Jubilee of Marian Spirituality

The inclusion of the teaching of Vatican Council II on the Virgin Mary as a chapter in the Constitution on the Church, rather than as a separate document in its own right, suggests to us that every aspect of the Church's life has in some way a Marian dimension. In this light, a specific Jubilee dedicated to Marian spirituality, to be marked in the days 11th-12th October 2025, appears either to be unnecessary or to represent a celebration of the Church's life as a whole. 

The invitation to the Jubilee is described as follows:

All members of the movements, confraternities and various Marian prayer groups are particularly invited to this jubilee event.

The orginal statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be present in Rome for the Jubilee, and is a particular focus for the events of the Jubilee. The invitation, and the presence of the Fatima statue, place the focus on that aspect of the Marian life of the Church that might be covered by the term "popular piety". It is worth recalling that, as Pope Francis suggested in Evangelii Gaudium nn.122-126, the various expressions of popular piety should be seen as an inculturation of the Gospel, as a way in which a people embed a presence of their Christian faith in their daily lives and in the daily lives of those among whom they live. Different forms of Marian spirituality can easily be recognised as precisely this way of embedding Christian presence in a culture.

One element of the Marian spirituality being marked by this Jubilee is pilgrimage to Marian shrines. Some shrines, such as Lourdes and Fatima, have gained an international reach. Many countries have a national shrine to the Virgin Mary where devotion might reflect something of the local character of the people or of the place. Not infrequently, such a shrine will reflect a founding grace which gives to the devotion expressed at that shrine a specific character. The National Shrine for England at Walsingham, for example, offers a sense of the house of Nazareth as a distinctive aspect of its spirituality. There are also more local devotions such as the Lancaster diocesan shrine at Ladyewell, which has a particular historical context proper to that part of the country.

A second element is that of prayer groups, often based in meeting to pray the Rosary, with a specifically Marian devotion. Such prayer groups may arise with a certain spontaneity and may not have the specific connection to a place that belongs with a shrine. But nevertheless, for those who take part in them, they represent an embedding of their faith in their everyday lives.

Viewed from the point of view of the Church's liturgical life, these examples of popular Marian piety should both derive from the liturgy and lead back to it. Whilst seen in isolation they may appear to exist in parallel to the wider life of the Church, they are lived authentically when they are inserted into that wider life. The many different formulas contained in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary and celebrations that occur in the universal and local calendars manifest this relationship between the Liturgy and devotional life.

Mary: " ... sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim people of God"

 Pope Leo XIV, in his Angelus address for the Solemnity of the Assumption, suggests that this truth of our faith is perfectly in line with the theme of the Jubilee 2025.

Mary, who the risen Christ carried body and soul into the glory, shines as an icon of hope for her pilgrim children throughout history.

How can we not think of Dante’s verses in the last canto of the Paradiso? Through the prayer put on Saint Bernard’s lips, which begins “Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son” (XXXIII, 1), the poet lauds Mary because here among us mortals she is “the living fountain-head of hope” (ibid., 12), that is the living spring, gushing with hope.

Sisters and brothers, this truth of our faith is perfectly in line with the theme of the present Jubilee: “Pilgrims of hope.” Pilgrims need a goal that orients their journey: a beautiful and attractive goal that guides their steps and revives them when they are tired, that always rekindles in their heart a desire and hope. On the path of life, our goal is God, infinite and eternal Love, fullness of life, peace, joy and every good thing. The human heart is drawn to such beauty and it is not happy until it finds it; and indeed it risks not finding it if it gets lost in the middle of the “dark forest” of evil and sin.

Let us consider this grace: God came to meet us, he assumed our flesh fashioned from the earth, and has carried it with him into the presence of God, or as we commonly say “into heaven.” It is the mystery of Jesus Christ, who became flesh, died and rose for our salvation. Inseparable from him, is also the mystery of Mary, the woman from whom the Son of God has taken flesh, and of the Church, the mystical body of Christ. It concerns a unique mystery of love, and thus of freedom. Just as Jesus said “yes,” so also Mary said “yes;” she believed in the word of the Lord. All of her life has been a pilgrimage of hope together with her son, the Son of God, a pilgrimage which, through the Cross and Resurrection, has reached the heavenly homeland, in the embrace of God.

After praying the Angelus, Pope Leo recalled how the proclamation of the dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950 occurred at a time when memories of the Second World War were still recent. In entrusting a prayer for peace in the world to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Pope Leo likened these earlier times to those of today.

Jubilee 2025: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 The Liturgical texts for the celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary echo rather nicely the words of the Jubilee Prayer, and so perhaps encourage us to pray that prayer with a particular intensity on this feast day.

The Collect at Mass during the day:

Almighty ever living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory.

Compared to:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. 

From the Preface at Mass:

For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church's coming to perfection and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people. ..

Compared to:

Father in heaven, may the faith that you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom. 

From the Prayer after Communion at the Vigil Mass:

Having partaken of this heavenly table, we beseech your mercy, Lord our God, that we, who honour the Assumption of the Mother of God, may be freed from every threat of harm.

Compared to:

 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 of the Holy See

 Monday 9th June 2025 is being marked as a Jubilee for the Holy See. Whilst many of the other major Jubilee 2025 celebrations offer something of an invitation to participation by people from all parts of the world, this celebration appears more of a semi-private event. It appears to be a celebration intended for those who work in the offices and missions most closely associated with Vatican, and so express a collaboration with the Successor of Peter in the carrying out of his mission to the Church and to the world.

The choice of day for this Jubilee is interesting. It marks the celebration of the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church. In his allocution at the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope St Paul VI proclaimed the title of "Mother of the Church":

Therefore to the glory of the Blessed Virgin and for our consolation we declare Mary most Holy as Mother of the Church, that is of all the Christian people, of the faithful and of the pastors, who call her a most loving Mother; and we establish that with this title the Christian people may from now on give even more honour to the Mother of God and offer her their supplications.

[As an aside, when I read of the events surrounding this proclamation, I feel that it is an occasion on which Pope St Paul VI may have acted in response to a particular inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His encyclical letter Humanae Vitae would be another such instance.] 

When Pope Francis decreed that the celebration of a Memoria marking the title Mother of the Church should be inserted into the universal Liturgical calendar of the Church, he offered a brief theological account of the title and then referred back to Pope St Paul VI's allocution:

Thus the foundation is clearly established by which Blessed Paul VI, on 21 November 1964, at the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council, declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”.

Therefore the Apostolic See on the occasion of the Holy Year of Reconciliation (1975), proposed a votive Mass in honour of Beata Maria Ecclesiæ Matre, which was subsequently inserted into the Roman Missal. The Holy See also granted the faculty to add the invocation of this title in the Litany of Loreto (1980) and published other formularies in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1986). Some countries, dioceses and religious families who petitioned the Holy See were allowed to add this celebration to their particular calendars.

Having attentively considered how greatly the promotion of this devotion might encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety, Pope Francis has decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on the Monday after Pentecost and be now celebrated every year.

Towards the end of the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025 (n.24), Pope Francis wrote of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of Hope:

Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God. In the Blessed Virgin, we see that hope is not naive optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life. Like every mother, whenever Mary looked at her Son, she thought of his future. Surely she kept pondering in her heart the words spoken to her in the Temple by the elderly Simeon: “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:34-35). At the foot of the cross, she witnessed the passion and death of Jesus, her innocent son. Overwhelmed with grief, she nonetheless renewed her “fiat”, never abandoning her hope and trust in God. In this way, Mary cooperated for our sake in the fulfilment of all that her Son had foretold in announcing that he would have to “undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31). In the travail of that sorrow, offered in love, Mary became our Mother, the Mother of Hope. It is not by chance that popular piety continues to invoke the Blessed Virgin as Stella Maris, a title that bespeaks the sure hope that, amid the tempests of this life, the Mother of God comes to our aid, sustains us and encourages us to persevere in hope and trust. 

Four Thoughts about an Interview

 America magazine, a journal published by the Jesuits in the United States, have recently carried an -interview with Pope Francis. A full text has been published online: Pope Francis discusses Ukraine, U.S. bishops and more.

The first thought is less a thought, but more a feeling that this particular observation by Pope Francis should give every Catholic cause to pause and reflect:

I go to confession every 15 days.

[I suspect that the reference to 15 days might properly translate from Spanish to English as every two weeks.]

The second thought is to suggest that there is some parallel between my previous post on abortion as an ideological or an existential question and Pope Francis' account of abortion as a political or as a pastoral question:

The problem arises when this reality of killing a human being is transformed into a political question, or when a pastor of the church uses political categories.Each time a problem loses the pastoral dimension (pastoralidad), that problem becomes a political problem and becomes more political than pastoral. I mean, let no one hijack this truth, which is universal. It does not belong to one party or another. It is universal. When I see a problem like this one, which is a crime, become strongly, intensely political, there is a failure of pastoral care in approaching this problem. Whether in this question of abortion, or in other problems, one cannot lose sight of the pastoral dimension: A bishop is a pastor, a diocese is the holy people of God with their pastor. We cannot deal with [abortion] as if it is only a civil matter.

In answering a question about the role of women in the Church, Pope Francis spoke of a ministerial or Petrine dimension of the Church and of a feminine or Marian dimension. The theme of the Petrine and Marian dimensions of the Church can be found in Charles Journet's Theology of the Church and, perhaps more explicitly, in Hans Urs von Balthasar's The Office of Peter and the Structure of the Church. There is therefore rich hinterland lying behind Pope Francis' references here. Pope Francis then offers a context for his repeated remarks about giving women a greater role in the Church - that there is an administrative principle, which is not theological, but more about the every day running of the Church:

There is a third way: the administrative way. The ministerial way, the ecclesial way, let us say, Marian, and the administrative way, which is not a theological thing, it is something of normal administration. And, in this aspect, I believe we have to give more space to women....

And why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that. Yes, one has to be in the Marian principle, which is more important. Woman is more, she looks more like the church, which is mother and spouse. I believe that we have too often failed in our catechesis when explaining these things. We have relied too much on the administrative principle to explain it, which in the long term does not work. This is an abbreviated explanation, but I wanted to highlight the two theological principles; the Petrine principle and the Marian principle that make up the church. Therefore, that the woman does not enter into the ministerial life is not a deprivation. No. Your place is that which is much more important and which we have yet to develop, the catechesis about women in the way of the Marian principle.

My last thought refers to how Pope Francis understands the relationship between a Bishop and the people of his diocese, a relationship which he characterises by the word "pastoral".  The discussion occurs in a couple of different places in the interview, at one point contrasting it with the role of episcopal conferences:

A bishops’ conference has, ordinarily, to give its opinion on faith and traditions, but above all on diocesan administration and so on. The sacramental part of the pastoral ministry is in the relationship between the pastor and the people of God, between the bishop and his people. And this cannot be delegated to the bishops’ conference.

In the interview, Pope Francis does not connect this to the idea of synodality. I do think, however, that the responsibility of a bishop towards his diocese is one key point on which the practice of synodality turns, and Pope Francis articulation of this responsibility has implications for the synodal pathway.

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.

Mary, Mother of the Church

One of Pope Francis' contributions to our liturgical life has been the establishing in the universal calendar of the Monday after the Solemnity of Pentecost as a Memoria of Our Lady, Mother of the Church.

The Collect that I used in the office that I prayed this morning:

Lord our God, through your power and goodness the Blessed Virgin, the fairest fruit of your redeeming love, shine forth as the perfect image of the Church; grant to your people on their pilgrim way on earth that, with eyes fixed on Mary, they may follow closely in the footsteps of her Son until they come to that fullness of glory, which now they contemplate in his mother with hearts filled with joy.

And the Preface that would be used at this Mass from which this Collect was taken:

You have given the Blessed Virgin Mary to your Church as the perfect  image of its role as mother and of its future glory. She is a virgin unsurpassed in purity of faith, a bride joined to Christ in an unbreakable bond of love and united with in his suffering. She is a mother by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, filled with loving concern for all her children. She is a queen adorned with the jewels of grace, robed with the sun and crowned with stars, sharing eternally in the glory of her Lord.

Lake Como: the Abbey of Piona, St Lucia (Perledo) and the via di Pino

 During a recent holiday to Lake Como - our first overseas visit since the pandemic - Zero and I visited three places of Catholic interest.

The first was the Cistercian abbey of Piona, towards the northern end of the Lake. The road to the abbey is somewhat involved, and the last kilometre or so is a pebbled road. This site gives a better account of the Abbey in English than wikipedia; the abbey's own website is in Italian: Abbazia di Piona. A page of the abbey's site contains a range of photographs which give an idea of the environment at the Abbey. Two of these photographs show the tabernacle positioned on the altar of the church, an arrangement which on previous visits to the Abbey had struck me as being particularly suitable for the praying of the Divine Office. Both the monks sitting in the sanctuary "behind" the altar and the lay faithful in the nave would have an orientation towards the Lord in their prayer.

From the sanctuary looking towards the nave 

From the nave looking towards the sanctuary

However, at the time of this visit the tabernacle has been moved from the altar and is now situated at the side of the sanctuary - roughly in the place of the lectern shown at the right hand side of the first picture above. The effect is to reduce the sense of the centrality of the Eucharistic presence in the Church. 

On the eve of the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (though in Italy the solemnity was celebrated on the following Sunday), we attended Mass in the small village of Perledo above Varenna. We have stayed in Perledo on previous visits to Lake Como, and it has spectacular views across the lake. Weekday Mass was celebrated in the small chapel of St Lucia, with Zero and I making the congregation up from three to five. Mass was nicely celebrated, and the thought that weekday Mass was celebrated here three times during the week for such a small congregation was moving.

During this visit we stayed in a locality called Pino, south of Varenna and above Fiumelatte. A five minute walk along the via di Pino from where we were staying there was a roadside shrine to Our Lady. Nearby was a restaurant where we ate on two evenings, and it was from the restaurant that we first heard the Rosary being recited by the shrine. It was rather lovely on our last evening to join the twenty or so people who had gathered each evening in May for the Rosary, and to see a road side shrine being decorated with flowers as the focus of this devotion.

Both our experience in Perledo and on the via di Pino reminded me of Pope Francis' observation, made at an early point in his pontificate, that popular devotion represents the inculturation of the Gospel.

Consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

This afternoon we joined the congregation at the Cathedral of the Holy Family, the cathedral of the Ukrainian Greek Eparchy in London, for the prayer of consecration of the entire human family, and particularly Ukraine and Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Cathedral was pleasantly full, with a congregation made up of both parishioners of the Cathedral and people like ourselves who had come for the particular occasion. The ceremony was presided over by the Bishop; representatives from the Church of England and the Ukrainian embassy were present.

There were two points about the service that struck me. The first was the three-fold prostration and signing of themselves with the sign of the Cross undertaken by the faithful as they came in to the Church. The Roman Rite single genuflection appears very half-hearted in comparison. The second was the way in which the whole service (with the exception of the homily) was essentially sung, or at least said in a style of chant. So, where the Roman Rite might have prayed the prayer of consecration by saying it, here it was prayed in a style of chant, using just two tones in reflection of the sentence structure.

Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen.

Writing to the Bishops throughout the world to invite them to join with him in making the act of consecration, Pope Francis wrote:

This Act of Consecration is meant to be a gesture of the universal Church, which in this dramatic moment lifts up to God, through his Mother and ours, the cry of pain of all those who suffer and implore an end to the violence, and to entrust the future of our human family to the Queen of Peace. I ask you to join in this Act by inviting the priests, religious and faithful to assemble in their churches and places of prayer on 25 March, so that God’s Holy People may raise a heartfelt and choral plea to Mary our Mother. I am sending you the text of the prayer of consecration, so that all of us can recite it throughout that day, in fraternal union.

The full text of the prayer of consecration can be found at the Holy See website: here. The ceremony from St Peter's Basilica can be watched on Youtube - the act of consecration occurs from 1:35:00, having been preceded by a penitential service with individual confessions.

Believing in Two

 Believing in Two is the title of the September 2021 issue of the magazine Women Church World, published as a supplement to L'Osservatore Romano. This issue seeks to explore spiritual relationships between men and women in the mission of the Church. 

The theme of the issue is introduced in an article entitled Equality:

... in the September edition of Women Church World we are taking a journey to explore great spiritual friendships between men and women. These articles demonstrate that common and co-responsible work, as an inclusive “combination”, has always been fruitful in the life of the Church. In fact, it is often precisely these “couples” who have initiated innovative processes.

The male-female pairings treated in the issue are those of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr ( A double mission in the Church); Romana Guarnieri and Giuseppe de Luca (The "singular friendship"..);St Clare and St Francis (Clare's gift); Raissa and Jacques Maritain (Between Faith and Reason); St Jane Frances de Chantal and St Francis de Sales (The social force of friendship); Armida Barelli and Agostino Gemelli (Culture in action). There is also a discussion of the standing of St Scholastica (in relation to St Benedict) and St Clare (in relation to St Francis), as being independent saints, not just women subordinate in some way to their respective siblings (To be saints without living in the shadow of saints).

In our own times, a defence of the complementarity between male and female is part of the Church's mission with regard to marriage and an authentic understanding of human sexuality. But Believing in Two draws our attention to another aspect of this complementarity, namely its spiritual dimension in terms of charisms in the life of the Church. We should expect to be able to see it in our own experience of life in the Church.

These relationships of the masculine and the feminine reflect the spousal relationship between Christ (masculine) and the Church (who, in the figure of the Virgin Mary, is feminine). There is, therefore, a rich ecclesial and theological theme to be developed from these, and the many other, examples of masculine/feminine complementarity.

Novena for Pentecost: Baptism in the Spirit and love of the Church, of Mary and of the saints

 It is now some years since the relics of St Therese of Lisieux were brought to Britain. The blog recording that visit can still be accessed: Saint Therese relics blog. Very large numbers gathered at each of the venues to pray alongside the relics, in a quite exceptional manifestation of faith on the part of largely ordinary people.

A fruit of Baptism in the Spirit is exactly this kind of affection and devotion to the saints of the Church, with its double aspect of celebration of their holiness and source of teaching for the living of the Christian life. The practice of testimonies, typical of the Renewal but not exclusive to it, is a kind of reflection of this. 

Often there is also a new closeness to Mary, the Mother of Christ and spouse of the Holy Spirit. Her presence in the upper room awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a prompt leading to an appreciation of Mary's presence to and intercession for the Church today. It is interesting in this respect that Pope Francis, very familiar with the Charismatic Renewal, has established in the universal calendar the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, that is celebrated on the Monday immediately after Pentecost Sunday.

It is not a surprise that, alongside this love for the saints and for the Virgin Mary, there is a love for the Church. Baptism in the Spirit encourages, not a sense of separation between the Church as a visible institution and the freedom of those gifted with a charism, but a profound sense that the visible, hierarchically structured institution is at one and the same time the institution that is animated by the Holy Spirit. There is a strong commitment to unity within the Body of Christ.

Hearts Revealed

"Hearts Revealed" is the title of the Meditation of the Day in  Magnificat for today. It is a short extract from Adrienne von Speyr's chapter on the Presentation in the Temple, a chapter in her book Handmaid of the Lord. The chapter is an extended reflection on the significance of the episode of the Presentation in the Temple for the Virgin Mary; Magnificat selects from a section about how the piercing of her soul provides an access for us to the Passion foretold by the words of Simeon.

The meaning of the piercing of the Mother is this: "that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare". If the Mother did not suffer, then these thoughts would never be released of themselves.... Suffering as a simple human and yet raised up to the state of grace and in it participating in the Son's sufferings, the Mother is understandable to everyone. And everything that lives in hearts as an unclear longing for God can, at the sight of the Mother's suffering, take on form and become conscious and evident to the heart itself. Thus, through her suffering, she mediates hidden hearts to the Son; she opens them, because her own heart had been opened by the sword.... The Mother's suffering is like a stairway up to the Cross, which before seemed inaccessible. In her it becomes evident that there really exists the Christian possibility of participation in the divine, redemptive suffering...

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. 

Myles Dempsey speaks to Joanna Bogle

I came across this interview or, perhaps better, conversation of Myles Dempsey with Joanna Bogle somewhat by accident. I haven't managed to listen to all of it, rather catching snippets at different points in the video.

Myles Dempsey died in June of this year. He is well known as the founder of the New Dawn conference that takes place each year at Walsingham.

One of the snippets I caught - and which is particularly relevant in the present circumstances of the Church - was Myles' repeated assertion of his love for the Church. Also striking was his saying that the purpose of the annual New Dawn conference at Walsingham was to show the beauty and the whole of Catholic life, without missing any bits out.

Myles' vision from God for New Dawn is to bring together all the riches of the Catholic Faith. He comments, "I want the beauty of the Church to be seen in all her splendour;  the Church with all its lights on and all its aspects celebrated - the charismatic, the liturgical, the Marian, the Eucharistic, the Sacramental, the Mystical - and for the whole family to be there."[Source here]

In talking about his life, it is interesting to see how Myles Dempsey sits within the history of Catholic life in England, before his coming to being involved in Charismatic Renewal. I am looking forward to watching those parts of the conversation that I have so far not had time to watch.

"Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life." UPDATED

This is the concluding paragraph of Pope Francis' homily at Mass on 1st January 2018:

Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life. Looking to the Mother, we are asked to leave behind all sorts of useless baggage and to rediscover what really matters. The gift of the Mother, the gift of every mother and every woman, is most precious for the Church, for she too is mother and woman. While a man often abstracts, affirms and imposes ideas, a woman, a mother, knows how to “keep”, to put things together in her heart, to give life. If our faith is not to be reduced merely to an idea or a doctrine, all of us need a mother’s heart, one which knows how to keep the tender love of God and to feel the heartbeat of all around us. May the Mother, God’s finest human creation, guard and keep this year, and bring the peace of her Son to our hearts and to our world. And as children, with simplicity, I invite you to greet her as the Christians did at Ephesus in the presence of their bishops: “Holy Mother of God!”. Let us together repeat three times, looking at her [turning to the Statue of Our Lady beside the altar]: “Holy Mother of God!”.

The video of the Holy Father's Mass can be found on the Vatican YouTube channel here. The moment at which Pope Francis invites the congregation to join him in the acclamation "Holy Mother of God" occurs just after 37:00. You might also like to look at the ending of the Liturgy, with the singing of the Alma Redemptoris Mater, and Pope Francis venerating the statue of Our Lady and, as he leaves the altar, venerating the image of the Infant Jesus.

It is worth reading the complete text of the homily, as mainstream news media appear to be following the Associated Press coverage which represents only a small section of the whole.

Hail Holy Queen, Blessed Virgin of Fatima - UPDATED

Hail Holy Queen, Blessed Virgin of Fatima, Lady of Immaculate Heart, our refuge and our way to God!  

As a pilgrim of the Light that comes to us from your hands, I give thanks to God the Father, who in every time and place is at work in human history; As a pilgrim of the Peace that, in this place, you proclaim, I give praise to Christ, our peace, and I implore for the world concord among all peoples; As a pilgrim of the Hope that the Spirit awakens, I come as a prophet and messenger to wash the feet of all, at the same table that unites us.....

In union with my brothers and sisters, in faith, in hope and in love, I entrust myself to you. In union with my brothers and sisters, through you, I consecrate myself to God, O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima.  

And at last, enveloped in the Light that comes from your hands, I will give glory to the Lord for ever and ever. Amen.

Pope Francis' prayer to the Virgin of Fatima: Prayer of His Holiness Pope Francis, Chapel of the Apparitions, Fatima, Friday 12 May 2017.

h/t Abbey Roads, here.

UPDATE: The following exchange reported from the in-flight press conference during the return flight from Fatima to Rome explains the origin of the reference to the "bishop dressed in white" in Pope Francis' prayer, and rather puts paid to those commentators who are criticising Pope Francis for it. First the journalist's question, and then Pope Francis' answer:

Allora, Santità, a Fatima Lei si è presentato come “il Vescovo vestito di bianco”. Fino ad adesso, questa espressione si applicava piuttosto alla visione della terza parte del segreto, a san Giovanni Paolo II e ai martiri del XX secolo. Cosa significa adesso la sua identificazione con questa espressione? [Well, Your Holiness, at Fatima you were presented as "the Bishop dressed in white". Up to now, this expression has been applied rather to the vision of the third part of the secret, to St John Paul II and the martyrs of the 20th Century.  What is the meaning now of your identification with this expression?]

Papa Francesco:

Sì, nella preghiera. Quella non l’ho fatta io, l’ha fatta il Santuario. Ma anch’io mi sono chiesto, perché hanno detto questo? E c’è un collegamento, sul bianco: il Vescovo vestito di bianco, la Madonna vestita di bianco, l’albore bianco dell’innocenza dei bambini dopo il battesimo… C’è un collegamento, in quella preghiera, sul colore bianco. Credo – perché non l’ho fatta io – credo che letterariamente hanno cercato di esprimere con il bianco quel desiderio di innocenza, di pace: innocenza, non fare male all’altro, non fare Guerra… [Yes, in the prayer. That was not prepared by me, it was prepared by the Sanctuary. But I also asked myself why they had said this? And it is a link, (on the theme of) white: the Bishop dressed in white, the Madonna dressed in white, the white clothing of innocence of children after baptism ... it is a linking in this prayer, on the colour white. I believe - because I did not prepare it - I believe that, in a literary way, they tried to express with white the desire for innocence, for peace: innocence, not doing evil to the other, not making war ...]

Pope Francis in Poland: " ...And once more, so the whole world can hear you! - Mercy!"

The homily that Pope Francis preached at Jasna Gora as here, in English. I think that is rather lovely, with its reference to a "divine thread delicately passing through history" and then a "Marian thread", both being delineated by the words "little", "near" and "real". [One is reminded of Pope Francis homiletic method, from the earliest days of his pontificate, of "three words".]

The transition from before to after Christ means little if it remains a date in the annals of history. May each one of us be able to make an interior passage, a Passover of the heart, towards the divine “style” incarnated by Mary. May we do everything in littleness, and accompany others at close hand, with a simple and open heart.

Pope Francis' words with the young people of World Youth Day can be found here, in English. I was struck by Pope Francis' attribution of the descriptor youthful to the virtue of mercy:

Dear young people, in these days Poland, this noble land, is in a festive mood; in these days Poland wants to be the ever-youthful face of mercy. From this land, with you and all those young people who cannot be present today yet join us through the various communications media, we are going to make this World Youth Day an authentic Jubilee celebration, in this Jubilee of Mercy. ...

Knowing your enthusiasm for mission, I repeat: mercy always has a youthful face! Because a merciful heart is motivated to move beyond its comfort zone. A merciful heart can go out and meet others; it is ready to embrace everyone. A merciful heart is able to be a place of refuge for those who are without a home or have lost their home; it is able to build a home and a family for those forced to emigrate; it knows the meaning of tenderness and compassion. A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants. To say the word “mercy” along with you is to speak of opportunity, future, commitment, trust, openness, hospitality, compassion and dreams. But are you able to dream? [Yes!] When the heart is open and able to dream, there is room for mercy, there is room to caress those who suffer, there is room to draw close to those who have no peace of heart or who do not have the bare necessities to live, or who do not have the most beautiful thing of all: the faith. Mercy. Let us together repeat this word: mercy. All of you! [Mercy!] Again! [Mercy!] And once more, so the whole world can hear you! [Mercy!]. 

Presentation or Purification?

2nd February sees the celebration of the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Ordinary Form) and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Extraordinary Form). The name of Candlemass also applies, because of the blessing and procession of candles associated with the celebration of this feast.

So far as I can tell, the Liturgical texts, at least for the celebration of Mass and the procession of candles, are similar in both the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms. The Old Testament reading is from Malachi 3:1-4 and the Gospel is the account of the Presentation. I think the Collect is the same in both forms, too. This suggests a greater affinity to the title of the Feast in the Ordinary Form, which indicates it as being a Feast of the Lord rather than a Feast of the Virgin Mary.

However, in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary there is a Mass entitled "The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Presentation of the Lord". According to the introduction to this Mass given in the Sacramentary for this Collection:

In this mystery of  salvation, Our Lady:

- in accordance with the Law of Moses (see Leviticus 12:1-8) submitted to the ritual of purification after childbirth, although as the "purest of virgins" from her "chaste womb" she had "brought forth in purity the Son of the Eternal Father" (Entrance Antiphon);

-faithfully carried out the law of the firstborn (see Exodus 13:1-2), redeeming with the offering of the poor (see Luke 2:24; Prayer over the offerings) her Son, "the author of the New Law" (Collect), "the Redeemer of us all" (Prayer over the offerings), "the glory of" the "people Israel and the light of all nations" (Preface; see Luke 2:32), the "Lord, the Saviour of the world" (Communion Antiphon);

- as "the handmaid of (God's) plan of salvation" (Preface) saw in her Son "the spotless Lamb, to be sacrificed on the altar of the Cross for our salvation (Preface) and offered him to the Father.

The texts of the Mass also recognise the Virgin Mary as the "virgin daughter of Zion", and the exemplar of the faith and life of the Church, described in the Collect as the "chaste Bride of Christ". The Collection does not give any indication of the origin of the Liturgical texts used.

However, what the texts and introduction for the Mass in the Collection drew to my attention was that, whichever title is used for the Feast celebrated on 2nd February, and consequently whether it is seen as being primarily a Feast of the Lord or a Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the content of what is being celebrated is essentially the same. In particular, in adopting the title "The Presentation of the Lord" the Liturgy of the Ordinary Form has not turned aside from the elements of the celebration which would be expressed by the title "The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary".

Some quick thoughts that follow:

1. Is there an opportunity for "mutual enrichment", or of assimilation of this celebration in the two forms of the Roman Rite?
2. Theologically, what does this celebration offer in the discussion of the relation of Christian faith to Judaism?
3. Liturgically, what does this celebration teach about the origins of Christian Liturgy in the practices of the Jewish religion?

The Holy Family: what Pope Francis actually said .... UPDATED for the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God

In his homily for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, Pope Francis returned to his suggestion, made in the homily for the Feast of the Holy Family (see my earlier post here), that Jesus sought forgiveness of his parents for leaving them worried by his leaving them to stay among the doctors in the Temple:

At the foot of the Cross, Mary sees her Son offer himself totally, showing us what it means to love as God loves.  At that moment she heard Jesus utter words which probably reflected what he had learned from her as a child: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:24).  At that moment, Mary became for all of us the Mother of forgiveness.  Following Jesus’ example and by his grace, she herself could forgive those who killed her innocent Son.

The Italian reads, with my own translation from "In quel momento ... " onwards, intended to capture something of the subtlety of the Italian that does not translate into the English above:

Ai piedi della Croce, Maria vede il suo Figlio che offre tutto Sé stesso e così testimonia che cosa significa amare come ama Dio. In quel momento sente pronunciare da Gesù parole che probabilmente nascono da quello che lei stessa gli aveva insegnato fin da bambino: «Padre, perdona loro perché non sanno quello che fanno» (Lc 23,34). In quel momento, Maria è diventata per tutti noi Madre del perdono. Lei stessa, sull’esempio di Gesù e con la sua grazia, è stata capace di perdonare quanti stavano uccidendo il suo Figlio innocente.  

.... In that moment, she heard words uttered by Jesus that probably were born out of what she herself had taught him since he was a child: "Father, forgive them because they do not know that they are doing". At that moment, Mary became for all of us the Mother of forgiveness. She herself, on the example of Jesus and with his grace, is made able to forgive those who  were killing her innocent Son.

[The French text uses the word "viennent", "come from", and likewise loses the sense of "giving birth to" that is present in the Italian. The German text - at least according to Google translate, and I declare my total lack of ability in this language - seems to retain the sense of "springing up from".]

Now, the sense of Jesus' words "being born out of" the teaching given by the Virgin Mother during Jesus' childhood indicates a proximity, an inter-relation between the missions of the Mother and the Son. It provides a certain completion to Pope Francis' words on the Feast of the Holy Family, and begins to resolve the problem of their audacity. Rather than Pope Francis' words indicating an imperfection in the mission of the Son, we should read them as an indication of the correlation between that mission of the Son and the mission of the Mother. And they reside, too, in that space between Jesus' divine nature and his human nature.

It is worth reminding ourselves at this point of the nature of the Holy Father's words as being speculative in nature rather than dogmatic. A certain style of speculativeness can be recognised in St Ignatius Spiritual Exercises - recalling that Pope Francis is, after all, a Jesuit. The second point of the contemplations for the second week of the Exercises is to consider what the persons in the scene of the particular contemplation are saying; and the third day of the week includes a contemplation on the obedience of Jesus to his parents and on the finding of Jesus in the Temple. This is clearly going to involve some use of the imagination on the part of the person making the Exercises, for their own spiritual benefit as they place themselves in the place and time of the subject of the contemplation, and not for the purpose of dogmatic teaching offered to others. Indeed, how one person imagines the dialogue might be quite different than how another person does so.

Is there not, perhaps, something of Pope Francis' own experience of the Spiritual Exercises in the suggestion contained in his two homilies, namely that Jesus learnt in some way the art of forgiveness from his Mother?

Refugees are welcome

The title Our Lady of the Wayside is rendered in Italian as Nostra Signora delle strada - Our Lady of the road, or perhaps, Our Lady of the Streets. There is a chapel with that dedication in the Church of the Gesu in Rome, the home Church of the Jesuits in the city. I expect Pope Francis has that chapel in mind today.

The title commemorates the journeys undertaken by the Virgin Mary to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and into exile in Egypt.

It seems a fitting dedication for these days in Europe.

My own statue: