Jubilee 2025: 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea

In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis noted the felicity of the coincidence of the Jubilee Year with the anniversarly of the Council of Nicaea: 

The coming Jubilee Year will also coincide with a significant date for all Christians, namely, the 1700th anniversary of the celebration of the first great Ecumenical Council, that of Nicaea....

The Council of Nicaea sought to preserve the Church’s unity, which was seriously threatened by the denial of the full divinity of Jesus Christ and hence his consubstantiality with the Father. Some three hundred bishops took part, convoked at the behest of the Emperor Constantine; their first meeting took place in the Imperial Palace on 20 May 325. After various debates, by the grace of the Spirit they unanimously approved the Creed that we still recite each Sunday at the celebration of the Eucharist. The Council Fathers chose to begin that Creed by using for the first time the expression “ We believe”, as a sign that all the Churches were in communion and that all Christians professed the same faith.

This aspect of the Jubilee Year is being marked by Pope Leo XIV's visit to Turkiye, a visit that includes a celebration where the Council itself took place. In anticipation of that visit, Pope Leo published his Apsotolic Letter In Unitate Fidei, which explores the history and theology of the Nicene Creed. Recognising that the Creed is a lived statement of faith, Pope Leo also asks us to reflect on what the profession of the Nicene Creed means for those who recite it each Sunday at Mass (n.10 ff):

The path that began with Sacred Scripture and led to the profession of faith in Nicaea, subsequently accepted in Constantinople and Chalcedon, and again in the 16th and 21st centuries, has been a long and consistent one. All of us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We make the sign of the cross on ourselves and we are blessed. We conclude each prayer of the psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours with “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.” Both the liturgy and the Christian life are thus firmly anchored in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: what we profess with our mouths must come from the heart so that we may bear witness to it with our lives. We must therefore ask ourselves: What about our interior reception of the Creed today? Do we experience that it also affects our current situation? Do we understand and live out what we say every Sunday? What do these words mean for our lives?

In his address during the celebration at Iznik, Pope Leo XIV makes an interesting suggestion with regard to the ecumenical significance of the Christological affirmation of the Nicene Creed that seems to parallel Pope St John Paul II's suggestion (Ut Unum Sint n.84) that in martyrdom a fullness of communion in ecclesial life is already achieved. It is the citation of St Augustine that appears to give a strength to Pope Leo's words not dissimilar to those of Pope St John Paul II:

This Christological confession of faith is of fundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion. For it is shared by all Christian Churches and Communities throughout the world, including those which, for various reasons, do not use the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in their liturgies. Indeed, faith “in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages... consubstantial with the Father” (Nicene Creed) is a profound bond already uniting all Christians. In this sense, to quote Saint Augustine, in the ecumenical context we can also say that, “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one” (Exposition on Psalm 127). Consequently, with an awareness that we are already linked by such a profound bond, we can continue our journey of ever deeper adherence to the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in mutual love and dialogue. 

I have a particular affection for the profession of faith of Pope Paul VI offered at the closing of the Year of Faith in June 1968, a year that marked the 19th centenary of the martrydoms of St Peter and St Paul. That profession of faith is an extended exposition of the Nicene Creed, and is now known as the Credo of the People of God:

On this day which is chosen to close the Year of Faith, on this feast of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, we have wished to offer to the living God the homage of a profession of faith. And as once at Caesarea Philippi the apostle Peter spoke on behalf of the twelve to make a true confession, beyond human opinions, of Christ as Son of the living God, so today his humble successor, pastor of the Universal Church, raises his voice to give, on behalf of all the People of God, a firm witness to the divine Truth entrusted to the Church to be announced to all nations.

The Jubilee of Choirs

In the Roman Liturgy, one of the Lenten Prefaces ends with the exhortation:

Through him the Angels praise your majesty,
Dominions adore and Powers tremble before you.
Heaven and the Virtues of heaven and the blessed Seraphim
worship together with exultation.
May our voices, we pray, join with theirs
in humble praise, as we acclaim: 

The Easter Prefaces end:

Therefore, overcome with paschal joy,
every land, every people exults in your praise
and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, 
sing together the unending hymn of your glory
as they acclaim:

And the text of the Sanctus that these words introduce takes us to the words of the six winged Seraphim before the throne of God in the vision of Isaiah (Is. 6):

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

As the Church celebrates the Jubilee of Choirs in the days 22nd-23rd November 2025, to coincide with the feast day of St Cecilia, the Liturgy suggests to us that the voices raised in praise of God here on earth, voices which express praise on behalf of the whole cosmos, are one with those of the heavenly liturgy. It is interesting to consider the extent to which, as we attend Mass, we let ourselves become explicitly conscious of the heavenly character of our worship.

In his chapter on "Music and Liturgy" in the book The Spirit of the Liturgy, Joseph Ratzinger offers the following reflection:

In the Eucharist a communion takes place that corresponds to the union of man and woman in marriage. Just as they become "one flesh", so in Communion we all become "one spirit", one person, with Christ. The spousal mystery , announced in the Old Testament, of the intimate union of God and man takes place in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, precisely through his Passion and in a very real way. The singing of the Church comes ultimately out of love. It is the utter depth of love that produces the singing. "Cantare amantis est", says St Augustine, singing is a lover's thing.

For those who sing in more secular contexts, their singing can perhaps be seen as one of those "seeds of the Gospel" of which the Jubilee Prayer speaks:

May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally. 

Jubilee 2025: Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

 In the decree that promulgated the texts for the votive Mass for the Care of Creation, we find the following paragraph:

The mystery of creation is the beginning of salvation history, which culminates in Christ and from the mystery of Christ it receives definitive light; in fact, by manifesting His goodness, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1,1) God already from these origins had in mind the glory of the new creation in Christ.

This Christological orientation is reflected in the texts themselves, which can be downloaded from the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference: Mass for Care of Creation. The Prayer after Communion reflects the theme of hope of the Jubilee Year:

May the sacrament of unity which we have received, O Father, increase communion with you and with our brothers and sisters, so that, as we await the new heaven and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures. 

 It is reflected in the choice of the New Testament reading from Colossians 1:15-20:

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.

The Jubilee Prayer prompts a reading of St Paul's words in the Letter to the Romans:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The "new creation in Christ" embraces both the new creation of men and women and the glory of the created world in which they live. As such, it needs to be distinguished from an environmentalism that does not take account of this full reality of our world and therefore becomes, to a greater or lesser extent, an ideology.

Jubilee of Sport

 The Jubilee of Sport is to be marked from 14th - 15th June 2025. The press conference to introduce this jubilee gives some idea of the relationship between the Church and the world of sport and of the events that will form part of this Jubilee. 

The Jubilee itself reminds me of a chapter in Romano Guardini's short book The Spirit of the Liturgy. That chapter is entitled "The Playfulness of the Liturgy" and, whilst Guardini warns that we should read the whole in order to really understand his idea, I offer two quotations in an attempt to summarise the chapter:

The child when it plays, does not aim at anything. It has no purpose. It does not want to do anything but to exercise its youthful powers, pour forth its life in an aimless series of movements, words and actions, and by this to develop and to realize itself more fully; all of which is purposeless, but full of meaning nevertheless, the significance lying in the unchecked revelation of this youthful life in thoughts and words and movements and actions, in the capture and expression of its nature, and in the fact of its existence. And because it does not aim at anything in particular, because it streams unbroken and spontaneously forth, its utterance will be harmonious, its form clear and fine; its expression will of itself become picture and dance, rhyme, melody and song.

And, towards the end of the chapter:

The liturgy does the same thing. It too, with endless care, with all the seriousness of the child and the strict conscientiousness of the great artist, has toiled to express in a thousand forms the sacred God-given life of the soul to no other purpose that that the soul may therein have its existence and live its life. The liturgy had laid down the serious rules of the sacred game which the soul plays before God. And, if we are desirous of touching bottom int his mystery, it is the Spirit of fire and of holy discipline "Who has knowledge of the World" - the Holy Ghost - Who has ordained the game which the Eternal Wisdom plays before the Heavenly Father in the Church, Its kingdom on earth. And "Its delight" is in this way "to be with the children of men". 

There have been many occasions when the Church has engaged with the field of sports. In the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 a Jubilee of Sport took place, during which Pope St John Paul II met with leading protagonists from the field: Jubilee of Sports People. More recently, in May 2024, the French Embassy to the Holy See and the Dicastery for Culture and Education sponsored a conference "Putting Life into Play". Pope Francis' message to that conference is reported on the Vatican News website, with a full text here. I quote below from Pope St John Paul II's homily of October 2000:

Playing sports has become very important today, since it can encourage young people to develop important values such as loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity. Precisely for this reason, in recent years it has continued to grow even more as one of the characteristic phenomena of the modern era, almost a "sign of the times" capable of interpreting humanity's new needs and new expectations. Sports have spread to every corner of the world, transcending differences between cultures and nations.

The Holy Father went on to compare the commitments needed to be successful in sport to those needed to live a full Christian life:

 "Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing" (Ps 125: 5). The responsorial psalm reminded us that persevering effort is needed to succeed in life. Anyone who plays sports knows this very well:  it is only at the cost of strenuous training that significant results are achieved. The athlete, therefore, agrees with the Psalmist when he says that the effort spent in sowing finds its reward in the joy of the harvest:  "Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, they shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves" (Ps 125: 6).

At the recent Olympic Games in Sydney we admired the feats of the great athletes, who sacrificed themselves for years, day after day, to achieve those results. This is the logic of sport, especially Olympic sports; it is also the logic of life:  without sacrifices, important results are not obtained, or even genuine satisfaction.

Once again the Apostle Paul has reminded us of this:  "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable" (1 Cor 9: 25). Every Christian is called to become a strong athlete of Christ, that is, a faithful and courageous witness to his Gospel. But to succeed in this, he must persevere in prayer, be trained in virtue and follow the divine Master in everything.

He, in fact, is God's true athlete:  Christ is the "more powerful" Man (cf. Mk 1: 7), who for our sake confronted and defeated the "opponent", Satan, by the power of the Holy Spirit, thus inaugurating the kingdom of God. He teaches us that, to enter into glory, we must undergo suffering (cf. Lk 24: 26,46); he has gone before us on this path, so that we might follow in his footsteps.

 Pope Francis own particular contribution to the Church's engagement with the world of sport is perhaps in his strong encouragement of a culture of encounter and dialogue, something to which the world of sport readily lends itself. In his message for the conference in May 2024 Pope Francis also encouraged the preservation of a genuine sense of "sportsmanship", of the maintenance of a certain amateur spirit in the way in which people take part in sport.

Pope Leo XIV more recently met with the football team of Naples, winners of Italy's equivalent of the British Premier League. In a slightly different way, he picked up Pope Francis' words in favour of a genuine sportsmanship:

Welcome! And congratulations for your victory in the Championship! It is a great celebration for the city of Naples!

And it is precisely on this that I would like to reflect with you. To win the Championship is a milestone that one reaches at the end of a long journey, where what counts the most is not the one-off exploit, or the extraordinary performance of a champion. The Championship is won by the team, and when I say “team”, I mean the players, the trainer with the entire team, and the sports association.

Therefore, I am truly happy to welcome you now, to highlight this aspect of your success, which I consider the most important. And I would say that it is so also from a social point of view. We know how popular football is in Italy, and practically all over the world. And so, from this perspective, it seems to me that the social value of an event like this, which goes beyond the merely technical and sporting fact, is the example of a team – in the broadest sense – working together, in which the talents of the individuals are placed at the service of the whole.

And there is one last thing it is important to me to say, taking advantage of this occasion. It regards the educational aspect. Unfortunately, when sport becomes a business, it risks losing the values that make it educational, and can even become anti-educational. It is necessary to keep a lookout for this, especially with regard to teenagers. I appeal to parents and sports managers: we must be very careful of the moral quality of the experience of sport at competitive level, because the human growth of the young is at stake.

As a final thought, we might remind ourselves that the Apostle Paul more than once compared the Christian life to an athletic competition (cf. 1 Cor 9:24; 2 Tim 4:7-8), a thought that brings us back to Romano Guardini's account of the playfulness of the Liturgy. The "play" that we can see in the exercise of sport can perhaps be seen as one of those "seeds of the Gospel" of which the Prayer for the Jubilee 2025 speaks:

May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from wthin both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the power of Evil vanquished your glory will shine eternally.

Jubilee of Bands and Popular Entertainment

The days 10th-11th May 2025 are due to be marked as the Jubilee of Bands and Popular Entertainment, with the invitation to take part extended especially to "all members of military, institutional, amateur, folk, village, sports, school and college bands ... together with their families". By the time that this post publishes, arrangements for the Jubilee events in Rome may have been "modified" in the light of events.

Towards the end of his chapter entitled "Music and Liturgy" (in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy), the then Cardinal Ratzinger suggested three criteria that might govern the music of Christian liturgical worship. 

It is related to the events of God's saving action to which the Bible bears witness and which the Liturgy makes present. God's action continues in the history of the Church, but has its unshakeable center int he Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, his Cross, Resurrection and Ascension. ... the relation of liturgical music to logos means, first of all, simply its relation to words. That is why singing in the liturgy has priority over instrumental music, though it does not in any way exclude it. It goes without saying that the biblical and liturgical texts are the normative words from which liturgical music has to take its bearings...

Prayer is a gift of the Holy Spirit, both prayer in general and that particular kind of prayer which is the gift of singing and playing before God. The Holy Spirit is love. He enkindles love in us and thus moves us to sing. ... Words are superseded, but not the Word, the Logos. ... The Church's tradition has this in mind when it talks about the sober inebriation caused in us by the Holy Spirit. ...

... Christian liturgy is always a cosmic liturgy... The Preface, the first part of the Eucharistic Prayer, always ends with the affirmation that we are singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" together with the cherubim and seraphim and with all the choirs of heaven ... In the celebration of Holy Mass, we insert ourselves into this liturgy that always goes before us. All our singing is a singing and praying with the great liturgy that spans the whole of creation.

Perhaps closer to the intended remit of this special Jubilee might be those initiatives that come under the umbrella of "music ministries", ministries which might, in addition to providing liturgical music in the stricter sense, also provide music for praise and worship outside the liturgy properly so called. CJM Music, based in Birmingham Archdiocese, is an example of one such initiative. Perhaps the most remarkable work from CJM Music is the presentation of the Stations of the Cross entitled Born for This. Now available as a set of resources to enable Church groups to put on their own presentation, it was initially presented each year during Lent by a CJM cast, in different locations in the UK. I recall taking part in one such presentation in Brentwood Cathedral several years ago. I also recall a CD of music for the Year of the Eucharist celebrated in 2004-5.

Certainly within the remit of the Jubilee are those initiatives that produce music that is more general in nature, and intended for wider entertainment, music that might be described as secular music. The range of such initiatives is very wide, and extends from local musical groups up to groups with a national or international reach. I expect that many different nations have celebrations of music, reflecting their own heritage, and rooted in particular regional or cultural contexts. The Whit Friday band contests that take place in the North West of England each year provide an unusual example of one such celebration, and have a parallel to the band concerts due to take place in squares throughout Rome as part of the Jubilee. This BBC news report of the 2024 contests describes the event and explains something of its historical background: Towns and villages gear up for Whit Friday brass band contests. At each contest, a band plays a piece as they march along the village street, before playing the contest piece for the judges.  I think this is a good Youtube video that gives an idea of the event - note the coaches that follow each band, ready to move them on to the next village for their next contest. The range of bands that take part in these contests really does reflect the range of bands anticipated in the invitation extended by this special Jubilee event, including as it does military bands, bands with national and international reputations, college bands and junior bands.

The joy that is to be found in events such as the Whit Friday band contests can perhaps be seen as a seed of the joy that is to be found in living the Gospel.

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,

a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

May the same grace spread

the joy and peace of our Redeemer

throughout the earth.

Hope and prophecy

 Can there be legitimate prophecy about history? This is the question that opens the last chapter/lecture in Josef Pieper's short book Hope and History.

Christianity answers this with a clear yes. For example, among its sacred texts is the prophetic book of Revelation (the Apocalypse), and in it, (although not in it alone) there are assertions about the ultimate future of historical man - not so much, then, about how history will continue but rather about how it will end.

Josef Pieper points out that the acceptance of such a revealed prophecy presupposes that human existence takes place within a framework that reaches beyond what we can immediately sense in this world, and which, in that sense remains beyond an empirical grasp; and in the same sense the beginning and end of human history and individual human biography remain beyond empirical grasp. He also reprises what he has already referred to in previous chapters/lectures that attempts to develop and understanding of the future of human history in terms only of this world fall down in the face of the reality of the death of men.

Josef Pieper gives the following account of the image of history conveyed by the Apocalypse:

Since this conception takes account of human freedom to choose evil and also of "the" evil as a dark and demonic historical force - for that reason alone, dissension, breakdown, irreconcilable conflict, and even catastrophe cannot, in principle, be alien to the nature of  human history, including its everyday course of events.

And yet this is not the last word of apocalyptic prophecy. Its last word and its decisive report, all else notwithstanding, is the following: a blessed end, infinitely surpassing all expectations; triumph over evil; the conquest of death; drinking from the fountain of life; resurrection; drying of all tears; the dwelling of God among men; a New Heaven and a New Earth. What all this would appear to imply about hope, however, is that it has an invulnerability sufficient to place it beyond any possibility of being affected, or even crippled, by preparedness for an intra-historically catastrophic end - whether that end be called dying, defeat of the good, martyrdom, or world domination by evil.

 At one point, Josef Pieper draws attention to the "implicit faith" that St Thomas Aquinas attributes to those who, though not being explicit Christian believers, have some conviction that God will set men free (S Th II, ii, 2, 7 ad 3). Josef Pieper writes:

In precise correspondence to this, one should also, it seems to me, speak of an "implicit hope". Whoever, for instance, invests the power of his hope in the image of a perfect future human society, in which men are no longer wolves to each other and the good things of life are justly distributed - such a one participates, precisely thereby, in the hope of Christianity.

In a not dissimilar way, Josef Pieper also suggests that any efforts towards human fraternity have a link to the hope of Christianity. He refers first to Plato's thought with regard to the dwelling together of gods and men, and their shared banquet:

But Plato would never have been able to dream of the communal banquet in which Christianity recognizes and celebrates the real beginning and pledge of that blessed life at God's table. Since earliest times it has been called synaxis, or communio....

A more profound grounding for human solidarity cannot, it seems to me, be conceived. But the reverse also holds true: wherever true human communion is realized, or even just longed for, this universal table community is, whether one knows and likes it or not, quietly being prepared ...No matter where and by whom the realization of fraternity among men is understood and pursued as the thing that is truly to be hoped for, there exists, eo ipso, a subterranean link to the elementary hope of Christianity.

It is perhaps worth recalling, during this Jubilee Year dedicated to the theme of hope, the significance of the prayer that occurs in the Eucharistic Liturgy immediately after the Lord's Prayer. We can read it against the background of the view of apocalyptic prophecy described above by Josef Pieper: 

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

The Office of Peter

 Perhaps the liturgical feast of the Chair of St Peter, celebrated on 22nd February, is most exactly a celebration of the office of the Successor Peter; but I nevertheless find the Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul on 29th June prompt to reflect on that office. I am left at a bit of a loss that clergy seem to shy away from preaching on the Papal office on this feast day.

Hans Urs von Balthasar makes great play of the way in which, though he arrives at the tomb first on Easter morning, St John waits for St Peter to catch up, and then allows that he should enter the tomb first. Though not in time - the first immediate witness is Mary Magdalene - this gives a certain precedence to St Peter's witness to the resurrection. It is reflected at the start of the liturgy of the Easter Sunday Mass in St Peter's Square, when the successor of St Peter venerates an image of the risen Christ in a testimony to the truth of the resurrection. Whilst both the charism of love (St John) and that of hierarchy (St Peter) are essential to the Church, the former charism gives precedence to the latter.

In the figures of St Paul and St Peter, a similar precedence can be seen. St Paul's mission to the Gentiles seeks its confirmation from the apostles gathered around St Peter in Jerusalem. Both represent essential features of the life of the Church; but St Paul shows a deference to St Peter that reflects that of St John.

The Angel's Salutation

 The Septemer/October 2022 issue of FAITH Magazine contains an article entitled The Angel's Salutation, referring to the greeting offered by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary at the moment of the Annunciation. Previous issues of the magazine are available online - FAITH Magazine - but this issue has not yet found its way there. If/when it is posted online, it will be worth reading the whole of Fr Conrad's article. The article is a developed version of a homily. UPDATE: The article is now online and can be read here.

One of the ideas indicated by Fr Conrad in the earlier part of his article is that, from a linguistic point of view, the greeting we know in Latin, Dominus Tecum, traced back to Hebrew or Aramaic roots, would have a sense of "Lord with-you". In other words, it is not so much an offering from celebrant to congregation that the "Lord (may) be with you" but a recognition by celebrant for the congregation that "the Lord (is) with you". Fr Conrad traces this usage in several Old Testament episodes.

Towards the end of the article, Fr Conrad draws suggestions from this for the celebration of the Liturgy.

The Angel's Salutation resonates in the Liturgy. At the beginning of Mass the celebrant greets the people: Dominus vobiscum, "The Lord (be) with you". We are gathered in Jesus' Name, hence he is present in our midst. Before reading the Gospel, the deacon repeats Dominus vobiscum. For in the words of the Gospel the Father's Word continues to speak to us, salute us, attune us to his meaning. At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer the celebrant again says, "The Lord be with you". Jesus comes to us beneath the appearances of bread and wine, as he promised..... Finally, having received the Holy Eucharist, we are sent out with prayer Dominus vobiscum, "The Lord be with you", sent out to live by the Gospel we have heard, to imitate the Sacrifice we have been drawn into, to be what we have received ...

It is the implication of Fr Conrad's reflection for how we understand the greeting at the beginning of Mass that I find most striking. It demonstrates the poverty of a celebration in which "Good morning, everyone...Good morning, Father"  is accepted as the introductory greeting.

This is not the only consideration in this article, and the whole is rich and well worth finding and reading.

Desiderio Desideravi: Pope Francis at his best!

I have enjoyed reading Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi, finding it a wonderfully enriching account of what we are called to experience in the celebration of the Liturgy, particularly the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I find very striking the idea that what draws us to join the celebration of Mass is, before a response on our part, the desire that God has for us:

Before our response to his invitation — well before! — there is his desire for us. We may not even be aware of it, but every time we go to Mass, the first reason is that we are drawn there by his desire for us. For our part, the possible response — which is also the most demanding asceticism — is, as always, that surrender to this love, that letting ourselves be drawn by him. Indeed, every reception of communion of the Body and Blood of Christ was already desired by him in the Last Supper.

Pope Francis develops this idea very beautifully in the first paragraphs of the Apostolic Letter.

A hope of Pope Benedict, expressed if I recall correctly in his letter to Bishops that accompanied the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum , was that there would be a mutual enrichment between the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. One perspective from which to read Desiderio Desideravi is that of an indication of how much that could be said of the "antecedent form" of the liturgy can be employed to enrich our celebration of the "unique expression" of the Roman Rite. At the time when Summorum Pontificum was first published, I remember feeling that, whereas I was quite happy to live the ordinary life of the Church's liturgy celebrated according to the missal of Paul VI and John Paul II, I was now being put in a position where I was being asked to adopt a position vis-a-vis the earlier missal when that was something I had no calling to do. Again, I am not reading Desiderio Desideravi in the context of a dialogue with the "antecedent form", and it simply has not occurred to me that I should do so. Part of my pleasure in reading the Apostolic Letter is precisely that it does not ask me to do that, and I believe that those who would read it in that way will not be able to access its richness.

As I never tire of suggesting, I think it is important to read the whole - hence my including the link at the beginning of this post - and I think that is particularly true of Desiderio Desideravi. There is much more than the section in which Pope Francis discusses the art of the priest in his act of presiding at the Eucharistic Celebration which I quote below. Even if  I do not post further on Desiderio Desideravi I will nevertheless be returning to read more carefully the other sections. Why I have chosen to quote this section is that the idea of "presiding" appears to me to have entered into the liturgical vocabulary at the time of Vatican II, and Pope Francis' account is the first I have read that offers a properly theological/liturgical insight into the meaning of "presiding". 

56. The priest lives his characteristic participation in the celebration in virtue of the gift received in the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this is expressed precisely in presiding. Like all the roles he is called to carry out, this is not primarily a duty assigned to him by the community but is rather a consequence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit received in ordination which equips him for such a task. The priest also is formed by his presiding in the celebrating assembly.

57. For this service to be well done — indeed, with art! — it is of fundamental importance that the priest have a keen awareness of being, through God’s mercy, a particular presence of the risen Lord. The ordained minister is himself one of the types of presence of the Lord which render the Christian assembly unique, different from any other assembly. (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 7) This fact gives “sacramental” weight (in the broad sense) to all the gestures and words of the one presiding. The assembly has the right to be able to feel in those gestures and words the desire that the Lord has, today as at the Last Supper, to eat the Passover with us. So, the risen Lord is in the leading role, and not our own immaturities, assuming roles and behaviours which are simply not appropriate. The priest himself should be overpowered by this desire for communion that the Lord has toward each person. It is as if he were placed in the middle between Jesus’ burning heart of love and the heart of each of the faithful, which is the object of the Lord’s love. To preside at Eucharist is to be plunged into the furnace of God’s love. When we are given to understand this reality, or even just to intuit something of it, we certainly would no longer need a Directory that would impose the proper behaviour. If we have need of that, then it is because of the hardness of our hearts. The highest norm, and therefore the most demanding, is the reality itself of the Eucharistic celebration, which selects words, gestures, feelings that will make us understand whether or not our use of these are at the level of the reality they serve. It is obvious that this cannot be improvised. It is an art. It requires application on the part of the priest, an assiduous tending to the fire of the love of the Lord that he came to ignite on the earth. (Lk 12:49)

58. When the first community broke bread in obedience to the Lord’s command, it did so under the gaze of Mary who accompanied the first steps of the Church: “these all continued with one accord in prayer with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus.” (Ac 1:14) The Virgin Mother “watches over” the gestures of her Son confided to the Apostles. As she protected the Word made flesh in her womb after receiving the words of the angel Gabriel, she protects once again in the womb of the Church those gestures that form the body of her Son. The priest, who repeats those gestures in virtue of the gift received in the sacrament of Holy Orders, is himself protected in the womb of the Virgin. Do we really need a rule here to tell us how we ought to act?

59. Having become instruments for igniting the fire of the Lord’s love on the earth, protected in the womb of Mary, Virgin made Church (as St Francis sang of her) priests should allow the Holy Spirit to work on them, to bring to completion the work he began in them at their ordination. The action of the Spirit offers to them the possibility of exercising their ministry of presiding in the Eucharistic assembly with the fear of Peter, aware of being a sinner (Lk 5:1-11), with the powerful humility of the suffering servant (cf. Is 42ff), with the desire “to be eaten” by the people entrusted to them in the daily exercise of the ministry. 

60. It is the celebration itself that educates the priest to this level and quality of presiding. It is not, I repeat, a mental adhesion, even if our whole mind as well as all our sensitivity must be engaged in it. So, the priest is formed by presiding over the words and by the gestures that the Liturgy places on his lips and in his hands. He is not seated on a throne because the Lord reigns with the humility of one who serves. He does not rob attention from the centrality of the altar, a sign of Christ, from whose pierced side flowed blood and water, by which were established the Sacraments of the Church and the centre of our praise and thanksgiving.

Desiderio Desideravi is, I think, Pope Francis at his very best! There is a lot here for me still to read and reflect on.

Corpus Christi reminiscences

Last Sunday saw the celebration of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi. After the principle Mass in our parish there was a short Eucharistic procession round a block of the local streets, ending with Benediction in the garden outside the Church. Five photographs can be seen here. The parish's first communion children led the procession; an A5 sheet with the words of hymns to be sung during the procession was provided - though, as I suspect is quite typical of these occasions, the head of the procession tended to be singing a line or two ahead of those of us further back. During Mass we were treated to a homily that resoundingly affirmed belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ, true God, in the Eucharistic species.

Last Sunday's procession reminded me of when I was still at school, and a memory of a visit we made to a parish where an aunt was the housekeeper, for the Eucharistic procession in that parish. A procession in the nearby street was followed by Benediction in the garden beside the Church, more or less as happened on Sunday.

The day prompted us to reminisce about other occasions on which we had taken part in Eucharistic processions. One of the largest such occasions was during the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec in 2008: International Eucharistic Congress: the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament. Another notable occasion was during a visit to Lake Como, when we were able to take part in the procession in  Bellano: Corpus Christi by Lake Como. We have also been in Assisi (twice if my memory serves me correctly) for the Solemnity, when we joined the parish in Rivotorto for Mass and a Eucharistic Procession. All of this takes place with Assisi itself overlooking the Church and the procession route. There are also the occasions when we have taken part in the Eucharistic procession in Lourdes: Following the Eucharistic Procession. 

Whilst it can be the larger celebrations that prompt the most vivid memories, it may well be the case that the celebrations which most deeply express the faith of the participants are the slightly makeshift efforts of ordinary parishes. I was reminded once again on Sunday last of Pope Francis' observation that manifestations of popular piety represent the inculturation of the Gospel in a particular place, and it appears to me that small parish processions do exactly this.

Peter: witness to the Resurrection

 In his homily at the Easter Vigil last night, Pope Francis preached on the three words that describe the behaviour of the women who first arrived at the tomb early on that first Easter morning: they saw, they heard and they proclaimed. The Holy Father ended his homily thus:

Let us make Jesus, the Living One, rise again from all those tombs in which we have sealed him.  Let us set him free from the narrow cells in which we have so often imprisoned him.  Let us awaken from our peaceful slumber and let him disturb and inconvenience us.  Let us bring him into our everyday lives: through gestures of peace in these days marked by the horrors of war, through acts of reconciliation amid broken relationships, acts of compassion towards those in need, acts of justice amid situations of inequality and of truth in the midst of lies.  And above all, through works of love and fraternity.

Brothers and sisters our hope has a name: the name of Jesus.  He entered the tomb of our sin; he descended to those depths where we feel most lost; he wove his way through the tangles of our fears, bore the weight of our burdens and from the dark abyss of death restored us to life and turned our mourning into joy.  Let us celebrate Easter with Christ!  He is alive!  Today, too, he walks in our midst, changes us and sets us free.  Thanks to him, evil has been robbed of its power; failure can no longer hold us back from starting anew; and death has become a passage to the stirrings of new life.  For with Jesus, the Risen Lord, no night will last forever; and even in the darkest night, in that darkness, the morning star continues to shine.

In this darkness that you are living, Mr. Mayor, Parliamentarians, the thick darkness of war, of cruelty, we are all praying, praying with you and for you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. We can only give you our company, our prayer and say to you: “Courage! We are accompanying you!” And also to say to you the greatest thing we are celebrating today: Christòs voskrés! Christ is risen!

When the Pope celebrates Mass in St Peter's Square on the morning of Easter Sunday, a first act is a witness of the Holy Father to the resurrection, modelled on that of St Peter at the tomb. As the doors covering an icon of the Holy Redeemer are opened, the deacon sings, alternating with the three fold Alleluia of the choir and congregation:

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. 

The Lord has risen from the tomb, who hung on the cross for us. 

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.  

(At this point the deacon turns to face towards the Holy Father.) 

The Lord has truly risen, and has appeared to Peter.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.  

 And the Successor of St Peter venerates the icon representing the risen Lord.

Climate Justice

I wonder ... is a first justice owed towards our Creator, rather than towards the Earth in itself? 

Psalm 8 was part of Morning Prayer today, though I offer below the revised Grail translation.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic

is your name through all the earth!

Your majesty is set above the heavens.

From the mouths of children and of babes

you fashioned praise to foil your enemy,

to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars which you arranged,

what is man that you should keep him in mind,

the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little lower than the angels;

with glory and honor you crowned him,

gave him power over the works of your hands:

you put all things under his feet.

All of them, sheep and oxen,

yes, even the cattle of the fields,

birds of the air, and fish of the sea

that make their way through the waters.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic

is your name through all the earth!

"... All my springs are in you" :International Eucharistic Congress 2021

Like the Olympic Games, the Budapest International Eucharistic Congress was originally due to take place in 2020 but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is taking place this week, with the closing Statio Orbis Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis on Sunday 12th September.

The home page for the Congress is here: 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.

The theme of the Congress is taken from Psalm 87, which reads in the RSV translation that is closest to the expression of the adopted theme: 

On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.... 

Singers and dancers alike say
"All my springs are in you".

This video clip rather nicely explains the theme and logo of the Congress: Logo of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.

A video of the opening Mass of the Congress, celebrated on Sunday last, can be found on Youtube: IEC 2020: Opening Ceremony and Holy Mass. The celebration of Mass itself begins at 2:35:00.

I have yet to find online English texts or videos of the various catecheses and testimonies that are taking place, though a full programme for the Congress can be found here.

A couple of things have caught my eye so far. The first is a report of the theological symposium of the Congress that took place on 6th September. The programme for the symposium is here; the English report is here, with the Italian version of the report here. The English report seems to have suffered a little in the translation, so I offer instead my own translation from the Italian of the part that caught my eye:

[Participants] indicated, among other things, that if we wish to preserve the Liturgy of the Church into the future, instead of a desacralisation and of a deformation, we must continue to consider it as a sacred event, in a strictly formal context. They also said that the Gospel, fertilizing and renewing the history of humanity, must shine its own light and force in the same way in our secularised world.

Hanno indicato tra l’altro, se vorremmo conservare la liturgia della Chiesa anche nel futuro, al posto della desacralizzazione e della deformazione dobbiamo continuare a considerarla come un evento sacro, in un rigido contesto formale. Hanno anche enunciato che il Vangelo, fecondante e rinnovante la storia dell’umanità, deve splendere la sua luce e la sua forza proprio allo stesso modo nel nostro mondo secolarizzato.

The second is the subject of one of the workshops, which will be given by Bishop Massimo Camisasca, ordinary of the diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla. He is a native of Milan, where one of his school teachers was Luigi Giussani. He has a long standing and leading position with respect to Don Giussani's movement Communion and Liberation. His subject is one of immediate relevance to the area of his present pastoral responsibility in the northern part of Italy: the martyrdom of Italian priests after World War II.

Offerte vobis pacem - a further thought

 In my last post, I reflected on how the absence of the celebration of the sign of peace at Mass during the earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted me to think more deeply about the meaning of the dialogue immediately preceding the invitation to the sign of peace: Offerte vobis pacem.

At that time, I also had a thought arising from Pope Francis' Amoris Laetitia. In an earlier discussion of this Apostolic Exhortation, I suggested that the pastoral programme of Chapter 8 is focussed on discerning how those in an "objective state of sin" with regard to their marital situation, but with a genuine wish to "seek God", can engage in the Church's mission of charity in order to work out their salvation. The post involved - Correcting the correction ... looks at his question quite carefully.

My further thought was that someone in this kind of situation could be encouraged in their participation in the sign of peace at Mass by recognising the deeper meaning suggested in my post Offerte vobis pacem. An enriched celebration of the sign of peace cannot replace being able to receive Holy Communion itself; but for a person whose objective situation means they cannot receive Communion, it might represent a pastoral proximation to receiving Communion. This discernment could be valuably undertaken alongside that of the way in which a person engages in the mission of charity, as suggested in Correcting the correction ...

Offerte vobis pacem

The celebration of Mass during the months of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the absence of Holy Communion received under the form of the Precious Blood by the faithful and the absence of the invitation for the sign of peace. The celebration of the sign of peace is beginning to occur as we gradually return to a more normal form of celebration, though in my parish it is occurring at a certain initiative of the faithful towards each other and without Father generally offering the invitation. Mass attendance is still reduced compared to pre-pandemic Sundays, and the faithful are still giving attention to social distancing and the wearing of face coverings, though both of these have been indicated as a matter of our own choice.

In the earlier days of the pandemic, it was interesting to find an enhanced sense of the significance of the sign of peace being expressed in the prayer and dialogue that immediately precede the invitation to the sign of peace itself:

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. Who live and reign for ever and ever.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be with you always.

And with your spirit.

This prayer and dialogue express a peace that is offered by the priest, in his gesture from the altar, towards the faithful; and they capture the essence of the physical sign of peace to which the faithful are then subsequently invited. 

As the celebration of the sign of peace gradually returns to the liturgy, there is perhaps an opportunity for clergy to offer a catechesis on the sign of peace, so that we do not return to the situation where, because it is generally marked by such a-liturgical practices as hand shakes or (in the circumstances of retained social distancing) hand waves, it is celebrated with very little real appreciation of its significance.

There seem to me to be two key elements of such a catechesis. The first is captured by the word "offer" in the invitation to the sign of peace. The sign of peace is not something that is shared in a kind of horizontal, equal way between two people. This is one reason why the a-liturgical hand shake and wave are so poor as expressions of the sign of peace; they are unable to express a dynamic of a sign that is offered by one person and received by the other. In this dynamic of offering/receiving, the person who offers should be seen as representing the person of Christ; and the person who receives should be seen as representing the Church. This gives the same representative character to the sign celebrated between the faithful and that expressed in the dialogue between priest and faithful that precedes it. This understanding alters completely our sense of what we are doing as we celebrate the sign of peace.

The second element of this catechesis is more tricky. It is about encouraging the faithful to adopt a physical way of celebrating the sign of peace that is genuinely liturgical in its character. Perhaps, within families, the father (representing Christ) might be encouraged first to offer the sign of peace to his wife (representing the Church); and then, together, they might offer the sign of peace to their children. Perhaps a bow, such as that customary when the name of Jesus is mentioned in the liturgy, could be offered first to another person, who then, subsequently, returns the bow in receiving the sign. Or, in the spirit of mutual enrichment from the old rite, the embrace in which the person offering the sign offers their outstretched arms with the hands facing downwards to place them above the lower arms of the person receiving, who in their turn reaches out with their hands facing upwards to place them under the lower arms of the person offering. 

The General Instruction on the Roman Missal (n.154) says of the sign of peace:

According to what is decided by the Conference of Bishops, all express to one another peace, communion and charity. While the Sign of Peace is being given, it is permissible to say, The peace of the Lord be with you always, to which the reply is Amen.

The second sentence here certainly suggests a dynamic in which one person offers the sign of peace and the other person receives it. The first sentence is interesting in referring to "peace, communion and charity" rather than to an idea of reconciliation (which would be the meaning of the sign of peace in those rites where it takes place at the beginning of the offertory rite); but I suspect that this is mostly read in a more social and less theological sense than I am suggesting above.

Novena for Pentecost: Baptism in the Spirit and prayer, Scripture and the Sacraments

People who have been baptised in the Spirit typically manifest a great love for Scripture, expressed in Bible studies and an anxiety to read the Scriptures in order to discover a relevance that can guide in every day life. Teaching is often strongly biblical in character. Again, while this faithfulness to Scripture is a feature of the Renewal, it also reflects something that can be seen in the wider life of the Church - for example the "Gospel Questions and Inquiries" of Fr Bernard Basset SJ, with their "see, judge, act" structure, and the meditations of the Spiritual Exercises.

Alongside this faithfulness to Scripture there is also a renewed awareness of the presence of Christ in the sacraments of the Church, particularly the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. Attending Mass and participating in prayer in the presence of the Eucharist are features of the Renewal. Again, the growth in Eucharistic Adoration and the frequenting of the Sacrament of Penance can be seen in other aspects of Catholic life, the events of recent World Youth Days being a prominent example.

For many, certainly in the early days, the main means of contact with the Renewal was through taking part in the regular meetings of a local prayer group. This is an event that moves the experience of prayer to less a matter of routine (though, in itself, that is not a bad thing) towards more a spontaneous response of love and gratitude to God and a confidence in his grace in providing for all our needs.

If we want to understand how Baptism in the Spirit gives rise to a particular style of life in the Church, it is important to place all three of these elements (appreciation of Scripture, sacramental life, prayer group) together and to see, for example, the life of a prayer group in its orientation towards the liturgical celebrations in which its members also participate. 

A funeral

 The funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, celebrated yesterday at Windsor Castle, was in many ways a typically English occasion with its combination of military splendour and the liturgy of the Church of England. The Order of Service, at the time of writing this post, can be found on the Royal Family website here.

It is impossible to escape the profoundly religious character of the funeral service itself - which presents a wonderful public witness of religious faith on the part of the Duke of Edinburgh to a country that increasingly prefers to leave religious faith aside from the mainstream of life.

It is impossible to escape the profoundly Christian character of the service - which indicates to the country a strong testimony of the Christian faith of the Duke of Edinburgh at a time when the confidence of Christians in mainstream churches, and their role in public life, is weakening.

And by determining that there should be no eulogy or sermon (and with the absence from the Order of Service of any photgraphs), the Duke of Edinburgh averted the possibility that  his funeral become a "celebration of the life of ...". The Bidding that opened the funeral service captured its spirit:

We are here today in St George's Chapel to commit into the hands of God the soul of his servant Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. With grateful hearts, we remember the many ways in which his long life has been a blessing to us. We have been inspired by his unwavering loyalty to our Queen, by his service to the Nation and the Commonwealth, by his courage, fortitude and faith. Our lives have been enriched through the challenges that he has given us, his kindness, humour and humanity. We therefore pray that God will give us grace to follow his example, and that, with our brother Philip, at the last, we shall know the joys of life eternal. 

Every text used in the service was a Christian text, drawn from Scripture or a prayer explicitly Christian in its nature.  And, celebrated during the liturgical season of  Easter, the service communicated a witness to eternal life. In the words of the Collect:

O merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, in whomsoever believeth shall live, though he die; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in him, shall not die eternally...We meekly beseech thee, O Father that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that, at the general resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight...

The dignity retained by this service, focussed on its Christian meaning in relation to eternal life, might be a useful lesson to many in the Catholic Church, who allow funerals instead to become "celebrations of the life of ...". 

Peace be with you

 Our Lord's words, when he addresses the disciples gathered together on the day of his resurrection, are "Peace be with you". This greeting, of the risen Lord to his new church, is echoed in the sign of peace at Mass. It's been more than a year since the peace was last physically shared by those attending Mass - some people may not miss it, but I know some do. It's just one element of  what we do in church that serves to remind us of our unity and fellowship. And what binds us together, above all, is our Easter faith.

These are the words that open the Easter week parish newsletter of the parish where I go to Mass. It reminds me of the thought of Fr Cantalamessa on the Christological foundation of human fraternity in my last post. It is also the opening greeting of a bishop at the start of the celebration of Mass, which I hadn't until now appreciated for its Christological/ecclesiogical significance.

At the day time Mass of Easter, Pope Francis' first liturgical action is a witness to the resurrection,  in the veneration of an icon showing the risen Lord.

The deacon opens the doors of the icon of the Most Holy Redeemer.

The deacon, turning to face the assembly, sings:

Allelulia, allelulia, alleluia.

The assembly sings:

 Allelulia, allelulia, alleluia.

The deacon sings:

The Lord has risen from the tomb, who for us hung on the cross.

The assembly sings:

 Allelulia, allelulia, alleluia.

The deacon, turning towards the Holy Father, sings:

The Lord has truly risen, and has appeared to Simon.

The assembly sings:

 Allelulia, allelulia, alleluia.

The Holy Father venerates the icon.

Video and photographs here.

Christmas as the birthday of the Church?

 From both a theological and a liturgical point of view, it is not unusual to associate the birth of the Church with Good Friday (particularly the flow of blood and water from the side of Christ) and with Pentecost (the gift of the Holy Spirit and the commencement of the public teaching of the Apostles).

But subtleties in the Roman liturgy of 31st December and 1st January prompt the association of the birth of the Church with Christmas. Firstly, the Office of Readings on 31st December, which contains a reading from a Sermon by St Leo the Great:

For the birth of Christ is the origin of the people of Christ, and the birthday of the head is the birthday of the body.

It is true that each of those who are called is allotted a particular place, and that all the children of the Church are separated from each other by intervals of time. However, just as all the faithful together, born of the waters of baptism, are crucified with Christ in this passion, raised with him in his resurrection, and given a place at the Father's right hand in his ascension, so too, with him they are born in this his birth.

The idea that the Virgin Mary is also the first to become a disciple of her Son, a thought suggested from Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus n.37, supports the association of Christmas with the birth of the Church:

 [She is] the perfect model of the disciple of the Lord: the disciple who builds up the earthly and temporal city while being a diligent pilgrim towards the heavenly and eternal city; the disciple who works for that justice which sets free the oppressed and for that charity which assists the needy; but above all, the disciple who is the active witness of that love which builds up Christ in people's hearts. 

And John Paul II wrote in his Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater n.26:

But above all, in the Church of that time and of every time Mary was and is the one who is "blessed because she believed"; she was the first to believe. From the moment of the Annunciation and conception, from the moment of his birth in the stable at Bethlehem, Mary followed Jesus step by step in her maternal pilgrimage of faith.

The second subtlety in the liturgy is the Prayer after Communion at Mass on 1st January, the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, which closely connects Mary's motherhood of her Son to her motherhood of the Church:

We have received this heavenly Sacrament with joy, O Lord:
grant, we pray,
that it may lead us to eternal life,
for we rejoice to proclaim the blessed every-Virgin Mary
Mother of your Son and Mother of the Church. 

Christmas 2020 and religious illiteracy

 As I write, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just announced "Tier 4" restrictions (of a tier system that only included Tiers 1, 2 and 3 before today) for London and other parts of East and South East England, effective pretty much immediately on his announcement. The announcement also included a significant modification of the previous rulings with regard to household mixing over Christmas for the whole of England, modifications that have been mirrored in Scotland and Wales.

The London Evening Standard website headlines its report: Tier 4 rules for London as Christmas cancelled by stay at home lockdown.

Even before Boris Johnson's announcement, the London Times newspaper for today was carrying two letters suggesting that the celebration of Christmas could be moved to another time.

Sir:

Surely it's all in the marketing. Were the government to declare that Christmas is banned there would be a surge of resentment  and many people would carry on regardless. However, if it were to change its pitch to: "Clearly, celebrating Christmas now is not in anybody's interest, so the government declared Christmas will be celebrated at Easter 2021", this would offer hope rather than despair. Countless lives would be saved and millions of people would breathe a sigh of relief.

Sir:

Given the restrictions, perhaps we could instead follow the example of Australia. "Christmas in July" would give us six months to vaccinate everyone and would allow families to enjoy the festivities out of doors.

 Whilst allowing for a measure of the tongue-in-cheek, particularly with the first of these letters, nonetheless a sense seems to prevail that the celebration of the Feast of Christmas can readily be moved or cancelled at legislative or social whim. 

The first component of the religious illiteracy that gives rise to this prevailing sense is the feeling that the celebration of the feast has its essence in the gathering of family and friends on Christmas Day. This certainly forms a part of our celebration of the day, when we are able to so gather; but it is not the essence of the Feast, or of what we celebrate in the Feast.

The essence of the Feast is the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, the birth in human flesh of the Son of God, who is both true man and true God. When the gathering of friends and family, and the special lunch that may accompany it, becomes completely separated from this celebration of belief in the mystery of the Incarnation, it ceases to possess the character of a piety that reflects a religious faith; it isn't a celebration of Christmas. (Though I would add, in passing, that even where the celebration of Christian faith is weak, there is still the potential for the family gathering to point, even in an indistinct way, towards the event of faith.)

The second component of religious illiteracy that gives rise to this prevailing sense lies in the failure to recognise the connection in the life of faith between the Feast being celebrated and the specific day given over to that celebration. This is about the religious character of time, expressed in the Christian religion by the Liturgical calendar, but also found in Judaism, Islam and other religions which assign their feasts to specific days. The celebration of these religious Feasts simply cannot be moved arbitrarily by powers outside the relevant religious communities, and even within those communities any movement of feasts is constrained to a very high degree. Whilst we cannot expect everyone to share belief in this understanding of a religious character to time, is it too much to ask of journalists and public figures to at least show by how they write or speak about our Feast days that they have an understanding of the concept?

So, in 2020, while the human aspects of the celebration of the Feast of Christmas may be curtailed, the essentially religious celebration remains in its full splendour.