Issue 71 - The Pilgrim - May 2018 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

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Feature/Family Life The Pilgrim May 2018 By David Brum The Love Heals Body, Mind and Spirit Ministry was formed in 2004 after a meeting with Sister Betty Nina in Kerala India. We had heard of Sister Betty through a sister of her order who was working here in the UK as a gynecologist in the National Health Service. A group of us attended a retreat in Kerala and Sister Betty introduced us to the teachings of the Medical Sisters of St Joseph. The main idea was that love heals through the body, mind and spirit, and that negative thoughts and actions lead to a downward spiral of mental health, physical sickness and a lack of spiritual wellbeing. Sister Betty is now the spiritual director of Love Heals Body, Mind, and Spirit Ministry, and she has attended many retreats in the UK. The ministry is reflective, meditative, scripture orientated, and promoted through Scripture based talks, Christian meditation, and healing prayers at regular retreats. The principle goal of the ministry is to strive for self sanctification and the sanctification of others through the healing ministry and thereby establish the Kingdom of God through our Catholic faith. The first retreats were held in 2004 at Our Lady Immaculate in Tolworth. The parish priest at the time was Canon Anthony Charlton, who is now serving at St Thomas of Canterbury in Canterbury. He was instrumental in helping us to gain confidence and a fuller understanding of what it takes to organise and run a ministry. After running retreats for a time at Tolworth, the team decided that we needed a base nearer and more accessible to central London, where we could encourage more people to get involved. We moved to the St Vincent De Paul Centre in Victoria and we ran retreats there for the next four years. And we were delighted to have the involvement of Father A ministry of healing Castelo De Vide in Portugal. Antony Jerome of English Martyrs in Strood. At this time, we were also being invited by other priests to organise one-day retreats for their parishioners. Unfortunately, in 2011 we had to leave the Vincent De Paul Centre because of refurbishment works being carried out there. We moved to Our Lady of Assumption and St Gregory in Warwick Street, near Piccadilly. We have been organising retreats at Our Lady of Assumption every month since, and have built up a good relationship with the parish priest Father Mark Elliott Smith, who is kind enough to be our celebrant priest at these retreats. We also have half day retreats every two months at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Wimbledon. For the last three years we have also organised retreats at Mem Soares, a retreat house in Castelo De Vide in Portugal. We are now looking to purchase Mem Soares, which is why we became a registered charity. Mem Soares has 44 bedrooms, all with on-suite bathrooms and toilets, a pilgrims lounge with TV, a large dining room that can seat accomodate 50 diners. There is also a large chapel, and a smaller one upstairs, al cafe, and an open-air swimming pool with adjoining changing rooms. In addition, there is also a block containing seven apartments, 30 acres of land, a small farm with numerous sheep, and large olive groves. To raise the £800,000 needed, we have started a crowd funding campaign at JustGiving. Our plan is to run regular retreats from the UK with a full yearly programme of events. We also intend to open a detoxification centre and also a respite centre for families undergoing difficulties and who need a break. Mem Soares will also be available for any Christian group wishing to bring their own pilgrims for retreats. www.lovehealsbodymindspirit.com Remember to look at the stars By Lucy Russell Louise Welcome gave her last assembly at St Edmund’s School in Dover shortly before Easter. After talking about Stephen Hawking’s work and his words to remember to look up at the stars and always be curious, she shared with the students and staff five photographs she had taken and what they meant to her. She used these wonderful images to talk about affirming others, admitting mistakes (and learning from them), awe, satisfaction and healing. These were themes inspired by her photographs, which she has taken with her to her new school where she is taking on a headship. In her assembly, Louise encouraged the students to take time to look up at the sky, enjoy and appreciate each day and make memories. She concluded the assembly by composing a prayer in front of the school. At break-time some of the Year 7s told me that they were already thinking about taking up photography as a hobby. I popped to see Louise to tell her that I had been genuinely moved by her assembly. I asked whether she would be prepared to let me write a Facebook post about it and include her photographs. Would she mind if I had a copy of her (incredible) image of the Milky Way printed and framed? Did she sell her pictures? Louise was happy for me to put her photos on Facebook - she said her husband’s were better. This assembly and my conversation with Louise reminded me once again what Catholic education is about and why I am committed to our Catholic schools. Which is why I have decided not to seek reappointment as chair of governors at St Mary's Primary School in Deal. My life has become too bogged down in the minutiae – the data and the targets. It’s time to look up at the stars. I have achieved some of what I wanted to achieve as chair of governors at St Mary’s: fewer meetings, a greater governor presence and profile in school, a minibus service from St Mary’s directly to St Edmund’s for Year 7s transferring to it. I’ve encouraged and supported music, languages, an outdoor curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Catholic education is about educating the whole child. There have been improvements to lunchtimes. There is now a “golden table” on a Friday and children can earn the chance to eat at the table with a guest of their choice by demonstrating good table manners and trying new foods. I’d still like staff to be encouraged to sit in the dining hall and eat with the children, but that’s beyond my power, it’s up to the head. Wouldn’t that be a fabulous policy though? A free lunch for any staff member who eats with the pupils and students? Never mind talking about Gospel values – that would be one in action, it’s straight from the New Testament, look at all the references to food and sharing meals in Luke’s Gospel. If I am at St Mary’s or St Edmund’s for lunch, I always eat with the children. It’s a chance to model good table manners and social skills, but more than that there is the opportunity to talk about how things are going and show an interest in others. At St Edmund’s the youth chaplain can usually be found in the Hall at lunchtime, talking to students. Few staff eat with the students, but if the head is on site, he can be found doing a lunchtime duty in the hall along with his PA and other senior leaders. This is truly something wonderful. Watching him wipe down the lunch tables puts me in mind of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. It's apt that the head's name is Michael, since serviam - I will serve - was the cry of St Michael the Archangel as his response to Lucifer's "I will not serve". Service: this is what Catholic education is all about. And I will continue to serve, but in the classroom, not the meeting room. You can see Louise Welcome’s photographs – including her image of the Milky Way - on Facebook: St Edmund’s Catholic School, Dover. Page 8
The Pilgrim May 2018 Confirmation programmes give a rounded picture of what it means to be a young Catholic today By Father Ashley Beck In the western Church when adults are baptised, usually now at the Easter Vigil, they also have this initiation “sealed” by the imparting of the Holy Spirit. The bishop or the priest lays his hands on the head of the newly baptised and anoints him or her on the forehead with the words “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This second act corresponds to what we are told the apostles do in the Acts of the Apostles. This is seen in many ways as the norm for Christian initiation, and in the early Church such adult converts were baptised and confirmed by the bishop as the successor of the apostles. To cut a long story short, we know that how this pattern developed was different in the eastern and western parts of the Church as Christianity. In the east the link between the whole rite of initiation and the bishop ceased to be strong, so all those baptised were, and are, confirmed (the term used is “chrismation”) immediately after baptism, including babies. In the West, the link for this part with the bishop was seen as more important, so the two parts of the rite were separated; priests baptised (usually babies, as time went on) and bishops administered Confirmation when they were able, at a later stage in the child’s development. So by the medieval period this was usually in late childhood (about 10 or so, although there is a lot of variation). A further development in the West was that by the present period in many places Confirmation became an act of early teenage commitment, particularly after children from the age of seven or eight were admitted to Holy Communion (on a universal basis only since the reforms of Pope St Pius X at the beginning of the last century). And this is the case in most of the dioceses in this country, including our own, where Confirmation is normally administered to teenagers in Year 8 at secondary school. There are different practices elsewhere, since there has never been a consistent picture about the right age for Confirmation; and there is a lively debate about it. In dioceses like Arundel and Brighton where the normal age is Year 10 at secondary school the numbers of candidates are certainly smaller. Just before the bishop confirms the young people he says this prayer: “Almighty God, Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought these servants to new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, freeing them from sin: send upon Archbishop Peter administering confirmation at St George’s Cathedral. them, O Lord, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; fill them with the spirit of the fear of the Lord...” The formation young people received should have something to do with these gifts and qualities - wisdom, understanding, strength, knowledge and so on. What is stressed is that the young people concerned should make a free choice to be confirmed and make real their commitment as Catholic Christians – they shouldn’t be pressurised by their parents or their school. Whatever the arguments for the right age (and they are numberless) parishes can make something positive of the early teenage stage. Year 8 is before the pressure for GCSEs builds up and is almost a transitional phase. And good Confirmation programmes give a rounded picture of what it means to be a young Catholic today. These will cover key doctrines of the Christian faith and look at the sacraments, like this series of articles. They will also look at moral issues and help those being confirmed grow in awareness of the Church’s teaching. For example, in our parish in Beckenham over the years the young people have been able to find out more about the Church’s witness for asylum seekers and refugees and the work of groups like the Handicapped Children’s Pilgrimage Trust. Of course, like everything else, a good Confirmation programme requires hard work, and is essential to have a good team of catechists who know what they are doing. In our parishes, Confirmations are great parish and family celebrations, which are full of hope for the future of the Church. Alas, we know that the picture after the event has happened is rather depressing, and in most parishes the extent to which those who have just been confirmed drift further away from the Church is alarming. People sometimes claim that we should see Confirmation as another rite of passage - but of passage out of regular Christian commitment. The challenge for families, parishes, Catholic youth services and Catholic secondary schools is how this problem can be addressed, so that the gift of the Holy Spirit which the bishop imparts is enabled to grow and bear fruit. n Father Ashley Beck is assistant priest of Beckenham, senior lecturer in pastoral ministry at St Mary’s University and dean of studies of the diocesan formation programme for the diaconate Viewpoint What sort of example do we give children? By Sister Janet Fearns A BBC interview with a “retired Catholic” talked about how he was “forced to make his first Confession at the age of five”. Really? Many Catholic listeners probably listened with a considerable degree of scepticism and asked why he should receive the sacrament of reconciliation a couple of years younger than they did. Why did he have special treatment? Why was he “forced” into the confessional? Especially where children are concerned, the appropriate time and manner of administration of any sacrament receives considerable thought and discussion. Reconciliation in particular raises uniquely important questions. Can a child as young as five differentiate between an action which is “naughty” and one which is sinful? Can a five-year-old really understand the words and meaning of an Act of Contrition and “a firm purpose of amendment”? Even before Vatican ll and the Catechism, of which this same BBC interviewee was so critical, the Church spoke about “the age of reason” and pitched it at roughly seven years old. Perhaps the speaker had a memory lapse and was older than he declared in the broadcast. When children are better able to understand the importance of what is happening, they engage in a period of special preparation, ideally involving their parents, to receive both the sacraments of reconciliation and of the Eucharist. Sometimes the occasion of the child’s first Holy Communion is also the date of their confirmation, administered by their parish priest rather than by their bishop. As far as possible, the date is usually set around the feasts of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) and Pentecost. Within the Orthodox Church, things are rather different. “The Sacrament of Chrismation (Confirmation) immediately follows baptism and is never delayed until a later age.” The newly-baptised and confirmed baby also receives Holy Communion within the same celebration. As one source explained, “This practice reveals that Orthodoxy views children, from their infancy, as important members of the Church. There is never a time when the young are not part of God's people.” As a result, from their earliest days, children accompany their families to the altar. Sadly, some Catholic families focus on the First Holy Communion and confirmation and, from then on, nothing happens. Perhaps the same child might reappear at the church for their wedding and will, quite possibly, be brought back again for their funeral, but, between those landmark occasions, there is a “great deal of nothing much” in relation to religious matters. In some cultural settings, parents are under considerable social pressure to provide expensive outfits and presents. Thus the very sacraments which God gives us free of charge become an excuse to delay their reception until they can pay for the trimmings. Is it any wonder that many Catholic teachers recognise that, for many of their pupils, the school is the only Church which they will experience during their most formative years? Sadly, during the hard times which they will inevitably encounter, these same youngsters have little practical and personal understanding of God. They will be unlikely to turn to the Church for support and insight and may well feel lost and lonely. A five-year-old girl once solemnly informed me that “God is irrelevant.” I still wonder where she is and what she is doing. For her sake, I hope and pray that she has grown beyond repeating her father’s words. On a recent bus journey, a woman spoke with a man whose family she obviously knew very well. Both were Catholics, but with widely differing commitment. “I went to church every week,” he explained, “so that the priest knew that I was there. It made life so much easier when it came to filling in the application form for the primary school.” In other words, parental church attendance came down to the practicalities of enrolment in a Catholic school and not to belief and devotion. He seemed to have little or no conscious personal relationship with God, so what was life like for the child whom he successfully enrolled in a Catholic school? Would she find a completely unknown world and community or did she discover hope for the future during the short period of accompanying her father to Mass? When his generals asked Napoleon Bonaparte what was his greatest memory, he surprisingly replied that the day of his First Holy Communion was the happiest of his life and had deeply touched his soul. If children have experienced the Eucharist and confirmation as oneoff celebrations, can they recognise the value and importance of these two sacraments? Will their First Holy Communion mean only a white dress or a red tie, photographs and a party? In our increasingly secular and materialistic society, the family and the parish must play an increasingly important role in the sacramental lives of our young people. What sort of example do we give them? Page 9
Page 1 and 2: Issue 71 May 2018 What is canon law
Page 3 and 4: The Pilgrim May 2018 Homeless centr
Page 5 and 6: The Pilgrim May 2018 Feature What i
Page 7: The Pilgrim May 2018 Feature Maral,
Page 11 and 12: The Pilgrim May 2018 Feature/Diary

Issue 71 - The Pilgrim - May 2018 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

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