I have, at times, been accused of being too strident on this blog. Those who do not like my robust defence of the Catholic faith, or my unswerving insistence that the Ordinariate is a game changer leaving Anglo-Catholics with only one viable long term option, tend to get annoyed with what I write. Those erring on the side of caution have sometimes suggested I should dampen my zeal and promote a more “live and let live” attitude. But today the Holy Father, Pope Francis, preached a wonderful sermon in which he rather suggests the opposite as he stated that it is better to be “annoying” and “a nuisance” than lukewarm in the faith!

“If we annoy people, blessed be the Lord,” said Pope Francis! “We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us all this apostolic fervor and to give us the grace to be annoying when things are too quiet in the Church,” He then chastised “those who are well mannered, who do everything well, but are unable to bring people to the Church through proclamation and apostolic zeal,” 

Pope Francis then dwelt on the life of St. Paul noting how he often offended and irritated those who found the truth uncomfortable. “Paul, in preaching of the Lord, was a nuisance, but he had deep within him that most Christian of attitudes, apostolic zeal...He was not a man of compromise, no!” he exclaimed. “He is a man who, with his preaching, his work, his attitude irritates others, because testifying to Jesus Christ and the proclamation of Jesus Christ makes us uncomfortable. “It threatens our comfort zones, even Christian comfort zones, right?” he asked the congregation. “It irritates us.”

According to the Pope, St. Paul was a “fiery” individual who was always in trouble, “not in trouble for troubles’ sake, but for Jesus” because “proclaiming Jesus is the consequence.” “The Church has so much need of this, not only in distant lands, in the young churches, among people who do not know Jesus Christ, but here in the cities, in our cities, they need this proclamation of Jesus Christ,” Pope Francis stressed.

So there we have it. Passion can be a healthy thing and whilst charity and good manners are obviously important they must never trump our need to speak the truth boldly and proclaim the Lord with zeal. And where people are avoiding truth then we must be prepared to be annoying…it becomes a salvation issue.

Speaking of being annoying I have a sneaky feeling the Holy Father is going to prove a major irritant soon. For the Tabletistas of this world and the Western media, who would dearly love to see a liberalisation of the Catholic church (gay marriage, women priests and all that) have foolishly projected onto the new Pope their own agenda imagining his simple liturgical style stems from a fuzzy liberal heart. They are wrong, as sermons like this prove, and once they realise how firmly he stands by Catholic teaching then there will doubtless be much weeping and gnashing of teeth. How “annoying” he will prove. Just like his annoying predecessor who also proclaimed God’s truth. But meanwhile the faith of the ages will remain unchanged as Jesus promised it would when he assured us that the gates of hell cannot prevail…

Pentecost is the third most important feast in the Liturgical Year and every Catholic should make every effort to be present at Mass. To mark this great feast a letter has been made available to all priests sent from the Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. It was very helpful and explored the implications of the priesthood within this year of faith, urging those of us who are ordained to remember that we must be open to the Holy Spirit and remain close to the Sacred heart of Jesus. I share with you a paragraph from this moving and apposite letter:

As priests we must prepare ourselves the lead the other members of the faithful to a maturity of faith. We know that we are the first ones who have to open our hearts more fully. We remember the words of the Master of the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem “Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said: Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’. Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn. 7:37-39). Also from the priest as alter Christus, rivers of living water can flow, inasmuch as he drinks with faith from the words of Christ, opening himself to the action of the Holy Spirit. Not only the sanctification of the people entrusted to him, but also the satisfaction of his own identity, depends ultimately on the movement from the priest “opening” himself, to being a sign and instrument of divine grace: “The priest who seldom goes out of himself, who anoints little – I won’t say ‘not at all’ because, thank God, the people take the oil from us anyway – misses out on the best of our people, on what can stir the depths of his priestly heart. Those who do not go out of themselves, instead of being mediators, gradually become intermediaries, managers. We know the difference: the intermediary, the manager, ‘has already received his reward’, and since he doesn’t put his own skin and his own heart on the line, he never hears a warm, heartfelt word of thanks. This is precisely the reason for the dissatisfaction of some, who end up sad, sad priests, in some sense becoming collectors of antiques or novelties, instead of being shepherds living with ‘the odour of the sheep’. This I ask you: be shepherds, with the ‘odour of the sheep’, make it real, as shepherds among your flock, fishers of men” 

Uplifting letters like this are a great help for those of us in ministry. One of the great joys in having become a Catholic is that we all share the one same vision and theology of the priesthood allowing us to reflect together on the nature of our being. It leads to strong collegiality and genuine unity of purpose. Something that just wasn’t possible within an ecclesial community that, out of necessity, attempts to hold in tension very different and often contradictory notions of sacramental theology.

Tonus Peregrinus, the professional choir founded and directed by Saint Anselm’s Director of Music, Antony Pitts, (standing far left) were featured on the Early Music Show on Radio 3 last Sunday. You can listen to it via the BBC playback service until this coming Sunday by following this link.

In the programme, which I listened to updating the pew sheet this morning, Antony is interviewed at length and we get to listen to a range of his beautiful choral music. It is uplifting and inspiring. Well done Antony! We are very blessed and fortunate to have such a talented man working within our parish. A man whose deep faith inspires his work at every level.

Now is the time to book a place at the Evangelium Conference for 2013 if you are a Catholic aged between 18-35. It tends to get booked up quite fast so act today to avoid disappointment. Spread the word…

This is amazing. Watch it and ponder it. And then share it with every protestant you know who has been led to believe that Mary is not worthy of our devotion.

I am hugely grateful to Fr. Ray Blake for bringing my attention to this charming video. It shows one 3yr old Samuel Jamarillo, an orphan, reciting mass from memory during play. He did not want conventional toys for his birthday but the necessary things to offer this make-believe Mass. What a charming video it is and though the celebration is clearly invalid due to him not being ordained there can be no doubt that it must bring deep joy to the heart of Christ and bring forth blessing in abundance. Who says children are too young to perceive what happens at mass? His little chum makes a great server- perhaps he should make himself bishop…

Yesterday an American court decided that Kermit Gosnell, who butchered babies by cutting their necks with surgical scissors, is guilty of murder. A sentence that is both just and appropriate given the vile nature of his crimes. It does however raise some serious ethical questions for both pro-lifers and pro-choicers.

Pro-lifers now face a moral conundrum because he lives in a State which operates the death penalty. If all life is truly sacred then do we have the right to take his? My own belief is that whilst there are rare instances in which the taking of life is morally necessary, such as shooting one armed terrorist to protect many hostages, I do not think it would be right in this instance. Once in custody Gosnell is no longer a threat. I would therefore prefer him to be placed in a stark prison to reflect on his crimes and hopefully come to repentance and find salvation.

The case also throws up uncomfortable questions for those in favour of abortion. The reason, I suspect, this case has been given such a tiny amount of media coverage compared to other current murder trials. The biggest question being why this man would be considered a humane and proficient doctor and not a killer if only he had managed to butcher these very same children “in utero” just minutes before they actually died? What a bizarre situation we face when baby A is deemed to have full dignity and rights in law simply because he slipped out of his mother’ body but child B had none because she had her life expunged when only partially delivered at the same stage. Should the state be standing in the dock as well I wonder?

After all this man, who spent his life ridding the world of unwanted babies, is only considered to have murdered three. None of the thousands of others who had not been fully delivered count. The confusion and evil lurking behind current law is exposed in all its glory. We live in a society that pretends it has divine authority to pick and choose which lives are worthwhile and which can be flushed away without ceremony. For this reason I hope that his trial is not quite over. Next it needs to bring everyone back to the table to look at the issue of abortion afresh. For abortion is a moral evil- even if it is sometimes condoned by otherwise decent misinformed people- and it is time we placed it alongside slavery in the dustbin of unwanted and regrettable human history.

The alternative is to continue to turn blind eyes to the deaths of million of tiny babies. We then make laws based on fallen adult desires and not on true justice. Just listen to the garbled nonsensical defence of abortion contained in this video clip.

The suggestion that a mother is the best judge of what is morally right or wrong simply by virtue of being female is frankly laughable. Would this make Medea justified in killing her children to anger Jason? I hardly think so. Does it excuse the behaviour of Rosemary West or Moira Hindley? Being a mother does provide a unique perspective on life, of that I am certain, but it hardly protects you from the effects of the fall and your innate potential for evil.

The bottom line is that there is not one reason for abortion that could acquit you if you had killed an adult. “Sorry but his life was deeply inconvenient to me” would not cut the mustard in court. “I had to kill him because he had downs syndrome” wouldn’t really work either. “Whilst I could see he was a thriving family man I had to kill him as I discovered he was the product of rape” The list can go on but the point is surely made.

This weekend 38 pilgrims travelled to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham for the annual parish pilgrimage. It proved a wonderful time during which we deepened friendship with God and one another. I would rate it as one of my most enjoyable trips.

Most travelled by coach to the Shrine but one hardy pilgrim, Tony, decided to cycle setting off from Aylesford in Kent and spending two days in transit. He did this to raise money for our parish and for Aylesford Priory. As you can see he made it. Fortunately for him Benny only joined him for the photograph on arrival…

There were other energetic pilgrims too. Father Nicholas opting to walk 26 miles with a friend. Wisely his wife Mary left them to it and opted for a plush B&B instead. They arrived looking far more jaded than Tony- but they nevertheless managed the holy mile in the rain!

One of the lovely things about coming on pilgrimage as a Catholic is being able to join in with all others no matter the group. Thus on the Saturday we joined with the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s rosary walk and Benediction in the Priory gardens. On the Sunday it was the turn of the Dominicans and we were treated to a beautiful Palestrina Mass of the Ascension. Ordinariate patrimony and Dominican patrimony chimes when it comes to liturgical tastes I noted.

Lots and lots of fun then and time spent with some great people from Saint Anselm’s, both Ordinariate and Diocesan Catholics. The distinction doesn’t really tell these days to be honest, which is great news, as we are increasingly becoming one happy family. How blessed we have been since joining the Catholic Church and how wonderful that our pilgrimage to Walsingham remains a vital part of our spiritual life.

The excellent Saint Antony Communications has just launched the trailer for the forthcoming “Why? Course”; a three part DVD for use at home or in the parish which explores belief in God, Christ and the Church. It will be released at the end of this summer and I feel privileged to have played a very small part in its production.

Tomorrow 40 members of Saint Anselm’s will travel to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk for our annual parish pilgrimage. Expect no post on the blog tomorrow but lots of photographs and a full report on my return.

Last night’s lecture is now available as an audio link on our website alongside all others that have been given this year. Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think below…