what it is, and while we are so small a body. Not for its own sake, but for the sake of the many congregations to which it ministers, I will do nothing against it. While Catholics are so weak in England, it is doing our work; and, though it does us harm in a measure, at present the balance is in our favour. What our duty would be at another time and in other circumstances, supposing, for instance, the Establishment lost its dogmatic faith, or at least did not preach it, is another matter altogether. In secular history we read of hostile nations having long truces, and renewing them from time to time, and that seems to be the position which the Catholic Church may fairly take up at present in relation to the Anglican Establishment.

Doubtless the National Church has hitherto been a serviceable breakwater against doctrinal errors, more fundamental than its own. How long this will last in the years now before us, it is impossible to say, for the Nation drags down its Church to its own level; but still the National Church has the same sort of influence over the Nation that a periodical has upon the party which it represents, and my own idea of a Catholic's fitting attitude towards the National Church in this its supreme hour, is that of assisting and sustaining it, if it be in our power, in the interest of dogmatic truth. I should wish to avoid every thing, (except indeed under the direct call of duty, and this is a material exception,) which went to weaken its hold upon the public mind, or to unsettle its establishment, or to embarrass and lessen its maintenance of those great Christian and Catholic principles and doctrines which it has up to this time successfully preached.

Tobit and Bird Poo

I had a friend just send me a text to let me know that the Mass reading from Tobit today reminded him of me and my wife Rhea. Now, how is one to take this?!!!?? Text fom Tobit 2:9-14.

On the same night I returned from burying him, and because I was defiled I slept by the wall of the courtyard, and my face was uncovered. 10 I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall and their fresh droppings fell into my open eyes and white films formed on my eyes. I went to physicians, but they did not help me. Ahikar, however, took care of me until he went to Elymais. 11 Then my wife Anna earned money at women's work. 12 She used to send the product to the owners. Once when they paid her wages, they also gave her a kid; 13 and when she returned to me it began to bleat. So I said to her, "Where did you get the kid? It is not stolen, is it? Return it to the owners; for it is not right to eat what is stolen." 14 And she said, "It was given to me as a gift in addition to my wages." But I did not believe her, and told her to return it to the owners; and I blushed for her. Then she replied to me, "Where are your charities and your righteous deeds? You seem to know everything!"

When Tradition is Attacked

Throughout the society and within the Church we see the tradition that has been handed on being attacked and the call for emancipation is a radical call that is a frontal attack on the image of God within humanity. This is a real spiritual battle we have going on. What we see is our traditional value systems being unmasked and a rationalistic approach to the science of theology that refuses to live and work within the concept of mystery. So the result is only logical that man has to now become the creator of himself when he casts off tradition and churches do the very same when tradition is undermined and the job of recreating after one's own image is well underway. Where this happens in the life of the Church the result is that what has been true in the past must be recreated anew for the present and this is done according to preconceived designs by man's own rationalistic approach to theology. What this looks like is explained well by Pope Benedict in his book Principles of Catholic Theology. He reminds us that

This liberation of man from the soil of the earth, from the foreordination to which he owes his existence, is most evident in the notion of perfect dominion over life and death and in elimination of the distinction between man and woman: the goal of the total emancipation seems to be reached when man can be propagated by technical means, when he is no longer dependent on the fortuitousness of bios but, bringing all hidden things to light, designs himself in a way of thinking that does not look backward but takes as its sole measure the needs and hopes of the future.

Surely, we are able to see the truth in the above statement. The result of what is said above is often a driving force behind modern hermeneutics that simply tells us that it is past time for the Scriptures and the Church to get into line with this rationalistic attack on tradition and move forward and stop looking back. Listen to the debates presently going on in the Anglican Communion for instance. How many times are we told that we need to look forward and stop looking back? Or, another hermeneutical jump is to jump from the present immediately to scripture and begin to interpret it as if the Holy Spirit has been absent the past 2,000 years. The emancipation from tradition in the end is going to emancipate the Church from what it means to be human. The reality is spoken quite clearly when Benedict XVI said that man remains bound to the truth of his nature, to his creaturehood, and can find himself only when he finds this truth.