Purgatory

In many Christian Churches today, even Catholic, there is often a kind of canonisation of the dead. Someone will stand up and give a eulogy on the life of the deceased but the opinion that perhaps they are not yet in heaven must not be voiced. This is sad not only for the liturgy but for the deceased themselves who may need our prayers. The trouble is that the very clear evidence and belief in Purgatory was overthrown by the Reformers. The books of Machabees were thrown out of Protestant scripture because they contained passages referring to the Jewish practice of praying for the Dead. Judas Machabees after a victory sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem so that sacrifices could be offered for th sins of the dead "It is therefore a holy and wholdsome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" But this passage in itself, though it shows that praying for the dead was a Judean-Christian practice, is not the only proof scripture holds. "He that speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this world NOR THE WORLD TO COME" Matthew 12:45-46 So sins can be forgiven in the world to come: that is very clear. ST Paul speaking of the last day says "The fire shall try every mans`s work, of what sort it is. If any man`s work abide (be Holy) he shall receive a reward, if any man`s work burn (be faulty) he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire" 1Corinthians 3:13-15. Having quoted scripture we can turn to the early Fathers and hear them. Let us turn to the 4th Century and St Cyril of Jerusalem. "We comment the Holy Fathers, and Bishops, and all who have fallen asleep from amongst us believing that the supplications which we present will be of great assistance to their souls while the Holy and tremendous Sacrifice is offered up" So Masses for the dead were a very early practice. Space is at a premium on a blog so I cannot quote Eusebiu, Turtullian, and many others. But is it not wonderful that when we die though we may deserve hell there is still a place for atonement. Surely this is a doctrine of justice we would gladly believe.

The Rosary

One of the greatest moments in my life was when I was asked to give a tlak on the Rosary in a state primary school. A greater moment would have been if I had been asked to give the talk in a Catholic Primary School but one does not expect miracles. Anyway by the time I was finished those children knew more about the catholic faith than the children in the local catholic school. Protestants usually see Catholics holding beads and babbling Hail Mary`s `ad nauseam` and to what end? You do not need all that `show off` stuff and prayers from the heart are so much richer. When the modernists took over the Catholic Church in England they made a ferocious attack on the Rosary and their are few catholic schools in which it is now said. I attended several meetings in my local parish where people boasted they did not say fixed prayers any more but prayed from the heart. "But why not do both?" I suggested. I certainly say Hail Mary`s "Peole who say the Rosary always do both because people who say the Rosary are the ones who kneel and adore the Blessed Sacrament, and this quite definitely dmands `prayer from the heart`. I then discussed what the Rosary was. It is ameditaion of the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Once when I was responisble for the Rosary in the parish at a meeting os all the organisations I took the bible to the platform and held it up with the Rosary. "These two go together" I told the audience. "But if you are thinking of Jesus why are you praying to Mary? Because we want Mary to help us in our thinking of Jesus. The Rosary has a crucifix on which we announce our faith in Jesus Christ. We then have one bead on which we say the our Father, then a group of three beads on which we say Hail Marys and a third bead for the Glory be. We usually use these beads to pray for the Holy Father. Then we are into the circular part, five sets of ten beads with a singular bead splitting them, the Our Father and Ten Hail Marys. Each set forms one of the five sets of mysteries. The Joyful, the Sorrowful, the Glorious, and the Mysteries of Light. Take for example the Joyful mysteries. On the first set we would think of the Annunciation. What did it look like when Mary was confronted by an Angel? Do we accept what God gives us? What are these gifts? What did the Incarnation mean to the world? These thoughts and many others go through our heads as we say the Hail Marys. After years we get so much more out of these contemplations. But why not just leave the Hail Marys and just contemplate. I can only answer this from my experience. My mind wanders an awful lot. Sometimes I leave the contemlation and think more of what so and so did yesterday? The football match is tonight? But the effort of saying the Hail Mary usually brings me back to the meditaion. The Hail Marys also regulate the time needed to comtemplate. Two to three minutes is the usual time then we move on to the next mystery and contemplate something else. Believe me these daily comtemplations on the life of Jesus really help us to get to know him and Mother Mary is a great help to us. She says the Rosary with us. At Lourdes she and Bernadette said the Rosary together. Mary loves the Rosary. So do not be a minimal catholic. Reach for its greatest treasure among which is the Rosary.

I Confess

When I was in my teens I lived for a week with a Protestant family in the Shankhill Road, Belfast. They were a wonderful family as are all Belfast families until someone mentions Catholics and an inherited prejudice takes over. This also applies to Catholics in relations to Protestants as so I am not being sectarian. Any way the girl jeered me that we catholics had it so easy. You sin then go to Confession, have it forgiven, and sin again. I can only look at my own life and admit to an outsider at times that must have been just how it looked. However God is not fooled so easily. When we go to confession we must have a real purpose of amendment - we must determine that we will never sin again. I know we do, because we are not saints but if we use confession it does help us to overcome our sins. It all depends on our own dispositions. Take the early Church. Having been baptised and living in a wonderful Christian community with the Apostles still alive and preaching how could anyone sin. Indeed it was thought in the very early days that they would not and everyone was a saint. Reality however took over. At first the penitents for forgiveness had to stand up and confess their sins to the priest and the congregation. Now there was a test. That we have to confess only to a priest now is due to - who else but the Irish. Irish Monks around the fourth century started giving absolution to their students and this became popular. You bet it did. So the practice spread to the ordinary lay people. In this modernist era there is a baffling notion going around that people who go to Church do not sin so there is no real need for confession. Let me be the first to contradict this. I sin and I sin in thought word and deed but I will not make a public confession about it. I need confession not just for my sins but for the grace that confession brings. Grace that fills my soul and helps me lead a better life. I would never present myself at the altar to receive the God who loves me if I had committed a seriou sin. My love of God I hope would never have diminished. So that is why I go to confession. If I quarrel with my wife Confession helps me say I am sorry not just to the priest but to my wife. It is one of the most beautiful sacraments in the Catholic Church.

But Catholics with all these gifts are not better than anyone else.

This unfortunately is the overall picture of Catholics in Britain. Maybe they have larger congregations and thus give more to the poor, but their every day lives are no different. How I wish I could contradict this. How I wish I could point to thousands of Catholic families living in the harmony of love with husbands loving wives and wives loving husbands to such a degree that the hatred of Divorce Jesus mentioned in Matthew 19 was a reality in their lives. AFter he talked about Divorce Jesus turned to the subject of children and this is no coincidence. Children are the greatest victims of Divorce. But from the seventies `clever people` took control of the Church in Britain and demanded that divorced people have a right to Holy Communion and divorce be recognised by the Church so that second marriages can be `regularised`. I once attended a Catechesis Course where a leading catechist almost stamped her feet as she declared the Church must change its teaching on Divorce, Abortion, and Contraception. Now let me say at once I am not prone to individual judgements. When the clever catholics took over after Humanae Vitae to show how clever they were to disagree with the Church anyone who disagreed with them was `judgemental` So they introduced into the Catholic Church everything that Pope Paul VI had warned about in his encyclical. But they were blinded by their own pride. Contraception began the downfall of all moral principles. Sex outside marriage became the accepted norm as love and sex began to mean the same thing. This led to the destabilising of marriage. Worse, homosexuals began to question why free love was OK for heterosexuals but not for them. The same bishops agreed and called it `compassion`. They cared not for the self destruction button they had handed out. Rather than face up to the problems that every family is now facing, a daughter who is a single mother, a daughter who has had an abortion. Young people sexually active from one partner to another and experiencing hurt and rejection, sexual abuse and often such poor self-images that they turn to drugs and even suicide, the Bishops of England have completely ignored the young people. This led an MP Mr Sheerman, of the Family, School, and Children`s committee to state that `Faith schools do better when nobody takes Faith too seriously. This was the assurance he had from the Catholic Hierarchy, although one troublesome Bishop, O`Donghue of Lancaster was summoned to appear before th committee because he was threating to teach the children Catholic morality and seperate sex and love again . Catholics should be served better than this and the Church should have responsible Bishops. Any convert to the Church whow wants to follow the teachings of Jesus must be aware of the true nature of the Catholic Church in Britain and the threat in schools and parishes to their children and join with those who want to return to the vision of Jesus, a Church that is living his message from the Father and building a society based on true family values - husband wife and children, the domestic Church, finding a way to live the gospel together and through their love finding holiness. The infrastructure for peace in the world is not political activity and shouting in the streets but children being raised in warm and loving families.

The Protestant Inquisition in England

One evening in my parish in the 1980`s when the `Spirit of Vatican II` was at its height and catholics prior to Vatican II were the wickedest sect in christendom I had to endure a talk by an invited `convert` on the past misdeeds of the Catholic Church. The Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the triumphalistic thinking of Catholics which had caused such things. But in the end he affirmed that the Church has now been purified - by Vatican II. The speaker was quite unaware that he had brought the Protestant version of these events along to the meeting and there just might be another interpretation of History. Certainly in England the way that there is now little talk of the English Martyrs suggests it would seem the Protestant version has trimphed. Here however is the Catholic version. On May 4th 1535 three Carthusian monks and one Bridgenttine monke, all respected in the community for their piety were hanged till partially conscious. Their bellies were then cut open and their intestines ripped out to be tossed on a fire. Their hearts were then ripped out by hand and their heads then cut off. The bodies were then quartered and sent to different parts of England. These were good men, the first of the many, but their crime was that they refused to recognise Henry VIII as head of the English Church. He needed to be head so that he could satisfy his craving for Anne Boleyn. This was to be the fate of many priests and lay people in England who remained faithful to the Supremacy of Peter. Strangely enough under Henry there was no attack on Catholic teaching, doctrine, or practice. Henry had written a book defending these things for which the Pope gave him the title `Defender of the Faith`. But although Henry did not want to Protestantise the Church his associates did. And his nobles wanted the land that the Church owned. Much of the land had been in the past barren but cultivated by Benedictines especially and other orders who were the experts in farming. Swamps were drained by these orders and turned into arable land to grow crops and rear animals. But the greedy Lords wanted them and the Dissolution of the Monasteries began which would leave the poor even more impoverished and lead to the Peasants Revolt since there were no longer alms houses to feed them, a role the monasteries had also filled. The Englilsh Reformation was far from the quiet affair those who triumphed, the Protestants would want us to believe. Elizabeth now totally committed to the Protestant Faith continued to put to death priests who were caught saying Mass and those who sheltered them. People had to attend the Church of England or pay a fine. Toleration was not her favourite subject. Mary, Queen of Scots, was put to death by Elizabeth not because of so called plots but because she was a Catholic and next in line to the English throne. Mary then died truly a martyr for her faith. Another lady put to death for harbouring priest, a common crime, was Margaret Clitherow. Her neighbours refused to testify against her but she was crushed to death at YOrk. A door put on top of ther body and a great weight put on top to crush her bones. Wherever you go in England you are always close to a Catholic martyr. None of these stories appear in Protestant history. But in this ecumencal age why am I raking all this up. Because I want everyone of English blood to know that this was once a Catholic country and the corruption which did bring the Church to its knees in much of Europe was not present in England. We have ancestors who were devout and good people served by good priests. There were many beautiful Abbeys and shrines which the Reformers in their hate destroyed. But your ancestors were English Catholics of whom you should be proud. There was never a need for a Reformation in England. Only the ambition of Henry VIII with a claim of Supremacy which was against all reason made her Protestant. ST Thomas More was the perfect example of a saintly man, as was St John Fisher. Let us pray that England will return to the Faith of her Fathers.

The Bible

In my younger days I was easily roused to anger. As I approachec old age I realised this was unprofitable and remained calm. That is until a Catholic Diocesan Bureaucrat stood up at a meeting and said that before Vatican II Catholics were forbidden to read the Bible. Many Protestants claim this and I understand they have better things to do with their time than examine the truth of the Catholic Church. But this lady made me see red. No Church loves Scripture and is more faithful to Scripture than the Catholic Church. It was in 399 AD at the Council of Carthage that the Catholic Bishops seperated all the early writings of the Church and put forward the present letters contained in the New Testament as `The Word of God`. Is it not strange that this declaration of a Catholic Council ratified by a Pope is so easily accepted by Protestants. Remember that this was in the 4th Century and until that time christians did not have a Bible to inspire them. They relied on the teaching authority of the Church. Indeed if you examine the New Testament you will see it is composed of letters that were sent to different Churches in different countries and there was no universal document drawn up as the Word of God, because this is not what Christ commanded. When the Reformers came along in the 15th century with the idea that Scripture alone would lead us to the truth what actually happened was that they could not agree a universal truth from Scritpure which they tried to do at the Council of Geneva and eventually we had denominations breaking off from denominations as everyone became their own Pope until we have about 26,000 Christian sects today. But did the Catholic Church keep the Bible from the people as is often alleged? In the 4th Century Pope Damasus asked one of the greatest scholars in his time St Jerome to translate the `new` Bible into Latin to be used throughout the Church. This was called the Latin `Vulgate` or `popular` Bible. But also in the 6th and 7th century the Bible was translated into the many emerging European Languages. The Venerable Bede, for example, translated it into the Saxon language spoken in England at the time, the 8th century. It is not often appreciated just how dedicated these monks were in copying Scripture so that the Word of God remained fresh and alive and could be taught in th Churches today. Of course, few people owned a Bible for there were no printing presses around to produce them. There is also an assumption around that it was Martin Luther, when printing was invented, who set about giving scripture to the people. Again this is erroneous. Actually 56 editions were printed before Luther put pen to paper, in Germany, France,Italy, Spain and other countries. The Catholics were just as quickly off the mark as Protestants. One such version still read today in the Catholic Church in England is the Douay-Rheims Bible. Going back to my Diocesan Bureaucrat I am appalled that even in the Catholic Church in England the myth that catholics were forbiden to read the Bible is being dishonestly promulgated. In the late 1940`s I went into a Catholic bookshop to buy a Bible and was surprised by the number of Bibles on display. I bought the Ronald Knox version and later went back for the Douay-Rheims one. I made sure I would read the Bible for fifteen minutes every day for Pope Leo XIII in the 19th century granted a plenary indulgence of 300 days to those who did so. I love the Bible but there are many difficult passages in it which are beyond my lay understanding. I am so grateful to have the guidance of the Catholic Church.

Angels and Saints, fine, but I go straight to God

Of course, you do not need angels and saints. Yes, you can go straight to God. I also at times go straight to God. But have you ever walked in a garden and saw how beautiful were the flowers, how majestic were the trees, how lovely were the many songs of nature. Have you never looked upon such things and thanked God for them. Were they not an inspiration for prayer. There are many beautiful things in the world and there is nothing more beautiful than someone who has given themselves entirely to God in the service of others. St Maximillian Kolbe gave his life for the father of a family in Dachau. He simply stepped forward and took the man`s place. "Who are you?" he was asked. "I am a Catholic priest". Then there is the beautiful story of St Maria Goretti who died forgiving the older boy who had tried to rape her. And her forgiveness was repeated when the boy became a man and having served his time in prison met the mother. "Maria forgave you, God forgave you, so I also forgive you" the mother said and took the man, Francesco, almost as her son. Mother Teresa looking after the dying in the streets of Calcutta. Poor, diseased and unwanted except by Mother and those who had given their lives to God. Heaven is full of such beautiful people and they should be an inspiration to everyone who claims to love God. This is what the Catholic Church calls `The Communion of Saints`. They who are now glorified in heaven pray for their brothers and sisters on earth (Is there any reason why they should stop praying) and we on earth ask them for their prayers. We are after all still the One Body of Christ. If we love the beautiful things of earth let us not neglect the beautiful things of heaven.

Adoring Images and Icons.

There is a difference between Protestant and Catholic interpretations of the Bible on the Ten Commandments. Catholics will take the First commandment "Thou shalt not have strange God before Me.......then run it into "Thou shalt not take to thyself craven images nor the likeness of anything in heaven nor earth, thou shalt not adore them nor serve them. Protestant separate th two so that the making of images and likenesses become two separate commandments. Well I kneel every week before an image of our Lady. Indeed there are processions in which images of the Virgin Mary are carried. Even images of Saints can be carried in this way. But then at home I have a picture of my mother and father and sister, now all deceased, an image and likeness of each of them and I often stand in front of it and think about them. If an image of the Virgin Mary and the saints is wrong then I must also be wrong in this. It is a likeness of three people on earth, and if the Protestant second commandment is correct I am committing a sin. And I have still to meet a Protestant who does not also have pictures at home. But the Protestant will object I do not adore them nor serve them. Nor do I. But just as a picture can bring thoughts and memories to us, so can an image of the Virgin Mary recall to us the stories of the Bible. The image of a Saint help us to remember his or her life. It is quite simple and there is no real valid objection here. But they rouse the emotions it is also objected. But I am an emotional being. How can I love someone in an unemotional way. If you can answer that then I concede.

The Saints in Heaven

I remember at an Ecumenical Meeting a Protestant lady speaking about her husband. She missed him so much and wished she could tell him. But of course in heaven everyone is happy so they would not be allowed to know what is happening on earth. This complete cut off from heaven was knew to me. The idea that he would be unhappy if he saw her unhappy is understandable from a human point of view but in heaven as I told her they have the complete story. When your child falls and cuts his knee and cries you do not cry with him for you know it will soon be better. She is but a child to her husband. Yet it is a mystery to human intelligence. Yet I would not be happy in heaven from a human point of view if I did not also know what was happening on earth. "There is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who does penance" Jesus said "than over ninety nine others who need not penance." So the angels and saints do know what is happening. And if they know what is happening surely they can also pray for us and ask favours for us in Heaven just as they did on earth. It is quite simple really. Most doctrines of the Catholic Church are quite simple if we open our minds a little. The saints are our great heroes and heroines. If I may venture into the mucky field of `feminist history` I would point out that lay people make no distinction between male and females saints. Lay people are seen as equal in holiness. The greatest saints of the Church are women and this has been so from the very beginning. St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Lucy were early martyrs and for nearly two thousand years their intercession has been sought. Many women did extraordinary service to the Church during their lives. St Catherine of Sienna bullied a Pope to take up residence in Rome again. She like St Teresa of Avila, St Therese of Lisieux, Mother Teresa, and hundreds of others did not spend their days bewailing they could not have the `power` of a preist but got on with loving service. Mother Teresa of Calcutta will soon be a saint and we can judge her from what we have known and experienced. St Maximillian Kolbe stepped forward in a concentration camp to take the place of a married man facing a firing squad. The story of little St Maria Goretti and her forgiveness on her death bed for the boy who raped her. St Damien among the lepers, The priests in Canada martyred by the Hurons. These are all our heroes and heroines. They are real people who faced real difficulties but overcame them to give themselves to God. I cannot understand the nonsense in Catholic Schools where the saints are seldom mentioned and the claim they were beyond the notions of children. Complete baloney. There is a saint somewhere in heaven praying for each one of us. Find a saint who will inspire you to give your life to God and His Church.

The Priesthood

We read in Luke 10 how Jesus sent 72 disciples ahead of Him into the towns and villages He would visit. They would preach the Word and heal the sick. But why 72? This was not random number but was a reminder of what happened when Moses was on the Mountain in the Old Testament. Seventy on the mountain began to prophecy in the name of God and two in the camp did likewise. These became the priests of the Jewish people, offering the sacrifices of bullocks and goats. But this new 72 would be called to make the spotless sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice prefigured by Melchisidech when he offered bread and wine to the Lord. "Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisidech the priests are told at ordination. They will offer bread and wine but this will be changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, the perfect offering to the Father. Wherever the Catholic Church goes she sets up her altars of Sacrifice recallling to mankind the death of Jesus on the Cross for our sins. It is to the saying of this Mass that priests dedicate their lives. They do not marry but in the imitation of Christ they give their whole lives to the work of our Father in Heaven. In this world today where taking whatefer you can get is the rule, the idea that anyone can give up sex in anathema. It is not only the celibacy of priests that is called into question but the idea that Catholic young people can live chastily before marriage. Yes it is true that in the early Church married men became priests but they had to promise in doing so to give up sexual relationships with their spouses. As the Church expanded this was a necessary way of supplying priests for the people. But even then it was a struggle as many forgot their promise. It was often put forward that they should be allowed to enjoy the fullness of marriage and the priesthood. The Council of Elvira in the 5th Century ruled "We cannot change a practice which has been handed down to us from the Apostles" When the Orthodox Church broke away in the 7th Century they gave in to the demands and allowed priests to be fully married, but not bishops. A great deal of froth was spilt when it was found that a few Catholic Priests had been abusing children. Of course, this is disgusting and disgraceful and something of which all Catholics should be ashamed but the way the media pounced on the Catholic Church was appalling. There is more child abuse in schools and other institutions and the number of priests in prison for abuse number very few against the totality. But bigotry will out as it must. 99.9% of priests have never molested a child in their lives though the media would have us believe differently. On the altar the priest is there `in the person of Christ`. Through his words and the power of the Spirit bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ substantially present on the altar. There is no longer bread, there is no longer wine. Recently the body of St Padre Pio was exhumed. Although there had been corruption through death his hands were totally preserved. As on bishop said "It was as though they had just been manicured" No other hands held the Living Christ so humbly and offered Mass so worthily. The Mass is the most beautiful presence of God among us. Pray for the Catholic Faith. Pray for the Catholic Church.