Holy Innocents

Surrounded by presents and tinsel, peaceful nativity scenes and Christmas goodwill, it is easy to forget the full reality of the Christmas event. 


At the time of the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph were travellers. Their homelessness may have lasted several years and involved a journey of several hundred kilometres from Bethlehem to Egypt, and back to Nazareth.  

The readings of today's feast of the Holy Innocents remind us of the most significant trial this new family faced.  As the madman Herod used some of his last breaths to overcome the rumoured 'new King of the Jews' at his birth, Joseph and Mary fled to the safety of Egypt.

That is a substantial trip. We know this from the Old Testament account of Moses leading the people of Israel (in the other direction) over the same ground. It took them forty years.

Tragically children are no safer today than they were 2000 years ago. Of course we rail in horror at Herod's mass killing of young children. We are horrified because these children had been born and had names. Had their lives been taken before birth, twenty-first century New Zealand would have little concern. 

We know this since in 2010 there were 16,210 abortions recorded in New Zealand. This is around 800 times the number of children killed by Herod. (We know that the population of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth was around 600 people, 20-30 of whom would have been under two years of age). 

Herod's evil action had tragic consequences; certainly for the children, their families and their little town. Perhaps Herod too could not cope with his action - within a year he was dead.  

The taking of innocent life always has traumatic consequences.    While we know that all children who are the victims of such decisions, then as now, are with God, we pray with them for those who are unable to see past their own fears and who take out their insecurities on the most innocent and vulnerable.     

The sixteenth century "Coventry Carol" is a hymn for today's feast.

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Lullay, thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Christopher Hitchins - and faith

Last week Christopher Hitchins died. You may know him as 'the athiest', or the author of books such as "God is not Great".

For the past three years I have had the opportunity to be a part of a priests' retreat led by Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete. 

The series below lets us listen in on Hitchins and Albacete as they chat about faith. Many might think that the champion of "New Athiesm" and a remarkably effective communicator of the "New Evangelisation" would have little to converse about.

But here their common ground of respectful and energetic search for life's meaning and purpose provides a forum for inspiring dialogue.

Christmas 2011

A couple of Christmas links below. 


The pope speaks powerfully of the reality that is 'God with us' in his Midnight Mass homily.

"Formerly, people had spoken of God and formed human images of him in all sorts of different ways.  God himself had spoken in many and various ways to mankind (cf. Heb 1:1 – Mass during the Day).  But now something new has happened: he has appeared.  He has revealed himself.  He has emerged from the inaccessible light in which he dwells.  He himself has come into our midst.  This was the great joy of Christmas for the early Church: God has appeared.  No longer is he merely an idea, no longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words.  He has “appeared”.  

Pope Benedict: Christmas Homily 2011 and  News video

The Christmas Message of the Queen is always an encouragement to people of faith. With every year she speaks more directly of the reality of God present and active in the world. Note especially the last couple of minutes of this message.

Queen Elizabeth's Christmas Message

pope speaks to NZ bishops

Links to reports from the NZ bishops' ad limina visit to Rome last week:


Radio Vatican report

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/pope-speaks-nz-bishops-about-impact-secularism/5/111358

http://www.chch.catholic.org.nz/?sid=3029

http://cathnews.co.nz/2011/12/16/nz-bishops-meet-with-pope-benedict/

bugs and bells gone and God lives on

At Christmas twelve years ago we were anxious about the possible negative consequences of the Millennium Bug. Despite our fears the citizens of Christchurch unplugged computers and TV’s and headed to Hagley Park to herald the next thousand years with music and fireworks. The bells of the Cathedrals welcomed a new era.

A couple of weeks later I arrived at Our Lady of Victories. By this time we knew that our Y2K fears were unfounded and life had returned to routine. For all of us at Our Lady of Victories this was a new stage of our journey together to God.

Many times in the years since our plans have had to change as a result of unpredicted and often unwanted events. The job is lost. The relationship dissolves. The friend dies. Most recently earthquakes have destroyed much and changed everything. The loss of life in these and other tragedies seems too much to bear.

It has been a privilege to serve as the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Victories these past dozen years. Priesthood is not a job. It is a life, more akin to family than to institution. As a result people see all sides of their priest; the worst, and hopefully too the best. This means that the mistakes and ‘bad days’ of a priest are not confined within the walls of a presbytery. 

As I prepare to leave Our Lady of Victories I am deeply aware of the things I have done badly, or the things I should have done, but have neglected. For my mistakes and neglects I ask for your understanding and forgiveness. Hopefully my  failures remind you of my need for your prayers.

I am also aware of the many ways in which the Holy Spirit has moved powerfully among us. A priest is in an especially privileged position to see the power and even the miracles of God in the lives of parishioners.

I see this most vividly in the sacraments. How often people come into the Church for Mass visibly burdened. An hour later they comment on leaving that they are strengthened. They are now able to face the week ahead.

Every Sunday I see the families of so many who I have buried from Our Lady of Victories. I feel especially connected with you since in the last four years I have buried both my own parents from Our Lady of Victories.

The restoration of our parish Church in 2008 heralded a renewed commitment to celebrating the Liturgy of the Church with beauty, dignity and fidelity. 

As the inscription above the doors of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament still proclaims: “Ecce Tabernaculum Dei Cum Hominibus” (Behold, Look! Here God lives among us).

Other buildings in the city provide ample space for secular entertainments. But a Catholic Church is dedicated for the single purpose of worship of God. In this way our parish Church, open all day every day for Masses and prayer, is an icon. Not an icon of our parish or our neighbourhood, but an icon of God.

And this is the heart of the Christmas reality. 

Families and friends come and go. Personal interests and projects ebb and flow. Our houses, workplaces, even the land on which they stand, rise and fall. We see this pattern in nature, the waxing and waning of days and seasons and years. We cannot escape this rhythm in the moments and movements of our lives.

Our Catholic ancestors building a Cathedral proclaimed: ‘Look, here God lives among us’. My prayer is that in some way my presence at Our Lady of Victories has helped to deepen our focus on God who dwells among us in every moment. 

The bells may no longer ring. Priests too come and go. But human happiness is found when we turn to God in every moment and allow God to work anew the miracle of incarnation in the stables of our own lives.

With my love and gratitude to you all.   

Fr. John

OLV Christmas Mass times

Christmas Mass times at Our Lady of Victories, Sockburn Christchurch.   Map below.

Christmas Eve

6.00pm

8.00pm

Midnight

Christmas Day

8.00am

10.00am

(note no 5.00pm Mass)


http://www.localfoot.co.nz/our-lady-of-victories-christchurch/map


Parish Website   www.olv.co.nz

birth and death

Take a moment to appreciate this Millet masterpiece. Even if you have never seen the image before, you will guess that these peasants are praying. 

When the one who commissioned this painting in the mid- 1800’s failed to buy the finished painting, Millet added a church bell tower and renamed his work “Angelus”.

Many of us remember the convent or church bell tolling at midday and early evening at 6. (the 6am bell was often not rung at the request of neighbours). Whatever the Catholic locals were doing when the the bell tolled, at the distinctive 3,3,3,9 ring, all would stop, mid sentence, mid activity. Catholics would stand to pray. 


The bell was the the call to prayer, and the only introduction necessary before the proclamation heralding the incarnation: “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.”

This prayer of incarnation interrupts our routines and busyness. While it may be difficult to find others to pray the Angelus with, there is nothing to stop us praying alone. 


Perhaps the near-midday ring of a nearby phone, or the moment of inserting the key in the car ignition could be for you an  'Angelus Bell'.

The message of the angel interrupted Mary’s daily routine and life’s dreams to such an extent that ‘she was greatly troubled’.  “But how can this be...”.  


From the moment of Mary’s response “be it done unto me, according to thy Word”, Mary life was fulfilled. This does not mean that Mary lived in blissful earthly happiness every subsequent moment. Jump ahead 12 years to her search for a missing son, or 33 years later to the moment when she held her dead son.  But always, in the depth of her heart, she was at peace in God.


This depth of peace, at a deeper level than all daily demands and regular routines, is also the deepest desire of every human person.  This peace is our "default setting".

There is a challenge in allowing God to enter our lives. It is not a simple or easy birth. In the moment of deepest desire for the fulness of God’s life, we also feel the pain of having to let go of our old attachments. While we know that our personal dreams, projects and likes can never deliver the depth of joy and peace we desire, their is a deceptive and superficial comfort in these familiar traps.

T.S. Eliot was familiar with this tension. In his “Journey of the Magi” he ponders:

"...were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death."

+++

Listen to T.S. Eliot reading "Journey of the Magi"

Tap here to hear (as above) the Angelus ring clip from Irish TV

Tap here to hear another Angelus rung - not exactly the ring that I remember from Rosary Convent in Oamaru, but an interesting clip. 

How to pray the Angelus

Fr. Robert Barron's homily for today: Fourth Sunday Advent

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

a gift for Christmas...

...or a new year present, gift for grandchild leaving school, confirmation, wedding, a gift for an intelligent and searching adult, or a present for no reason at all apart from 'I thought you might like this'...

A few times in recent weeks I have mentioned the visit of Fr. Robert Barron. He was here to give the priests' retreat and a public lecture.

Recently his book "Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith" was published.  Ordering details via Amazon are available at this link.

If you are looking for a Christmas gift for someone who is intelligent, and who appreciates beauty and truth, it would be difficult to do better than to give them a copy of this book.

Fr. Barron's TV series Catholicism is screening on over 100 TV channels at present.  You can buy this DVD series from this link, or from his www.wordonfire.org website.

Tap on the video link below to view the 'trailer' for the Catholicism series.

and another taste:

and another:

highway for God

In the midst of the busyness of these pre-Christmas days you might find time to take in a performance of Handel's Messiah. This masterpiece was composed in only 24 days in 1741.

A few key moments of the music and lyrics come to mind often, especially when I ponder the scriptures of these Advent days.  Today's gospel echoes the prophet Isaiah.  Handel sets this to music superbly in the tenor recitative:

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God".

When I think of  a "highway for our God" these days I can't help but think of the construction sites that will be come the new Christchurch Southern Motorway.

'A highway for our God'...


Remember that while our deepest human desire is yearning for God, and our journey is easiest and happiest when on the highway God has given to us, in the sacraments of the Church it is God who travels the highway to us. God comes to us, to lift us up and hold us to himself.

Gaudate. Rejoice!

This third Sunday of Advent is the day on which the rose-coloured candle on the Advent wreath is lit.  Tap this link to find out more about this Gaudate Sunday.

Advent III

The priests of the diocese continue to savour the graces of their retreat last month.  Many people of the diocese also heard Fr. Robert Barron at the public lecture.  Today you might appreciate his insights as he reflects on the readings for the Third Sunday of Advent.

Advent III.    Fr. Robert Barron

OLV school

This Sunday (11 December @ the 10.00am Mass) our parish hosts the school community for an end-of-year school Mass.  The 10.00am Mass will be followed by a gathering of parishioners and the school students, teachers and families in the presbytery garden.

It has been an extraordinarily difficult year. Someone commented to me that there has not been a year as difficult and disruptive to city life since the war. That is undoubtedly true. Our prayer is that these difficult days are now past. We pray for stability in the earth, and even more we turn to God for stability, peace and joy in every event and moment of our lives.

It has been encouraging to see our city community (with support from around the country and the world), and the smaller communities within the city, working together throughout the year to support and rebuild.  We have seen many examples of this in our own parish and school community.

In this our Catholic community has a significant advantage over secular institutions and schools. We do not simply rely on the goodness and generosity of people. We turn to God, and to the life of God gifted to us through the sacramental life of the Catholic Church.

This gift of God is the heart of the life of a Catholic school. A Catholic school exists to communicate the life of God using the teachings and tools of the Catholic faith.

It was the Sisters of Mercy who founded our parish school in 1956.  They lived at the VIlla Maria convent where their lives centred on God. They began every day with prayer and Mass in the chapel. Each day concluded in the chapel.  Throughout the day they took moments and minutes to remind their students that everything depended on God. 

Twenty years later, in the mid 1970’s, the NZ schools Integration Act defined this special character of a Catholic school: 

"a Roman Catholic School in which the whole school community, through the general school programme and in its' Religious instructions and observances, exercises the right to live and teach the values of Jesus Christ. These values are as expressed in the Scriptures and in the practices, worship and doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, as determined from time to time by the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Christchurch."

As we come to the end of this school year it is timely for us to remember that our school is a treasure. This treasure has been entrusted to us by earlier Catholic generations. Their generosity built this school. Today we govern, manage and support our school on behalf of our bishop who owns the school.

It is my prayer that at the end of this challenging year, the school community rests well and returns refreshed to continue God’s work in this place in 2012.

ad limina

Today Bishop Barry leaves NZ for the "ad limina" visit to Rome. There, with the other bishops of New Zealand, he will meet with the pope and with the offices of the curia.

Bishop Pat Dunn of Auckland has 'podcasted' this interview on the purpose and experience of the ad limina visit.

Podcast - The Bishop Reflects

Welcome to the first official Diocesan podcast! In each episode, Lyndsay Freer will conduct a conversation with the Bishop about topics relevant to his ministry and the Church in Auckland.

The first episode discusses the Bishop's ad-limina visit, as he prepares to leave for Rome.



Use the flash controls above to play the podcast, or click here to download the file (MP3, 7.4MB)




Copied from (and also hearable at) the website for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland

Advent: praying in the car

I have found the car to be a great 'monastic cell' for prayer. This is probably helpful since my appointment to North Canterbury will give me a lot more 'car-time' next year.  

The red traffic light encourages me to be still even more. I can spend the minutes at the red light frustrated at the slow change. OR, I can turn off the radio and take two or three minutes of stillness and silence.

Fr. Robert Barron (retreat preacher for the Christchurch priests last week) offers this reflection: