January 2021 Letter from the Provost

The unveiling of the Oratory Crib took place during the First Mass of Christmas at midnight. This helps to emphasise that the Christmas season only really begins on Christmas Eve and continues for the first weeks of January, through Epiphany, to the commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord. Normally our Crib is always in St Wilfrid's Chapel, which with the lights turned low takes on the atmosphere of a cave. This Christmas, in deference to the Orwellian "social distancing" requirements still demanded by the bureaucratic powers that be, our Crib has been erected in the airier surroundings of the chapel of St Mary Magdalen.

One of the aspects of the Crib which captures the attention of the many children who come to pay their homage to the Infant Jesus is the large collection of models of animals that stand around the entrance to the makeshift stable. The addition of a pale pink curly-tailed piglet two years ago elicited a polite but firm rebuke from an adult purist who protested on the grounds that Jewish dietary regulations would have made the presence of such a creature in Bethlehem highly unlikely. In the most impressive "Presepi" of all, however, in Naples, one would be hard pressed to find a Nativity scene that did not include a butcher with a string of pork sausages around his neck, in addition to barbers, wine merchants and South American football heroes, while in Africa zebras and giraffes are often to be found grazing around the Manger, so perhaps we need not be too rigid in our observance of historical accuracy.

There is, after all, no explicit scriptural foundation for the presence of any animals at the Nativity. However, since St Francis of Assisi set up the first Crib in the hill town of Greccio in 1223, with a real ox and a live ass lent by a local landowner, animals have been an indispensable part of Nativity scenes. The ox and the ass deserve a privileged position at the Manger, the loyalty of these particular beasts having been contrasted with the fickleness of God's own chosen people at the beginning of the Prophecy of Isaias: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood" [Isaias 1:3]. The Fathers of the Church recognised in this verse a prophetic reference to Bethlehem, where the Christ Child would be placed in a feeding trough. The attentiveness of the ox and the ass at the Manger serve as an example to us, reminding us that the little Child presented to us in the Gospel is the Lord of all creation Himself, Who has come to feed His people with His own Body in Holy Communion and is worthy of our adoration.

The Crib should inspire us to be grateful for animals, which provide us with a wonderful testimony to the creative genius of Almighty God. The dominion which God grants man in Eden, when He bestows on Adam the authority to give names to "all the beasts of the earth," and to "all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field" [Genesis 2: 19-20], brings with it great responsibilities. Every living creature that God has made somehow has its role to play in creation, which we disdain at our peril. The contribution of even the humble bee to the healthy functioning of the earth's ecosystem and our own survival within it is significant to a high degree. The Church even recognises the bees’ contribution to Her liturgy in the Exsultet, sung by the deacon at the Easter Vigil, in the kudos She gives to bees for providing the wax that will be fashioned by human hands into the Paschal Candle.

Saint Francis is not the only saint renowned for his tenderness to animals. Our own St Philip merits a mention in the modern Catechism for the gentleness with which he treated them [CCC 2416]. He could not stand to see them ill-used, crying out to someone he saw step on a lizard, "Cruel fellow! What has that poor animal done to you?" and seething with indignation at the sight of a butcher injuring a dog with one of his knives. Saint John Henry Newman declared: "Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God...there is something so dreadful, so satanic, in tormenting those who have never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power."  His Eminence's aversion to visiting London in later life was apparently allayed by the prospect of visits to the London Zoo in Regent's Park.

In the Crib, we see a wonderful illustration of a divinely ordained hierarchy glorifying Almighty God. The animals give that glory just by being themselves, because they fulfil their purpose in creation merely by existing. The shepherds, the Magi and St Joseph, along with the Angels, glorify God by having co-operated with grace in making a free, conscious and meritorious decision to adore the Christ Child. They provide an example to us, who have been created to know, love and serve God in this world in order that we might participate in His glory in Heaven. The Blessed Virgin, meanwhile, is granted a uniquely elevated place in this created hierarchy because She, a purely human creature, consented to become the Mother of God and will be crowned Queen of the Angels in Heaven. And finally, there in the humble feeding trough, attended by ox and ass, adored by the shepherds, the Magi, St Joseph, the Angels and His Mother, is the Creator Himself. As we visit the Crib this Epiphanytide, let us remember to thank God for the animals, and resolve to learn from them how to fulfil the higher and most glorious purpose for which God created us.

Father Julian Large

December 2020 Letter from the Provost

One of Father Faber’s legacies at the London Oratory is an extensive library on the lives of the saints. A good number of these volumes were written by the Oratory Fathers themselves, in a series which began with Father Faber’s own biography of St Wilfrid, the Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Northumbria and one of our house’s patrons. The feast of another great missionary, whose life and apostolate overlapped with that of St Wilfrid, is celebrated on 3rd December. Saint Birinus was a Frankish monk who became the first Bishop of Dorchester in the 630s and is venerated as “Apostle to the West Saxons” for his conversion of the Kingdom of Wessex to Christianity. The most prominent monument to this saint is the beautiful Catholic church of St Birinus in Dorchester-on-Thames, magnificently restored and embellished by the parish’s present incumbent.

It has to be confessed that a search through that thick forest of hagiography in the Oratory library yields little material on St Birinus. But the fact that most of the details of his earthly life seem to have been lost in time does not diminish the brilliance of his achievements or the power of his intercessions for us at the Throne of Grace. What we do know about his mission provides rich material for inspiration and encouragement. One miracle that is recounted tells how, on setting out by boat on his missionary endeavours, he suddenly remembered that he had left behind some prerequisite for Mass. At once he jumped overboard, swam back to land to retrieve what he needed, and was lifted back into the boat as dry as he had been before disappearing over the side. This miracle led to the conversion of the pagan crew.

Birinus’ mission was carried out in a time of particular turmoil and intrigue within the Church. When he left Rome to begin his mission, the incumbent of the See of Peter was Pope Honorius I. This pope had some marvellous qualities, but the memory of his pontificate has been forever tarnished by one grave failing: he was one of those popes, mercifully few in history, who have allied themselves with heretics. Contrary to the Catholic teaching that in Christ there are two wills, human and divine, Honorius allowed himself to be associated with those who argued that Our Lord only possessed one divine will. This constituted an assault on the perfect human nature of the Word Made Flesh. While the Holy Ghost’s protection of the Church prevented him from ever proclaiming this gross error ex cathedra, his fence-sitting on the matter led to the singular embarrassment of a Pope being posthumously anathematized by name at the Third Council of Constantinople in 680.

When an elected successor of St Peter, the rock on whom Our Lord founded His Church, becomes wobbly on doctrine either by omission or commission, then one can only imagine that this must be like a virus attacking the central nervous system of the Body of Christ on earth. Along with the scheming and division that heresy always engenders, it can only afflict the whole organism with devitalisation and debilitation. But young Birinus did not allow himself to become devitalised or debilitated by this malady deep within the Church. Instead, he left his cell in Rome and launched out on his mission to convert the pagan northerners with a heart on fire with supernatural Faith, Hope and Charity. Like that water that did not even dampen his clothes when he jumped into the sea, error and intrigue had no hold on him.

If Rome at this time was a hotbed of political manoeuvring and theological conflict, England presented its own challenges. Paganism was still deeply entrenched, and it would be centuries before the different kingdoms would be united in one realm. Undaunted by the hostility of the heathens, however, Birinus travelled tirelessly, preaching and consecrating churches. In converting the Kingdom of Wessex he ploughed the rich earth of this region and planted a vineyard which would yield magnificent harvests in the golden age of King Alfred. Birinus laid the foundation for the cultural and religious flourishing that characterised Anglo-Saxon England.

Fourteen hundred years later, we might be tempted to ask what have we to show for those achievements? We find ourselves in a post Christian society, in which life and death decisions are made without any deference to the laws that the Creator has written into human nature. The Ten Commandments, which God revealed to Moses amid thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai, are disdained by our politicians, some of the most prominent of whom have been educated at establishments that were originally dedicated to great saints. Has the Christian patrimony that made this country and Europe civilised not been squandered, almost to the last penny?

This is why we need to pray to St Birinus. We should pray to him for hope – the same supernatural virtue of hope that inspired him to leave his beautiful monastery on Rome’s paradisiacal Caelian Hill and to make the arduous journey to the northern wilds in search of souls. The truth is that there have been many occasions when the land cultivated and planted so diligently by St Birinus and the other saints of his age seems to have been reduced to the condition of a devastated vineyard. There would be the wanton vandalism of the Viking raids, and the scorched-earth destruction of the Reformation and the centuries of persecution that ensued. The history of our realm teaches us that no stretch of drought has ever been able completely to suppress the green shoots of new life, and that every famine has been followed by a new era of renewal and spiritual flourishing.

At this time of year, we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child into a world that was in the grip of pagan superstition. No sooner had this Light arrived than Herod would attempt to extinguish its presence in his massacre of the Innocents. Our Lord’s earthly mission would lead Him along the way of Calvary to His Passion and Death. The Resurrection, however has the last word over lies, evil and death. It might well feel in our own day as if a new dark age is swirling in around us like a heavy black fog. Saint Birinus has been there before us. Ask that his prayers, and those of Our Blessed Mother, and all those holy confessors, bishops and kings, all those holy monks and hermits, all those holy virgins and widows, who made this once an island of saints, will gain for us the hope and the zeal to bear witness to the coming of the Christ Child this Advent.

Father Julian Large

November 2020 Letter from the Provost

On the great feast of Christ the King we celebrate the universal sovereignty of Our Lord Jesus Christ. These days there is a tendency to soften this doctrine of our holy Catholic religion. We are told that the sovereignty of Christ is something to which our own hearts and consciences, and perhaps also our families and our homes, must be made subject. This is all very true and excellent. But it is only half the story. What we do not hear so much is that as Creator and King of the Universe, Our Lord has the perfect right to rule over nations and over the whole of this world. At His first coming, Our Lord veiled the majesty of His sovereignty in poverty and vulnerability. As He tells Pilate in the Gospel appointed for the feast of Christ the King, “If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews.” Of course, had He wished to, the King of Kings could easily have established His rule over this world by force. His mission, however, was to win our hearts with His meekness and His teaching, and to die for us on the Cross in order to free us from the power of Satan, so that we might share supernaturally in His Kingship in Heaven, and play our part in extending His Kingdom on earth in the here and now, fed with and strengthened on His most holy Body and Blood in Holy Communion. We also have the promise, from Our Lord’s own lips that the next time He comes His Kingship will display itself not so much in meekness but rather in power and majesty, as His Presence fills the skies from East to West, and the sounding of the angelic trumpets divides the saved from those who have separated themselves from His rule. The former will enjoy the Beatific vision in Heaven, the latter will be cast into the everlasting fires of hell.

The message of the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King is that we Catholics must not fall into the trap of privatising our religion. Certainly, we are to ensure that our homes and churches are havens of piety and modesty in which our families are nourished in the life of grace. But we also have to be missionaries in a society which is in many ways in open rebellion against the laws which God Himself has written into nature. This might mean writing to our MPs urging them to protect the life of the unborn or to defend the sanctity of family life when such basic principles are under attack from anti-Christian lobbying and legislation. For some young Catholics it will mean biting the bullet and involving themselves in politics with a view to keeping the Christian voice alive in Parliament. This requires nerves of steel in an environment in which unfashionable views are likely to encounter barrages of obstruction, mockery and even hatred, but Our Lord never promised us that building the Kingdom of God on earth was going to be a walk in the park.

One way in which most of us will participate in extending, or defending, Christ’s Kingship is, of course, by exercising our franchise in elections.  It is usually a sign of gross conceit when clergymen tell their flock how to vote, and people in this country have a healthy instinct to do the exact opposite of what they are told to at the ballot box by men of the cloth. Priests are in the business of saving souls, and are wise to avoid involvement in party politics as far as possible. At the same time, it is the duty of all of us to inform ourselves about the policies of the various parties asking for our votes, and to ask ourselves which manifesto, on balance, contributes best to the building of the Kingdom of Christ on earth, and to discern which policies constitute contraventions of the Divine and Natural Law.

As this letter rolls of the press, the United States of America will be on the verge of one of the most contentious general elections that the western world has ever seen. It has been said that what happens over there comes here, and so the outcome is obviously interesting for us. A journal Stateside recently suggested that the rise of Catholics in pursuit of high office these days might pose a threat to the secular status of the American Constitution. The first thing that needs to be said in answer to this is that separation of church and state in America means that no denomination is to be given preference, and that religious tests for public office are prohibited. It does not mean that one’s faith and convictions are not allowed to inform policy. Certainly anyone who is Catholic (or Christian) in a meaningful sense of the word could never separate the pursuit of the common good from the conviction that God has sovereign rights over the whole of His Creation, and that the administration of government and justice have to be conducted in accordance with the Natural Law in order to have legitimacy, and indeed to lay claim to being rational. It must also be born in mind, however, that many of the Catholics active in public life in America today have been nurtured in the Uncle Ted school of Catholicism, named after its unofficial but highly influential president of recent decades, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, who until his degradation from the clerical state in the summer of 2018 on a list of indictments which did not include heterodoxy, was greatly revered and feted by the Washington elite. The motto on the badge of this academy is “Relativize and Prevaricate”, and rather than posing a threat to the secularist Roe v. Wade status quo, its alumni tend to be fellow travellers, if not zealous apostles, of the Culture of Death.

Come election time, thoughtful Christians on both sides of the Atlantic will investigate the voting records and opinions of all candidates seeking their votes. On close examination, alas, some of the candidates who are most keen to trumpet their Catholic credentials, and even rattle their Rosary beads on camera, will turn out to be unelectable. There are many “issues” which concern us as Catholics, but high among them must be freedom to practise our religion, the sanctity of marriage and, of course, protection of the unborn child. As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops emphasised in its 2019 document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, published to help Catholics in their choice in this year’s election, “The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself.” No country can claim to be a champion of the vulnerable and needy, or indeed civilised, if it allows the murder of innocent children.

Ultimately, of course, no human agency will solve all the problems of this world, or be successful in creating a perfectly just society. Only Our Lord can do this, which is why we must always be solicitous for His interests, and be willing to sacrifice ourselves in the establishment of His Kingdom on earth. May His Mother, the Queen of Heaven, intercede for the best possible outcome in the American election.

Father Julian Large

October 2020 Letter from the Provost

When hearing the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), it is quite possible that our initial reaction is one of indignation. After all, why should the Johnny-come-latelies who have only arrived in time to do an hour of work in the cool of the late afternoon receive exactly the same wages as those who have been slogging away for the whole day under the glare of the sun? Surely any child can see that this is unfair?

From a purely worldly point of view, perhaps the labourers who had put in a full day would be justified in feeling slightly disgruntled. What we need to realise, however, is that the vineyard that Our Lord is talking about is not just any old vineyard, but rather an allegory for the Kingdom of Heaven, where different values apply. Neither is the landowner in Our Lord’s parable any ordinary landlord. He is, of course, God. And God’s ways are not our ways. Yes, of course the latecomers are lucky to receive a full day’s worth of payment. The truth, however, is that the really fortunate ones in the parable are those who have enjoyed the wonderful privilege and dignity of working honestly in a good and safe environment for a boss of such remarkable generosity and integrity. Who knows where the latecomers have been idling, or what they have been up to, for the greater part of the day?

God’s mercy is so immense and unfathomable that there are those who scrape into the Kingdom of Heaven during the last moments of their lives. Thankfully the many confessionals around the Oratory church do not have ears to hear or tongues to talk, but if they did then no doubt they could tell tales of lifelong burdens of guilt being lifted and dissolved in the Sacrament of Confession, all with the space of time it takes a priest to pronounce the three short words, “Ego te absolvo”. The puritanical temperament seems to find this vexing, as if it all makes forgiveness too easy for hardened sinners. But a Catholic will always find the return of any lost sheep to the fold to be a cause for celebration. There is nothing that gives us more joy than the account of a deathbed conversion. On seeing the obituary of a dissipated old roué, or even a politician whose life has been devoted to promoting the culture of death, a decent Catholic will pull out his Rosary beads and immediately start working to gain indulgences, in the hope that the deceased escaped eternal damnation by opening his heart to God’s mercy in those last moments, and to settle any outstanding debts of temporal punishments due for sin, in order that another soul may be unencumbered and released on its journey from Purgatory into Heaven. Conscious that we are all sinners, we must never begrudge the graces given to others, but rather rejoice whenever and wherever God’s mercy is manifested.

Those of us who are converts to the Catholic religion will be particularly aware of the magnificent workings of God’s grace. Once we are in a State of Grace, we can of course merit more graces, because we are animated with the life of Christ within us. The initial grace that calls us to conversion and incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ, however, and the grace that calls us to repentance if ever we sin mortally, is always undeserved, and a mark of God’s gratuitous love – something that must never be taken for granted, and for which we must always be grateful.

From the worldly or puritanical perspective, converts might seem to have too an easy time of it. It may be objected that, after a life unburdened by the obligations that govern the life of “cradle” Catholics, we arrive late in the day to receive the same spiritual benefits as those who have striven to observe the Church’s precepts for a lifetime. For a convert, however, it is those who have been nourished within the one true fold of the Redeemer since childhood who are the most blessed. We who have spent too much of our lives in an irreligious wasteland, or feeding on sparse fragments of divine truth mixed in with the poison of error in some other denomination, can only wish that we had been led into the nutritious pastures of Catholic doctrine and the Sacraments, and into communion with the successor of St Peter, much sooner.

One of the casualties of the coronavirus disruption has been the enquiry class for converts, which we have only just resumed after several months’ hiatus. If you know anyone who is interested in learning more about our Catholic Faith and what it means to be incorporated into the one true fold of the Redeemer, then please do encourage them to come along. As numbers are restricted owing to the boring precautions we have to take at the moment, they should enquire first by telephone at Oratory House (02078080900). We meet at 8pm on Wednesday evenings.

Father Julian Large

September 2020 Letter from the Provost

It is sometimes said that if all the pieces of wood that are venerated around the world as relics of the True Cross were put together, then there would be enough material to build a Spanish galleon. Fake News. In the preface to his excellent historical novel Helena, Evelyn Waugh debunks this canard: “It used to be believed by the vulgar that there were enough pieces of this ‘true cross’ to build a battleship,” writes Waugh; “In the last century a French savant, Charles Rohault de Fleury, went to the great trouble of measuring them all. He found a total of 4,000,000 cubic millimetres, whereas the cross on which our Lord suffered would probably comprise some 178,000,000. As far as the volume goes, therefore, there is no strain on the credulity of the faithful.”

It took some three centuries after the Crucifixion for the Cross to become an object of veneration. In the year 312 AD the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it. The words “In this sign you will conquer” were written in the sky. He was about to engage in a terrible battle with his political rivals on the outskirts of Rome, and the outcome was far from certain. Obeying what he understood to be a heavenly portent, he had the Cross marked on the shields of his soldiers and was victorious. Hitherto a symbol of the most shameful death, the Cross became a mark of honour, which men carried into battle as their standard and kings wore over their heads on royal crowns. Constantine’s triumph over his enemies meant that Christianity would become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Roman world embraced the Cross, and the era of what would become known as Christian civilisation had dawned.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September celebrates the beginning of public veneration of the Cross soon after this victory. The Cross on which our Saviour died was miraculously discovered in Jerusalem by Constantine’s mother St Helen on this day in 326; and on the same date two churches, built at the site of Calvary by Constantine, would be dedicated. Saint Helen carried a portion of these relics back to Rome to keep in her palace, which would become the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. In addition to this, the feast also commemorates another military victory, that of the Emperor Heraclius over the Persians, which led to the return of the main relic of the True Cross to its shrine in Jerusalem in 628.

Our chief reason for observing this feast, however, is not to celebrate mere military victories. It is to rejoice in the “great work of love” by means of which death was conquered on the tree of the Cross. It is from being soaked in the precious and soul-saving Blood of Our Saviour that the Cross attains its power.

The Cross, then, is the symbol and, in part, the source of our salvation. “In this sign you will conquer.” By this sign our enemies are put to flight. By this sign we gain victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. By this sign the Church in Her Sacraments marks us as the property of Christ and protects us from evil. The sign of the Cross is used countless times in our lives by the Church, beginning in our Baptism when we are marked on numerous occasions with the Cross (over our forehead and heart, to consecrate our mind and will to the service of God, over our forehead once again to show that we have been redeemed from the power of the devil, and in the holy anointings which give us spiritual strength and unite us to Christ, the Anointed One).

In the Sacrament of Confirmation, our anointing with Chrism in the sign of the Cross marks our enrolment into Christ’s army. We must never be ashamed of this royal banner of our King. We should make the sign of the Cross often, and with great devotion. Signing ourselves with the Cross and saying “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is the means that the Church has given us to ‘tune in’ to that frequency on which we communicate with the Blessed Trinity. We should make sure that we have a blessed crucifix in at least one room in our homes. This serves not only as a reminder of the price of our Redemption, but also as a powerful protection against the work of the devil, whose presence and activity is all too prevalent in the world around us today.

During this month of September, let us ask Our Lord to give us the strength to embrace the Cross in our daily lives. May Our Blessed Lady, whose Nativity we celebrate on the 8th September, accompany us with Her intercession and encouragement along every step of the way of the Cross which is our one and only route to the fullness of life in Eternity.

The Oratory’s relics of the True Cross carry the seals and certificates from the Basilica of Santa Croce which indicate that they are part of the priceless treasure which St Helen carried to Rome in the early Fourth Century, and which she had discovered at the site of Calvary by means of miraculous signs. They are venerated on Good Friday and, indeed, on most Fridays of the year outside of Eastertide, after the evening Mass.

Father Julian Large

August 2020 Letter from the Provost

It is difficult to describe what a relief it was to see our congregation again when public Masses resumed at the beginning of July. Arriving at the Oratory to assist at Holy Mass for the first time since March to find the church swathed in red tape and what the “hi vis” jacket brigade love to call “signage”, parishioners might have been forgiven for assuming that they had stumbled in on a crime scene. However, not even the arrows enforcing one-way systems, nor the reek of disinfectant, nor even the bossy printed leaflets about what to do and what not to do, could alloy the happiness that the fathers experienced in seeing so many familiar faces, and some new ones, after months of lockdown and separation. It had been strange beyond words to celebrate Holy Mass, and even the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies, in our great church with the doors locked and surrounded by a vast sea of empty seats. As Catholics we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ. The supernatural life that animates this Body might, in itself, be invisible but this supernatural and invisible reality unites us into a single living organism which is a very visible expression of the incarnational nature of our holy religion. We need to be together on Sundays. Welcome back.

One of the strictures that the fathers have imposed on themselves in order to allow for the deep cleansing of the church between Masses is brevity in preaching. It was just as well, then, that the Gospel appointed for our first Sunday back together really spoke for itself: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy burdened, and I will refresh you” (Mtt 11.28). Long months of imprisonment and isolation have brought considerable burdens to a large part of the population – burdens of anxiety, loneliness, in some cases sickness and bereavement, along with grave concerns about livelihoods and impending poverty. Whatever burdens press us down in the way of apprehension or grief, our Lord opens wide His arms and invites us to share them with Him. He assures us that we are not alone. He carries with us whatever burdens we bring to Him and promises never to abandon us.

There is no better occasion to share these burdens with our Lord than in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. During the Offertory, we are invited to offer up with the bread and the wine all of our sacrifices and sorrows, our hopes and joys – in fact everything we have and everything we are – on the paten and in the chalice, so that when the words of Consecration are spoken, we are truly united with His Sacrifice on Calvary. He is able supernaturally to make use of whatever we bring Him, for our own sanctification and for the building up of His Kingdom on earth. In the Sacrament of Penance, meanwhile, we open the doors of our hearts to Him so that He is able to relieve us of all burdens of guilt and sin, in order that we may look forward to receiving Him in Holy Communion with the assurance that our souls have been well and truly disinfected and restored to the pristine wholeness which we received in Baptism.

Like most things that happen today, the Coronavirus has proven to be a force for division in an already fragmented society. While many seem delighted for the powers and principalities of this world to monitor and direct each and every aspect of their lives, others find the intrusions of the ever-expanding reach of the nanny state objectionable on principle. Newspeak phrases like “social distancing” and “contact tracing” conjure up visions of Orwellian dystopias and exude the whiff of sulphur. Worst of all is “modelling best practice”, pronounced with such cloying relish by the bureaucratic martinets who tend to run everything at management level these days. Looking at the scrupulous precautions that the Oratory fathers are currently taking in the church in the face of Coronavirus, some of our more sceptical parishioners have asked rather cheekily if we have swallowed the latest incarnation of Project Fear hook line and sinker. A word of explanation is due. Whether we truly believe that face masks etc. are really useful, one of our major concerns is to make those who come to the Oratory feel as safe as possible in the current strange climate in which the advice of “experts” often seems to be so contradictory and changeable. A good number of the faithful who worship with us have spent months hermetically sealed in at home being bombarded by the media with terrifying prognoses of apocalyptic scenarios unfolding on the streets around them. Coming to Mass will be the first time that some will have dared to venture out, and in this highly-charged atmosphere we should all of us show solicitude and thoughtfulness towards those who feel nervous and even fearful about coming to church. For this reason, if for no other, we ask everyone to take the tedious instructions seriously and just be glad that we have been allowed to unlock the doors at all.

The last time the government of this realm took away our freedom to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass it took three centuries for it to be restored. We can be grateful that this recent hiatus lasted just three and a half months. Let us implore our Blessed Lady Assumed into Heaven to intercede for us so that the current circumstances will soon change, in order that we can deposit all the red tape, “signage”, and the bossy printed instructions, in the dustbin where they belong.

Father Julian Large

July 2020 Letter from the Provost

The word miracle comes from the Latin miraculum, which is an object of wonder. One of the purposes of Our Lord’s miracles was to cause amazement in the minds of the beholders. His miracles demonstrate that He has power over the created order. They give Him credibility, so that when He makes claims which indicate His divinity they have to be taken seriously.

The multiplication of a few loaves and two fish into a feast that fed five thousand was a miracle so effective at causing wonder that the crowds who witnessed it and benefitted from it wanted to crown Him as a king. It might surprise us that He declined this opportunity of establishing His Kingdom on earth and made for the hills. After all, we Catholics honour Our Lord as Christ the King, with universal sovereignty over the whole of creation. Why should He not have accepted a throne that was owed to Him, and allowed these people to subject themselves to His reign?

The answer is that their appreciation of this miracle was as yet too shallow. For them, His supernatural powers promised prosperity for Israel. Never again hunger, or the fear of famine. No more poverty. This wonder worker seemed to offer an instant solution to every social problem.

Their attitude might well remind us of the temptations that came to Our Lord during His fast in the wilderness. They came directly from the devil. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread,” said Satan, before promising Our Lord all the kingdoms of the earth if only He would bow down before him. Our Saviour’s answers to the devil were sublime: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” and “it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’.”

This riposte remains as valid today as it did then, and it is one that the Church, constantly tempted by Satan, must always keep in mind in Her dealings with the powers of this world. “What sort of God is it that allows the world to go hungry?” is the demand with which we are so often assailed. The answer must be “Yes, of course God could multiply a few crumbs into a banquet vast enough to feed the population of this planet many times over. But such a miracle in itself would do nothing whatsoever to remove greed from a single human heart, or to dispel the selfishness that causes injustice.”

The truth is that Christ came into the world to perform a much greater work than turning stones into bread. He came to transform us, by changing hearts of stone into blazing furnaces of Divine Charity, so that those of us who are His disciples will lead the way in sharing what we have with those who have nothing, and building His Kingdom through our obedience and sacrifices.

It is only when there is universal obedience to the laws which God has written into nature that we can ever hope to see a solution to poverty, hunger and all injustices. When God’s laws are ignored in favour of purely material interests then the results can only be catastrophic. Communism promised bread for everyone. The reality was not only queues that stretched outside the bakeries for miles, but moral and spiritual starvation on a dreadful scale.

The crowds who wanted to crown Our Lord after His multiplication of loaves would no doubt have been happy for Him to build a kingdom in alignment with their own values. There is a lot of this attitude around today. It is present amongst those within the Church in those who insist that the Church’s raison d’être is essentially social activism. We find it in those who denigrate the church for her teaching on the use of contraception, on abortion and euthanasia. Faced with such opposition, it is easy for those of us who are responsible for preaching the Gospel to cave in, or to evade giving a clear answer. Perhaps it is naively imagined that if we are seen to be willing to compromise on the hot topics of the day then the media will give us a break and finally acknowledge that we can all work together in creating a brave new world in which scruples about the Commandments which God gave to Moses amid thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai have been conveniently sacrificed on the altar of secularist consensus.

The Mystical Body of Christ on earth cannot do business with the world on such terms. This is because Her primary concern is always the salvation of souls. To be true to Her identity as the Bride of Christ, She must teach what She has always taught, in perfect continuity with the Deposit of Faith that was entrusted by Our Lord to His Apostles.

The Church sees in the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes a meaning which is profoundly sacramental. Just as the transformation of water into wine at Cana prefigures the transformation of bread and wine into Our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Sacrifice of the Mass, so the feeding of the five thousand points to another wondrous aspect of the Blessed Sacrament. It shows how Our Lord’s one and undivided Body – the same Body that Ascended into Heaven and sits now at the right hand of the Father – is able to feed so many millions of men and women, in all generations and in every part of the globe, at the Altar. We must pray that the restrictions currently in place in this time of pestilence will soon be amended so that Our Lord may again feed millions of people around the world in Holy Communion. Our Lord changes bread into Himself so that we might in turn be transformed when we receive Him, and then set about transforming this broken, wounded world around us.

Father Julian Large

June 2020 Letter from the Provost

Along with the Chiesa Nuova, San Girolamo della Carità and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, one of the Roman churches of special interest to anyone with an Oratorian connection is the beautiful Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. In the heart of the historical centre, this church was built to serve a confraternity that was co-founded by our holy father St Philip while still a layman, to care for pilgrims attending the Holy Year celebrations of 1550.

The first thing you will notice on entering the Church of Santissima Trinità is the magnificent painting over the High Altar. A masterpiece by the great baroque artist Guido Reni, it depicts the Blessed Trinity. Our Lord hangs on the Cross, with a dove hovering over His head, while God the Father opens wide His arms in a gesture of acceptance of His Beloved Son’s perfect Sacrifice.

I once took a Protestant friend to visit this church and he remarked that seeing a picture of the Trinity made him feel uneasy. Painting the Son, he said, was one thing; but surely the Father and the Holy Ghost transcend depiction?

Reading Holy Scripture, however, we find that the prototype for all Christian images of the Trinity is to be found in the Gospel. At the beginning of His ministry, when our Lord is baptized by St John, the Holy Ghost appears over His head in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father announces from Heaven: “This is my Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased.” (Mtt 3.17) This scene is like an icon of the Blessed Trinity. The fact is that God and His Church often use signs and images to draw us into the mysteries of our Faith. The visible gives us an entrée into those invisible realities which “pass all understanding”. (Phil 4.7)

The revelation of the Blessed Trinity is one of those earth-shattering moments in the history of God’s relationship with man. And it is significant for us that it occurs within the context of Baptism. In the Christian Sacrament of Baptism, we unite ourselves with the death of God the Son and with His Resurrection. God the Holy Ghost takes up residence within us, so that we become living temples of His Presence. God the Father recognises us as His beloved children. Baptism is a truly Trinitarian event.

Saint John the Evangelist tells us that “God is love.” (1 Jn 4.8;16) This is a popular idea today. But what does it mean? One thing it doesn’t mean is that God is a warm feeling inside us. This might sound obvious. But there are a lot of people today who confuse love with sentiment. This is one reason why many marriages fail. When the initial thrill of courtship and romance fades, then what the young couple thought was love dissolves; and we are too often left with the tragedy of divorce and a broken family.

If we meditate on the Blessed Trinity, we should come to understand that love is not a sentiment at all. It is an act. The life of God is characterized by an eternal and infinite procession of love between the Three Persons of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And the more we contemplate this outpouring of self, the better we come to realize that this sort of love which is marked by self-giving is the very essence of the Christian life into which we enter through Baptism.

The Blessed Trinity was a very fitting dedication for the Church of the Pilgrims in Rome precisely because the love of the Triune God is so perfectly disinterested and selfless. God has nothing to gain for Himself through the act of Creation. The eternal flow of perfect love between the Three Divine Persons means that God has no need of us – He finds complete fulfilment within His own Life. His act of Creation must therefore be a work of purely gratuitous generosity. He brought us, and the angels, into being so that we might participate in His divine life.

Those pilgrims who needed looking after at the church of the Most Holy Trinity when they arrived in Rome were usually poor and often lame. Most of them had nothing to give in recompense for the care that was lavished on them. It was self-giving overflowing love that moved St Philip and his companions to perform this beautiful act of charity, exposing themselves to contagion and infestation as they bathed and bound the feet of their guests and fed them. This ministry to the poor was a way of living to the full that life of the Blessed Trinity that had been infused into them in Baptism.

If we want to imitate the love that characterizes the life of the Trinity, we must seek to show charity to those who have nothing to give in return. It is always easy to love attractive people who enhance our lives. To love with the charity of the Trinity, however, we have to include the disadvantaged, the needy and the lonely in our lives.

If ever the razor wire is lifted and you are able to make a pilgrimage to Rome, please visit that church that was built for pilgrims. Gaze on the wonderful painting over the High Altar, and meditate on what the Divine Love means for us – that Almighty God allowed His Majesty to be outraged on the Cross, so that we might be able to participate in the Life of the Blessed Trinity. At Holy Mass, when the Sacred Host is raised, and then the Chalice, during the Consecration, picture in your mind our Lord on His Cross, with the Father opening His arms to receive His Son’s oblation, and the Holy Ghost hovering, like the personification of the Love that flows between Father and Son. That is the reality of what we happens on the Altar.

Father Julian Large

May 2020 Letter from the Provost

Shortly before the lockdown there was a christening at the Oratory attended by a whole army of children belonging to godparents and other guests. Just as the ritual was beginning, one young girl shouted out “Where is Jesus?”, a question that she continued to ask with impressive insistence as the ceremonies proceeded. No sooner had the water been poured and the baby snatched from the threshold of Limbo than a now indignant voice once again demanded: “Where is He?” Her parents were embarrassed by their daughter’s stealing of the limelight. But the truth is that the best and most important questions are usually those asked by children. And if that little girl continues to ask that same question for the rest of her life, then she could well become a great saint, because a saint is someone who is always looking for Jesus.

A man who has fallen head over heels in love can think of little else than the object of his affection. He will go to the places he knows she frequents in the hope of finding his beloved. The first thing he will do on entering a crowded room is to scan the heads of everyone present to see if she is there. He reflects on everything she says so that he might begin to understand what she thinks on any subject. If his love is not requited, he does well to heed the counsel of his trusted friends and pull himself together, lest in these highly strung times he find himself denounced as a stalker and subject to a court injunction.

The single-mindedness of a saint is somewhat similar. Wherever he is, whatever he is doing or enduring, the saint asks “Where can I find Our Lord in all of this ... what does He have to say to me in this place, in these circumstances?” He reflects over and again on those words of His Saviour which have been recorded by the Evangelists, just as a lover will turn over the words of his beloved ad infinitum. You might say that a saint is someone who is obsessed with Christ. This is probably the only really healthy obsession that a man can have.

So what answer can we give to that question “Where is Jesus?” As God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is everywhere. The universe that was made by Him is kept in existence by His power and His will from one moment to the next, so that He is constantly present to His Creation. He is also present, in a special way, in our neighbour. Genesis tells us that God created man in His own image, and one way that we honour God is by serving Him in our neighbour, especially by ministering to Him in the needy and the sick. And, of course, he is present in His entirety – in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the Blessed Sacrament on the Altar.

Without wishing to be presumptuous, it is probably safe to assume that when the little girl at the Baptism asked “Where is Jesus?”, what she really wanted to know was where He is now, in that recognisable form in which He lived on earth and spoke to His disciples. The answer to that question is that the Word Made Flesh is now in Heaven, at the right hand of the Father. This is where He went when the disciples saw Him disappear into the clouds at His Ascension. And He has promised that when He returns it will be in glory from the clouds when His presence fills the skies from East to West.

Our Lord’s Ascension tells us something very important about the Incarnation. God the Son did not just assume our human flesh as a way of making contact with earthlings and then discard it once His mission down here was complete. The fulfilment of His mission involved taking the flesh in which He had suffered with Him into Heaven. This brings Heaven much closer to us. It makes Heaven not just a state that is quite impossible for us to begin to imagine (throughout history there have been many heretics who have argued that if Heaven exists at all then it must be some disembodied state of existence). Our Lord’s Ascension and His Mother’s Assumption mean that there are at least two bodies already present there. Even if we cannot now conceive of the bliss of the Beatific Vision, bodies exist in real places, not in any mere state.

Our Lord has gone body and soul to Heaven, then, in order to prepare a place for our bodies and souls. This should be a source of immense hope and consolation to us now, when we must cope with the difficult reality of sickness, death and bereavement all around us. There can never be any such thing as perfect fulfilment in this fallen world. Even if someone has been blessed with good health, friends and a well-stocked pantry, he would have to be a monster of selfishness not to have his satisfaction with this life somewhat diminished by the knowledge that so many in the world are stricken by sickness, poverty and hunger. And however happy we might be ourselves, we shall each of us at some stage be faced with the terrible separation that comes with death – separation from our loved ones, and ultimately the separation of our own bodies and souls. But in faith we know that whatever we might suffer here and now, there has been prepared for us a place where there is no sickness, no bereavement, loneliness or poverty. In Heaven there is perfect joy and love overflowing in plentiful abundance for eternity. In Heaven there will be perfect fulfilment on every level, not only spiritual but also bodily as the Vision of God transforms our whole being.

In His Epistle to the Ephesians the Apostle St Paul reminds us that “Christ is the head of the Church which is his body.” In Baptism, we have been incorporated into this Body as living members. This consideration should also bring Heaven much closer to us. We are members of a Body Whose Head is already in Heaven. That Head is Christ, and it is His divine life that animates us now and binds us up into the single living organism of His Church.

One day, pray, we shall not only see Him in His Glory but shall participate in that Glory forever. Then the time for Faith will have passed, because the reality of that Glory will be undeniable and unmistakable. Meanwhile we must continue to seek for Our Lord amid the joys and sorrows of our present life, seeking Him especially in our neighbour. We must also look for him in the circumstances and situations of our daily lives, asking: “What is He saying to me in all of this?” And we must worship Him in Faith, especially in the Blessed Sacrament. When He returns in Glory to judge us in our flesh, may He recognize us as His own.

Father Julian Large

April 2020 Letter from the Provost

In the Creation account in Genesis we read how, at the end of each day, God looked at what He had made and saw that it was good. In other words, He made nothing bad, and neither was there any imperfection in His work. Only when Adam and Eve abused the freedom which God had given them did sickness, suffering and death became a part of human experience.

Sickness and death, then, were never a part of God’s original intention for the human race. They are the consequence of sin, although we have to be scrupulously careful in how we apply this truth: when we see someone suffering from illness, we are not allowed to assume that that person is sick because he sinned. Many innocent people suffer – young children who have never sinned, and some of the greatest saints, have endured terrible sufferings. If Adam and Eve had never sinned, however, there would be no suffering, and so there is an undeniable connection between suffering and sin.

Just as God created nothing bad, so He can never will anything evil. He may, however, allow something evil to happen in order that some good may prevail. In times of plague and other natural disaster, Christians naturally ask why God allowed this to happen. The answer is always the same: God is calling fallen man to his senses. He is reminding us that we are not as in control as we might like to think, and that our illusions of progress and self-sufficiency will all crumble into the dust if we take our eyes off Him.

Throughout history, the response of the Church to pestilence has always included the call to repentance and penance. During Lent, Her liturgy reminds us of the Ninevites who responded to Jonah’s preaching with conversion from their wickedness and a solemn fast, and so were spared from the sentence of destruction which God had proclaimed over them. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham could not even muster a handful of just men to stand before God, did not fare so well. The message of Holy Scripture is consistent, however, and should fill us with hope: God desires not the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted from his ways and live (Ezekiel 33.11).

When it became clear that the scourge of Coronavirus had reached these shores, a journalist telephoned the Oratory to ask what precautions we were taking. The obvious answer was that we were preaching the urgent necessity to make a thorough examination of conscience, to go to Confession and receive sacramental absolution for sins, and to make as sure as we are able that we are all in a state of grace. Of course, we were also taking the necessary practical precautions to minimise the dangers of facilitating contagion. But the first instinct of a Catholic when danger looms will always be to consider the condition of his immortal soul, and the spiritual as well as the physical well-being of his loved ones.

At the end of the day, masks, sanitising hand-gel, and even our attempts at self-isolation, are far from fail-safe against infection from an invisible disease. We do, however, have an invincible remedy against the even more insidious malaise of sin, in the Sacrament of Penance. If we have spiritually died, by mortal sin, Confession even has the power to raise us from the dead. Once in a state of grace we are in a position to make reparation, through our prayers, fasting and almsgiving, both for our own personal sins and for those sins which “cry to Heaven” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1867), and which have become institutionalised in our society.

The policy of social-distancing which is the justification for closing our churches is a concept which seems quite alien to us as Catholics. The sacramental life of the Church is something which, by its very nature, requires physical proximity. It is around the Altar at Sunday Mass that the Church on earth takes on Her most visible and tangible form as a united whole in which priest and faithful are incorporated in a single living organism,  enlivened by Christ Who is the Head of His Mystical Body. The normal response of the Church in the face of approaching disaster is for us to gather our forces and make manifestations of our faith and trust in a God Who listens to and answers the prayers of His children. If extraordinary circumstances currently impede solemn Masses of reparation and processions and we are confined to barracks, then it is imperative that we fight this battle from home. Our Lenten observances of fasting and almsgiving are a powerful means we have of boosting the value of our prayers before the Throne of Grace.

While our doors, regrettably, remain locked for the time being, the Oratory resembles a humming bee-hive of activity in the early mornings, as the fathers quietly offer the Mass privately in the various chapels around the church. Please unite yourselves with the Holy Sacrifice that is being offered spiritually, in the knowledge that we are carrying your needs and intentions with us to the altars in our hearts.

The most worrying aspect of the current lock-down scenario for priests is the obstacles that we are likely to encounter in ministering to those who are sick and dying. If you are taken into hospital, please emphasise that you are Catholic and desire the ministrations of a Catholic priest. At these times when access to Sacramental Confession and Extreme Unction cannot be taken for granted, we should all memorise the Act of Perfect Contrition, or carry it with us. With gatherings for Baptisms suspended, parents should note that in an emergency anyone (Christian or not) may validly and licitly administer the Sacrament of Baptism if he makes an intention to do what the Church intends and uses the proper formula as he pours the water (please see our website for more detailed instructions on the Act of Perfect Contrition and emergency Baptism).

During this Lent, when the sacrifices that we must make are unusually stringent, let us conquer fear with faith as we fix our eyes on Easter, in the firm conviction that the Resurrection has the last word over sickness and death. In our Baptism we received the vocation to keep on dying to ourselves so that the life of the Resurrection might come to full and perfect fruition within us. For many of us, this Lent gives us more opportunity to live this vocation than usual. Be assured that we are praying daily for your wellbeing, spiritual and bodily.

Father Julian Large

March 2020 Letter from the Provost

By the time this letter appears, we shall have made (and possibly broken) our Lenten resolutions. Perseverance is of the essence in the Christian life. We really need to renew our good resolutions on a daily basis, and this will sometimes mean asking God’s pardon for lapses and starting again. If for some reason we have yet to make any serious resolutions then we should certainly do so now, so that when Easter arrives we are prepared to share most fully in the life of Our Lord’s Resurrection, having united ourselves with His Passion and death through our self-denial and prayer, and above all our growth in charity, during this penitential season.

          Sometimes we hear it said that it feels more meaningful to “do something positive rather than to give something up” for Lent. Traditionally, however, the Church enjoins us to do both. Lenten observance means fasting, praying and giving alms. These are practices which should characterise our lives as Christians in general, but in Lent we focus on them with greater intensity, and especially on the penitential aspect.

          In our Catholic religion, there is no morbid cult of suffering for its own sake, and asceticism is always a means to an end. Denying ourselves legitimate pleasures loosens the grip that earthly goods hold over our appetites, and helps us to grow in virtue so that we are better placed, with God’s assistance, to avoid temptations to sin. Other religions and even non-religious self-improvement programmes, also recognise the benefit of self denial. For a Christian, however, mortification also holds a supernatural dimension which is rooted in Our Lord’s own Passion and death. Writing to the Colossians, St Paul says: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Col 1.24) Obviously, it would be blasphemy to suggest that there is anything ‘lacking’ in Christ’s Passion, when one drop of His Precious Blood is more than enough to save the world many times over. On the Cross He stretched out His arms in love to offer once and for all a perfect sacrifice of infinite value. In our Baptism, however, we are united with His Passion and Death, and receive the vocation to keep dying to ourselves so that the life of His Resurrection might take ever greater possession of our hearts and souls. In the ‘Economy of Salvation’, God has ordained that the sufferings that come to us unbidden, and the mortifications that we embrace voluntarily, take on a supernatural value when united with His Sacrifice on Calvary. God is able to use our sacrifices not only for our own sanctification but also for the building up of His Kingdom on earth and the strengthening of His Mystical Body the Church.

          The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at which the once-and-for-all Sacrifice of Calvary is made present in an unbloody fashion on the Altar, is our opportunity par excellence to ‘offer us’ any discomforts, hunger pangs and inconveniences occasioned by our Lenten penances. During the Offertory, we are invited to unite ourselves spiritually with the bread on the paten and with the wine in the chalice, offering all of our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears – everything that we have and everything that we are – so that when the Death of Our Lord Jesus is made present by the separate consecration of the gifts, we are mystically and truly united with that Sacrifice. The priest reminds us that we are active participants in this Sacrifice when he says “Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father.” Just as the celebrant has a main intention for the Mass, so we all may bring our own intentions to the Altar – intentions for ourselves, our loved ones, the suffering and the faithful departed, confident that our aches and pains, and all the frustrations that come from living in this deranged modern world, can take on great value when united with the sufferings of our Saviour.

          Mercifully, the rigours of Lent are lightened by various feast days which occur during the season, the greatest of which is the Annunciation. When the Blessed Virgin gave Her fiat to the Archangel Gabriel, She made possible our redemption, and so we honour the Mother of God, in whose womb and by whose co-operation the Word became flesh, as the Mediatrix of all Graces. In a unique manner She united Her own indescribable sufferings with those of Her Son on Calvary, and offered in union with Him His own perfect sacrifice on the Cross, earning Her the title of Co-Redemptrix. As our Mother in Heaven, She also teaches us how to share in this work of redemption ourselves, by bringing our personal sacrifices to the foot of the Cross on Calvary, and offering them with the gifts on the Altar. May the Blessed Virgin accompany us during this season, helping us to make our participation at Holy Mass ever more focused and profound so that it bears spiritual fruit in abundance.

          Talking of participation, anyone concerned about the risks of catching the Coronavirus at Holy Communion should bear in mind that while we are constrained by precept to attend Holy Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, we are only obliged to receive Holy Communion once a year, “and that at Easter, or thereabouts.” If we are worried about spreading or contracting disease through our reception of the Blessed Sacrament, then Spiritual Communion may be made with great benefit to the soul without going anywhere near the altar rails. May the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Mediatrix of all Graces and Co-Redemptrix, protect us from all harm.

Father Julian Large

February 2020 Letter from the Provost

We tend to associate Shrove Tuesday with pancakes, which in former days were an excellent way of using up eggs, flour, milk and other ingredients before the rigours of Lent, and which remain a welcome source of nourishment before the fasting and abstinence of Ash Wednesday. The name Shrove comes from the Middle English word shriven, because the Tuesday before Lent begins is a suitable time for us to be absolved of our sins (or “shriven”) in the Sacrament of Penance.

          The prospect of confession is something that makes many people nervous. The thought of opening the darkest secrets of our hearts to another person can be disagreeable to say the least. Probably this is why even some Catholics are tempted to take the Protestant approach expressed in the sentiment: “I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest, when I can confess them directly to God.”

          The truth, of course, is that we can confess our sins directly to God. Venial sins are forgiven through an act of contrition, both privately and in the general confession which we make together at the beginning of Holy Mass. They may also be forgiven through the devout use of the Church’s sacramentals, such as making the sign of the Cross with Holy Water when we come into church. Even mortal sins may be expunged from our souls with an act of perfect contrition. We should pray that those who die without the Sacraments are given and cooperate with the grace of this sort of contrition before their souls depart from their bodies. But we can never really be certain that our own act of contrition involved total sorrow for our sins motivated by the love of God, because only He can read the innermost movements of our heart with absolute clarity. This is why the Church enjoins us to avail ourselves of the Sacrament of Penance at the nearest opportunity if we have sinned mortally, even after making an act of perfect contrition. Sacraments give us certainty.

          A mortal sin is one which expunges the flame of Sanctifying Grace that was ignited in our hearts in the Sacrament of Baptism. It must involve grave matter and knowledge of that gravity, and must have been committed freely and willingly. Telling a lie which makes someone look slightly silly is a venial sin that needs repenting of and somehow rectifying. Initiating a calumny that causes serious damage to a neighbour is a mortal sin that requires us being restored to the life of grace, in addition to making restitution by restoring the reputation of our victim. God has ordained that what was given to us in one Sacrament (Sanctifying Grace, in Baptism) is to be restored to us, if lost, in another Sacrament (the Sacrament of Penance, in which we receive sacramental absolution from a priest).

          Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Penance immediately after His Resurrection. The Apostles were hiding in the Upper Room in Jerusalem having abandoned Our Lord during His Passion and in fear for their lives, when He came to them and said: “Peace be to you.” Breathing on them He continued: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain they are retained.” (Jn 20.23) Through the Sacrament of Holy Order, which He had also instituted in that very room at the Last Supper, that same healing, refreshing and restorative breath is breathed into our hearts today when a priest utters over us the words “I absolve you of your sins”. In the Sacrament of Penance, God not only forgives us, but blesses and renews us, and gives us the assurance of His presence and His friendship in our lives.

          In a Sacrament, the ‘ingredients’ required on our part are always relatively humble and easy to acquire. In return, God gives us something of inestimable value. In Baptism, the pouring of water brings us everlasting life, and in the Holy Mass bread and wine are transformed into His Living Body and Blood. In Penance, the essential ingredients consist of our contrition, the verbal confession of our sins and satisfaction (our intention to perform the prayer or good work given us by the priest). Ideally, love of God should be our motivation for confessing, but He does not insist that our contrition be perfect. For our sins to be forgiven it is sufficient that we fear their eternal consequences, or wish to be rid of the sense of guilt. In return we are infused with an abundance of Sanctifying Grace. Perseverance in the frequentation of the Sacrament of Penance brings saints ever closer to perfection and helps hardened sinners to break free from the chains which habits of sin have been forging over a lifetime.

          As Lent approaches, we should reflect on the use we make of the priceless gift that is the Sacrament of Confession. And when Shrove Tuesday arrives, may we remember the origin of the name Shrove, as well as enjoying our pancakes.

Father Julian Large