We have spaces left for girls aged 10 – 17 years-old on Summer Camp St Petronilla this August 13-18. Among much else, we invoke Our Lady, St Louis Marie de Montfort and St John Bosco to improve the spiritual eyesight of all participants. If you would like to know more about the camp or to request a booking form, please email us here. FLICKR albums from previous years’ camps can be viewed here: Girls 2017; Boys 2017; Girls 2016; Boys 2016.
Opening the Eyes of the Soul to See God
Believing that while Jesus walked in Israel He caused the blind to see by touching them, it is coherent to believe that He does the same now from Heaven through His new Body, that is the Church, specifically through His Saints in Heaven and on Earth. And if the scores of people who are physically healed at Lourdes is a sign of the countless thousands who are spiritually healed, so Don Bosco’s work with our Lady to restore the physical sight of a blind girl is surely a sign of their ongoing work to enable the spiritual sight (that is the Faith) of countless girls and boys today. If this were not possible, why would the Gospels recount to us Jesus having opened the eyes of the blind 2,000 years ago?
The passage below is taken from Saint John Bosco, Seeker of Souls by F.A.Forbes (1935), pages 93-93:
“The miracles of Don Bosco have remained famous. He was indignant when they were attributed to him. ‘I only tell people to invoke our Lady,’ he would say, ‘it is all her doing.’ When very hard pressed, and by obvious facts, he would sometimes admit: ‘Well, you see, we work together, she and I’…
Another day it was a blind girl who, led by two others, went to the church to pray, and afterwards asked to see Don Bosco. ‘How long have you been blind?’ he asked.
‘My eyes have been bad for some time, but a year ago I went completely blind,’ she answered, ‘the doctors say it is hopeless,’ and she begs to cry. Don Bosco led her to a window.
‘Do you not see the light?’ he asked.
‘Nothing at all.’
‘Do you wish to see?’
‘How can you ask such a question? I am a poor girl and my life depends on it.’
‘If you had your sight, would you use it for the good of your soul and for God’s service?’
‘Indeed I would!’
‘Trust in our Lady and she will help you.’
‘I know she will, but in the meantime I am blind.’
Don Bosco held a medal of our Lady before the sightless eyes. ‘What is this?’ he said.
‘I can see,’ cried the girl, ‘it is a medal.’
‘Whose medal?’
‘Our Lady’s.’
‘And on the other side, what do you see?’
‘An old man with a staff — oh, St Joseph!’
‘Holy Mother of God!’ cried the two women, ‘she can actually see!’
The girl dropped the medal which rolled into a dark corner of the room. One of them made a dash to recover it.
‘Let it alone,’ said Don Bosco, ‘let us see if our Lady has really given her back her sight.
The girl went straight to the corner and picked it up. She was beside herself with joy. Later on she became a nun in the religious Order founded by Don Bosco to do for girls what he himself was doing for boys…”
in St John Fisher House, 17 Eastern Avenue, Reading, RG1 5RU
Starting with Holy Mass, followed by pizza and brief spiritual talk.
Juventutem is an international movement of young Catholic (ages 18 to 36) who are devoted to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Its aim is to foster and strengthen relationships between young people at a national and international level, and to encourage and assist them in developing their faith.
Venue
Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church
30 Amersham Road
Chesham Bois
HP6 5PE
Dates (on 4th Saturdays)
24 Feb, 24 March, 28 April, 26 May, 23 June 2018
Activities
2 – 4pm:
Catechism for Children*
followed by Altar Server Practice
4 – 4.30pm:
Rosary & Benediction
7pm:
Talk for Adults (at the home of a local family–contact us for address).
*Approximate schedule for catechism sessions: fiirst the children under 7 years-old (for about 10 minutes); then children aged about 7 to 12 years-old (for about 20 minutes); then teenagers 13 to 18 years-old (for about 40 minutes); then altar server training until 4pm, followed by the Holy Rosary and Benediction.
Families are invited to stay for as much of the programme as they wish. Tea and coffee will be available in an adjacent room.
The themes for the five Saturdays will be as follows:
Date
Theme for Catechism (from 2pm)
Theme for Evening Talk for Adults (from 7pm)
24 Feb
The Holy Trinity
Holy Mass–the greatest treasure on Earth
24 March
The Incarnation
“Salvation is from the Jews”–Jn 4:22
28 April
The BVM, the Apostles, the Angels
Denying supernatural Revelation–the 1st beast of the Apocalypse?
26 May
The Sacraments & the Church
Denying natural Revelation–the 2nd beast of the Apocalypse?
23 June
Sacred Scripture & Prayer
Love Defeats the anti-Christ
If you have a moment in advance, please practice this version of Ave Verum Corpus which we will sing during exposition:
Young Adults (18 to 35 years-old) are invited to join us for a social evening this Saturday, the Vigil of Pentecost. We will meet at 5pm in the parish room at the eastern end of the Church of Christ the King in Bedford (MK42 0SP). After a talk with Q & A entitled “The Blessed Trinity: Principle of Everything“, we will head to a local venue for dinner and drinks. Outline for the talk:
– Biblical Revelation of the Blessed Trinity
– Patristic & Scholastic theology: St Augustine & St Thomas
– Blessed Trinity and the person / marriage / life
– Blessed Trinity contra divorce / abortion / contraception
– Our final purpose, the beatific vision, is beholding the Blessed Trinity
As tomorrow’s weather is expected to be excellent, it may be we change venue for the talk to the north bank of the River Great Ouse–at a spot opposite the Longholme Boathouse, on the green strip between Russell Park and the river. There is free parking along The Embankment. Please email us here if you plan to join us, or else simply turn up.
On this Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter is pleased to introduce the Summer issue of our quarterly magazine Dowry (Summer 2018, No38).
SPECIAL ISSUE ON HOLY MATRIMONY
The layout is designed to be looked at as a double page: make sure to select this display on your pdf reader.
Click on the cover of the magazine to open the 4.2Mo pdf file.
In this issue:
Editorial: Alfie’s Death Made Us All Orphans
R.I.P. – Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries
The Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael
Humanae Vitae and the Crisis of Faith
The Ends of Marriage
My Name Is Bond, Marriage Bond
Forthcoming Events
Pictures of Holy Week
Support our apostolate
Please share this link with your friends: this is a simple way of spreading good news and doctrine.
‘Ego Eimi – It is I’ (John 6:51)
A series of conferences on the Most Holy Eucharist
By Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, Rector of St Mary’s Shrine
Given live at St Mary’s Shrine Church, Buttermarket Street, Warrington WA1 2NS, England
In preparation for the National Eucharistic Congress in Liverpool (7-9 Sept. 2018)
Free for all. All welcome to St Mary’s.
Each 40-min conference starts at 7:00pm GMT and will be broadcasted onLiveMass.net
• Monday 11 June, 7:00pm: Transubstantiation: how the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ occur under the externals of bread and wine
• Tuesday 12 June, 7:00pm: Concomitance: how Christ’s Blood also is in the Host, and His Body also in the Chalice
• Wednesday 13 June, 7:00pm: Fragments: why each of them is Christ, and how to treasure them
• Thursday 14 June, 7:00pm: Gradation: how God’s presence is supreme in the Holy Eucharist
Low Mass will be offered each of the four evenings at 6:00pm, before each conference.
“Every perfect gift is coming from above, coming down from the Father of lights… for of His own will has He begotten us in the word of truth… You know, my dearest brethren.”
Dear Friends,
What is a parent? What is a father? What are brethren? I would like to reflect with you today on parenthood, fatherhood and brotherhood. On the link between fatherhood and brotherhood. Essentially, there can be no brethren unless there is a father.
Today, like millions of people of every faith and none, you may feel that our little brother Alfie Evans was unjustly treated. He died yesterday in Liverpool. Adults in power said that Alfie should die where and in the manner they decided. They prevented Alfie’s parents from taking him to another hospital, or even to die at home in their arms. They refused to provide basic support such as oxygen, and for a while, water.
An innocent child died. The point is not to accuse anyone. Perhaps, Alfie would have died soon anyway, perhaps. Although, nobody can assure that. What has been put to death though, is parenthood. Parenthood has been killed. Alfie’s parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, were denied the most fundamental right. The right to secure basic support for their child, such as oxygen, and the right to choose where he would die; if death was near.
If parents failed to meet their child’s basic needs, such as oxygen and water, then the State or some other institution could intervene, and takeover the responsibility from them. But not the other way round. When parents want their child to breathe and drink, no one has any right to prevent them. Oxygen and water are not a medical treatment. They are basics of life. If you invite a friend to stay in your home (not in a hospital), and you don’t provide oxygen and water, your friend is not going to enjoy his stay very long. It has nothing to do with illness. It is good manners.
Parents have an inalienable natural right to protect the life of their children, body and soul. Such a right is not granted by the State. Parents have this right by the very fact that they gave life to that new human being, their child. The Alfie Evans ruling denied this obvious truth. Lord David Alton of Liverpool, wrote about it: “Every parent has a fundamental right – and I would say duty – to fight for and care for the child to whom they gave life.” Pope Francis surely agreed, actively supporting Alfie’s evacuation to Italy.
But the legal and medical establishment have ruled otherwise, against immense pressure from all over the world. By doing so, the legal and medical establishment have killed the natural understanding of parenthood. That is, a father and a mother who share primary responsibility for the life of their child, because they have given him life.
Not without significance, the judge at the centre of the Alfie Evans case, Justice Hayden, has co-authored a book titled Children and Same-Sex Families, a legal handbook described as a guide for those “who provide advice and support to same-sex families.” With the best of intentions, how could Justice Hayden understand that the natural right of Alfie’s parents upon their child takes precedence? The very word proves it: “parent” comes from the present participle of “parere”, that is, “to bring forth, to give birth to”. Whatever their good intentions, two men (or two women) never did conceive and give birth to a child. They are not “parents.”
Against natural evidence, “parents” in modern Britain have become a social and legal construct, not a natural reality anymore. Like marriage, family, gender and personhood, parenthood is now defined by the State, not by nature anymore. If the interests of the State change, then the definition of parenthood will change as well. But when any institution ignores God’s law as embedded in nature, the tendency is to claim always more control over bodies and souls.
The truth is, there are no parents left in modern Britain. But if there are no parents, how can there be any brethren? Living in peace together, with mutual respect, in a brotherly way, is possible only if all acknowledge a common father, whether at home, or in town, or as a people. The State may not call itself father, yet, but the Alfie Evans tragedy should make everyone understand that the State has taken the place of the natural parents. George Orwell’s Big Brother is not a fiction anymore.
The cruel irony is that, on St George’s day, when Alfie’s parents were denied the right to take him out of hospital, another young couple, William and Kate, walked out of another hospital, with their little boy. The entire nation rejoiced when watching the happy Cambridge family. It would have been a beautiful statement if the Royal baby had been called Alfie, as one of his several names. Why was the nation rejoicing for Prince Louis? Many newborn boys were taken home by their parents that day. What about him? Because a dynastic birth embodies filiation and the natural transmission of life, and we humans love it! Prince Louis is son of William, son of Charles, son of Elizabeth, daughter of George, etc.
“Every perfect gift is coming from above, coming down from the Father of lights… for of His own will has He begotten us in the word of truth… You know, my dearest brethren.”
Thankfully, far above the blindness of many, and above the malice of some, there is a Father indeed. It is God the Father “Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named” (Eph 3:15). Fatherhood is the main relationship which shapes our identity. Fatherhood expresses our origin and guarantees our identity. The original sin committed by Adam and Eve was a denial of God’s fatherhood. They denied that God was willing or competent to foster their best interests. By turning away from God, they fell under the power of created beings.
Denying God’s fatherhood brought about three consequences.
1. Divorce between Adam and Eve: mutual trust turns into accusation. Tenderness turns into domination.
2. Divorce between mankind and nature: Adam and Eve lost their peaceful dominion over nature. No more stewards of the material world, men must sweat and fight against nature, against viruses, against tsunamis, earthquakes and tornados to keep alive. Nature is not a divine gift anymore; it has become man’s chaotic re-creation.
3. Divorce within man, between his two main faculties. Our intellect designed by God to know the truth turns blind to truth and imagines deadly fictions and lies. Our will-power designed by God to desire the good is allured by selfish interests, sensuality and pride. Intellect and will do not work in harmony anymore, but ignore each other or compete with each other.
So, dear friends, what can we do?
Practically, we can try and get better laws. We should also commit more actively to the pro-life cause. But supernaturally, the only way to secure peace as among brethren, in modern Britain as in all times, is to come back to God the Father. Because our filial relation to God as common Father conditions our mutual relationship as brethren, as fellow citizens. If we truly care for what happened to Alfie and his parents, then we should examine how we do as children of God. If we wished the British medical and legal establishment acted as brothers to us citizens, and to natural families and natural parents in particular, then we must become better sons, daughters, children of God, of the Father of lights.
If we wished oxygen, water and food had been given to our little brother Alfie, then let us check that we make good use of God’s grace, the oxygen and water of our souls. Let us become more hungry for the divine food God offers us, that is, His Body, in the Holy Eucharist. Let us revive our filial connection with our loving Father God, through sacramental absolution for our sins.
Lastly, let us offer our difficulties and sufferings, small and big, in sacrifice for all our fellow citizens – with and without the establishment – to discover the joy of being children of light. We ask this, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of all men, but especially of the more vulnerable ones.
[You can watch this homily onhttp://livemass.net/ > Warrington > Sunday – Starts 35:00 – ends 49:00]
