Yesterday the Church was the most crowded I have ever seen it, even the organ gallery was full and quite a few people standing but that was nothing compared to the Polish Mass. The Poles made it almost impossible for my congregation to get out of the Church, during the Mass there were people kneeling on the pavement outside and standing in the road. Quite incredible! Although the other local parishes benefit by their presence as they have their own chaplain we don’t, except by the gift of £20 a week for using our Church. I really do think that they have so much to offer the Church in England, if only they would integrate a little bit. Maybe that will come, more and more families are now coming.
I cancelled our evening Mass as the Church is so insistent on the Vigil as being the main Easter service and indeed the main service of the Sacred Triduum. My sermon for the Vigil was a bit dull, too many ideas, so I got up early to sing Lauds (door of Church shut) and re-wrote it.
As so many people do come on Easter day, I spoke about the Day of the Resurrection, and how the Resurrection is something that touches the whole life of a Christian, hence our need to come each week to celebrate it.
.....
“Without our weekly celebration of the Resurrection, the Church itself ceases to be, if you are not here to celebrate it week by week, the Church simply doesn’t exist, it is dead, it lies in the grave rotting, as if Christ himself has not risen. We are the messengers of the Resurrection if the message is not proclaimed it is as if Christ is still dead.
And look at what happens to society without the risen Christ. Look at France after the French Revolution, the very fruit of the Enlightenment, a woman dressed as the Goddess of Reason enthroned on the High Altar of Notre Dame, donkeys drinking out of chalices and tens of thousands the victims of the Reign of Terror and the guillotine. Look at the 20th Century, the most bloody there has ever been, look at the Godless societies, the atrocities of the Godlessness of Lenin’s and Stalin’s Russia of the tens of millions killed, the millions killed in China, the millions killed under Godlessness of Nazism, the millions under Pol Pot in the killing fields of Cambodia. The Nazis divided men into untermenchen and ubermenchen, is this not what happens in any society without God?
Is this not happening in our own society? Look at the abortion industry where children are now considered “wanted” or “unwanted”. Is the fear and violence on our city’s street not the beginnings of dethroning of God, of the growing atheistic secularism that seems to touch our society at the very core. Is this not connected to the restructuring of our society, of the family, of the very nature of humanity, without God. The growing influence of Secularism and Atheism is not something that should be just regretted, but feared by Christians not for ourselves but for society and the world. We should recognise it as the source of the coarsening of the values of our society at its very root. For us it is to be struggled against it at every level and fought at every level. We can only do this if we gather with the disciples, the most important way is gathering at the weekly celebration of the Resurrection, the Triumph of life over death.…
I cancelled our evening Mass as the Church is so insistent on the Vigil as being the main Easter service and indeed the main service of the Sacred Triduum. My sermon for the Vigil was a bit dull, too many ideas, so I got up early to sing Lauds (door of Church shut) and re-wrote it.
As so many people do come on Easter day, I spoke about the Day of the Resurrection, and how the Resurrection is something that touches the whole life of a Christian, hence our need to come each week to celebrate it.
.....
“Without our weekly celebration of the Resurrection, the Church itself ceases to be, if you are not here to celebrate it week by week, the Church simply doesn’t exist, it is dead, it lies in the grave rotting, as if Christ himself has not risen. We are the messengers of the Resurrection if the message is not proclaimed it is as if Christ is still dead.
And look at what happens to society without the risen Christ. Look at France after the French Revolution, the very fruit of the Enlightenment, a woman dressed as the Goddess of Reason enthroned on the High Altar of Notre Dame, donkeys drinking out of chalices and tens of thousands the victims of the Reign of Terror and the guillotine. Look at the 20th Century, the most bloody there has ever been, look at the Godless societies, the atrocities of the Godlessness of Lenin’s and Stalin’s Russia of the tens of millions killed, the millions killed in China, the millions killed under Godlessness of Nazism, the millions under Pol Pot in the killing fields of Cambodia. The Nazis divided men into untermenchen and ubermenchen, is this not what happens in any society without God?
Is this not happening in our own society? Look at the abortion industry where children are now considered “wanted” or “unwanted”. Is the fear and violence on our city’s street not the beginnings of dethroning of God, of the growing atheistic secularism that seems to touch our society at the very core. Is this not connected to the restructuring of our society, of the family, of the very nature of humanity, without God. The growing influence of Secularism and Atheism is not something that should be just regretted, but feared by Christians not for ourselves but for society and the world. We should recognise it as the source of the coarsening of the values of our society at its very root. For us it is to be struggled against it at every level and fought at every level. We can only do this if we gather with the disciples, the most important way is gathering at the weekly celebration of the Resurrection, the Triumph of life over death.…
We are the successors of the first witnesses to the Resurrection Secular Atheists are the successors of Stalin and Hitler.
10 comments:
I'm even more afraid of the Bishop of the Forces than I am of secularism and atheism. He said that the religious beliefs of the Iranians had played a large part in their decision to release our sailors and marines they had been holding.
The religious beliefs of Mr Ahmadinejad also play a large part in his determination to create a condition in which a nuclear first strike by Israel and her allies will be a necessary and proportionate measure of national defence against an existential threat of supernatural gravity: gernocidal aggression in furtherance of a false religion.
Given that five million Israelis and/or upwards of ten million Iranians have only a few years to live on Ahmadinajad's present course, the Bishop would have done better to offer that raving lunatic a change of religion.
Michael,
I would be more afraid of Blair and Bush.
I think Father said in his homily there are more dangerous enemies within the Church than outside it.
Father,
I would like to read or hear what you had say again, it was a bit long but very worthwhile, I brought my lapsed children to Mass and we spent lunch discussing it, I think it made them start to think again about Christian culture.
Happy Easter, Father. I know that you're in A&B, but would you like a Chrism Mass thank-you card?
Gabby, suicide is a sin, even when it's intellectual!
Blair and Bush are armed to the teeth with nuclear arsenals, yet they haven't used them. If Ahmadinejad acquires even a handful of warheads he will certainly use them to wipe Israel off the map unless he is stopped by any means necessary.
He announced today at Natanz that Iran can now enrich uranium on an industrial scale, and will install 3,000 centrifuges which can make enough material for a bomb within a year. They want eventually to install 54,000 of these.
So it is just as well that the Israeli Air Force has been practicing its long-distance flying capability by flying to Gibraltar and back.
A year ago former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres responded to threats made by Iran's President against Israel, saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad represents Satan, not God.
If he can notice this, why can't a Catholic Bishop?
God bless you, Father.
Surrexit Dominus Alleluia!
by their fruits you shall know them, our so called "hostages" have shown no honour selling their story for the quickest buck!what will happen to the next group of our armed forces captured by a hostile foe?
"Chrism Mass thank-you card?"
please
I think the statements of the Bishop of the Forces has very little to say about the Resurrection or the the dark forces of Secular Atheism
Off topic comments will be deleted in furure.
In the areas revealed in1932 census as being most Catholic in Germany, no National Socialists were elected in 1933!
Peter, you're generally right, except that the Nazis did well in East Prussia in spite of the fact of Ermland, the only solidly Catholic part of the province.
Post a Comment