Wyoming Catholic College

Earlier this year a young American undergraduate spent a few weeks staying in the Vocations House as he completed an internship with a company in London. While here he was also discerning whether to go back to university or take up an offer of a place at Wyoming Catholic College, the newest of the Catholic Liberal Arts colleges in the United States. So I was interested to see this on YouTube:



In the end he decided to accept the place and later wrote to me about life in Wyoming:

"Wyoming is getting cold lately. It is usually below freezing in the mornings already. Haven't even seen any bears yet, unfortunately, but several of my friends have. I have eaten an elk, though, and seen several large moose at close range. I think that they know what they are doing here at the college; we get a pretty good Catholic formation here, with frequent access to the sacraments, a reverent liturgy, and we're learning Latin orally from a student of Professor Foster! Two nights ago we had a Tolkien appreciation banquet, with hobbit-style food and readings from Tolkien's works and letters. We can't get enough of you English over here".

Adult Education

Adult formation in the faith is a big part of life in my parish which has the unusual characteristic of being very young. Our average age is only 27! The reason it is so low is that we have lots of families with very young children. Over the years we have run a variety of courses for parents to help them grow in knowledge and understanding of their faith. In that way we hope to better equip them to pass it on to their children. Of course all this is possible because we have Hannah, our full-time coordinator of catechesis. Hannah has her own blog which you can check out here.

In January she has been invited to run Fr Robert Barron's "Catholicism" course at the new Centre for Catholic Formation which is in our diary. Sessions take place on Thursday evenings from 7.30pm until 9.00pm. Anyone interested in signing up should email me before Christmas and I will pass your details on to her.

This is the trailer for the course:

Here are some testimonies from three of our parishioners:

"I am a cradle Catholic, baptised and brought by Catholic parents, educated at a Catholic school until the age of 11.  However, that is pretty much where my Catholic education ended, although I continued to attend weekly Mass until going to University at which point, I attended an Anglican church.  For the last seven years, I have attended weekly Mass at Holy Ghost Church, with my husband (also a Catholic) and our young family. [The] course made me realise how much I myself have to learn about the Catholic faith – and that I was taking my faith for granted, by simply attending weekly Mass as a formality.  I have since helped out with both the Pre-catechumenate course and the RCIA course, supporting the candidates, but also gaining hugely from the weekly discussions, enabling me (and therefore my family) to understand our faith more deeply."  (Mother of 3)

"I had spent many years comfortable in my faith without really challenging myself.  I believed that I was doing "enough" in my relationship with God by going to Mass and making the time to talk to God and to pray.  It wasn't until I was a sponsor for someone else's Confirmation and attended several of the RCIA classes which featured short extracts from the teachings of Father Robert Barron that I realised there was so much more.  It made me understand that formation is a critical pillar of my relationship with God as how can you really love someone without knowing them?  There is so much to learn and be amazed by." (Mother of 2)

"To discover that someone loves you unconditionally; that you have a purpose in life and that you can achieve peace and happiness through prayer and sanctification, is a path I started on as a result of Faith in the Family Programme 4 years ago.  I am truly grateful that a few people thought I was worth it and thank God daily that we have people that perform such vital apostolate especially in today's ever secular society." (Mother of 3)

Disconnect to Connect

Have you ever sat in a restaurant wondering why the couple at the next table ever came out at all since they spent the whole evening on their mobile phone's? Here's an advert from a phone company in Thailand:



The slogan at the end simply recommends that we use our phones just enough...

Guidelines for the Promotion of Vocations to the Ministerial Priesthood

DSCN0868, a photo by Southwark Vocations on Flickr.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Rome for a special meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Department for Priestly Vocations "Pontificia Opera Vocazioni Sacerdotali". Apart from celebrating the work of POVS, the meeting was also to present a new document entitled "Guidelines for the Promotion of Vocations to the Ministerial Priesthood". Although not yet published, Mgr Diego Coletti gave an interesting talk summarising its contents. He listed eight "conditions" necessary for a vocation to find fertile soil in a Church which "creates, through the quality of its faith and the transparency of its witness to the Gospel, the conditions for authentic and generous vocational responses".

These are the eight conditions as his gives them:

1. In general a rich soil of Christian life in the ecclesial community. [...] As in the most pure womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so also in the maternal womb of the Christian community, it will be only the fire of the Holy Spirit, received and guarded in an authentic life of faith, that will raise the temperature of the vocational climate to the level necessary for the seeds planted by the Lord in the hearts of many young people to bloom and to give abundant fruit;
2. The irreplaceable role of prayer which calls from the Lord of the harvest an abundance of workers;
3. The importance of an integrated pastoral work ensuring those responsible for Christian education effect a coherent convergence in their educational programmes and proposals;
4. A new approach of evangelisation and of mission that will awaken in young people a strong passion for the Gospel;
5. The irreplaceable and central role of the family;
6. The coherent and joyful witness of the life of priests;
7. The educative efficacy of the experience of service and of a life freely committed to others;
8. Finally the value of schools and of universities that introduce opportunities to encounter and to develop the experience of Christian living.

Here's How It Could Be Done...

Following on my last post I was sent a link to this video. Someone get this guy a ticket to St Paul's...

The St Paul's Demo

I have to admit if I were a protester outside St Paul's I'd be feeling pretty confused and probably not a little cheesed off! There I am campaigning for the abolition of money when suddenly it all turns into a debate about ecclesiastical politics.
However, I'm not a protester outside St Paul's so I have the leisure to be bemused in another way and to wonder how that motley congregation might be evangelised. People have been asking "What would Jesus do?" Having already pitched his tent among us, I suspect he would be continue to call men and women to repentance. However, I think we know what St Paul would do. When he went into the Areopagus St Paul didn't say to those present, "I stand with you". He latched onto something they could relate to and used it to proclaim Christ. That's the model of the first evangelisation of Europe and I suspect it will need to be the model of the New Evangelisation as well.
It seems to me that there are probably  quite a few potential starting points for a really useful and constructive dialogue. The right of men and women not to be exploited could be one. Where does that right come from? In fact, are rights conceded by the State or inherent in the individual? If the latter what about the right to life? Carefully handled such a conversation could lead some of those young people from the ubiquitous moral relativism they've been taught since school to an understanding of the notion of moral absolutes.
Would they all be converted? Who knows! St Paul was laughed at by some but others said, "We will hear you again on this". Anyone thinking of the priesthood today needs to think also how they would engage with young people to proclaim Christ to them.

World Youth Day

When we were in Madrid for World Youth Day we stayed at the parish of Our Lady of Cana. We were staying in the rooms underneath the main Church which meant we had access to our own chapel for Mass and prayer each day. Meanwhile in the main Church, from the Monday of the week of World Youth Day, there was perpetual Adoration to pray for the event. It was impressive to see so many people coming day and night to pray before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Each night at 10.00pm there was a Holy Hour preached by Don Jesus Higueras, the parish priest. On the Wednesday night the Quo Vadis group provided the music for this. Since there were 83 in our group it was relatively easy, after a bit of practice, to produce some music that was both reverent and substantial enough to aid the prayer of nearly four hundred people. Don Jesus' meditations are recorded and made available to those who can't get to Church so we were flattered the following morning when the person in charge asked us to re-record the first hymn as she hadn't caught it all. The photo above is of our 'choir practice'.

An Unexpected Discovery

In September this year I visited Glasgow for the first time. I was quite keen to go as I have a number of parishioners from the city or thereabouts and I had heard a lot about it. For a long time Glasgow was synonymous with social deprivation but a lot has happened recently to improve things. In fact I suspect the reputation was never really fair as there are parts of the City that would certainly rival London in terms of large houses and well-heeled population. The centre is also elegant with many fine buildings although sadly some of them are still run down. 
I was in Glasgow for a sort of in-service course for priests and one day took a ride out into the countryside where I found a place I hadn't expected to discover in Britain!

Visiting Ards Friary

A week ago I flew out to Belfast and then drove over to Donegal. The purpose of the trip was to visit Ards Friary, a retreat and Conference Centre which used to be the Capuchin seminary in Ireland. Set in two hundred acres of land and overlooking a dramatic bay the Friary is in a stunning location. It is also quite accessible from London, particularly if one flies to Derry rather than to Belfast. I am always on the lookout for good places for vocations retreats and other vocation activities so if you know of any do let me know. A prayerful Chapel or Oratory for Holy Mass and times of prayer is one of the most important factors. After that, beautiful surroundings, and reasonable accommodation are all a bonus. 
These days it is becoming harder to find things here in England because so many religious houses have closed down and been sold. The few that remain tend to get booked up a long time in advance.
The photograph above is of the local village chapel near Ards Friary. It was built to resemble the shape of the mountains behind it. Once you get inside it is surprisingly light and spacious.

Schools Vocation Project

Pupils at Catholic primary schools in the diocese of Southwark are being invited to find out about what it means to be called to be a priest or a religious sister.

In a special project, they will talk to priests and nuns, and also study the lives of Blessed John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Schools are inviting priests and sisters to come in and talk to the children and answer their questions.

There are prizes to be won – personal book prizes for the children and cash prizes for the schools, and all taking part will receive commemorative religious medals.

The  project, run by Southwark Vocations, is designed to help children understand what it means to be at the service of the Church as a priest or a Sister, to share in the experience of the first Apostles and all those who have served the Church in this way at different times and places, down to the present day.

The children will write essays and produce artwork, and the deadline for entries is December 15^th. For more information contact the Vocations Office.

World Youth Day

The QUO VADIS group gave its heart and enthusiasm to World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid – and shared in an experience of faith and prayer that was quite extraordinary.

No one who was there will ever forget the heat and dust of the Cuatro Vientos  airfield as some two million young people gathered there, nor the drama of the thunderstorm that erupted as evening fell, nor the beauty and peace of the great prayer vigil that began as the storm abated. To be kneeling there in silence with the Holy Father, with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament before us all, and to be part of that great gentle wave of prayer, was to experience the huge reality of the Catholic Church and all that it means.

The vigil, and the morning Mass that followed on the Sunday, were the climax to a week of prayer, talks, singing, international encounters, friendship, fun and pilgrimage.  At the core of the QUO VADIS group were seminarians training for the priesthood at Wonersh, Valladolid and Rome. They and all the others in the group shared in a great sense of unity during the unforgettable days in Madrid: morning prayer and Mass together in the church of Santa Maria de Cana where we were housed (and made very welcome) throughout the week, talks and concerts and presentations on many aspects of the Faith, a great celebratory gathering to greet the Holy Father on his arrival, opportunities for confession and Eucharistic adoration beneath the trees in a great park near the city centre. Bishop Mark Davies from Shrewsbury and Archbishop Peter Smith both celebrated Mass for us and spent time answering questions afterwards.

Part of the special quality of World Youth is the joy: a real sense of young people celebrating God’s love.  It spills over into exuberance so that the whole place becomes alive with it. Our QUO VADIS group made its own – often very noisy – contribution to the singing on trains and at street corners, to the shouts of “Benedicto!” and “Viva el Papa!”, and to the chatter as people from different countries exchanged greetings and jokes and news and general enthusiasm. We had brought with us a couple of big British flags and a Welsh flag, and these proved useful in helping to keep the group together on the various journeys around the city – and especially on the long walk out to the airfield for the final events.

The heat, throughout the week, was terrific – we’d all been warned about the need to carry water and protection from the sun. Our special WYD backpacks included hats and fans as well as a Gospel book, a copy of the new (superb!) YouCat youth Catechism, drinks, a teeshirt, tickets which obtained us meals at all the restaurants in the city that displayed a special WYD sign welcoming us.  We also had our own QUO VADIS teeshirts, and a special gadget that we all appreciated – a waterspray which we used liberally on ourselves and others throughout the sun-scorched days.

No one is unchanged after a World Youth Day. It challenges you, brings new friendships, gives a massive experience of the worldwide Church, brings you into contact with the successor of St Peter. It is a time of prayer, penance, and lively talk, of physical discomfort and sudden laughter, of solemn reflective moments and long late-night discussions.  The TV and news reports didn’t get it: they tried to focus on non-events such as discussion about the costs  (the city of Madrid of course did very well out of it –  restaurant meals , shops, train and bus fares, etc – so complaints about the funding petered out) or about people who disagreed with the Pope (not really news: protesters gathered and shouted but that was that). The reality was – and is – a great and moving affirmation of faith: the Catholic Church’s John Paul generation reaching its adulthood as the Benedict generation, and showing its love of Christ and desire to serve him. It was thrilling to be part of this.

Congratulation to our New Candidates

Last week I was at St John's seminary, Wonersh for the Candidacy Mass which was presided over by Archbishop Peter. Kurt Barragan and Ola Craig are both Southwark students who received candidacy at the hands of the Archbishop. This means they are now in the final stages of preparation before their ordination as deacons which, please God, will take place shortly before Christmas.

Getting a Feel for Invocation 2011

Lots of people have asked me how Invocation 2011 went last weekend. It's hard to capture the excitement and buzz we all experienced but you might get an insight by having a look at the Invocation Blog some of the participants kept up to date. It's advertised on the Bishops' Conference website but you can also get direct access to it here by clicking this link.
In time I will upload some photographs but at the moment there seems to be a problem with the upload facility on Blogspot :o(.

Do have a look at the Blog!

Apostolic Nuncio visits Invocation 2011

We had a great weekend at Oscott for the Invocation festival which culminated in a visit from His Excellency Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the new Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain. The Archbishop presided at the closing Mass of the festival accompanied by Archbishop Bernard Longley, Bishop David McGough and Bishop Peter Doyle as well as over twenty secular and religious priests from all over the country.
This is the text of the Nuncio's sermon:

Dear Friends

I must say that it is for me a very great joy to be here with you at the second Invocation Festival at St Mary’s College, Oscott. But much more important, I have no doubt that it makes God, our loving Father, very happy to see so many of you, spending time in prayer and reflection about your response to his love. In the Gospel for today, the Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity, we have heard the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: that God loved the world so much he sent his only Son that we may have eternal life. To respond to God’s call is to continue the work of the Son. Those who respond to a divine call are strengthened by the Holy Spirit to make present the Father’s powerful and transforming love.

Here, at St Mary’s College, we remember the visit, just last year, of Pope Benedict XVI, when he beatified Blessed John Henry Newman. Blessed John Henry wrote that, when he was about fifteen, he began to be influenced by a definite Creed and received into his intellect “impressions of dogma, which, through God’s mercy, have never been effaced or obscured” (1).

He had begun to realise that Christianity is not some vague sentiment or empty feeling. It is a meeting with Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. We encounter him in the Scriptures, the teachings of the Church, in the Liturgy and in our personal prayer. This is where we learn to recognise the face of Christ and to hear his voice.

My dear friends when we are young our whole life lies before us. There are so many possibilities and hopes. Our choices and actions will determine what sort of person we become. As we reflect on our lives we discover an inner yearning that we cannot satisfy by ourselves. It is a longing that requires communion with another person and ultimately – because this is how we have been made – with God. St Augustine expressed this truth with the famous words, “You have made us for yourself; O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” (2).

In time we discover that the longing within us cannot be fulfilled by what we accumulate, experience, or by the power we wield. If we want happiness we must resist the temptation to act in ways that will alienate us from God and from our neighbour. Without God something will always be lacking. This was the experience of St Augustine who in his youth looked for excitement in external pleasures. It was only when he found that he remained unsatisfied and started to look within that he was able to recognise the presence of God and so discover true happiness and deep joy (3).

Never forget too, that when God calls us by name and asks us to follow him, he offers us true freedom, which is not just a freedom from..important though that be. Rather we are being offered a positive freedom and loved and trusted enough to be his workers in the world. God asks us, in the face of all that seems wrong in our world, to be positive, to build up his Kingdom and to change the world for the better. There is no place for pessimism here, for his call to each one of us is, in fact, liberation.

Blessed John Paul II referred to your generation as the “heralds of the new millennium” and he constantly invited you to be apostles to your friends, showing them the path to true happiness. The Christian faith is marked with an irrepressible hope. A significant part of that hope is expressed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. So do not be afraid to tell your friends about this lovely Sacrament and how it has affected you.

Today, sadly, some people believe that they cannot be forgiven. They need to be reassured that, as we have discovered personally, the Sacrament of Penance brings pardon and deep peace. It is also the sacrament which helps us grow in the spiritual life, which is why the practice of examining our conscience daily and regular Confession is so important. Even in those persons who experience the real absence of God there remains a yearning for his Real Presence.

My dear young people, to discern God’s call we need to withdraw from external activity and to dedicate time to prayer. At the last World Youth Day Pope Benedict reminded us that “Jesus is always present in our hearts, quietly waiting for us to be still with him, to hear his voice, to abide in his love”(4). Be convinced that the Lord is waiting for you to open your hearts to him in prayer. He wants to meet you personally and to enter into a dialogue with you. This conviction will till you with an urgent desire to seek periods of silence in your daily life where you have the space to be drawn into union with God in prayer.

In this regard I should like to commend to you the practice of Eucharistic Adoration which you have experienced during this weekend of discernment. Adoration draws us away from external distractions into a growing communion with Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament.

Encourage your friends to join you in this practice. In Eucharistic Adoration, whatever our personal circumstances, we are drawn out of ourselves towards the Sacramental Presence of Christ who came so that we might have life.

Be prepared for the fact that your growing friendship with Christ in prayer will lead to discipleship. This discipleship will need to be expressed in concrete actions that show your love for God and your desire to serve him in others. You are called to change the world, to build a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the nature of man. Jesus has a specific vocation mind for each one of you. Let me remind you of the words the Holy Father addressed to young people in Hyde Park:

“Christ has need of families to remind the world of the dignity of human love and the beauty of family life. He needs men and women who devote their lives to the noble task of education, tending the young and forming them in the ways of the Gospel. He needs those who will consecrate their lives to the pursuit of perfect charity, following him in chastity, poverty and obedience, and serving him in the least of our brothers and sisters. He needs the powerful love of contemplative religious, who sustain the Church’s witness and activity through their constant prayer. And he needs priests, good and holy priests, men who are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep. Ask our Lord what he has in mind for you. Ask him for the generosity to say yes. Do not be afraid to give yourself totally to Jesus. He will give you the grace you need to fulfil your vocation”.

This College is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St Luke tells us that from Our Lord’s birth she treasured the events of his life in her heart (5). Learn from her. When you feel in your heart the call to respond to a particular vocation do not be afraid. Learn from Mary so that your lives will be filled with joy and “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit will be with you all” (6).
End
(I) Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Chapter 1
(2) St Augustine, Confessions, 1.1
(3) cf St Augustine, Confessions, X.xxvii
(4) Benedict XVI, Homily at Randwick Racecourse, Sydney, 20/7/08
(5) cf Luke 2:19, 2:51
(6) 2 Cor. 13:13

Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

On Saturday I  attended the ordinations of the first seven priests for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The were ordained by Archbishop Peter Smith in St George's Cathedral, Southwark, and the photograph above shows him kneeling to receive their first blessing.

I had previously attended, as Chairman of Conference of Diocesan Directors of Vocation, the ordination of the Mgr Keith Newton and his two companions, and I thought it was important to be there in the same capacity for the first of eleven or twelve ordination ceremonies across the country. By a happy coincidence it took place in my home Cathedral.

The priests of the Ordinariate are not priests of Southwark diocese although many of them may well be working here at least for the present. Although he has not been ordained a bishop, their Ordinary is Mgr Newton. In other words, he has the same juridical authority as a diocesan bishop although he lacks the sacramental powers associated with episcopal ordination. In time the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will raise up its own vocations to the priesthood and also to the religious life (it already has a community of religious sisters). I look forward to the appointment of a vocations director to join the CDDV.

Please keep Mgr Newton and the members of the Ordinariate in your prayers. It is still early days for them and I am sure there will be teething problems none of which will be insurmountable with God's grace.

Re-opening of St Patrick's Soho

I was very pleased to be able to attend part of the celebrations for the re-opening of St Patrick's, Soho Square, after its extensive refurbishment. If you didn't know St Patrick's before it will be very hard for you to appreciate the wonderful job that has been done to restore it. The old wooden floor has been replaced with marble. The ceiling has been totally restored so that what was a gloomy, run down, dirty building in a rat-infested part of London (last year, standing nearby, a rat ran over my foot!) is now a pristine, spacious, clean and welcoming place in which to celebrate the Church's liturgy.
What you see from inside the Church, however, is only part of the story. Underneath, the pokey crypt has been excavated to provide excellent facilities for St Patrick's varied outreach projects especially to the poor and to those with drug dependencies. SPES, the St Patrick's Evangelisation School, now has a fitting home from which to restore hope to the heart of London.
One of the things I noticed at the ceremonies was that the congregations were predominantly young adults. When you are committed to the New Evangelisation you will always attract young people!

New Website for National Office

The National Office for Vocation has been going from strength to strength as Abbot Christopher Jamison OSB builds on the work of his two predecessors, Fr Paul Embery and Fr Kevin Dring. Fr Christopher has now established a framework to guide the office in its work for the next couple of years. He has also secured funding so that a member of a religious congregation can be employed to enrich its work and establish strong links with religious communities.

The National Office for Vocation has also recently renewed its website. You can visit the site here. Do be sure to watch the welcome message from Fr Christopher.

Fr Stan Fortuna in Balham

On Saturday night we hosted the inimitable Fr Stan Fortuna here in the parish. Fr Stan is well-known as the 'rapping priest'. I've heard him on a number of occasions and I think in Fr Stan's case its wrong to separate the from from the content. The musical genre is rap but the content is pure John Paul II, whom Fr Stan describes as his hero.

Fr Stan was in the parish for a session of Catholic Underground which meets here every half term. The evening begins with a candlelit Eucharistic Holy Hour in the Church during which we sing vespers and priests are available to hear confessions. We then move to the school hall for an evening of contemporary musical entertainment.

This weekend Fr Stan was in competition with the cup-final between Manchester United and Barcelona but despite that a good crowd of nearly two hundred young people turned up for him.

Pier Giorgio Frassati Society

One of the great activities we host in our parish for young adults is the Pier Giorgio Frassati Society which currently has over a hundred people on its mailing list. So many, in fact, that the President has to limit the number who attend the monthly meal and talk because we can't fit everyone in the room!

The Frassati Society offers young adults a chance to come together each month in different ways. Some of its activities offer service to the poor such as helping the Missionaries of Charity. I've heard back from the sisters who value the help given by the members. Each month there is a meal with a talk on some aspect of Christian life. At the last meeting I addressed the group on the theme: "Blessed are the Persecuted". The important thing in these talks is to try to find ways of making them applicable to the daily life and lived experience of young adults. Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati was a great fan of outdoor activities and so from time to time the group holds a hike or other excursion. The photograph above is of some of the group members enjoying a pub lunch during a hike in the Surrey hills.