Read the Catechism in a Year

An initiative for the Year of Faith. Sign up in the box at the top of the sidebar on the right hand side of this page. Read today's paragraphs 1 - 10 in your own Catechism or at flocknote.com.

What conscience dreads and what prayer does not dare to ask

The priest is given much freedom in selecting the prayers for the weekday Masses. He can repeat the prayers from the previous Sunday or choose prayers from any of the Sundays in Ordinary Time, or even celebrate a Votive Mass.

I tend to repeat the prayers of the preceding Sunday. In this way, the Sunday Mass is somehow extended throughout the week, and the prayers sink deeper into the heart as they are repeated.

This week's Collect might seem a bit of a mouthful but what it expresses is truly profound:

Almighty ever-living God,
who in the abundance of your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,
pour out your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.

This prayer is one of true release. There are probably dark areas in all our consciences that we would rather not open up. Yet in prayer, before God, we need have no fear. We may dread to face up to things - sometimes great things, more often the small embarrassing things - but we may be confident in the Lord as he pours forth his mercy upon us.

What might we not dare ask for in prayer? All sorts of things. But perhaps, also, for the grace to truly respond to God's call to discipleship, to abandon whatever holds us back, to say "Yes" even though we may doubt our ability. Or perhaps we fear to embrace the Lord's will fully. With the Lord's mercy, all things are possible.

The Prayer after Communion is similarly beautiful:

Grant us, almighty God,
that we may be refreshed and nourished
by the Sacrament which we have received,
so as to be transformed into what we consume.

It is this "divinization" that is made possible by the Incarnation. The Divine Food that we eat at Communion is not changed into us. We are changed into It. We truly are invited to become what we eat.

The Desert of British Politics: reduction in abortion time limit "chilling".

As Britain's Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, expresses his personal opinion (The Guardian Newspaper: Jeremy Hunt attacked from all sides...) that the time limit for abortion should be reduced from the current twenty four weeks to twelve weeks, he is berated for expressing his own opinion, and the thought of restricting abortion is described as "chilling" (see my previous chilling post) by Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

His own party leader has come out as clearly pro-abortion in stating:

I personally have voted for a modest reduction from the current limit of 24 weeks because I think there are some medical arguments for that. But I don't agree with the 12-week limit...

Of course, Mr Hunt's view that

... 12 weeks is the right point for it. It is just my view about that incredibly difficult question – about the moment we should deem life to start. I don't think the reason I have that view is for religious reasons.

cannot be justified for religious reasons. There is never a "right point" for abortion.

Meanwhile, the UK's largest and oldest pro-life group, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has dismissed recent newspaper stories about ministerial support for reducing abortion time-limits as "journalistic hype".

SPUC was responding to recent stories in The Times and The Telegraph newspapers in which ministers were asked whether they support reducing time-limits for abortion.

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC communications manager, told the media earlier today:

"These stories are in reality media-generated hype. There is no 'news' in these stories. The voting records of Jeremy Hunt, Maria Miller and Theresa May on abortion time-limits, over four years ago, are public knowledge. The Telegraph supports reducing abortion time-limits while The Times is strongly against any abortion restrictions, and between them they are generating some heat but little light on the real politics of abortion. There is some scare-mongering by pro-abortion figures, and some groundless hope for success by Nadine Dorries MP, whose amendments in 2008 were clearly defeated.

There is a large pro-abortion majority in Parliament which will ensure that any time-limiting amendments are rejected while using the opportunity to push for pro-abortion amendments. The real political debate about abortion in the UK should focus - as it does elsewhere in the world - on the right to life of all unborn children and on way governments bankroll abortion access at home and abroad."

SPUC is right. There is no point in fighting for reduced abortion time limits. The only way is to seek its abolition.

See SPUC's release of last Thursday (4 October 2012) Fresh perspective, not time-limit debate, needed on abortion, says pro-life group SPUC

Woman survives being burnt alive for 18 hours

I'm sure you'd find that a "chilling" headline. Well, that's what Gianna Jessen went through in the womb of her mother when a saline solution was injected into the womb. The baby swallows the solution so that she is being burned inside and out, and the mother delivers a dead baby. Well, Gianna survived.

Gianna gave an inspiring talk at the pro-life Marquette Care Clinic Banquet last Thursday evening, October 4th. Approaching 500 people attended the banquet which took place at the Northern Michigan University. The venue used in previous years was just too small.

Gianna was not afraid to touch on politics or religion. Her goal in life is tell as many people as possible about the love of Jesus Christ. She drew a comparison between her experience in the womb of her mother with that of Shadrach, Mishael and Abednego, the three young men who survived Nebuchadnezzar's fire in Daniel 3.

The banquet is an annual fund-raising event for Care Clinic which has just recently begun providing services in  this parish at KI Sawyer.

A number of our wonderful young people attended and were able to meet with Gianna.

Saline solution abortions are not carried out now, so does that make abortion less "chilling"?

Former York Minster Canon Chancellor to be received into the Personal Ordinariate

(Catholic Herald)

Dr Edward Norman...

... argues that Anglicanism has “no basis for its authority” as its confession “varies from place to place and person to person”. He says: “At the centre of Anglicanism is a great void.”

He adds: “The Church of England provides a masterclass in equivocation; it also, however, is the residence of very many good and faithful Christian people who deserve respect – for their perseverance in so many incoherent spiritual adventures.

“To leave their company is a wrench; to adhere to the Catholic faith is to join the encompassing presence of a universal body of believers in whose guardianship are the materials of authentic spiritual understanding… I have immense gratitude.”

Eight years ago he said that Anglicanism is going to tip into the sea.

It is not clear to me whether Dr Norman is already a Catholic and entering the Ordinariate as a layman or with a view to being ordained a priest for the Ordinariate. Either way, this is a piece of good news for the Catholic Church in England.

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor - attracted to the idea of being in House of Lords

Well, that's the part of the story that led me to this interview in the Daily Telegraph.

Far more interesting are his comments on secularism, e.g.:

“There is a new orthodoxy of what it is OK to believe or not believe. Some of it is sensible, but some of it seems to me to be a cause of intolerance,” he says. “Nobody is obliged to be a Christian, but no one should be obliged to live according to the new secular religion, which says it alone decides what’s right. It says, 'We rationalists decide, and all sensible people must accept this.’ Why should believers have to conform? Especially if it’s to do with social, medical and sexual matters.

“I think there’s a small minority who are aggressive, who want religion to keep silent, not to have a voice.”

They haven’t got a hope of that when it comes to the Cardinal. His affable tone – as he leans back in a leather chair – disguises tough talk.

He is getting quite a battering in the Comments but I think he speaks wisely. The fact that he is 80 perhaps accounts for the wisdom. And maybe he should have been given a seat in the Lords? Maybe, or maybe not, but he obeyed the Pope's indications.

He also confidently predicts that Archbishop Nicholls will be a Cardinal in a year or two.

Monsignor Georges Lemaître Father of the Big Bang

The BBC has produced a wonderful half-hour radio programme about this Catholic Priest who is known as the Father of the Big Bang, describing the integration of his love of science with his faith, acknowledging him as a holy priest, a true scientist and appealing human being.

From the BBC website:

William Crawley tells the surprising story of the Catholic priest behind one of the most important scientific theories of our time.

Monsignor Georges Lemaître was both a great scientist and a deeply spiritual priest, and his work on cosmology continues to influence our best scientific accounts of the universe.

He came up with the scientific notion of The Big Bang Theory, now one of the most recognisable scientific brands in the world, Lemaitre wore his clerical collar while teaching physics, at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

It was this unassuming Catholic priest in this modest centre of academia who has changed the way we look at the origins of the universe.

His story also challenges the assumption that science and religion are always in conflict.

William meets men of God, and men of science who knew Lemaitre, to explain how he was able to satisfy his ardent religious beliefs alongside his curiosity about how the world was formed, a curiosity that has radically shaped modern scientific ideas, and how his life-story also challenges the claim that science and religion are necessarily in conflict.