17th Sunday of the Year

Can God interact with human beings? Can human beings communicate with God? Astonishingly, that mysterious activity to which we give the name of "prayer” seems be not only possible, but also necessary for our growing to full maturity; and the first and third readings for this Sunday give us some idea of how this prayer works. first reading is an extraordinarily audacious tale of Abraham and God doing battle. God has determined to find out if Sodom and Gomorrah should be punished, for offences that have not yet been specified.

It is a charming picture of a God who does not quite know what the situation is; to this God Abraham addresses himself with some courage, endeavouring to protect the city, by arguing that there might be fifty righteous people there, and that it would be unreasonable to destroy it if that were the case. God agrees that for fifty such the city will not be destroyed; but the matter does not end there, and Abraham, deferentially but firmly, beats God down, step by step, to agreeing to spare the city if they can find just ten innocent people. There the matter ends, and the story takes a different turn.

What can we say about prayer? Clearly, according to this-story, prayer is not a matter of magic; it is not that if you put in so many hours of prayer, or over several days utter the right formula, a particular result can be guaranteed; that would be pagan superstition. Prayer is something far more extraordinary than that; prayer, almost unbelievably, is a matter of a relationship between the Creator of All That Is and the insignificant human beings that we are (insignificant, that is to say, except to this extraordinary God).

What's In a Hymn?

It is very easy simply to sing hymns without thinking about the origins of the words and the music. An interesting pastime is to go away and research a little about the hymns we sing in Church. Traditionally Catholics did not sing hymns in Church — not really until the end of the nineteenth century and even then very seldom. When they did there would rarely be hymns from non-Catholic sources. No so today. Our final hymn today is a great finishing hymn 'All my hope on God is founded'. It is really a collaboration between three men. Two wrote the words and one added the music.

  Joachim Neander                         Robert Bridges

Joachim Neander wrote this hymn and sixty more. He was a member of the German Reformed Church, and was strongly influenced by Philip Spenser, the founder of Pietism. A rambunctious sort in his youth, he became involved in ministry in his 20s, but died at age 30 of tuberculosis. However, his hymns, particularly this one and the more famous "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation" have inspired Christian worship for more than three centuries (Neander died in 1680).

This hymn calls us to trust God rather than "mortal pride" or "earthly glory." It reminds us that "sword and crown betray our trust." It calls us to praise the one whose "great goodness e'er endureth." Robert Bridges (Poet Laureate) translated the hymn into English. The Tune 'Michael' was named after Herbert Howells' son who died aged 9 from spinal meningitis. He wrote it over breakfast one morning.

Herbert Howells

Here is a recording of this hymn performed at Westminster abbey during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Pilgrimage to Arundel

Thank you to everyone who supported the recent pilgrimage to Arundel. Here is a sample of photos taken on the day, several more can be found on the ordinariateexpats blog.

July: the month of the Precious Blood

July is the month when Catholics traditionally have a devotion to the Precious Blood. The spilling of this blood is the root of our salvation and each week in July one of our hymns will mention the Precious Blood. Watch out for them.

Walsingham association

Thank you to all who supported the inaugural meeting of the Reading Branch of the Walsingham Association yesterday.

A link to the Walsingham association site can be found here, as well as in the right-hand sidebar. One of the things we learned yesterday was the role of the new media in encouraging pilgrimage and increasing the national profile of the shrine. In particular, you can find broadcasts of Masses on their youtube channel here, or follow their latest developments on social media via their twitter feed or facebook page.

The Roman Catholic Shrine in Houghton St Giles, Walsingham

We conclude with this elegant hymn to Our Lady of Walsingham.

16th Sunday of the Year

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Erasmus II Quellin

Today's readings are about hospitality. Our Gospel for this Sunday is clearly about hospitality — but whose? At one level, it is true, the hospitality is clearly that of Martha, who accepts Jesus into her home. But it is also the hospitality of Jesus, who thinks that it is permissible and proper to be with women and to talk to them about the things of God; like the three men in our first reading, Jesus actually honours the house of the two sisters simply by being there and not worrying about ritual impurity. Jesus is, Luke tells us, on the journey, and we already know that it will take him to Jerusalem and death; furthermore, he has just had an aggressive encounter with the lawyer that provoked the deeply subversive story of the Good Samaritan. The tone here is far gentler (Luke is, in the end, a very gentle gospel); but it is also subversive, for the last thing that we should expect is that a woman would give hospitality. And not just one, but two; for Martha has a sister, Mary, who "sat at the feet of the Lord, and listened to his word", and inevitably we remember that other Mary, in the second chapter of Luke's gospel, who "kept all these things in her heart". There is drama, however, and tension, for Martha has allowed the hospitality to be a drain on her; and she flips, and starts giving orders to the Lord (this is hospitality gone horribly wrong), "don't you care that my sister" (she can't bring herself even to utter her name) "has abandoned me to serve? Tell her to help!" Jesus is incredibly gentle in the face of this aggression, the repetition of her name ("Martha, Martha") robbing his reply of all venom; and he says that Mary's portion 'shall not be taken from her". Who is giving hospitality to whom?

Rublëv's Icon of the Trinity

13th Sunday of the Year

This Sunday's Gospel begins Luke's unique account of Jesus' long journey to Jerusalem (9:51 - 19:17).  Jesus' fateful trek begins in a solemn way; Luke introduces the section with the portentous phrase, "As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken from this world, he firmly resolved to proceed toward Jerusalem . . ." (9:51).  For Luke, Jesus is beginning his "exodus," his divinely prescribed fate to go to Jerusalem to suffer but also enter his glory by being "taken" into heaven (see Luke 24).  In the course of his journey, Jesus will teach his would be disciples the requirements of "following" him. The radical demands of being a follower of Jesus are evident in the opening incidents of the journey.  Jesus is not received by a Samaritan village which provokes James and John to request, “Lord, would you not have us call down fire from heaven to destroy them.”  Unlike the prophet Elijah who did call down fire to destroy his enemies (see 2 Kings 1), Jesus lives out his own teaching on love of the enemy (see Lk 6:2736) by reprimanding his vengeful disciples and moving on to another town.

Three subsequent encounters with would be followers provide Jesus with the opportunity to give proverbs about the cost of discipleship.  First of all, the disciples must be willing to abandon their earthly homes, like Elisha in the first reading. "The foxes have lairs, the birds of the sky nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Jesus' followers also cannot delay the call of the kingdom by waiting to be free of normal family obligations.  The man who wants to wait for his father to die before following Jesus receives the challenge: "Let the dead bury their dead; come away and proclaim the kingdom."  The final encounter is a direct contrast to Elijah's call of Elisha in the first reading.  To the man who wants to take leave of his family at home Jesus says, "Whoever puts his hand to the plough but keeps looking back is unfit for the reign of God."  Each of these proverbs should be heard as a call, rather than a reproach.  Jesus, who is "firmly resolved to proceed toward Jerusalem" where he will meet suffering and death but also enter his glory, is the model for the disciple's commitment.