Sunday 23 February 2020 — Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

I am struck by the litany of St Gregory which I always read after Mass in the Holy Rood.

“From eternal death, deliver us, O Lord.”

That is a more powerful way of putting it than going on about eternal life.

That is what the atheists are offering us: eternal death. Surely none of us wants that, or even think it very likely.

Monday 24 February 2020

I manage to get to Mass at the Cathedral.

“But if at heart you have the bitterness of jealousy, or a self-seeking ambition, never make any claims for yourself.” (James 3)

Well — easily said, not so easily done. We are all at the centre of our own little universe.

Tuesday 25 February 2020 — Shrove Tuesday

James 4:1

“Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn’t it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves?”

Precisely.

Wednesday 26 February 2020 — Ash Wednesday

I can’t do my usual and listen to Allegri’s Miserere at the 5:30 Mass so I make do with the Latin one at 10:30. Very calm and peaceful.

I am always struck by this passage from Matthew 6:

“Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men.”

Should I be doing this blog at all? Or just keep quiet?

Thursday 27 February 2020

I am at Wilton Park for an FCO conference on Nigeria and religious violence. What a delight to have Mass for just six of us said by the Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, Cardinal Onaiyekan. So calm and spiritual in all this talk of violence.

Friday 28 February 2020

I go to Evensong in Lincoln Cathedral. Always a delight to listen to Cranmer’s prose. No one can ruin this service: it is incapable of change.

The huge empty nave, luckily with no chairs — a silent witness.

Saturday 29 February 2020

A reading of a psalm in the village church.

“Turn your ear, O Lord, and give answer: for I am poor and needy.” (Psalm 85)

Sunday 16 February 2020 — Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“He has set fire and water before you.
Put out you hand to whichever you prefer.”

This is our choice.

“Man has life and death before him. Whichever a man likes better will be given him.”

These words from Ecclesiasticus are so true.

We wonder why God allows evil. He doesn’t will it: it is our free will which ordains it.

“He never commanded anyone to be godless.”

The world increasingly rejects God, ignores Him. Doesn’t even think on Him. This is our free will.

In the afternoon we go to our village church for evening prayer. We are the entire congregation at that beautiful service.

We hear the story of Genesis from the King James Bible. We think how could all this be true when we are but a speck of dust in this universe of trillions of stars.

Yes, but as the priest tells us, we may be, humanity, the point of the needle. Needles have a point. That is their point. There may be a purpose in all this. It is our choice whether to believe.

Monday 17 February 2020

“Your faith is only put to the test to make you patient.” (James)

My faith is so weak that my patience is indeed tested. I sometimes think that I will never truly and wholly believe til I am dead.

Tuesday 18 February 2020

I am struck by this phrase sitting in our village church:

“When sin is fully grown, it too has a child, and the child is Death.” (James 1:12)

Is that not a powerful phrase to conjure with?

Wednesday 19 February 2020

Today’s Mass is at Farm Street, the 150th anniversary of the Catholic Union.

“Be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to rouse your temper.” (James 1)

Wise words often not heeded, at least within the mind.

There is an exhibition at the Tate. The religious pictures from James II’s chapel in Whitehall Palace leave me strangely unmoved. Perhaps too ornate and mannered?

Thursday 20 February 2020

Before driving up to Lincolnshire I go to Mass in the Cathedral. There is a powerful sermon on the theme of “Who do people say that I Am”. Peter answers “the Christ”, but what do we say? Just a good man, or a liar, or Christ? Given His claim He can either be the Christ or a liar. I choose the former sitting there. Elsewhere, doubts creep in.

Friday 21 February 2020

I read Psalm 112 alone in our church.

“Praise the Lord, ye servants:
O praise the name of the Lord.”

You can watch Compline on YouTube now. It is quite a soothing way of going to bed. A single monk alone in his candlelit cell singing the office.

Belief comes slowly and with practice.

“Let dreams depart and phantoms fly, the offspring of the night…”

Saturday 22 February 2020 — The Chair of St Peter

The church is being cleaned and I walk up the hill to see the hunt riding by and read Universalis.

“The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose.”

Appropriate, with great emerald views stretching away twenty miles to the south.

The words of Compline from Psalm 4 spring to mind:

“What can bring us happiness, many say.
Lift up the light of Your face on us, O Lord.”

That is why I turn to religion. It makes me happy, or did so the first time I heard the monks singing Compline and went to bed with their words in my mind.

Tuesday 11 February 2020

Someone writes in to complain about my reading in the cathedral. I should not have said “Responsorial Psalm”. How petty can you get? So here is the responsorial psalm for today:

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts.
My soul is longing and yearning,
is yearning for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my soul ring out their joy.

Isn’t this the point?

Wednesday 12 February 2020

I start to walk up the aisle to be a Eucharistic minister in the crypt chapel and am turned back at the altar rail by Father Pat due to Coronavirus. Communion will not be taken in both kinds. Not my week.

We hear of the Queen of Sheba. “She brought immense riches to Jerusalem.”

Thursday 13 February 2020

I go to the 5:30 Mass in the Cathedral, carefully sitting in the back and noting what the reader says. “The reading is taken from the Book of Kings.”

I got that wrong too.

“When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods, and his heart was not wholly with the Lord.”

Nor is mine. It wanders all the time. Today to the reshuffle and the sudden demise of the Chancellor. Such pointless badges of power.

Friday 14 February 2020 — St Cyril, Monk

I am back in the village church in the total quiet.

These are holy men who became friends of God, glorious heralds divine truth.

Saturday 15 February 2020

I forget Universalis on my iPhone so I just have the Book of Common Prayer.

Psalm 116 (117):

Oh praise the Lord all you nations
Acclaim Him all you peoples
Strong is His love for us
He is faithful for ever.

That says it all.

St Paul Miki & Companions

Monday 3 February 2020 (4th Week in Ordinary Time)

I must have attended scores, even hundreds, of meekly masses in the Cathedral but for the first time ever I arrive and Mary asks me to do a reading. Very happy but for the first time I can remember I have conjunctivitis.

The reading is very long, all about David fleeing Absalom.

Here I am with the vast cathedral stretching before me and I can barely read the text through my tears. The priest must think me an awful bore reading so slowly. He rattles off the Gospel.

Anyway, divine punishment!

David then made his way up the Mount of Olives weeping as he went, his head covered, his feet bare. (2 Samuel 15:13

Tuesday 4 February

I am back in the Cathedral luckily only listening.

Poor old Absalom.

Jacob took three lances in his hand and thrust them into his heart while he was still alive there in the oak tree. (2 Samuel 18:19)

Wherever I read this I think of father-son relationships. However they are, even open rebellion, they the sons are the most precious of objects.

Wednesday 5 February – St Agatha

It is Mass in the crypt chapel.

David said to God: this is a hard choice. (2 Sam 29:8)

All choices are hard. Does God give us choices? Do we have a choice? Is there a God? Is it all random or pre-ordained? God or no God? Why worry. Anyway, David chooses the least of three evils. That’s all we can do.

Thursday 6 February – St Paul Miki

I have a question to answer in the House so I miss the 10:30 Mass. But I could have gone to the early one — too idle.

Compared to the Japanese martyrs our faith and commitment is as small as a mustard seed when compared to the tree. I doubt, thrown into the cares of the world at the side of the path, it will ever grow much bigger than a dandelion.

Friday 7 February

I am alone in the village church. I read Psalm 17: “Praise be the God Who sees me.”

It is very easy sitting there, the light streaming in through the south-facing windows.

There and then, just for a moment, He is here. He sees me. One leaves the church door and of course one forgets.

Saturday 8 February

I am reading Psalm 118: “Lord, teach me our statues. With my tongue I have recounted the decrees of your lips.”

Sunday 9 February — 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

There is no 5:30 Mass at Osgodby. The storm must have cancelled it. So we go to St Hugh’s in Lincoln for the 6:30 Mass.

“No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub. They put it on a lamp stand.” (Matthew 5:13)

I am mainly looking after Sofka so I miss today’s saint who apparently saw a great light around England.

Monday 10 February – St Scholastica

I am in the Cathedral and asked to read again. This time I can see.

“The cloud filled the temple of the Lord.” (1 Kings)

But this time I could at least see this latter-day temple.