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

First Communions 2010

Eleven of our young parishioners received Our Lord for the first time in Holy Communion today at a special Mass at 12 noon. (Two others had returned to Poland to receive theirs in the home parishes of their families.)



Amongst the group were three boys. In this year of priests, among other things I managed during the homily to elicit from the youngsters the link between the Mass, Communion and the Priesthood. I asked the girls to say if they thought any of the boys would be good priests. All got the votes of most of the girls (but no hands went up when I asked if they would make good husbands!) Just trying to sow the seed of vocation, particularly as this is the last time I shall celebrate First Communions in the parish. As my parishioners know I am on the move, and will post more details later.

Live Broadcast Archbishop Gomez Installation as Coadjutor of LA

Online TV Shows by Ustream

Are you late? The Marie Stopes ad.

I'm not doing publicity for Maries Stopes but this is the controversial ad that was aired for the first time on Channel 4 this evening:

Does it advertise abortion? No. What does Marie Stopes specialise in? Abortion. As their own press release states:

In 2008 a total of 195,300 abortions were performed on women living in England and Wales and 91% were funded by the NHS.

Some 90% of abortions were carried out at under 13 weeks gestation, while 73% were under 10 weeks.

Around 80% of the 65,000 abortions provided by Marie Stopes in 2009 were carried out free on the NHS, with 20% being paid for privately.

Marie Stopes International chief executive Dana Hovig said: "Last year alone we received 350,000 calls to our 24-hour helpline. Clearly there are hundreds of thousands of women who want and need sexual health information and advice and access to services.

It is lamentable that an abortion-provider bearing the name of a reknowned eugenicist is seen as the compassionate and caring organisation that women (no men in the ad) should turn to for help.

But why cannot we, pro-lifers, garner sufficient funds and unite in our cause to put out a similar ad with the same message: "If you're pregnant and not sure what to do, Life/SPUC/Cardinal Winning Initiative/Good Counsel Network can help." Or is there a law against this? It's not enough just to wring our hands.

Bishops (and priests) - hear the voice of the laity

In conversation with some laity today, the request of our Bishops to dedicate the Fridays in May to

deep prayer of reparation and atonement

for the abuse scandals in the Church came up. They were not sympathetic. Why, I was asked, should the Bishops impose upon the laity penances for the errors of Bishops and priests?

A very persuasive initiative might have been for the Bishops to declare that each one of them would spend one hour before the Blessed Sacrament, in addition to the time they normally spend in prayer, on the Fridays in May, and maybe ask the priests to do the same. Lay faithful could of course be invited to join the Bishops and priests in this act.

It is true that

we are bound together in the Body of Christ and, therefore, (the personal sins of only a very few)touch us all

but the Bishops themselves

recognise the failings of some Bishops and Religious leaders in handling these matters.

In this instance what I hear is that the laity would really appreciate some sign of repentance from the clergy and, it has to be said, they look particularly to the Bishops. It is the filth in the ranks of the clergy, the impurity within the sanctuary, that is the true threat to the Church. As the then Cardinal Ratzinger declared in his meditation on the Ninth Station of the Cross for the Annual Good Friday Via Crucis in 2005:

How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him!

Referring to the scandal of sexual abuse of minors, Pope Benedict also referred to the sin within the Church as the greatest source of Her sufferings on the flight to Portugal for his recent apostolic journey:

... the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice.

In his letter to the Irish Church, the Pope's toughest words were addressed to his brother Bishops:

It cannot be denied that some of you and your predecessors failed, at times grievously, to apply the long-established norms of canon law to the crime of child abuse. Serious mistakes were made in responding to allegations. I recognize how difficult it was to grasp the extent and complexity of the problem, to obtain reliable information and to make the right decisions in the light of conflicting expert advice. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that grave errors of judgement were made and failures of leadership occurred. All this has seriously undermined your credibility and effectiveness...

Only decisive action carried out with complete honesty and transparency will restore the respect and good will of the Irish people towards the Church to which we have consecrated our lives. This must arise, first and foremost, from your own self-examination, inner purification and spiritual renewal. The Irish people rightly expect you to be men of God, to be holy, to live simply, to pursue personal conversion daily. For them, in the words of Saint Augustine, you are a bishop; yet with them you are called to be a follower of Christ (cf. Sermon 340, 1). I therefore exhort you to renew your sense of accountability before God, to grow in solidarity with your people and to deepen your pastoral concern for all the members of your flock. In particular, I ask you to be attentive to the spiritual and moral lives of each one of your priests. Set them an example by your own lives, be close to them, listen to their concerns, offer them encouragement at this difficult time and stir up the flame of their love for Christ and their commitment to the service of their brothers and sisters.

I do not doubt that our Bishops of England and Wales are also applying to themselves the request of Pope Benedict to undergo self-examination, inner purification and renewal. The message I get from the laity, however, is that they would like some clear manifestation of this process rather than asking them to do more prayer and penance. It is, I think I hear them say, about leadership.

International Mass Pentecost 2010

Today we celebrated the gift of tongues present in the Church today as the Gospel is communicated in the many languages spoken in our parish, including: English, Gaelic, Malayalam, French, Ibo, Swahili, Maltese, Polish, Italian, Tamil, Nyamje. That's eleven which, for a small parish like ours, is pretty impressive!

Much of the Mass was said/sung in Latin: the proper prayers (Collect, Super Oblata, Post Communionem), Sequence (Veni Sancte Spiritus), the conclusion of each bidding prayer (Dominum precemur, Te rogamus audi nos), the Preface, Eucharistic Prayer III, Pater Noster and embolism, Dismissal, Regina Caeli.

We were also please to baptise Jan Kasimierz.

Following Mass there was an international shared lunch.

Here's a slideshow to give some flavour of the celebrations. It was a very happy morning indeed. (My shirt was a present from a Tanzanian parishioner! Photo at the end taken by our professional paparazza Maureen A.)



Or a video: