Sunday 23 March 2014

Thoughts for Lent

Over the next weeks I will be posting a number of images linked for me to Lent - always a time of reflection, and this time for me a time of thinking about pain.  Other people's pain.  Pain I inflicted, or that was inflicted in my name (with or without my knowledge), or pain that I became implicit in through my silence.  It is no accident that at the start of the Roman Catholic Mass we ask the forgiveness of God for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, and more than one other Christian denomination adds the request for forgiveness for what was done in our names.

The image for today is a rose, and the poem accompanying it is by Joseph Mary Plunkett.  A simple reminder that Jesus will carry his cross to the end of the world, in the pain of his people.





I

I see His Blood Upon the Rose
 
I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
 
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
 
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

Friday 21 March 2014

Bishop Philip Egan and I are sharing a brain cell. This is scary.

Bishop Egan for many reasons I won't go into here has rarely been one of my favorite people.  The Bishop of Portsmouth is rarely backward in coming forward when speaking to the press, and I consider some of what he has said in the past to be not the best way of reaching out to people who are walking away from the Catholic Church.  That's all I'm going to say, so asking me for details won't get them.  Feel free to google what he's said in the past.

But that doesn't mean he's always wrong either.

Just today I found this.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/english-bishop-exhorts-faithful-to-be-charitable-online/

"In moral decisions, including the decision about what to post online, “we cannot choose simply on the basis of what gives us pleasure and what causes us pain,” wrote Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth in a pastoral letter released March 19.

Instead, in the letter titled “Sin, Lent, Redemption," he said people should focus on “what is right and what is wrong, recognizing that often, to do the right thing involves self-sacrifice.”

Bishop Egan asked Catholics to pay attention to their interactions on the internet. “How do I use Facebook or Twitter? Am I charitable when blogging?" he asked. "Do I revel in other people’s failings?”

“All this is grave matter,” Bishop Egan taught in his letter, which will be read at parishes of the Portsmouth diocese March 23. Grave matter – something that directly contradicts one of the Ten Commandments – is one of the three necessary conditions for a mortal sin, he noted.

So Bishop Egan, if you're reading this (which I find unlikely in the extreme) - on this point I will happily agree with you one hundred per cent.  God bless you and keep you, and no doubt we will disagree again, which is also unlikely to ever worry you.  But God bless you anyway.

Sunday 16 March 2014

We are one in the Spirit

This is a hymn that was sung in the Catholic church where I went to Mass as a small child.  I have never heard it in a Catholic church since then.  It doesn't appear in the hymn book at my current parish.  And yet I have had it echoing in my mind since the arrival of Pope Francis, simply because Catholic Social Teaching suddenly became front and centre again, and Liberation Theology came out of the closet.  The verse about work - working with each other, guarding each other's dignity and pride by doing so - rings strange to our ears and it shouldn't.  The concept of the dignity of work and the right of a worker to a living wage is central to Catholic teaching - but it's been submerged for many years.

Also the refrain "and they'll know we are Christians by our love" - a salutary reminder perhaps to think once, twice and three times before putting up that blog post that I've composed in anger.  Anger is too easy, and in the faceless Internet it is too easy to lash out blindly at the person who has hurt you by their posting.  "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored,
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love.
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land,
And they'll know we are Christians by our love


We will work with each other, we will work side by side.
We will work with each other, we will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity, and save each man's pride.
And they'll know we are Christians by our love.


All praise to the Father from whom all things come.
And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son.
And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one.
And they'll know we are Christians by our love

Friday 14 March 2014

Rest in peace, Tony Benn

RIP Tony Benn 1925-2014

One of Britain's political greats, even if there was a lot he said and did that I didn't agree with.  And these words which he said in 2005 should be written in letters of fire on the door of the House of Commons.

Ask the five great questions

What power have you got?
Where did you get it from?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
How can we get rid of you?

Only democracy gives us that right.  That is why no-one with power likes democracy and that is why every generation must struggle to win it and keep it; including you and me, here and now.

Rest in peace. 

Tuesday 11 March 2014

I haven't heard this hymn for a long time, and for some reason it came into my head tonight.

“Do not be afraid” written by Gerald Markland, based on Isaiah 43:1-4

Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name;
you are mine.

When you walk through the waters ,
I’ll be with you;
you will never sink beneath the waves.
Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name;
you are mine.

When the fire is burning all around you,
you will never be consumed by the flames.
Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name;
you are mine.

When the fear of loneliness is looming,
then remember I am at your side.
Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name;
you are mine.

When you dwell in the exile of a stranger,
remember you are precious in my eyes.
Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name;
you are mine.

You are mine,O my child,
I am your Father,
and I love you with a perfect love.
Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name;
you are mine.

We all spend so much of our lives afraid.  Even now it is so hard to believe in a promise this huge, a love this all-encompassing.  We can't believe it might actually be this simple - a God who loves us, holds us, redeems us, calls us by name.  It just can't be that simple.

Can it?