Emmaus: the Blessed Sacrament chapel of St Matthew’s Cathedral, DC.
This morning I had the chance to catch-up with a friend who has been working with some women religious in the last month or so. In a conversation with one sister, there was a concern raised that those entering the religious life these days often want to know – above all else – what they have to do to reach final vows or solemn profession. There is a sense that this goal – the culmination, as it were, of postulancy and the noviciate – must be achieved, and that a plan to reach that goal needs to be laid out clearly from day one.
Nobody can blame an enthusiastic discerner, either of the Religious Life or the Priesthood (or Marriage, for that matter), for wanting to know the path that leads to solemn profession, final vows, holy orders, or matrimony. It is entirely natural and good to want and desire to fulfil the vocation that is being discerned, and to want to see how God and the Church expect one to be prepared for that call. What is wrong, though, is when this attitude becomes influenced, as my friend wisely pointed out, by a culture of ‘project management’, as if the process of discernment and formation is less a journey through life to be travelled, and more a process to be undergone.
Rather than taking Chapters 5 to 8, as individual posts, I want to cluster these together and speak to Weddell’s overarching idea of the Thresholds of Conversion. Whatever I say here will need to be expanded on by your own reading of these chapters (which naturally contain a huge amount of further detail), but I think the presentation of a single concept is a useful starting point to understanding the point the author is making.
First we must recognise that a great deal of contemporary evangelisation is based on models of catechesis and formation. That is to say that there is an assumption that once a basic doctrine of the faith has been adequately explained or illustrated, the subject (person) will come to accept that point as true. This is a dangerous supposition. Whilst an intelligent and articulated adult may well understand a theological truth after proper catechesis, there is a significant difference between understanding the faith (alone) and making that knowledge of the faith the principle factor in making all the decisions in one’s life. Baptism – our incorporation into the mystical Body of Christ – is a fundamentally and deeply personal encounter with the person of Jesus Christ; not simply a theoretical or ethereal bonding, but a physical and tangible union with the life of the Blessed Trinity.
This post follows on from Part 1, which can be found here.
Pilgrims with Quo Vadis? visit Avila during World Youth Day in 2011
3. Sense of the Universal Church For many of the pilgrims, World Youth Day is their first experience of a major Catholic event. Only at large celebrations in Rome, really, is such a beautiful example of the universal Church otherwise offered. A quick glance at the national flags in the crowds shows one part of this, but it is also the range of religious habits, of the New Ecclesial Movements and communities, that reveals something of the healthy plurality that exists in the Church, and which becomes a strengthening factor in the experience of World Youth Day. That plurality, too, is of course maintained and disciplined by the guidance of the Holy Father. His presence at World Youth Day is not simply as a crowd-pleaser, but as an essential sign of the universal nature of the Church, which gathers with Peter to say to the Lord, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you”. World Youth Day pilgrims take this idea away with them – they learn something about the universal nature of the Church, and they glimpse the real and paternal care exercised by the Pope as the Vicar of Christ. They learn something by experience that in the past was reserved to seminarians sent to Rome for their studies and, in doing so, they gain a profound understanding of their incorporation into the mystical body of Christ. Whether they come from thriving parishes, or are relatively isolated as young, faithful Catholics, such an encounter creates a personal sense of discipleship, and an intentional sense of mission, making them more confident to speak of their own experience of Christ’s love to their friends and peers.
A few years ago I came across a great series of books entitled, At the Prie Dieu. These are short spiritual books for people living different vocations in the life of the Church, placing each particular vocation into a spiritual context. The first in the series, The Seminarian at the Prie Dieu, spoke about the life of the seminarian, but also tried to draw parallels between the life of Christ and the process of formation by which the man is moulded into a vessel fit to receive the awesome gift of the priesthood. It spoke, rather beautifully, of the seminary as Nazareth – the place where the Lord grew up and learned at the feet of his earthly father, Saint Joseph. For those exploring their vocation, even in the sense of recommitting oneself to the common vocation of holiness demanded by baptism, there is a need to find ‘Nazareth’; to find the place where the Lord is calling us each to, in order for us to be prepared for the mission entrusted to us by him.
For many that place is found, to a greater or lesser extent, in what we have been observing for the past week or so in Rio. For those who have been been born, baptised, catechised, and formed, in the church of the John Paul II and Benedict XVI – and now Pope Francis – Nazareth is found in a particular way in the experience, influence, and enthusiasm of World Youth Day. These phenomenal, global events, are hubs for personal, interior conversion, and for external mission; places where would-be practitioners of the New Evangelisation are confirmed in the faith of the apostles, and sent out to the whole world to proclaim – with confidence, ardour, and articulation – the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yesterday I was able to attend a meeting of priests at Holy Trinity, Brompton. Really. This week the HTB Leadership Conference was held at the Royal Albert Hall, and a number of Catholics who have had some experience of using the Alpha Course were in attendance. Chief amongst these was (as widely publicised) Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who gave a lengthy interview to Nicky Gumbel. I watched some of this via the excellent video link from the RAH on Tuesday, and I was pleased to hear it being so widely acclaimed by many who were present in the hall and tweeting.
Last year, at the prompting of a few friends, I attended (somewhat reluctantly) a full day of the conference, and I must admit that many of my prejudices and concerns were compounded. Whilst I was encouraged to hear Rick Warren speak about the need all Christians have of the Church – which he warmly described as ‘the bride of Christ’ – I got an overwhelming sense that these were people with a very young faith. One friend said it is was like hearing new Christians talk – very enthusiastic, but without much depth. Warren’s exciting ecclesial rhetoric was not met with an ecclesiology that Catholics would really recognise.
Yesterday was a little different. Talking to other priests I was impressed to hear that Alpha had been used with some success in a number of parishes. Most spoke about the course in terms of pre-evangelisation (which would tie in with the comment above), and as a means of simply welcoming people through the doors of a church building, in order to introduce them to Christ for the first time. Nobody can doubt the numerical success of Alpha, and if something of that can be given a place in a Catholic context, then I am open to it. Those we heard from spoke from within a strong (do I even need to say, orthodox?) Catholic context, and with a keen sense of how methods such as Alpha can be complementary to – and even become a way of expressing – a valid part of kerygmatic catechesis, leading later to in-depth and didactic sacramental preparation.
That, though, is the point I want to make. If Catholics are going to look to Protestant Evangelicals for help in methods of, and ideas for, evangelisation, then we have to look at how these methods can be moulded for a Catholic context, and not alter the Catholic pedagogical and catechetical method to fit the material, however tempting or successful the material might seem.
We believe that at the essence of the Christian life is communion with the Church; that Catholic faith and practice, that communion with the successor of St Peter, is not the cherry on the cake, but a fundamental part of life in Christ. As such, we believe that the fullness of life in Jesus Christ is fully and entirely present in the Catholic Church, and thus all that we need to fulfil the apostolic mission of evangelisation is given us already. We need to view how methods such as this can prompt us, not to create something new, but to recover the gifts of our tradition which have fallen into disuse.
How we do this, and to what extent the material we begin with needs to be altered or reformed, is a matter for further and wider discussion. There is nothing wrong with adopting things wholesale that are good, even if they have developed outside the fullness of communion with the Church. The experience of the Ordinariates tells us that ‘a spiritual richness exists in the different Christian denominations which is an expression of the one faith and a gift to share and to seek together in the Tradition of the Church’ (BXVI to CDF Plenary, January 2012).
The new evangelisation calls us to seek a new ardour and new methods in the proclamation of the unchanging truths of the gospel. This will obviously lead us to examine the ardour and methods of others, but it should also mean a radical rediscovery of the riches and beauty of the undiluted Catholic faith, and the traditions we have of proclaiming it.
The convert in me means I wants to state over and over again that most Catholics are seemingly unaware of these great gifts that our faith has to offer, not least to this wider Christian conversation about evangelisation. If we can recover these things, then it will be possible to help others to see how they can deepen their life with Christ through communion with the Church; it will draw others to see how their good and logical conclusions are, in fact, things that the Catholic Church has been doing consistently since the earth was still warm with the blood of Christ.
We should seek out new methods, then, and draw on others’ energy for a new ardour, but we should also rediscover the treasures already in our store, not simply as a means of our evangelisation of the world, but of our evangelisation of the Church, of ourselves, and of all those who call themselves Christian but (as yet) have not found the joy of the Church.
For more information about Alpha in a Catholic context, click here.
Here are some details of a couple of books that I’ve recently received. I hope to be able to write a little more about each as I get through them in the coming weeks.
Nicola Bux, Benedict XVI’s Reform: The Liturgy between Innovation and Tradition (Ignatius 2012)
When Benedict XVI reestablished the celebration of the older Latin Mass, voices of protest rose up from many sides. The widespread fear was-and is-that the Pope had revealed himself as the reactionary defender of tradition that many have accused him of being since he was the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office.
Defenders of Benedict XVI have responded to these objections by explaining that the use of the Tridentine Rite is not a “step backward” to pre-Vatican II times, but rather a step forward. Now the Church can see what the older rite offered in terms of beauty, reverence, and meaning and perhaps desire more of those elements in the ordinary form of the Mass.
A professor of theology and liturgy, the author of this book explains the motives behind the Pope’s decision to allow two forms of the Mass. He does this by turning to the Pope’s own theological and liturgical writings, but he also draws from his experiences on various Church commissions and in offices of the Roman Curia.
The author also brings to his subject an astute understanding of current social and spiritual trends both inside and outside the Church. Sensitive to modern man’s hunger for the sacred, he desires with Pope Benedict XVI that the Mass be first and foremost a place of encounter with the living God.
U. M. Lang, The Voice of the Church at Prayer: Reflections on Liturgy and Language(Ignatius 2012)
Pope Benedict XVI has made the liturgy a central theme of his pontificate, and he has paid special attention to the vitally important role of language in prayer. This historical and theological study of the changing role of Latin in the Roman Catholic Church sheds light on some of the Holy Father’s concerns and some of his recent decisions about the liturgy.
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council allowed for extended use of the vernacular at Mass, but they maintained that Latin deserved pride of place in the Roman Rite. The outcome, however, was that modern translations of the prayers of the Mass replaced the Latin prayers.
What was the reason for the Council’s decision and why is there now a desire for greater use of Latin in Catholic worship? Why have some post-conciliar English translations of the prayers of the Mass been replaced?
Fr Lang answers these questions by first analyzing the nature of sacred language. He then traces the beginnings of Christian prayer to the Scriptures and the Greek spoken at the time of the apostles. Next he recounts the slow and gradual development of Latin into the sacred language of the Western Church and its continuing use throughout the Middle Ages. Finally, he addresses the rise of modern languages and the ongoing question of whether the participation of the laity at Mass is either helped or hindered by the use of Latin.
Last evening I went over to St Patrick’s, Soho Square, where just under two weeks I was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood. It was good to be back – catching up with members of SPES and Fr Alexander. In fact, as an added bonus, I got there slightly early and caught the end of their daily Vespers and Benediction. Perhaps it’s an Anglican thing, but I really find praying the Liturgy of the Hours with other people a beautiful expression of the nature of the Church – militant, expectant, triumphant.
After Benediction, we went down into the newly-refurbished crypt of the church for a quick meeting before around 100 young people turned up for the third session of Fr Robert Barron’s Catholicism, with the added bonus of Fr Barron coming to speak!
I’ve stopped being shocked by the age and passion of the people at events like this, but I will never stop being thrilled. As a lapsed friend said after my ordination – “I never realised the Catholic Church was so young”. It really is so encouraging.
Fr Barron was only there for half an hour – a long day of travelling from Birmingham, via the Bird and Baby in Oxford, to London and a pretty demanding schedule quite understandably leaving him tired. But that didn’t stop us having a good Q&A session in which Fr Barron’s simple, effective, apologetic method – which is ably employed in the series – was on show. At the end, Fr Sherbrooke kindly left the last question to me – with, I hasten to add, about 3.4 seconds to formulate it!
Anyone who has seen the Word on Fire videos will have been surprised by the number of English, and in fact Anglican, theologians which Fr Barron quotes. He seems to have C.S. Lewis, Tolkein, Chesterton, and Newman, all at his fingertips – deploying them to great effect, using the stories and analogies so rife in their writings to explore and explain the fundamental truths of the Christian gospel.
So I asked – How can the Ordinariate help bring these great figures into a wider readership in the Catholic Church? The answer? Find out in the next post.
From January 2012 until last month we ran Fr Robert Barron‘s Catholicism as a series-based course of process evangelisation and catechesis at the Centre for Catholic Formation in Tooting Bec. Headed up by our parish Catechetical Co-ordinator, Hannah Vaughan-Spruce, almost 100 people attended the course, which was hosted on Thursday evenings.
At the end of the course we were thrilled that a number of people asked to be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church, to be baptised, and/or to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Those people will now undergo some further formation in preparation for that wonderful act of Christian Initiation, or sign of their call to continuing conversion.
Next week Fr Robert Barron will be visiting London. He’s already in the UK, having spoken in Durham this week and he will be speaking at the LACE Conference Centre in Liverpool on Tuesday evening (1 May). On Thursday he will be giving a lecture at Heythrop College, University of London, and on Friday there will be a screening of Catholicismfollowed by a reception and dinner at St Patrick’s, Soho Square, where my ordination was hosted last Saturday.
I will certainly be heading to Soho Square, and I hope very much to be able to make the lecture at Heythrop. If you are in or around London in the next week, then do make the effort to try and attend. You can get more details here.
Fr Barron has a particular style, and a particular approach to explaining the faith. Someone described him to me as having a “geeky enthusiasm” – and you can tell that he fervently believes in the ‘product’ he is ‘selling’. The series is beautifully produced, with broad camera angles, well-produced music with plainchant themes woven through, and snappy, memorable messages which reveal and point towards the fundamental, profound truths of Christianity.
I want to write more about the course in the future – I think there’s a great deal to say. If you have the opportunity to attend it, do, and if you want to find out more about running the course, why not come along to the Discovery Session that we are running on 26 May in Tooting Bec? In the meantime I want to offer a general thought on contemporary apologetics.
In the Acts of the Apostles, St Paul visits Athens and, specifically, the Areopagus – by that time a place used to honour an unknown pagan god. Here he engages in Christian apologetics, engaging with the world-view and presenting Christian message in a public, potentially hostile forum. That apostolic example of apologetic evangelisation has got to find roots in us if we are to similarly engage in the contemporary world, where the unseen god of consumerism is slavishly followed by so many. Fr Barron does that well through his online ministry of teaching – coming to the new Areopagus, the internet: the very place where consumerism can often reach it’s zenith.
St Paul didn’t convert the crowd when he addressed them, but we are told that “some men joined him and believed” (Acts 17:34). That’s a pretty good place to start.
