Homily on Our Lady of Sorrows

17 Saturday Sep 2016

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Our Lady of Sorrows by Emil Jacques, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Portland OR

This homily was given at a Votive Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows at Saint Mary’s, Alexandria VA.

It is fitting that in the month of September, dedicated as it is to Our Lady of Sorrows, and following the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we offer this Votive Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows, and so honour She who is at once the Mother of Christ and our mother also. That we do so in a church dedicated to Our Lady, and at an altar placed so precisely at the foot of a great and beautiful crucifix, is all the more poignant. Truly we have come to Calvary; to participate in the one, full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. As the Council of Trent taught, and as the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: ‘The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different’” (§ 1367).

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Homily for Trinity X

31 Sunday Jul 2016

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homily, martyrdom

On Tuesday morning many of us awoke to news of the brutal murder of Father Jacques Hamel in an attack on his church near Rouen, at some point during the celebration of Holy Mass. Just after reading those first reports, I was myself vesting for the morning Mass, very conscious of the similarities between his situation that morning and my own: Père Hamel no doubt began his day with no expectation of the horror that would befall him. Of course, our first response to this atrocity must be to ask the Lord to look with mercy on his servant and to grant him “the abode of refreshing, of light, and of peace,” for which we pray in the Canon of the Mass. But even as we do so, we can already benefit from the witness of Père Hamel’s life and, indeed, his death. As the Greek Orthodox theologian Christos Yannaras has said, “Martyrdom is the supreme canon of the Church’s life . . . The martyrs of the Church embody the truth of the Church, the truth of the true life which is communion and relationship with God.” Thus, even though his death has not been declared as martyrdom, nevertheless his example—like so many others—is worthy of our contemplation.

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Homily for Trinity VIII

17 Sunday Jul 2016

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action, contemplation, homily, liturgy

Our Lady of the Angels, Catonsville, MD

Last week we considered the false distinction which is often drawn between law and charity. In Christ, we recalled, that distinction is done away with, so that we can see the greatest charity is that lived in obedience to the law, and the greatest obedience to the law is that which has the love of Christ at its heart. In the well-known story of Mary and Martha, presented to us this morning in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, another false distinction is quashed: that between action and contemplation.

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Homily for Trinity VII

10 Sunday Jul 2016

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charity, homily, law, mercy, truth

Detail from Romsey Abbey, Hampshire, England

In our contemporary society there exists an unhealthy distinction between law and charity. In current political debates we see this in relation to the question of immigration. And even in the Church we have, not least in recent months, seen it in relation to the question of the reception of Holy Communion by those who have been divorced and taken up a second union. Yet at the heart of this morning’s gospel we discover anew the fundamental connection between law and charity, to the end that we can say: when a false distinction is drawn between them, each is reduced in its essential importance and particular value. Indeed, with the Psalmist we affirm: “Mercy and truth and met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85: 10).

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Divine Worship: Inculturation

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Liturgy, Ordinariate

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anglicanorum coetibus, BSDW, Cardinal Sarah, Divine Worship, inculturation, liturgy, ordinariate

Cardinal Robert Sarah at Sacra Liturgia (Photo: Sacra Liturgia)

Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has this evening delivered the opening address of the 2016 Sacra Liturgia conference in London. His Eminence made many important and significant points concerning the celebration of the sacred liturgy, and indeed the particular reforms and liturgical renewal that took place at, and following, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. He also made a number of practical suggestions – what he described as “possible ways of moving towards ‘the right way of celebrating the liturgy inwardly and outwardly,’ which was of course the desire expressed by Cardinal Ratzinger at the beginning of his great work, The Spirit of the Liturgy.”

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Homily for Trinity VI

03 Sunday Jul 2016

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consecrated life, cross, homily, religious

High Altar of the Convent Chapel, All Saints Sisters of the Poor, Catonsville, MD

In a certain way, the readings this morning reflect the beauty and sacrifice that is at the heart of the consecrated life. This state of life, “deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit.” It is a sign that the individual Christian has taken to heart those words of the psalmist which we have just sung: “In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust.” Very especially, the life of the monastery or the convent is a stable means of immersing oneself in this consecration, it is a place set aside for Christ. It is a constant recalling of the individual to the heart of the mystery of God, and a constant showing forth of that mystery to the Church and to the world. By living the gospel mandate to “carry no purse, no bag, no sandals,” religious jettison those things that encumber the rest of us, freeing them rather to possess only Christ and so also to be possessed by him alone.

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Homily for Ss Peter & Paul 2016

29 Wednesday Jun 2016

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bxvi, homily, ss peter & paul

Reliquary depicting Ss Peter & Paul, mid-13th century

The very Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is itself a reminder that these two great pillars of the Church’s life are closely related. In front of the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, the two saints together flank Maderno’s imposing façade. At the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls, the martyrdom of both saints is shown in the courtyard that opens before the entrance to the church. And in the sacred liturgy, that most resplendent “architecture” of our faith which gives shape and structure to our worship of God, these great men are historically always honoured side by side.

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Homily for Trinity IV

19 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily, Ordinariate

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homily, ordinariate, peter, reunion, unity

Saint Peter depicted in Gonzaga University Chapel, Spokane WA

What is now known as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was founded by a community founded in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States by Father Paul Wattson in the 1890s, and entering the full communion of the Catholic Church in 1909. To begin, this time set aside to pray for the reunion of Christendom was known as the Octave of Christian Unity, running from the 18th to 25th January each year. These dates are of course significant: 25th January is the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, whilst 18th January is known as the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter or, in some Anglican circles, as the feast of the Confession of Saint Peter. In fact, the gospel traditionally assigned for this feast—whichever name we choose to apply—is the account given by Saint Matthew of what we have just heard this morning from Saint Luke, which includes the Christ’s response: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church (Mt. 16: 18). In other words, the confession of Saint Peter—Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God—is intimately linked with the power bestowed on him by Christ in his Chair, that seat of his apostolic authority after which the personal ordinariate in North America takes its name.

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Homily for a Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart

17 Friday Jun 2016

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homily, priesthood, sacraments, sacred heart

Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Portland OR

In the rich tradition of the Church, the month of June is set aside in devotion to the Sacred Heart. In a particular way during these weeks we are encouraged to a new fervour and new love for Christ by increasing our fervour and love for his Most Sacred Heart, that font of eternal life and fire of everlasting charity. Depictions of the Sacred Heart remind us of this by the flame that accompanies the Lord’s heart. The love of Christ is so strong that his heart is aflame for us; consuming itself in a furnace of pure love in order that we might benefit from its heat and its light; in order that we might share in the sacrifice it makes by consuming itself, and so have that same love burn deep within us.

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Homily for Tuesday after Trinity Sunday

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily

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baptism, habits, homily, virtue

Satan Crushed Underfoot by Emil Jacques, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Portland, OR

As we emerge from Eastertide and begin to keep again the season of grace which follows the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the celebration of the feast of the Holy Trinity, we are launched into what might at first seem to be a less exciting time of the liturgical year. Certainly we will shortly keep the feasts of Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, and the Assumption of Our Lady, but, on the whole, we now revert to green vestments and to the cycle per annum, or “of the year.” In the personal ordinariates we retain the medieval custom of referring to this time as “after Trinity,” reminding ourselves of the source and focus of all worship. Yet, whatever name is used, the apparent ordinariness of these weeks must be characterised not by a spiritual lethargy or boredom, nor a return to the way things were—the old habits of sin and waywardness—but rather by the simple and vital task of our sanctification: the outworking of our baptismal promises, renewed at Easter and again at Pentecost.

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