One of the best known hymns sung in many Churches on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is "Firmly I believe and truly." Did you know that its original context is in Blessed John Henry Newman's "Dream of Gerontius". Here it is in the wonderful setting by Edward Elgar, and sung by tenor Peter Pears.
Please ask the Holy Spirit to guide us all as we prepared to fulfil our Christian duty of voting in the General Election on June 8th. Copies of the bishops' letter are still available in Church and the letter can be read online here.
As we prepare for the great Day of Pentecost, you might like to reflect on the Sequence for the feast. These words were written by the thirteenth century Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. You will find an English translation under the video.
Our Bishop has asked us to draw some matters to the attention of our young people. Please pass these items on to your children and grandchildren if they are unlikely to see this site.
Most of our Universities and Higher Education Institutions have a dedicated Catholic Chaplain based in the local University or parish. The Catholic Chaplaincy is a place for young Catholics to explore their faith as a young adults, to meet other young people with similar interests from a great range of backgrounds, and to get involved in activities and social outreach. To help Catholic young people find their local Chaplaincy, when studying away from home and for contact details of all the University Chaplains and Catholic Student Societies, visit the Catholics At University website at: www.catholicsatuniversity.org.uk.
If you are between 13 and 29 and haven't participated in the poll yet, you can do so here.
This weekend the Church keeps "World Communications Day" - second collection for this at the weekend. Cardinal Nichols tells us more about it in this short video:
Also this weekend, you will find a message from our bishops about the General Election at the back of both Churches. You can read it here.
In the wake of the terrorist incident in Manchester, we keep those who died, the injured, the grieving and the emergency services in our prayers. A number of people have told me that they have found my reflection here helpful. Above all, please keep praying.
...to make any sense of the atrocity at Manchester this last 24 hours. I don't know. I can't explain. I can't understand. All I can do is pray. Maybe I can share some of my confused thoughts and prayers through this sad day.
As I heard the news this morning, I remembered at once that I would be at St Charles School later in the day for our May Procession. It became clear that some of the children injured and killed in the blast were of a similar age to the precious children in our school. For a brief moment I wondered whether I could face the children this afternoon. Should we cancel the procession? No. Of course not. Our prayers, our love were more necessary than ever.
I prepared for the usual morning Mass. The first reading had noise and violence: a flogging, an earthquake, someone wanting to kill himself. This was not what I needed. Lord give me something more peaceful, more hopeful, more comforting on this awful morning. But wait. Faith in the risen Lord changes hearts. The gaoler who locked up Paul and Silas, still bleeding from their beating, washes their wounds even though it was late at night. He takes them home and feeds them. It was just like the only hopeful bit of news - the kindness and generosity of the people of Manchester. And the gaoler receives baptism from his erstwhile prisoners, and enters the risen life of the one who died, praying for his enemies, refusing to give into hatred.
And so a few hours later I made my way to school. I heard that the community had already prayed and reflected on the horrors of the night during morning assembly.
We gathered in the sunshine for the procession. I invited the children to offer their prayers, their rosary for those killed, wounded, grieving, and for the emergency services. I suggested that we asked Mary our Mother to hold them all in her arms.
We set off praying the Sorrowful Mysteries on this sorrowful Tuesday. I tried to plead the suffering and sorrows of Jesus and Mary for the suffering, sorrowful ones of Manchester. Between the mysteries we sang the very familiar processional hymn to Our Lady. The words, so, so familiar seemed to have a new relevance today:
...bless, sweetest lady,
the land of our birth.
For poor, sick, afflicted
thy mercy we crave;
and comfort the dying
thou light of the grave.
There is no need, Mary,
nor ever has been,
which thou canst not succour,
Immaculate Queen.
And the hope, the faith, the uplift of this verse as we approached the end of the procession:
And crown thy sweet mercy
with this special grace,
to behold soon in heaven
God’s ravishing face.
May this be granted to those who have died in such an untimely and violent way today.
So the May Queen crowned the image of Mary in our school grounds, and it was almost time for tea and cakes. We don't sing Fr Faber's hymns much these days, but one line of his kept coming into my mind this afternoon: "victory remains with love." So we sang of the victory of that love as our Chant Club led us in the Easter Anthem to Our Lady, Regina caeli, laetare, Queen of heaven, rejoice...
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia,
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
He has risen as he said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God. Alleluia
As we ended, our Aves, our Alleluias seemed stronger, more powerful than the noise of any bomb. Victory remains with love. That's what I am trying to hold in my heart tonight.
