Murray Stanley’s blog

Orthodox - where are the limits of the Church?

Sep 4, 2009
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When dealing with the difficult question of Christian divisions, the Orthodox may wish to bear in mind that God alone knows where the limits of the Church are. As St Augustine said, 'many of those who on earth considered themselves to be alien to the Church will find that on the day of Judgment that they are her citizen; and many of those who thought themselves to be members of the Church will, alas, be found to be alien to her'. To declare that outside of the Orthodox Church there is not and cannot be the grace of God would be to limit God's omnipotence, to confine Him to a framework outside of which He has no right to act.

source: http://www.sourozh.org/web/The_Orthodox_Faith#15

Prayers for the dead: The Lord will have mercy on their souls, that He will grant them eternal rest

Aug 30, 2009

Orthodox Christians pray for the dead so that the Lord will have mercy on their souls, that He will grant them eternal rest "in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," that He will extend His unfathomable love upon them, and that He will receive them into that state "in which there is neither sickness, nor sighing, nor sorrow, but life everlasting." Saint Paul clearly teaches that those who have gone before us are still members of the Body of Christ, the Church. And it is the duty of the members of the Church to pray for one another. Just as the living continually beseech God to have mercy on them and may rightly offer prayers to God on behalf of their living spiritual sisters and brothers as well as request prayers on their own behalf from others so too we have the duty to pray for all members of the Body of Christ, even those who have departed this life and still "belong to Christ." One will find that the early Christians, surrounded as they were by death as a result of official persecution on the part of the Roman Empire, took great care to honor the dead, to bury them with great care and reverence - to the point of offering the Eucharistic celebration on their graves, which is one of the earliest indications of the veneration of their relics! - and to remember them especially on the anniversary of their deaths which were seen as "birthdays" into eternal life. In asking God to have mercy on the souls of the departed, we also ask God to have mercy on us who are still in this life, and we recognize that we too shall die. All members of the Church, living as well as faithful departed, cry before the throne of God, "Lord, have mercy on us."

source: http://www.oca.org/QA.asp?ID=6&SID=3

Homily for 21-06-09

Jun 22, 2009

2nd Sunday after Trinity

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Recently I have been working on a building re-development project on the coast. During the project some of our professional advisors have had to deal at length with the Environment Agency. After many instances of serious flooding in this country in recent years, in response, and for good reason, this agency has been given rather extraordinary powers to oppose any building development or scheme.

What followed was several frustrating months while they decided whether the existing sea wall was adequate and whether it should be able to sustain a ‘one in fifty year’ or a ‘one in two hundred year’ wave event. Whilst they talked about withstanding a ‘one in fifty year’ and ‘one in two hundred year’ event, there did not seem to be any real method for working out or predicting such events. In the process what came across to us, apart from our frustration, was that they really had little idea how to measure or understand the threat from these marine forces. In the end, the factor that probably resolved the case in our favour, was not modern computer models, but the continued presence next door of a building built as a lifeboat station over 150 years ago and ironically probably built just using the practical knowledge of local fishermen who understood (as best they could) and respected the sea rather than any theoretical knowledge about wave probablity.

In our gospel reading we heard the story of the disciples waking Jesus in the midst of a ‘great gale’. They were in great fear of this watery chaos – a chaos that echoes the watery chaos at the beginning of creation.

In our modern society we are insulated and shielded from so many of the physical forces of the earth but when we come individually face to face with these powerful elemental forces there is still that sense of awe, that for example, would make us linger and watch waves crashing against a breakwater in a storm. We become aware of our humanity, our smallness and of God’s power and wonder revealed in creation more intensely at such moments.

In the Old Testament we have the story of the flood and the arc voyaging across the chaos and then we have the story of Jonah, asleep, while the crew of the ship feared the stormy chaos, although in this instance the storm had been caused by Jonah’s disobedience.

So what of Jesus’ little band of disciples in that storm tossed boat? After previously being amongst large crowds this little group had been withdrawing into itself, taking ‘time out’ and moving across to the other side. We have from Saint Mark a portrait of Jesus’ divinity and humanity, all powerful yet resting we are told, on ‘a cushion’ in the rear of the boat (which is where the helmsman would have been!). Here we have a small group of disciples, if you like a small “boat-as-church” surrounded by this watery tumult.

From the Medieval word ‘Navis’ meaning ‘ship’ we have our word ‘nave’, for the nave of the church. This name, is probably drawn from the similarity between the roofing beams inside a medieval church roof and the wooden ribs of a ship. So perhaps the image of the church, as a ship navigating this chaotic world is useful?

Origen, one of the early church fathers wrote of “as many as are in the boat of the holy church will voyage with the Lord across this wave-tossed life”.

So if we ourselves are able to ‘voyage with the Lord’ - surely those original disciples, those same disciples who had spent so much time with Jesus, should have had more “faith” they should have had a better understanding.

But when they said:

Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Is that not a cry that any of us might make as we encounter troubles in our own lives?

In response, Jesus, just as he had exorcised demons and healed the sick, now said to the sea.

‘Peace! Be still!’
Then the wind ceased, and there was dead calm.

Can we imagine that calm, perhaps like one of our early Summer mornings in this beautiful area or perhaps the beauty might have encountered on a calm Mediterranean beach.

When it was all over, in the calm, Jesus turned back to his disciples:

He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’

Although the disciples had lacked faith, they could at least now recognise that something exceptional had happened. They said to themselves:

‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Although in this instance the disciples were saved from death, yet God does not always offer us protection from death. This was something that the first generation of Christian martyrs, who were probably some of the first contemporary readers of Saint Mark’s gospel had to come to understand. They had to face the real threat of death during the increasing roman persecutions.

Rather as the disciples were later to learn after the crucifixion. God saves us through and beyond death, not necessarily ‘from’ death.

We can apply this image of a little ship traversing storm tossed seas both to the church itself and to our own individual lives.

So as we voyage across this ‘wave-tossed’ life how do we put our trust in God?

Just as the worried disciples called for help, should not we, in the same way, approach God with the problems and worries in our own lives.

He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,
‘Peace! Be Still!’
Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

Gospel reading for 21-06-2009

Mark 4. 35-41

When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples,
‘Let us go across to the other side.’

And leaving the crowd behind,
they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.
Other boats were with him.

A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat,
so that the boat was already being swamped.

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion;
and they woke him up and said to him,
‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’

He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,
‘Peace! Be still!’
Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid?
Have you still no faith?’

And they were filled with great awe
and said to one another,
‘Who then is this,
that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Daily Prayer - The Angelus

Jun 14, 2009

The Angelus

V/. The Angel of the Lord brought tidings unto Mary,

R/. And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. (Lk 1:28) Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. (Lk 1:42).

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V/. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord."

R/. "Be it unto me according to thy Word."

Hail Mary, full of grace...

V/. And the Word was made flesh,

R/. And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary, full of grace...

V/. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

R/. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts, that as we have known the Incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by His Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of His Resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

"Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins"

Oct 4, 2008
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Francisbyelgreco

Saint Francis died on the evening of October 3, 1226 singing Psalm 141:

O Lord, I call to you; come to me quickly;
hear my voice when I cry to you.

Let my prayer rise before you as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Set a watch before my mouth, O Lord,
and guard the door of my lips;

Let not my heart incline to any evil thing;
let me not be occupied in wickedness with evildoers,
nor taste the pleasures of their table.

Let the righteous smite me in friendly rebuke;
but let not the oil of the unrighteous anoint my head;
for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.

Let their rulers be overthrown in stony places;
then they may know that my words are sweet.

As when a plough turns over the earth in furrows,
let their bones be scattered at the mouth of the Pit.

But my eyes are turned to you, Lord God;
in you I take refuge; do not leave me defenceless.

Protect me from the snare which they have laid for me
and from the traps of the evildoers.

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.
Psalm 141

Biography

Saint Francis of Assisi (Giovanni Francesco Bernardone; born 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.

He is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment, and Italy, and it is customary for churches to hold ceremonies honoring animals around his feast day of October 4.

Childhood and early adulthood

Francis was one of seven children born to Pietro di Bernardone, a rich cloth merchant, and his wife Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was originally from France. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni di Bernardone in honor of Saint John the Baptist, in the hope he would grow to be a great religious leader. When his father returned to Assisi, he was furious about this, as he did not want his son to be a man of the Church and decided to call him Francesco, in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.

As a youth, Francesco—or Francis in English—became a troubador and yearned to become a writer of French poetry. Although many biographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, street brawls, and love of pleasure, his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar." In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity. When he got home, his father scolded him in rage.

In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia, he was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, and spent a year as a captive. It is probable that his conversion to more serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life and in 1204, a serious illness led to a spiritual crisis. In 1205 Francis left for Puglia to enlist in the army of the Count of Brienne. In Spoleto, a strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening.

It is said that thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions; in response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered "yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen", meaning his "lady poverty". He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the poor, he said he had had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the Church of San Damiano just outside of Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified came alive and said to him three times, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins". He thought this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so sold his horse and some cloth from his father's store, to assist the priest there for this purpose.

His father Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to change his mind, first with threats and then with corporal chastisement. After a final interview in the presence of the bishop, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments he had received from him. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in the region of Assisi. Returning to the town for two years this time, he restored several ruined churches, among them the Porziuncola, little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, just outside the town, which later became his favorite abode.

Founding of the Order of Friars Minor

At the end of this period (according to Jordanus, on 24 February 1209), Francis heard a sermon that changed his life. The sermon was about Matthew 10:9, in which Christ tells his followers that they should go forth and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no money with them, nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty.

Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellow townsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work. Within a year Francis had eleven followers. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest and the community lived as "lesser brothers," fratres minores in Latin.

The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time wandering through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations.

In 1209 Francis led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the cardinal bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent agreed to meet with Francis and the brothers the next day. After several days, the pope agreed to informally admit the group, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. The group was tonsured and Francis was ordained as a deacon, allowing him to read Gospels in the church.

Later life

From then on, his new order grew quickly with new vocations. When hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Rufino in Assisi in 1209, Clare of Assisi became deeply touched by his message and she realized her calling. Her brother Rufino also joined the new order.

On Palm Sunday, 28 March 1211 Francis received Clare at the Porziuncola and hereby established the Order of Poor Dames, later called Poor Clares. In the same year, Francis left for Jerusalem, but he was shipwrecked by a storm on the Dalmatian coast, forcing him to return to Italy.

On 8 May 1213 he received the mountain of La Verna (Alverna) as a gift from the count Orlando di Chiusi who described it as “eminently suitable for whoever wishes to do penance in a place remote from mankind.” The mountain would become one of his favorite retreats for prayer. In the same year, Francis sailed for Morocco, but this time an illness forced him to break off his journey in Spain. Back in Assisi, several noblemen (among them Tommaso da Celano, who would later write the biography of St. Francis) and some well-educated men joined his order.

In 1215 Francis went again to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Council. During this time, he probably met Dominic de Guzman.

In 1216 Francis received from the new pope Honorius III the confirmation of the indulgence of the Porziuncola, now better known as the Pardon of Assisi, which the Pope decreed to be a complete remission of their sins for all those who prayed in the Porziuncola.

In 1217 the growing congregation of friars was divided in provinces and groups were sent to France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and to the East.

In 1219 Francis left, together with a few companions, on a pilgrimage of non-violence to Egypt. Crossing the lines between the sultan and the Crusaders in Damietta, he was received by the sultan Melek-el-Kamel. Francis challenged the Muslim scholars to a test of true religion by fire; but they retreated. When Francis proposed to enter the fire first, under the condition that if he left the fire unharmed, the sultan would have to recognize Christ as the true God, the sultan was so impressed that he allowed Francis to preach to his subjects. Though Francis did not succeed in converting the sultan, the last words of the sultan to Francis of Assisi were, according to Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre, in his book "Historia occidentalis, De Ordine et praedicatione Fratrum Minorum (1221)" : “Pray for me that God may deign to reveal to me that law and faith which is most pleasing to him.”.

At Acre, the capital of what remained of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he rejoined the brothers Elia and Pietro Cattini. Francis then most probably visited the holy places in Palestine in 1220.

Although nativity drawings and paintings existed earlier, St Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas by setting up the first known three-dimensional presepio or crèche (Nativity scene) in the town of Greccio near Assisi, around 1220. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight. Thomas of Celano, a biographer of Francis and Saint Bonaventure both tell how he only used a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey. According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.

When receiving a report of the martyrdom of five brothers in Morocco, Francis returned to Italy via Venice. Cardinal Ugolino di Conti was then nominated by the Pope as the protector of the order. When problems arose in the order, a detailed rule became necessary. On September 29, 1220 Francis handed over the governance of the order to brother Pietro Cattini at the Porziuncola. However, Brother Cattini died on March 10, 1221. He was buried in the Porziuncola. When numerous miracles were attributed to the late Pietro Cattini, people started to flock to the Porziuncola, disturbing the daily life of the Franciscans. Francis then prayed, asking Pietro to stop the miracles and obey in death as he had obeyed during his life. The report of miracles ceased. Brother Pietro was succeeded by brother Elia as vicar of Francis.

During 1221 and 1222 Francis crossed Italy, first as far south as Catania in Sicily and afterwards as far north as Bologna.

On November 29, 1223 the final rule of the order (in twelve chapters) was approved by Pope Honorius III.

While he was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a forty day fast in preparation for Michaelmas (September 29), Francis is said to have had a vision on or about September 14, 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata. Brother Leo, who had been with Francis at the time, left a clear and simple account of the event, the first definite account of the phenomenon of stigmata. "Suddenly he saw a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave him the gift of the five wounds of Christ."

Suffering from these Stigmata and from an eye disease, he received care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. In the end he was brought back to the Porziuncola. He was brought to the "transito," the hut for infirm friars, next to the Porziuncola. Here, in the place where it all began, feeling the end approaching, he spent the last days of his life dictating his spiritual testament. He died on the evening of October 3, 1226 singing Psalm 141.

On July 16, 1228 he was pronounced a saint by the next pope Gregory IX, the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend and protector of St Francis. The next day, the pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

He was buried on May 25, 1230 under the Lower Basilica. His burial place remained inaccessible until it was rediscovered in 1818. Pasquale Belli then constructed for his remains a crypt in neo-classical style under the Lower Basilica. It was refashioned between 1927 and 1930 into its present form by Ugo Tarchi, stripping the wall of its marble decorations. In 1978 the remains of St. Francis were identified by a commission of scholars, appointed by Pope Paul VI and put in a glass urn in the ancient stone tomb.

Saint Francis is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics. He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language, and he wrote always in the dialect of Umbria instead of Latin. His writings are considered to have great literary value, as well as religious.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

Michael and All Angels - Sept 29

Sep 29, 2008
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Michael and All Angels

Everlasting God,

you have ordained and constituted

the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:

grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,

so, at your command,

they may help and defend us on earth;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words..

Sep 28, 2008
2 comments

city towers

With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words, but fear God.
If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and right, do not be amazed at the matter; for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But all things considered, this is an advantage for a land: a king for a ploughed field.
The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.
When goods increase, those who eat them increase; and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
Sweet is the sleep of the labourers, whether they eat little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let them sleep.

Ecclesiastes 5. 7-12

Oil of the Sick - Holy Anointing

Sep 26, 2008
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Holy Anointing has been rescued from being thought of as only for those who are dying. It is for everyone who is in sickness of mind, body or spirit. Through this Holy Anointing we experience the Lord's healing touch.

It may be that he calls us to fully recover and return to our daily work;
It may be that he calls us to share a little in his own sufferings and to learn patience;
It may be that he gives us the gift of quiet confidence and courage as we begin the journey from our home and friends in this world to join that great company of Angels and Saints who gather around our Father's throne in heaven. It was the great saint Cyprian who, when he was dying, declared "I'm coming Lord, as fast as I can!"

Whatever his call to us, through this Holy Anointing he always gives us the gift we need in order that we may answer that call faithfully and generously.

The Holy Oils are blessed by the Bishop at the Chrism Mass celebrated on or near Maundy Thursday. At that mass he receives the renewal of Priestly Vows of all those who are members of his College of Priests (his Presbyterium). He blesses three oils to be used in his and their priestly ministry - a tangible sign that their ministry is one and the same.

Oil of Catechumens
Oil of Chrism
Oil of the Sick

source: from notes in guide to Church of Saint Peter the Apostle, Plymouth

Anglicans join in Lourdes Jubilee

Sep 25, 2008
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Acns4527f

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams, joined some 600 Anglicans for a pilgrimage at world-renowned shrine of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in the south of France. The five day visit was sponsored by the Society of Mary and the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham, two Anglican devotional societies that honour the person of the Virgin Mary in devotion and prayer, find Anglicans sharing the Jubilee celebration of the establishing of the shrine in 1858.

Seven bishops and some 60 priests joined in a concelebrated Anglican Eucharist in the Upper Basilica of the main church. The Anglican group has had a warm welcome by shrine officials and the pilgrimage is listed in the special shrine Jubilee programme for 2008. The Archbishop preached at the International Mass, with Cardinal Kaspar of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Christian Unity as the celebrant.The day marks the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, the title given to Mary at the Anglican Shrine in the tiny village of Walsinghan, Norfolk, England where Anglicans gather in the thousands each May.

Walsingham also has chapels run by the Orthodox and Roman Catholics.

The Lourdes pilgrimage consists of prayers and Communion and times of quiet. Processions are held including the beloved candlelight gathering late in the evening. Lourdes is the place where a young girl named Bernadette, experienced a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary. The placed is known for its grotto and springs of water that are said to have healing properties; thus on the grounds one sees many people in wheelchairs and others being helped by shrine volunteers.

At the International Mass on Wednesday the Archbishop of Canterbury preached to over 20,000 people.

Ends

http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2008/9/25/ACNS4527

Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon for the International Mass at Lourdes

Sep 24, 2008
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Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes

Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon for the International Mass at Lourdes

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes at the International Mass of 24 September 2008 (the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham).

The sermon text in full:

‘The babe in my womb leaped for joy.’ (Luke 1.44)

Mary comes to visit Elizabeth, carrying Jesus in her womb. The Son of God is still invisible – not yet born, not even known about by Elizabeth; yet Elizabeth recognises Mary as bearing within her the hope and desire of all nations, and life stirs in the deep places of her own body. The one who will prepare the way for Jesus, John the Baptist, moves as if to greet the hope that is coming, even though it cannot yet be seen.

Mary appears to us here as the first missionary, ‘the first messenger of the gospel’ as Bishop Perrier of Lourdes has called her: the first human being to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to another; and she does it simply by carrying Christ within her. She reminds us that mission begins not in delivering a message in words but in the journey towards another person with Jesus in your heart. She testifies to the primary importance of simply carrying Jesus, even before there are words or deeds to show him and explain him. This story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is in many ways a very strange one; it’s not about the communication of rational information from one speaker to another, but a primitive current of spiritual electricity running from the unborn Christ to the unborn Baptist. But mission it undoubtedly is, because it evokes recognition and joy. Something happens that prepares the way for all the words that will be spoken and the deeds that will be done. The believer comes with Christ dwelling in them by faith, and God makes that current come alive, and a response begins, not yet in words or commitments, but simply in recognising that here is life.

When Mary came to Bernardette, she came at first as an anonymous figure, a beautiful lady, a mysterious ‘thing’, not yet identified as the Lord’s spotless Mother. And Bernardette – uneducated, uninstructed in doctrine – leapt with joy, recognising that here was life, here was healing. Remember those accounts of her which speak of her graceful, gliding movements at the Lady’s bidding; as if she, like John in Elizabeth’s womb, begins to dance to the music of the Incarnate Word who is carried by his Mother. Only bit by bit does Bernardette find the words to let the world know; only bit by bit, we might say, does she discover how to listen to the Lady and echo what she has to tell us.

So there is good news for all of us who seek to follow Jesus’ summons to mission in his Name; and good news too for all who find their efforts slow and apparently futile, and for all who still can’t find their way to the ‘right’ words and the open commitment. Our first and overarching task is to carry Jesus, gratefully and faithfully, with us in all our doings: like St Teresa of Avila, we might do this quite prosaically by having with us always a little picture or a cross in our pockets, so that we constantly ‘touch base’ with the Lord. We can do it by following the guidance of the Orthodox spiritual tradition and repeating silently the Jesus Prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me, a sinner’. And if we are faithful in thus carrying Christ with us, something will happen, some current will stir and those we are with will feel, perhaps well below the conscious surface, a movement of life and joy which they may not understand at all. And we may never see it or know about it; people may not even connect it with us, yet it will be there – because Jesus speaks always to what is buried in the heart of men and women, the destiny they were made for. Whether they know it or not, there is that within them which is turned towards him. Keep on carrying Jesus and don’t despair: mission will happen, in spite of all, because God in Christ has begun his journey into the heart.

And when we encounter those who say they would ‘like to believe’ but can’t, who wonder how they will ever find their way to a commitment that seems both frightening and hard to understand, we may have something to say to them too: ‘Don’t give up; try and hold on to the moments of deep and mysterious joy; wait patiently for something to come to birth in you.’ It certainly isn’t for us as Christians to bully and cajole, and to try and force people into commitments they are not ready to make – but we can and should seek to be there, carrying Jesus, and letting his joy come through, waiting for the leap of recognition in someone’s heart.

Of course, as often as not, we ourselves are the one who need to hear the good news; we need people around us who carry Jesus, because we who call ourselves believers all have our moments of confusion and loss of direction. Others fail us or hurt us; the Church itself may seem confused or weak or even unloving, and we don’t feel we are being nourished as we need, and directed as we should be. Yet this story of Mary and Elizabeth tells us that the Incarnate Word of God is always already on the way to us, hidden in voices and faces and bodies familiar and unfamiliar. Silently, Jesus is constantly at work, and he is seeking out what is deepest in us, to touch the heart of our joy and hope.

Perhaps when we feel lost and disillusioned, he is gently drawing us away from a joy or a hope that is only human, limited to what we can cope with or what we think on the surface of our minds that we want. Perhaps it’s part of a journey towards his truth, not just ours. We too need to look and listen for the moments of recognition and the leap of joy deep within. It may be when we encounter a person in whom we sense that the words we rather half-heartedly use about God are a living and actual reality. (That’s why the lives of the saints, ancient and modern, matter so much.) It may be when a moment of stillness or wonder suddenly overtakes us in the middle of a familiar liturgy that we think we know backwards, and we have for a second the feeling that this is the clue to everything – if only we could put it into words. It may be when we come to a holy place, soaked in the hopes and prayers of millions, and suddenly see that, whatever we as individuals may be thinking or feeling, some great reality is moving all around and beneath and within us, whether we grasp it or not. These are our ‘Elizabeth’ moments – when life stirs inside, heralding some future with Christ that we can’t yet get our minds around.

It’s very tempting to think of mission as something to be done in the same way we do – or try to do – so much else, with everything depending on planning and assessments of how we’re doing, and whether the results are coming out right. For that matter, it’s tempting to think of the Church’s whole life in these sorts of terms. Of course we need to use our intelligence, we need to be able to tell the difference between good and bad outcomes, we need to marshal all the skill and enthusiasm we can when we respond to God’s call to share his work of transforming the world through Jesus and his Spirit. But Mary’s mission tells us that there is always a deeper dimension, grounded in the Christ who is at work unknown and silent, reaching out to the deeply buried heart of each person and making the connection; living faithfully at the heart of the Church itself, in the middle of its disasters and betrayals and confusions, still giving himself without reserve. All that we call ‘our’ mission depends on this; and if we are wise, we know that we are always going to be surprised by the echoes and connections that come to life where we are not expecting it.

True mission is ready to be surprised by God – ‘surprised by joy’, in the lovely phrase of C. S. Lewis. Elizabeth knew the whole history of Israel and how it was preparing the way for God to come and visit his people – but she was still surprised into newness of life and understanding when the child leapt in her womb. Bernardette’s neighbours and teachers and parish clergy knew all they thought they needed to know about the Mother of God – and they needed to be surprised by this inarticulate, powerless, marginal teenager who had leapt up in the joy of recognition to meet Mary as her mother, her sister, bearer of her Lord and Redeemer. Our prayer here must be that, renewed and surprised in this holy place, we may be given the overshadowing strength of the Spirit to carry Jesus wherever we go, in the hope that joy will leap from heart to heart in all our human encounters; and that we may also be given courage to look and listen for that joy in our own depths when the clarity of the good news seems far away and the sky is cloudy.

But here today, with Elizabeth and Bernardette, we say, in thankful amazement, ‘Why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ And we recognise that our heart’s desire is met and the very depth of our being stirred into new life.

source: http://www.aco.org/acns/digest/index.cfm/2008/9/24/Archbishop-of-Canterburys-sermon-for-the-International-Mass-at-Lourdes