More on Father Barron

I am happy that I got to be at the launch of Father Barron's 'Catholicism' DVD series on Wednesday, especially as his lecture 'Thomas Aquinas and why the New Atheists are Right', the following evening, proved too much for me academically!
There was also favourable feedback about his afternoon session in St Robert of Newminster School in Washington when he spoke to Priests, catechists and laity on the New Evangelisation.
I now have the set of DVDs as well as his book on the series and can't wait to get started! Hopefully more to share on this later.

Father Robert Barron

I had the great privilege of attending in Durham tonight , the launch of Father Robert Barron's DVD series 'Catholicism'
Father is a priest of the Chicago Diocese and this series is being shown and shared extensively in the USA. He launched in Melbourne, Australia last month and is currently on a tour of England to promote it here.
He gave a most interesting and often humorous talk about how his project evolved and showed two clips from two parts of the 10 x 1 hour series. Father can be seen on EWTN as well as in many 'you tube' clips as part of his Word on Fire Ministry to engage with popular culture.
Well done to the Catholic Chaplaincy of Durham University for hosting the event and to the Centre for Catholic Studies for their endorsement.
It was a wonderful evening which should have been shared by more people. He gives a lecture in Durham tomorrow evening and is also scheduled to address priests of the Diocese
More information at  www.wordonfire.org

May she rest in peace

          Please pray for the repose of the soul of Moira Brown, the mother of Father Michael Brown. Father Michael is the Northern Chaplain of the Holy Family Guild and his mother died suddenly in her sleep early last week.  
She has been known to many members of the Holy Family Guild for a number of years.
     An elegant lady with a lovely smile and sense of fun; she is remembered fondly by many.
Please pray for all the family especially Father Michael who must be feeling the loss acutely.

A Blessed Triduum and Eastertide

Prayers for a Blessed Triduum and Eastertide for all readers of this blog. Mark the end of Lent by attending all the services of the Triduum - Maundy Thursday, the Passion of Our Lord on Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and Easter morn with an egg hunt for children. Celebrate in style and thank God for sending His only Son to die for us out of  LOVE.

The Donkey by GK Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked,
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
 And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
 I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears
And palms before my feet.”

Imagine the Son of God making his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey of all beasts! As our parish priest said this morning it was a bit like the Queen leaving for St Paul's on her Diamond Jubilee on a bicycle! What a sight that would be but how inappropriate. And yet the donkey was not an inappropriate choice for Jesus. It demonstrated that he came humbly but also in fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecy:

'Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' (Zecheriah 9 v9)

At the beginning of Holy Week it is the responsibility of parents to make the events come alive for small children. See my posts from 2011 for a few simple ideas. Nothing better than to start with participation in a Palm Procession or have one at home. Even the smallest child can wave a palm.
May all families have a Blessed Holy Week and mark all the events fittingly and prayerfully.

A Family Way of the Cross in the Sun

Last Sunday we met at Osmotherley in North Yorkshire for our Lenten Way of the Cross for families.
The origins of the Lady Chapel there are not known. A licence for Mass to be celebrated regularly in the chapel was granted in 1397 and it was given to the monks of the Carthusian Order in 1398.
After the monks came, the chapel was also used as a hermitage.
Anticipating the Reformation, the Lady Chapel had been leased to relatives of the Prior and so remained untouched unlike  Mount Grace Priory. The Carthusians were re-established during the reign of Queen Mary. The chapel gradually became a popular pilgrimage centre.
On the 7^th September 1614, the eve of the Feast of Our Lady’s Birthday, a group of 17 Catholics were arrested for praying in the chapel.
By 1642 the chapel had fallen into a state of disrepair.
Today it is once again a place of pilgrimage and looked after by the monks at Ampleforth. You can read a fuller history at www.ladychapel.org.uk

We were blessed with a glorious sunny day. We walked from Station to Station reading prayers and the children showing their art work at each one. At each station, also, a child took a symbol from our 'Way of the Cross' Box to carry the rest of the way e.g. rope to represent Jesus hands being tied at Station One; a rosary to represent Jesus meeting his mother at Station Four, a large nail for Station Ten and so on. In the Chapel these were lovingly placed back in the box before we prayed our JPII's Prayer for Families and our Daily Prayer of Consecration.
We sang the Salve Regina and then enjoyed tea and sweet treats on the lawn beside the chapel.
If you haven't walked the Way of the Cross yet this Lent why not arrange to do so in a church or up a hill? If you are unable to walk, there are Stations of the Cross online at
http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/face.htm
Many thanks to Paul for these photos as mine were lost in the upload.

Way of the Cross

Praying the Stations of the Cross—alone or with a group—is a Lenten tradition.  Imagine the scene in Jerusalem as Jesus walked his Way of the Cross. Often, the Stations of the Cross is an action prayer. Catholics walk to the fourteen stations of the Way of the Cross and stop to pray at each one. The stations can be displayed outside but are usually found inside churches

A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful, who make the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross

The gaining of the plenary indulgence is regulated by the following norms:

1. The pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of the Cross legitimately erected.
2. For the erection of the Way of the Cross fourteen crosses are required, to which it is customary to add fourteen pictures or images, which represent the stations of Jerusalem.
3. According to the more common practice, the pious exercise consists of fourteen pious readings, to which some vocal prayers are added. However, nothing more is required than a pious meditation on the Passion and Death of the Lord, which need not be a particular consideration of the individual mysteries of the stations.
4. A movement from one station to the next is required.

In addition the usual sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff.

More on the Real Easter Egg

Now that we are in Lent organised shoppers might turn their thoughts to Easter Eggs! See my post on 24th January and make them Real ones if you can.
In the UK these are available at Morrisons, the Coop and Waitrose but not Asda, M&S, Sainsbury's, Tesco or John Lewis. Also availble online but you have to pay postage.
www.realeasteregg.co.uk

And so it begins.

Tomorrow, Lent begins. That wonderful penitential season before the Church's greatest Feast. That time of reflection which should help us all to make progress in our spiritual life... or at least try to!
Today then is a time to consider how we will spend this season. What extras will we add to our daily routine? Spiritual reading is a must - a gospel, life of a saint, Catechism of the Catholic Church? Can we spare a little more time to visit the Blessed Sacrament, make Stations of the Cross, a daily Mass, pray an extra rosary? How will we deny ourselves a little comfort...no chocolate, coffee, red wine, a lie in?
Families with young children should work through Lent together, make a Lenten pathway for children with tasks for each day and rewards collected in a jar until Easter, the family altar laid out with purple candles and ribbon as befits the season, a new prayer to learn perhaps.
This Lent the HFG is meeting at Osmotherley in Yorkshire to make the Stations of the Cross outdoors and up a hill to Mount Grace Lady Chapel. Such an activity can also appeal to youth especially if they make and carry a large cross and write their own meditations. So go ahead - you only need some wood and a hill!
Enjoy your Lenten Season so that you feel it fitting to enjoy your Easter!

A little early for Easter eggs?

Even while the shops were selling off surplus stocks of Christmas cards and crackers, chocolate Easter eggs began to appear. But while at least some of the cards did convey something of the meaning of Christmas, none of the eggs convey the meaning of Easter. I have often struggled to get chocolate lambs rather than chicks, believing at least that they did relate to Jesus as the Lamb of God. So when one of our HFG members sent me this link for the blog I am more than happy to include it. What a great initiative! so may the eggs you give this year be truly the real deal! Go to www.realeasteregg.co.uk and order yours now!

A timely reminder for parents

On Sunday I watched on EWTN as Pope Benedict XVI baptised 16 babies in the Sistine Chapel. This is an annual ceremony which takes place on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The children baptised belong to couples who work in Vatican City. What a privilege and what a wonderful memory for the family album and yet what is happening is more marvellous than the occasion or the Michelangelo decorated venue. The Pope in his homily tells the parents,
"Baptism, which you ask for your children today, inserts them into the reciprocal exchange of love that exists in God between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; by this gesture that I am going to perform, the love of God is poured out upon them, inundating them with his gifts. By being bathed in the water, your children are inserted into the life itself of Jesus, who died on the cross to free us from sin, and rising, conquered death. So, spiritually immersed in his death and resurrection, [these children] are freed from original sin and in them the life of grace begins, which is the very life of the risen Jesus."

Wow! So that is what happens when the sacrament is administered. Present day catechetics often fails to draw attention to the removal of original sin at baptism and concentrates in preference on welcoming the child into God's family. We are duly reminded by our Holy Father that, much more than being a sign of unity, baptism has a salvific nature.

Once parents grasp the awesomeness of the sacrament they will be helped to take more seriously their own task as the first and foremost educators of their children. As the Pope also said,

"it is necessary that after baptism {the children} are educated in faith, instructed according to the wisdom of sacred Scripture and the Church's teachings, so that the seeds of faith that they receive today can grow, and they can reach full Christian maturity."

Let us pray for all parents, that the Holy Spirit will help and guide them in their work of passing on the faith in the context of their little domestic church.

Happy Feast!

Today the Christmas season is brought to an end with the wonderful Feast of Epiphany. It is time for the three Wise men to enter our crib scenes as they did in Bethleham on the first Christmas. We save a small gift for today to represent the gifts of the Magi. In Spain this is the main gift giving day.
Today, ask a priest at Mass to bless a piece of chalk for you and when you return home perform the blessing using the chalk as follows:- 
+Epiphany Blessing Of A Home+
All make the Sign of the Cross.
Head of Household: "Peace be to this house and: to all who dwell here, in the name of the Lord.
All: Blessed be God forever.

Reader: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be..... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3.14)
Using chalk, write on the outside of your house, above or next to an entrance, numbers and initials:

+20+C+M+B+12+

This stands for the first half of the current year, Christus Mansionem Benedicat (Christ bless this house) followed by the second half of the current year 

The intials may also stand for the three Wise men, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar

All: Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who inhabit it. May we be blessed with health, goodness of heart, gentleness and the keeping of your law. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our love for each other may go out to all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Take your decorations down but leave your crib in place - the Magi have just arrived after all! It can remain until the Feast of Candlemas in February. We also leave a tiny piece of tinsel in there to represent the Christmas joy we have just experienced.

Some readers might also like to write to their Bishop today and ask him to return the feast to its correct day (in the UK it is moved to the nearest Sunday) but whatever you do go to Mass and celebrate.

My New Years Honours List 2012

This year my awards go to

Clare Carver, a young girl who has spent the whole year in hospital following an accident ‎which left her on life support and in a coma with horrific injuries. Thanks be to God she has made remarkable progress and has been an inspiration to many.

My mother who died in January,  just because she's my mother and I miss her.

Familiaris Consortio on the 30th Anniversary of its publication. Thank you Blessed John Paul II.

The Dominican Sisters and the Maryvale Institute for their Anchor Catechetical Programme. A void is at long last filled!

'The Way' movie which allowed my husband and I as well as many other movie goers to experience the Camino in all its splendour and truth.

The Anglican Ordinariate. Thank you Pope Benedict!

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury who seems to be acting like a Catholic Bishop - is he a voice crying in the wilderness?

Father Robert Barron and his series 'Catholicism'. Oh please when can we see it in the UK?

The new translation of the Roman Missal

Sister Angelina, one of 26 missionaries killed last year. She was bringing medical aid to refugees in Sudan.

Our Holy Family Guild families, living and sharing their faith together in an increasingly secular society.

Believe it or not it's still Christmas!

The secular world starts Christmas as soon as it possibly can with no thought of Advent or any spiritual preparations for the coming of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Now that the big day has been and gone they are desperate to bring it to an end! Easter Eggs have already replaced chocolate Santas in the shops, trees are seen already in rubbish or recycling bins and the general public wonder why our cards are still on show and our tree lights continue to shine.

For Christian/Catholic families Christmas Day is only the start of the celebration. Please keep alive the twelve days of Christmas. The wise men edge ever nearer to their place in our crib scenes. Each day offers an opportunity to sing carols, exchange small gifts, offer hospitality and above all live the message of Christmas. Not one card or bauble should be cleared away before twelfth night! And of course on the Feast of the Epiphany we should bless our homes for the year ahead. I will post more on this later.

Unto us a Child is born

Wishing all my readers a Happy and Holy Christmas Season.

May the Christ Child bring peace to our hearts, our families and our world.

 (design copyright)

Bringing the Christmas message with Carols

Members and friends of the Holy Family Guild gathered in a small village in Tyne and Wear and walked singing carols from house to house and even stopped in at the village pub. We collected for a local hospice but the main aim of the event was to spread the Christmas message in the form of carols. In so doing we were also keeping alive a tradition which goes back centuries in Europe and then Britain and which we read about in the novels of Thomas Hardy, Kenneth Grahame and Louisa May Alcott among others. After the cold frosty evening kept us moving briskly, we returned for mulled wine, mince pies  and cake. Then the children had a visit from St Nicholas before we prayed together in the familychapel. NOW it must be nearly Christmas!

Believe it or not it's still NOT Christmas!

Yes we are still in the season of Advent - preparation for the coming of our Saviour. Many schools are already on holiday, Christmas trees and decorations are everywhere you look, panic has set in in the shopping centres and carols are playing on every radio station but....it's not Christmas yet! We still have one week.
Tomorrow the Holy Family Guild will meet for their annual gathering singing carols around a local village to raise funds for a hospice. The children who come will meet St Nicholas and we will have prayers together. Use the last week of Advent wisely in preparing. Not just preparing all those practical things that must be finalised but set aside time for prayer, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, an extra Mass and most especially the Sacrament of Confession. Just as your house should be clean to receive the decorations, so our souls should be spruced up to welcome the Christ child. Only then can we feel worthy to truly celebrate the Christmas Season. So be patient.... make the most of the last week of Advent.

Advent - a time for spiritual preparation

Advent is such a lovely time for families, especially those with young children. It is important that we keep Advent special for them. It is not Christmas yet and somehow we should battle against the commercialism of the modern day Christmas to explain and act out Advent. We prepare our hearts and souls first and foremost to welcome the Word made flesh. It is a time of prayer, small sacrifices, sacramental confession, giving, reading from the Bible.
In doing some of this we can also prepare practically - we can read from the Bible in order to produce a Jesse tree with children (see my post for 2010), we can fill a shoebox to go to children in poorer countries and pray for whoever will receive it throughout Advent, we can have a jar at home to fill with money left from small sacrifices which can then go to a worthwhile cause. We should of course mark Advent with a table wreath and/or calendar, aquaint ourselves with the Christmas story by preparing a crib and maybe involve children in making Christmas cards and decorations to go up when Christmas does arrive! If children are in school they may be in a nativity play and Christmas inevitably does arrive sooner than it should but try to keep the season of Advent first at home. It will be so important for them to take this tradition forward when they are parents. Happy Advent!

And finally!

"But the Church firmly believes that human life, even if weak or suffering, is always a splendid gift of God's goodness." ( #30 FC)
"When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings (unitive and procreative) that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as 'arbiters' of the divine plan and they manipulate and degrade human sexuality" (#32 FC)
"parents have been appointed by God himself as the first and principal educators of their children and their right is completely inalienable" (#40 FC)

There is so much more in this document of value. Why not read it or reread it during Advent?
Also please feel able to comment on your favourite section for our planned publication

And some more!

""When marriage is not esteemed, neither can consecrated virginity or celibacy exist; when human sexuality is not regarded as a great value given by the Creator, the renunciation of it for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven loses its meaning" (#16 FC)
"To bear witness to the inestimable value of the indissolubility and fidelity of marriage is one of the most precious and most urgent tasks of Christian couples in our time" (#20 FC)
"The Christian family....can and should be called the 'domestic Church'" (#21FC)
"Family communion can only be preserved and perfected through a great spirit of sacrifice" (#21 FC)