Our Lady of Lourdes - Day of Prayer for the Sick

 

He who in suffering and illness prays to the Lord is certain that God’s love will never abandon him, and also that the love of the Church, the extension in time of the Lord’s saving work, will never fail. (Pope Benedict, Message for World Day of the Sick 2012)

With parishioners from St Simon Stock parish, South Ashford, Oct. 2007

Bishop Sample reflects on his recent visit to the Holy Land

Download the podcast here.

Poland Pilgrimage - the Dom Duszpasterski Hotel

Our group were accomodated at the excellent value Pastoral Lodge at Łagiewniki just outside the centre of Krakow. I would certainly recommend it. All rooms (shared or single) are en suite. A substantial breakfast is provided, and lunch and dinner may be booked, or guests may simply use the cafeteria.

Beata will organise an excellent programme. She booked Masses for us in the chapel of St Faustina beneath the basilica, the chapel of St John in the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the Basilica at Wodowice and the Convent Chapel where the relics of St Faustina are preserved. She also organised all our transport to our various destinations and tour guides. Nothing was too much for her. Staying at the Dom Duszpasterski was infinitely better than staying in a hotel. We were able to visit many places while maintaining the pilgrimage atmosphere, with easy access to exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 24/7, prayers/devotions in the convent chapel, etc. Some of our pilgrims even got up early to join the sisters at their Mass at 6.30am to savour the beautiful singing of the sisters.

Here's our group having dinner in the hotel.

Email: recepcja@pastorallodge.com.pl.

Poland Pilgrimage Day 2 - Czesthowa

On Tuesday 1st we visited Czestochowa. The journey was awful - road works just outside Krakow. Took us one hour to get of the city, and two hours for the rest of the journey. But we made it in good time for Mass. We were booked to join a larger American group led by a priest Missionary of Our Lady of La Salette. The group was from Louisiana and so, naturally, they prayed for the resolution of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. They also had with them a young priest ordained for just two years and his parents.

When we arrived, the image of Our Lady was still covered. The daily unveiling took place at 1.30pm, just before the Mass. Our pilgrims said they found the unveiling, with the trumpet fanfare, an incredibly moving experience, as the face of Our Lady and the Child were gradually revealed. Our Lady's face has a rather haunting appearance.

Here's a photo of the covered image before Mass.

I'm afraid that, since I was concelebrating at the Mass, I have no photos of the uncovering, but hope you will be satisfied with this pic I took when I was there in February this year.
 

In the following picture you can see the sash that Pope John Paul II was wearing when he was shot on 13th May 1981:

Father Simon, one of the Pauline priests, gave us a brief guided tour. He is a charming man, named after the apostle Simon.

In the cloister of the monastery there are altars set up for Mass. They are in the open although sheltered from rain by the cloister, and people tend to just walk past. Nonetheless, it was edifying to see priests saying their Masses.

Krakow

Having left South Ashford at 5.30am by minibus, we arrived at the Divine Mercy Shrine at Łagewniki in Krakow on time, as planned for lunch, after which we met with Sister Gaudia - as the name implies, a very joyful and youthful sister - who is, of course, Polish, but speaks excellent slightly Americanised English.

She explained something of the significance of the message of Mercy that was entrusted to Saint Faustina, Jesus' Secretary of Divine Mercy. She particularly explained about the 3 o'clock prayer, and wanted it to be known that Our Lord did not ask that any particular prayer be said at 3 o'clock but that rather we pause at that time - for a few seconds, a few minutes, longer if possible - to meditate on the suffering and death of Jesus. Of course, one can say a prayer, the so-called '3 o'clock prayer', for instance, or even the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, but there is no intrinsic link between these prayers and keeping the hour of Our Lord's death.

Sister Gaudia also spoke about the humility of Saint Faustina, and how she is another example of how the Lord chooses the lowly of this world to be entrusted with something great. St Faustina's diaries are at once simple and profound. Simple souls say how easy it is to understand because of its simplicity, wise souls say how profound the diary is. Here we are by the wall just outside the convent chapel where the Chaplet is written in various languages:

I remarked to Sister Gaudia how much we need sisters like her and her order in England, dressed like sisters. She replied with some enthusiasm: "Yes, you do, you do!" Wouldn't it be wonderful if these sisters were established in the UK.

Just outside the convent chapel can be seen the window of the cell where St Faustina died, decorated with flowers:

Following her brief talk with us, we went to the Convent Chapel where the relics of St Faustina are preserved and joined in the 3 o'clock prayers which consisted of a meditation and some prayers in Polish (which naturally we did not understand) followed by the recitation of the Chaplet, one decade of which was done in English for our benefit.

After venerating the relic of St Faustina, we went to the Chapel of St Faustina beneath the basilica for Mass. Today is, of course, the feast of the Visitation, a very appropriate feast for considering lowly and humble creatures chosen by God for great things.

This afternoon I took the opportunity to meditate on some of St Faustina's Notebook VI from her diary, and it truly is profound. Here is what I just happened to read as I sat in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament:

My heart is drawn there where my God is hidden,
Where He dwells with us day and night,
Clothed in the White Host;
He governs the whole world. He communes with souls.

My heart is drawn there where my God is hiding,
Where His love is immolated.
But my heart senses that the living water is here:
It is my living God, through a veil hides Him.

St Faustina is surely speaking of her own mystical experience of ecstasy when she writes:

During meditation, the Lord gave me knowledge of the joy of heaven and of the saints on our arrival there; they love God as the sole object of their love, but they also have a tender and heartfelt love for us. It is from the face of God that this joy flows out upon all, because we see Him face to face. His face is so sweet that the soul falls anew into ecstasy.

On February 13th 1938, she

saw how unwillingly the Lord Jesus came to certain souls in Holy Communion. And He spoke these words to me: I enter into certain hearts as into a second Passion.

Later this afternoon I took a walk round the grounds and visited the Convent cemetery. Here Sr Faustina was buried until her remains were removed to the Convent Chapel.

There appears now to be a large vault where the sisters are buried, with a wall on which the names of those interred are recorded. It must be wonderful to be able to contemplate daily the place where you will be laid to rest.

In the evening there is a beautifully prayerful atmosphere in the convent chapel, which is really the heart of the shrine (I'm afraid I don't much care for the modernist architecture of the basilica). There are evening prayers with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (followed by distribution of Holy Communion which, I must say, I found a bit odd but which I also observed in my visit to Czestochowa earlier this year), Rosary for needy families, night prayers, etc. It is heart-warming to see so many sisters, including numerous novices, and ordinary lay people - many children too, gathered together for these times of prayer, with of course beautiful devout singing.

Off on a parish pilgrimage tomorrow

Medjugorje Commission will carry out its work 'with the utmost reserve'

The Medjugorje Commission held its first meeting on 26th March, it was revealed yesterday by the Press Office of the Holy See:

"The International Investigative Commission on Medjugorje met for its first session on 26 March 2010."

"The Commission, presided over by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, His Holiness' vicar general emeritus for the diocese of Rome, is composed of the following members: Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Vrhbosna, president of the Bishops' Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina; Cardinal Josip Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb and vice-president of the Council of European Bishops' Conference; Cardinal Julian Herranz, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; Archbishop Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; Msgr. Tony Anatrella, psychoanalyst and specialist in Social Psychiatry; Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, professor of Fundamental Theology at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy; Fr. David Maria Jaeger, O.F.M., consultant to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; Fr. Zdzislaw Jozef Kijas, O.F.M. Conv., relator of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; Fr. Salvatore M. Perrella, O.S.M., teacher of Mariology at the Pontifical Marianum Faculty of Theology; and Fr. Achim Schutz, professor of Theological Anthropology at the Pontifical Lateran University as secretary. Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, an officer of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith serves as additional secretary."

"Other experts have also participated in the commission's work: Fr. Franjo Topic, professor of Fundamental Theology in Sarajevo; Fr. Mijo Nikic, S.J., professor of Psychology and Psychology of Religion at the Philosophical and Theological Institute of the Society of Jesus in Zagreb, Fr. Mihaly Szentmartoni, S.J., professor of Spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and Sr. Veronica Nela Gaspar, professor of Theology at Rijeka."

"As announced previously, the work of the Commission will be carried out with the utmost reserve. Its conclusions will be submitted to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for study."

This will be a very important step in clarifying the supernatural or otherwise phenomena that are taking place at Medjugorje. I have been there once on a free trip for clergy courtesy of Medjugorje Peace Tours. The people in the group I joined were fine upstanding Catholics, very loyal to the Church. I also had the privilege of making my confession to the late Father Slavko. I was also impressed by the testimonies of the "visionaries" Ivan Dragicevic and Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic.

The work of the Cenacolo community in helping drug addicts to recover was most impressive. So a lot of good has come to the Church through Medjugorje. Nevertheless it is important that the various doubts that exist be clarified, not least for the sake of unity. The long-running dispute between the Franciscans at the parish and the diocesan bishop needs to be resolved.

Altar Servers Trip to Rome

As mentioned earlier a group of altar servers and some of their parents went on a pilgrimage to Rome Tuesday to Thursday led by Father Stephen Boyle, the diocesan spiritual director of the Guild of St Stephen. The trip is kept at a budget price by spending just two nights but having three full days in Rome by taking the first easyJet flight out from Gatwick to Fiumicino on Tuesday morning and the last flight back on Wednesday night.

Day one consisted of a visit to the Vatican museums including the Sistine Chapel.

The group on the spiral staircase in the Vatican Museums.

This was followed by a visit to the Venerable English College for Mass celebrated by Fr Stephen. We were welcomed at the door by Southwark student Matthew O'Gorman. Following the Mass the rector, Mgr Nicholas Hudson who also is a priest of the Southwark Archdiocese, gave the youngsters a brief tour of the College, decribing the martyrdom of the priests who trained that the College during the reign of Elizabeth I only to return to Britain to face certain death. He recalled how, whenever news reached the College that another former-student priest had been martyred, the seminarians gathered to sing a Te Deum. He also said how a priest being executed would think of his brothers at the English College who would be singing the Te Deum when news of his martyrdom reached them.

Click on picture to see gruesome images of hanging, drawing and quaertering.

Mgr Hudson didn't fail to remind the youngsters that in the previous reign of Mary Tudor, protestants had been killed and that we must pray that Christians never do these things to one another again.

We were very pleased to meet some of our Southwark seminarians at the Venerable English College, including Luke dePoulford who is pictured below with Wonersh seminarian Samuel Davey and Fr Stephen.


Day two took us to St Peter's for the Wednesday audience with the Pope. We were the first of the English language groups to be mentioned.

Servers awaiting the arrival of Pope Benedict.

Following a brief shopping period and a welcome lunch, it was off to St Mary Major's for Mass celebrated by me and guided tour by Fr Stephen.

Following that, an evening visit to the Collosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona. Take-away pizzas, ice creams, milk shakes, smoothies etc. were consumed en route.


An amazing event took place at the Trevi Fountains. One of our party had lost his wallet with money and NHS health card. Although we thought there probably wouldn't be any point in re-tracing steps, assuming the wallet had been taken by a pick pocket, we nevertheless went back and found that the wallet had been handed to the police who were still on duty there. We met the young man who had handed the wallet in, extremely appreciative of his honesty and integrity.

The group at the Trevi fountain.

Day three saw us getting up very early for Mass in St Peter's Basilica celebrated by Fr Stephen on the altar of Blessed John XXIII. I suggested - tongue in cheek - that it would surely be most appropriate to celebrate the Mass using the Missal which Pope John left to the Church in 1962, but that suggestion was not taken up. In the basilica, however, many priests were obviously celebrating Mass in the extraordinary form.


The Mass was followed by a visit to the grottoes of the Popes. The group then went up the cupola for fine views of Rome, followed by a short period of prayer in the by now crowded Blessed Sacrament Chapel and a tour of the basilica.




We then had a visit to the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith courtesy of Mgr Patrick Burke (pictured left below) who took the group to the roof of the building for a close up view of St Peter's.




Then it was off to the catacombs of St Callistus and a slap-up lunch before returning to our hotel to collect luggage and transfer to the airport, and arrival back to London after 11pm. All tired, but having had a great trip.

Off to Rome tomorrow

with altar servers from various parishes of the diocese. Trip organised by my brother Father Stephen. It'll be a quick one: first flight out of Gatwick tomorrow, last flight back on Thursday. Your prayers for a good trip and the spiritual benefit of all concerned would be appreciated. Thanks!