Barron

Faith Magazine

September - October 2018

https://www.wordonfire.org/
September - October

Editorial : THE FUTURE: Evangelising

FAITH magazine is glad to add its voice to the
welcome given to Bishop Robert Barron,
from the USA, to Britain for the 2018 Eucharistic
Congress. Bishop Barron has a strong and welldeserved
reputation as an evangelist – he has taken
seriously the challenge of teaching the Catholic
Faith in new ways across the New Media – DVDs,
twitter, blogs, and websites with glorious images
and music - and in talks and lectures to groups
large and larger.
Read More

The Deposit of Faith and the development of doctrine

There are certain words or terms in the Church’s vocabulary for explaining her beliefs
and practices which I have always found especially enlightening, and perhaps more
than any others, those which I have given as the title of this article; the deposit of faith and
the development of doctrine.
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The Word and the Eucharist

“In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God”,
(Jn. 1:1) so begins the beautiful prologue of St. John’s Gospel, a favourite passage
of Fr. Holloway, a passage which places the Incarnation of the Eternal Word within the
context of creation rather than solely redemption. The Word is described as life, the life
that is the light of men, the supernatural life, which God, in His mercy, willed to share with
mankind irrespective of the fall, and which as a result of the fall became incarnate as the
“light which shines in the darkness”. It is a profound text in which St. John, soaring like an
eagle, gazes down from the heights of eternity at the humanity of the Incarnate Word and
the hope, the promise, that those who are made for Him might become one with Him as
co-heirs in His glory.
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Interview: Benedict XVI, a new university, and the future

St Mary’s University has been known to generations of Catholics in Britain as a teachertraining
college. Those who studied here knew it – and know it still – as Simmeries.
Founded in 1850 at Hammersmith, it moved to Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, in the 1920s,
and a visit there on a summer’s day is an agreeable experience: green lawns, pleasant
wooded walks, a sense of history. It adjoins Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole’s
gothick folly mansion now run by an independent Trust and open to visitors. The University
itself occupies modern buildings and the site is dominated by an imposing chapel built
after World War II. Pope Benedict came here in 2010 and the Centre that bears his name
was founded following the visit.
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Holloway on… John Henry Newman and the Church as Communion in God: Part II

It is obviously untrue that Newman made his submission to the Church of Rome because
he was a tortured and insecure soul looking for spiritual sanctuary. He was too great in
intellect and in spiritual power for that. He could not, as he prayed in communion with
God, allow the breath of uncertainty and the corrosion of
imperfect human pride to lessen the lustre of Christ, as God
revealed to be followed as Way, Truth and Life. Newman
expressed doubts about the expediency of the definition of
Papal Infallibility by the First Vatican Council. He did accept it
but was always more interested in the seat of the infallibility
of the Church as the word of The Word to the People of God
over the ages.
Read More
  • Editorial : THE FUTURE: Evangelising

    FAITH magazine is glad to add its voice to the
    welcome given to Bishop Robert Barron,
    from the USA, to Britain for the 2018 Eucharistic
    Congress. Bishop Barron has a strong and welldeserved
    reputation as an evangelist – he has taken
    seriously the challenge of teaching the Catholic
    Faith in new ways across the New Media – DVDs,
    twitter, blogs, and websites with glorious images
    and music - and in talks and lectures to groups
    large and larger. He has opened up for millions of people the insights of walking in the Holy Land where Christ himself walked, and of visiting some of the great shrines and churches and
    cathedrals of the world. He has shown the huge beauty of centuries of Christian art and
    architecture and the messages and meanings they convey. And he has patiently and with
    a pleasant, informative way of communicating, he has opened up the Scripture readings
    of the Church’s year Sunday by Sunday, feeding people’s souls and helping many priests
    through many Sunday homilies to do the same.
    It was a wise choice as a keynote speaker for what we all hope will be a memorable,
    indeed landmark event for the Church in Britain.
     
    Evangelisation
    We need a boost to evangelisation. For too long, it was assumed that people in this
    country had some basic notion of Christianity, and that Catholics, in particular, had a
    sort of tribal association with the Faith and a loyalty to the idea of Sunday Mass. People
    used to say “the Faith is caught, not taught” and there was an emphasis in Catholic
    schools on organising fund-raising events for charity or encouraging forms of service to
    the local community, rather than on teaching doctrine or on answering the deep and
    often challenging questions raised by the young in a secular society. Even the Eucharist
    was often presented as a sort of community meal, with a good neighbourly feeling being
    nourished by gathering together.
     
    Things have changed in recent – very recent – years. Today’s young priests – and
    we don’t have enough of them, as the poor religious formation noted above failed to excite interest in the idea of answering God’s call to service in His vineyard - are fully
    aware of the bleak spiritual state of our country. They do not see the Mass as a cheerful
    opportunity for neighbourly togetherness, but as the sacrifice of Calvary binding us to
    eternity. Eucharistic devotion has been revived. Young people gather for Night Fever
    with adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in a city church and teams of missionaries
    walking the streets with lanterns welcoming people in to light a candle and offer a prayer.
    Summer gatherings at Walsingham and elsewhere focus on Eucharistic adoration too,
    with teams of priests hearing confessions.
     
    The treasures of the Faith
    Good preaching, opening up the treasures of the Faith,
    is central to the Church’s future. We need well-formed,
    well-instructed priests and teachers. We need to
    recognise that people do actually want to know about
    the Church’s teaching: they are often genuinely baffled
    about it. And this recognition also needs to include the frightening reality of the wounds
    that many people in Western society carry which are in certain specific ways different
    from the wounds of the past. Where once poverty and hunger stalked the cities of Britain,
    now it is violent crime and a drug-infested culture, broken families, children introduced to
    pornography and sexual perversions via the internet. Where people were once physically
    hungry, we now have a national problem of obesity. Where once people struggled to
    obtain a few simple toys for their children today there are households awash with plastic
    and electronic gifts but where the children are lonely and screen-addicted.
     
    Powerful
    Saint John Paul called the Church to a New Evangelisation, and showed the way with
    powerful missionary journeys and pioneering new events such as World Youth Day.
    The odd thing is that WYD was essentially an old-fashioned idea: a big rally with preaching.
    It’s almost 19th century – an emphasis on a great morale-boosting gathering with a strong
    Christian uplifting message and large-scale
    communal worship. But it began at the end of the
    20th century when most commentators tended
    to the view that such events belonged to the past,
    with Billy Graham’s rallies the last of such things.
    Then WYD - against expectations – proved hugely
    popular, a gigantic and magnificent event that grew from year to year, and St John Paul
    the Great had opened the way for something important and new.
     
    How to go ahead
    People like to gather for big events – the 2010 Papal Visit also proved this – and they
    need a sense of connection with each other, with the past, and with God. So all plans for
    the future for parishes serious about evangelisation might include, wherever possible,
    summer street processions with the Blessed Sacrament, candlelit processions to a
    graveyard or cemetery for All Souls’ Day, Christmas carols at railway stations and from
    house-to-house, and similar activities.
    There is no slick way to re-convert Britain.
    This isn’t a matter of trying to impose
    Christianity by government diktat. The light
    of Christ must permeate the culture, winning
    hearts and opening up closed minds.
    There is no quick-fix. People cannot be nagged or bullied into turning to Christ: they
    must be helped to find him. The Church has the truth: offering it will mean that many will
    not be able to stomach it at first. We will need, as always, to find people’s real spiritual
    needs and to offer real assistance.
    We aren’t alone: we have all of Heaven with us. Saints –those who taught the Faith in
    this land before us, and above all those who died as martyrs for doing so – will respond
    when we invoke their prayers.
     
    Determination and hope
    The Eucharistic Congress should be a sign of determination and of hope. Those attending
    should return home with a real desire to communicate the glory of Christ. That will not
    happen without humility, an understanding of our own inadequacy and a frank admission
    that we have not been doing very well in
    recent decades. We are entitled also to a
    recognition of the hugeness of the task:
    we face an unfriendly culture which in
    so many ways presents great challenges.
    But we have great and glorious truths to
    impart and once we have fully absorbed
    that fact, we can set about working on ways of fulfilling the task.
    Beautiful and dignified liturgy: no gimmicks, no silly attempts to intersperse chatty
    remarks or crass jokes. A new approach to music – it really is time to call a halt to earpounding
    from electric guitars in church. Lots of Eucharistic adoration, opportunities for
    confession, and sound teaching on both these subjects from the Sunday pulpit. Good
    teaching for children when they are brought together in First Communion groups.
    Outdoor processions, especially with the Blessed
    Sacrament. Celebration of feasts and festivals: the
    drama of Holy Week and Easter, the joy of feast-days
    that transform an ordinary weekday into something
    marvellous. Popular devotions with Marian devotions
    in May and the Rosary in October, and graves blessed
    in November. All this, plus outreach with comeand-
    discover meetings, and street carol-singing at
    Christmas and lantern-led walks to shrines. All of that
    is basic stuff for parish life, and doesn’t involve much more than dedication, love and a
    real desire to live the Faith to the full.