Cardinal John Henry Newman to become Blessed

This evening, I opened the Vatican Information service email that drops into my inbox and was filled with joy as I scrolled down.

It reads:

DECREES OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS

"VATICAN CITY, 3 JUL 2009 (VIS) - Today, during a private audience with Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees:"

Then, under miracles:

"Servant of God John Henry Newman, English cardinal and founder of the Oratories of St. Philip Neri in England (1801-1890)."

What a great day for English Catholicism. It's not often you see miracles approved for the cause of an Englishmen. In fact, there probably hasn't been one in my lifetime. How exciting.

Amid all the stuff about lack of vocations, dwindling Mass numbers, child abuse scandals, increasing secularisation, closure of Catholic adoption agencies because of an ass of a law, rampant abortion, creeping euthanasia - it is announced that we have beatified Englishman for the first time in decades. What a breath of fresh air. Lets hope Newman will inspire young Catholics to be counter cultural.

Public meeting

A public meeting led by John Smeaton, National Director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), takes place in Hull on Tuesday, July 14. John's talk will be on the pro-life battle ahead.

It's on at St Joseph's Church Hall, Pickering Road, Hull, HU4 6TN and starts at 7.30pm. Light refreshments will be provided.

Retreat in Hornsea

Well, that was a bit different. Five days in total silence apart from praying aloud at Mass and talking to a priest for half an hour each day if you wanted to. A culture shock. However, after an initial spiritual wobble in the first 24 hours, it was a fantastic experience and one that I recommend.

It was an Ignatian retreat led by 79-year-old Jesuit priest Father John Edwards. We followed the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius condensed into four full days and two half-days. After the first conference on the Monday evening, I wondered what on earth I was doing there. Five days precious holiday from work just to be silent and engage in intense prayer. Why was I not at home in the pub or watching Wimbledon? How am I going to keep this up until Saturday morning? I discovered over lunch before we left that most of the other lay retreatants had the same feelings.

Father William Massie, who organised the retreat, had been on at me for months, strongly encouraging me to take the week off and give it a go. Reluctantly, I sorted it out although, in my heart of hearts, I really didn't want to make the commitment. But after about 24 hours I settled down.

There were nine of us in total, six laymen and three priests (including Fr John), and Catholic and Loving It came for the day on Friday. Each day consisted of two conferences, a number of periods of meditation, Mass, and meal times. The rest of the day was your own, although silence and solitude were the "laboratory conditions" recommended to discern what the Holy Spirit is saying. So, no TV, pubs, cinema talking etc. The only time you heard friends speak was when they read as Mass. It is a hard task for many of us to get through.

However, Hornsea, a picturesque East Yorkshire coastal town, is ideal for quiet walks along the sea front. The only problem is, of course, Yorkshire people are so friendly they start a conversation with you as they walk their dogs. I also went out for a run each afternoon. Walking on the beach did make me chuckle as I was reminded of those kind of school day retreats or "reflection days" where that "footprints" story was read out and we were all supposed to be bowled over by. This retreat was millions of miles ahead of that.

The meditations are centered around asking for a particular grace each time. In these periods of prayer you can expect thoughts of both desolation and consolation which are useful to jot down. The first 24 hours was focused on the basics: a preparatory prayer, principle and foundation. The grace to ask for, a great way to start any period of prayer, was:

I ask Our Lord God for grace that all my intentions, actions and operations may be ordained solely to the service and praise of His Divine Majesty.

During the first half of the week, we asked for the grace to be ashamed and confused about our sins, for great pain and tears for them and not to be deaf to God's call. As the retreat progressed, we focused on the grace for an interior knowledge of Christ by experiencing his infancy and public life before entering into the Passion narratives to experience a sense of sorrow for his pains for us. As I was hoping, towards the end, we moved on to the Resurrection and the grace to be intensely glad and rejoice in such great joy and glory of Christ the risen Lord. The retreat ended with a focus on an interior knowledge of the great benefits received in life in order that we may love and serve Our Lord. In each of these phases, specific texts were recommended for reflection.

Fr John's conferences were powerful in many parts. He reassured us that we couldn't go wrong with the retreat, however much we thought the prayer wasn't going too well. He had some intriguing interpretations of some of the Gospel narratives, including the calling of Levi and the woman with a bad name who anointed and kissed Jesus and was forgiven.

On the Sacrament of Confession, he said that receiving absolution was like un-nailing Jesus from the Cross. Christ comes bursting in and says "follow me" as opposed to enrolling us on a long remedial apprenticeship towards a full relationship with him again. He described the sacrament as a court, where the defendant is the prosecution, both the judge and jury are God and where the verdict is already determined as "case dismissed".

He talked about the difference between enclosed religious and those of us living and working in the secular world. He described an enclosed order of nuns or monks as a "witness to the kingdom established" but that people working in secular institutes are God's "undercover agents".

Just like the stereotypical Catholic, I'm not really up on scripture. Very rarely do I read the Bible and, sometimes, I find it difficult to tune in to the readings at Mass. But the retreat allowed for lots of steady, silent, guided scripture meditation which opened up no end of doors. It's amazing how much you miss from accounts of the Passion, for instance. Never had I registered the fact that in Mark's account of the Passion, a young man runs away naked when Jesus is arrested. Many commentators think that was Mark himself. In another example, I only recently realised about the "holy men" who are immediately resurrected from the dead when Jesus dies on the Cross. To pick up these details and spending time pondering on the characters in the narratives is a thoroughly worthwhile thing to do.

This devoted prayer around the Bible simply blows you away with particular bits of scripture. When asking for the Grace to "be intensely glad and rejoice in such great glory of Christ, Our Lord", I read Romans 8. I was taking notes throughout the week but, in this instance, found myself virtually writing the whole thing out. "Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the thing human nature desires; those who live in the spirit have their minds on spiritual things. And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the spirit looks forward to life and peace, because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law and indeed it cannot, and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God... So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it." An important message for us Catholics in the secular world.

These kinds of things jump out at you on a retreat. As Fr John said, if you invited one of you friends to such an event, many of them "would think you were out of your mind". But, for any young Catholic serious about their faith, I would encourage them to try out something like this at least once in their life. Although very challenging, it's very spiritually edifying and deepens your relationship with God. It takes a lot of commitment, especially if you work, but the rewards are plentiful. Why not give it a go?

Retreat

I'm off this week and am about to set out from Hull to the small seaside town of Hornsea for a five-day retreat led by Father John Edwards. I've never been on a proper retreat - let alone a silent one.

It's quite a daunting prospect, therefore, for someone who frantically speaks to lots of people throughout each day to do this. But I'm sure it's a very worthwhile thing to do. I'll post about the experiences and the conferences afterwards.

Corpus Christi

Last Thursday I walked past Saints Peter and Paul C of E Church in Kettering on my way to St Edward's for exposition and benediction. The Anglican Church a striking 500 year-old structure. Usually on a Thursday evening it's bell practice. But last week, the doors were open and a procession was going on to begin a service with rousing hymns.

I was a bit puzzled as to what the occasion was but forgot about it and continued on to St Edward's. The next day I asked one of my colleagues (who is an Anglican in the town) what might have been the occasion last night. She said "Oh, it's a big Chrisitian festival, you know. I can't remember what it's called."

"Is it a saint's day? I asked. "No," she replied, "It's erm..." Then it suddenly dawned on me. It was Corpus Christi.

How embarrassing, I thought. The Anglican church holding a special service to mark the feastday of Corpus Christi, even though they don't have the Real Presence of Christ on their altars. And the Catholic Church in England and Wales who do? Well, after years, they now celebrate Corpus Christi on a Sunday since the bishops' conference decided to move several holy days of obligation to a Sunday. A lot of people couldn't be bothered to go so by moving it to a Sunday, people won't be committing a mortal sin any more. How ironic.

Sunday Plus

Many parishes in the UK, including my home parish in Hull, uses "Sunday Plus" on the back of their leaflets, a weekly page published by Redemptorist publications.

During the homily and before Mass starts the page is read by many in the Congregation. For many parishioners, this is the only bit of formation, catechises, teaching they will get apart from the priest's homily. You would think that both the writers and the parish priests would hope the sheet is as inspiring and informative as possible, to capture the moment. It is concerning, therefore, that so many parishes offer what is, dare I say it, wishy washy drivel, week in week out.

Take this Sunday's as an example, Corpus Christi. On such a feastday it would be great to read about the Eucharist as the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, the physical presence of Jesus on this planet that strengthens and nourishes us. It would be great to be reminded of the importance of Eucharistic adoration where we can encounter Jesus in an intimate way. Instead we get this account from hermit Rachel Denton:

When I first made my commitment to hermitage life, there was some debate as to whether the Blessed Sacrament could be reserved in the hermitage. In the end, and despite the enormous privilege, I decided against it...

My understanding of the Real Presence is one of a moment, an event, rather than the (limited) physical presence of a person or thing...

Christ is with us in all moments of life. This is the moment in which the hermitage seeks to exist in its entirety, in the garden, or the kitchen or the workshop, or the bath. To hold the Blessed Sacrament in reserve in the oratory seems, for me, to draw the focus away from that wider tabernacle - to suggest there might be a better place to be than here, a holier time than the moment which is now.

I admire anyone who gives their life to prayer for the world. I simply couldn't do it. But I'm afraid Rachel's account is simply not the message we need to be giving people. To me, not having the Blessed Sacrament in that situation is simply bonkers. If we believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist than surely it makes sense to encounter him as many times as possible? We can't go on feeding the laity poor examples like this.

Comment on elections

The European Parliament elections was a humbling experience for Labour. People disillusioned in the wake of the expenses scandal, disgusted at the lack of morality in politics and genuine astonishment at Gordon Brown's apparent presence on another planet in assessing his own position as prime minister were all factors in Labour's worst result for a generation and for a low turnout across the board. Both in the county council and European elections, you had parties winning seats with less votes than they achieved last time out.

Unfortunately for us pro-life Christians, the last thing on the electorate's mind was concern about the European Union's promotion of abortion and reproductive healthcare both in this continent and beyond or the decline in Christian values in Europe. That is except a small (but sizable) minority who made a point by voting for the Christian Party, including me.

While Labour came third in the election, the Christian Party came eighth. They received a total of 249,493 votes - 1.6 per cent of votes cast. They fielded candidates in all regions in Britain, the first time a Christian party had done this.

The party, a coalition of the Christian People's Alliance and the Christian Party, promised in its manifesto to oppose moves to impose abortionism on newer member states. They say: "Easy access to abortion in Britain has led to increased exploitation of women, not their 'liberation'. Abortion violates the dignity and integrity of women. It leaves a trail of anger, guilt, resentment, depression and loss of self-respect. Whenever we act or speak, we pledge to do so without judging or condemning any individual, especially not any woman who has been involved in abortion."

They add: "Our aim is to end the intentional conception of human embryos, including cloning and by IVF, so that they may be killed for their parts. There are other ways of finding stem cells for medical research that are not morally and ethically questionable."

Whatever your views on whether Christians should form their own political movement, you can't deny that for Catholics this manifesto is appealing. I'm not telling people how to vote. I'm not saying I accept everything approach they make to every issue. They were pretty obsessed with helping to keep the British National Party out of London (something that they have claimed to have done) as opposed to fully focussing on putting their policies out there. But you've got to admit, no party since the Pro-Life Alliance stood a few years ago has a positive, pro-life message.

It is encouraging, therefore, to learn that 1.6 per cent of the electorate who bothered to vote in the UK this time around put their cross next to a Christian party. This sends a small, but strong message to those vehement secularists who want to see Christians and Christian values out of public life and their religious practices confined to privacy.

The most noticeable headline has been the concerning news about two European Parliament seats being won by the British National Party. Moves towards European integration after the end of the Second World War were made for the precise reason of uniting against extremist nationalism that had resulted in the extermination of six million people executed by the Nazis. The first move to unite the continent in friendliness was by the setting up of the European Coal and Steel Community which was followed by the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957.

Now, the European Union has power to make laws and has a directly elected parliament. Last week, a neo-Nazi party won two seats in that legislature. The original intention behind those who sought European integration has been quite clearly contradicted. This surely puts a large question mark over the future of the European Union as we know it?