This Saturday Fr Serafino Lanzetta FFI is leading a Lenten day of prayer on 'Spiritual Combat' in our parish, it is open to anyone who wants to attend, There are fast trains from London,,,,,
The day starts with Mass at 10.00am (in the OF).
10.30am Talk
11:00am Rosary
11.30am Coffee and Q and A sesssion
12.30pm Lunch and time for conversation
1.30pm Exposition and Benediction
2.30pm Talk
3.00pm Divine Mercy
3.30pm Coffee and Conversation
4.00pm Finish
Bring something to share for lunch
Fr Serafino has been described as one of the most brilliant young theologians of his generation, He is very much wthin the Franciscan tradition that has cme to us through St Maximllian Kolbe and St Pio, with a good shot of Ratzingerian hermeneutics. Fr Serafino was of course very much part of that Roman Conferencee that took such a dim view of Karl Rahner and earned the displeasure of many influential Jsuits.
I can well understand why Bishop Egan invited him to come Portsmouth and to bring a community. When I visit him and the community in Gosport, I was impressed by both by their youth and their gentleness and humility. They sang Sext in a whisper, how six brothers and two priests managed to fit into a presbytery that formerly was occupied by a solitary secular priest I don't know. In order to talk Fr Serafino and I had to go to the parish hall. Encountering Franciscan poverty is a good beginning to Lent. I was touched by their insistance that they eat well and 'we don't eat food that is out of date'. They seemed to have the same air about them that I enconter with other refugees, a sense of deep gratitude that they have found someone who will welcome them and somewher to rest but with a deep sense of loss and a fear that they simply did not know what the future might bring.Come on Saturday if you can, but remember the friars and sisters, there is also a commnity of sister in Gosport, in your prayers.
5 comments:
Glad you've moved on to another post Father as each time I saw the heading 'Walls' visions of pork sausages and ice cream came to mind and made me reach for the biscuit tin! Thank you for organising the day of prayer and hope to attend.
Thank you for letting me know about this, Father. I think I'll come down there from Cambridge if I can get an early enough train. As it happens I've just begun reading Dom Scupoli's 'Spiritual Combat', and I've always wanted to meet Fr Lanzetta's community (Gosport, alas, is a bit too far).
Could someone please record the meditations for the rest of us who would love to be there but are too far away (in my case, over the Pond) and post them to your blog site, Father? Or alternatively, if they are written, even better to post the written versions.
I echo "Pelerin" but I cannot attend although I would love to do so. 12,000 miles is a bit too far to come for a day.
Dear Father, slightly off topic but I have the exact same Our Lady statue as the one in the picture. Except mine has had several house moves and I have children and she is a little chipped. I would like a new statue but I have searched a lot and the faces are not quite right. I brought her in Gozo, Malta. Do you know where the statue in the picture comes from? I would love to purchase one.
Thank you.
Heather
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