De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

While praying this morning, I had an insight into why it is important to be authentic & clear in our Christian faith - & it might sound completely obvious to you, but it was somewhat of a revelation to me in a really personal way. In some ways, this insight has been driven by a number of separate encounters I've had over the last day or so. These are the "elements" of my insight if you like: The first is the ongoing Vatican debacle and the confusion and pain I see everywhere caused by Pope Francis. The Keys have always been a completely unproblematic part of my faith up until this point when it seems Peter has abandoned Jesus and is not very clear about where he is actually going. Obviously there are a lot of things going on. Perhaps this tweet yesterday summed it up: Leader of @USCCB shuts gate after horse has bolted https://t.co/eiZUVJK5oX — Mark (@sitsio) November 18, 2020 The US Bishops remain silent leading up to the election, rush to congratulate Biden be...

Something I think is central to real discipleship is efficacy. I remember my main question about the faith growing up was "what does it actually do?", in other words, what's the point of believing the faith? No one ever explained it to me & I really had to find out for myself. Perhaps the process begins with the Kerygma , what Pope St John Paul II defines in Catechesi Tradendae as ' the initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith'  and this can be summed up in ten seconds as Scott Hahn does in Evangelizing Catholics , p.119: ‘It takes exactly ten seconds to proclaim the Gospel: (1) God loves you; (2) we have sinned; (3) Christ has died for our sins and risen from the dead; and (4) we have to respond to those gifts by faith.’ Our response in faith is the challenging bit, but honestly these days I'm not finding it so hard, because I have learned, diffic...

Building on yesterday's conversation about the fundamental link in the Gospel between mercy and conversion, and the ministering of that mercy through the Sacraments (specifically Confession), which seemed to be starkly missing from the narrative in Sunday's Pastoral Letter from Archbishop's Nichols and Smith, I found this video of my own bishop, Alan Williams, who presented a workshop at the recent Proclaim '15 event ( see here  for more on this somewhat lack-luster initiative) entitled: "How to make prayer the foundation of your missionary parish". What's interesting is that Bishop Alan starts off (as Jesus did) by marking out the central focus on conversion ( μετάνοια ) and its relationship to a personal encounter with Christ. He also markedly points out the importance and need of prayer at the centre of our action, its efficacy and the need to convince people of this reality in order they might have faith and utilise the gift of prayer in their ow...

Really there seems so much to pray about at the moment in my life. My morning Rosary seems more urgent and important and is preceded and followed by more urgent pleas than I can remember in a long while. Sometimes when I pray, I pray this way, focused, urgent pleading. Sometimes in my life, I have just laid myself out before God, like a shipwrecked and half-drowned sailor washed up on some foreign shore. I felt like at least one of this morning's urgent pleadings was answered very quickly with a couple of promising developments which were just openings that allowed me to act in a positive rather than a negative way. It may well be that my concern in both these regards was unfounded, and God just showed me there was no need to feel anxious. It could be that he presented me with an opportunity to love and effect the situation through my own generosity of spirit. I discerned the latter and so when that chink appeared, poured all the love I could in. We'll see what comes. I...

I have spent the last week on Pilgrimage in Lourdes , France. Lourdes is a small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, on the border with Spain. The town is famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes which occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous . Lourdes is a very special place for me. It is where I met my wonderful wife in 1989, and has become one of those places which seem central to the story of our lives. I went back to Lourdes last year for the first time in some 16 years, after spending many springs and summers there as a youngster with the HCPT and ACROSS, helping handicapped children and adults. You can read about that here . This year, the Parish went on pilgrimage there and Louise suggested I take our youngest son John. This meant I was in Lourdes without Louise for the first time ever, which was a bit strange. It was also the first time I have been with my dear friend and parish priest, Father Kevin Hale. Also, I got to travel with all ...

This afternoon's Confirmation Class will be on Prayer & The Sacraments. We are following the course "I Have Chosen You" by Joseph Moore, which has an extensive section on prayer which focuses on the Creed. I think this is an important part of any confirmation course. We live in a world where truth is usually considered provisional and changeable. “Dogmatism” is almost a dirty word. “Acceptance” is the order of the day, where everyone is considered free to hold any opinion he or she chooses, in a pluralist society. Dogma for Catholics is the foundation of faith. The dogmas of the faith are enshrined in Creeds, about which St. Ambrose wrote “This Creed is the spiritual seal, our hearts meditation and ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul” ( See CCC 197) Of course we say a Creed every Sunday at Mass, but how often do we really think about what it means or where it came from? The Nicene Creed was agree on by a Council of the Church ...

"Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  Ps 119:105 Welcome to this, the fifty-fifth of my reflections on the theology of the Sunday readings at Mass. I have been on holiday for a couple of weeks and while I pre-prepared my weekly posts, a lack of wifi availability made it difficult to post them (rather frustratingly). In any case, I have decided to post them retrospectively for anyone who is interested, and since they are quite a bit of work! I have undertaken this project, regularly posting background information on the readings at Sunday Mass as part of my own prayer life. I have found it helps me to do a little study before I go to Mass about the readings, what the theme of the week is, how it follows on from the previous week's readings and what is being said. In sharing this, I hope to help you too get more from the Bible and Sunday Scripture readings. Perhaps it might give you confidence in the value and legitimacy of the Bible, or...

"Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  Ps 119:105 Welcome to this, the fifty-third of my reflections on the theology of the Sunday readings at Mass. I have undertaken this project, regularly posting background information on the readings at Sunday Mass as part of my own prayer life. I have found it helps me to do a little study before I go to Mass about the readings, what the theme of the week is, how it follows on from the previous week's readings and what is being said. In sharing this, I hope to help you too get more from the Bible and Sunday Scripture readings. Perhaps it might give you confidence in the value and legitimacy of the Bible, or perhaps it might inspire you to pray the Divine Office or investigate the weekly readings for yourself. I see this as very clearly part of what the Church teaches about the Bible: This heaven-sent treasure Holy Church considers as the most precious source of doctrine on faith and morals. No ...