Ready ?

Lord, take my heart and break it: break it not in the way I would like, but in the way you know to be best. And, because it is you who break it, I will not be afraid, for in your hands all is safe and I am safe. Lord, take my heart and give to it your joy, not in the ways I like, but in the ways you know are best, that your joy may be fulfilled in me. So, dear Lord, I am ready to be your deacon, ready to be your priest.

Archbishop Michael Ramsey (1904-1988)

THIS prayer by Archbishop Michael Ramsey was used with ordinands on the eve of their ordination. It is the climax of an ordination charge built on St Paul’s description of life as a disciple of Christ: “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6.10).

It is the perfect prayer for ordina tion-eve. It is the perfect prayer for any time of change, of fresh chal­lenge, of moving deeper into God’s purpose. It says that serving God will not always be easy or smooth or com fortable, but that it is the only way to be fully alive, fully human, fully our selves.

For those about to be dea coned, there is a real sense of standing on the cusp of something at once ex citing and uncertain. It has been a long road to this moment, but now the ques tions rush in. Am I ready? Will I be able to bear the expectations placed on me? How will it feel to wear a clerical collar? Will I still be me? How will I cope when I don’t know the words to say, the comfort to offer, or the chal lenge to give?

Deacons about to be priested know perhaps a little more, and have begun to work out something of what it is to be called to this place in the life of the Church. Sometimes that brings only more questions.

All of us, at different times, face un certainty and disorientation. All of us lose our landmarks, the things we take for granted. Illness, grief, be trayal, and un employment have that effect on each of us. So does the call to take a risk for God, to dare to love, to dare to be vulnerable.

We do not always know where God and experience will lead. But we do know that God promises to be with us in everything, redeeming what wounds us, and laughing with us when we re joice.

This prayer reminds us that the Risen Christ is both Lord and scarred. We meet the God of our salvation. We put our trust in him. And we place our selves at his disposal.

When self-image and laziness in ter rupt, we ask God to break us out of our selfishness. When we need en couragement, we ask God to fill our hearts with unexpected joy.

Archbishop Ramsey says that, in everything — in brokenness and joy, in frustration and fulfilment — he will not fear because he knows that he is safe in the hands of God. This is the prayer and the confidence he offers to those he will ordain in the morning.

Here is a prayer for everyone facing fresh adventures for the gospel. It is a prayer for those coming to terms with tragedy, for those waiting for the light of Christ to dawn, for those who feel joy bubbling within them.

This is a prayer for everyone who would take the immense risk (which is no risk at all) of giving their heart and their life back to God. “In your hands all is safe, and I am safe.”

Wantage Sisters

(yesterday we had an interesting visit from a retired clergyman living at St Katharine's)

Community of St Mary the Virgin

St Mary’s Convent, Challow Road, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 9DJ
Phone: 01235 763141

Our Community was founded in 1848 by William John Butler, the then Vicar of Wantage. His desire was to form a committed community of Sisters combining both a life of prayer and holiness with a concern for the social needs of the time. Thus the first Sisters were involved in educational work and the founding of a number of schools; in parish and mission work; and in penitentiary work. Today the work undertaken may be different in response to the changing needs of the world, but the same early vision of the Founder continues - that of a vowed community of Sisters uniting a strong life of prayer with active social concern.

Our Community began in Wantage and our main Convent and Novitiate remain there today, together with our Infirmary Wing where we care for our elderly Sisters. In the early days of our Community, houses were founded in many parts of England and also in India and South Africa. Today we continue to have houses in London, Smethwick and Wantage.

Convent
St Mary’s Convent is situated in Wantage, where our Community was founded. It is home to our Novitiate, the Infirmary Wing for our elderly sisters, and our Guest Wing. At the centre of our life is the daily Eucharist and the saying of the Office. Sisters also engage in a variety of ministries both within and beyond the Convent. These include spiritual direction and retreats, parish work and various crafts.

London
Our house in London opened in 2002 and is situated in the multi-cultural area of Harringay. There are two Sisters living there, the Community's Daily Office is said and there is a weekly Eucharist in the house. They are involved in local community and neighbourhood. One Sister is Parish Sister at St Paul's Harringay - Edmonton Diocese of London - and also the Missionary Secretary for Wantage Overseas which is based in this house. The other Sister helps as a volunteer within the Chaplaincy of a local hospital. Spiritual Direction and Quiet Days are undertaken as requested.

St Katharine's House
St Katharine’s House is a nursing and care home for the elderly situated in Wantage. It was founded by our Community and a small group of Sisters continue to live there providing a prayerful presence and pastoral care for the residents. Residents who wish are able to join the Sisters in the Chapel for the Daily Office and for a regular Eucharist. Sisters are involved in the wider community through neighbourhood ministry, spiritual direction, a ministry to students and staff at school for the deaf.

Smethwick
A small group of CSMV Sisters in Smethwick live the life of prayer, based on the five fold Office and Eucharist. Some Sisters have a ministry of outreach in parish and school, and we offer hospitality and spiritual direction in our quiet home. We have friendly contact with people of different ethnicity and faiths.

Our Life and Ministry

Our daily life is a balance of prayer, community life and service of others. Each day we are rooted and grounded in God through our prayer which lies at the heart of our life and gives meaning to the whole.

In our community life we seek to live together in love and unity, sharing in the domestic work of the house, in recreational activities and hospitality.

Our ministry is very varied and includes preaching and parish work; spiritual direction and the leading of retreats and quiet days; care of the elderly; work amongst prisoners, asylum seekers and those with learning difficulties.

As a Community we have always sought to hold together both the contemplative and active dimensions of life, believing that each needs the other to complete the whole.

St Katharine’s House is a residential home for elderly ladies. It is registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection under the Care Standards Act 2000 for residents who are over the age of 60 years. It has 52 single residential rooms in the main House and a modern Nursing Wing with 24 en suite rooms.

Although under lay administration, we are part of the Community of St Mary the Virgin and, with a number of resident Sisters, we are also able to provide the spiritual and pastoral care that is so important to most people.

St Katharine's House - residential and care home for elderly ladies 
Ormond Road, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 8EA
Tel: 01235 762739

(was our visitor a resident or chaplain?)

Be Near Me

This novel was long listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2006.

Be Near Me tells the story of David Anderton, a Catholic priest born in Edinburgh and educated in England who is assigned to a parish in Dalgarnock, a decaying Irish town with different residents sympathetic to the Orange or IRA causes. Anderton, though, takes no interest in his parishioners, enduring their ill will towards him. He's been grieving for thirty years for the man he loved who died in an auto accident. The only people in the city with whom he spends time are the local teenagers who live life on the edge, committing petty crimes and indulging in drugs. He senses the life in them that he misses, and finds himself attracted to one of them, Mark. After a night of drinking, Ecstasy, and dancing, he kisses Mark. This act turns his parishioners on him, providing a conduit for their anger, as they accuse him of being a paedophile. Andrew O'Hagan's novel has received positive reviews (and a Booker nomination) with The Guardian saying, "This is a nuanced, intense and complex treatment of a sad and simple story. Read it twice."

Andrew O'Hagan was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1968 and read English at the University of Strathclyde. He is a contributing editor to the London Review of Books and Granta magazine.In his acclaimed first book, The Missing (1995), O'Hagan wrote about his own childhood and told the stories of parents whose children had disappeared. The book was shortlisted for the Esquire Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award, and the McVities Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year award. Part of the book was adapted for radio and television as Calling Bible John and won a BAFTA award. Our Fathers (1999), his first novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread First Novel Award. The book tells the story of young Scot Jamie Bawn and a visit to his dying grandfather that leads him to uncover the truth about his family's past.Andrew O'Hagan's essay 'The End of British Farming', originally published in the London Review of Books, was published as a short book in 2001. His new book, Personality (2003), is about a 13-year-old girl with a beautiful singing voice growing up above a chip shop on the Scottish island of Bute and making ready to realise her family's dream of fame. It is the winner of the 2003 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction).In 2003 Andrew O'Hagan was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. In 2004 he edited The Weekenders: Adventures in Calcutta, a collection of various writers' accounts of Kolkata. His latest novel is Be Near Me (2006).

Priest and Hymn Writer

John Mason Neale was born in London in 1818, studied at Cambridge, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1842. He was offered a parish, but chronic ill health, which was to continue throughout his life, prevented him from taking it. In 1846 he was made warden of Sackville College, a position he held for the rest of his life. Sackville College was not an educational institution, but an almshouse, a charitable residence for the poor.

In 1854 Neale co-founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, an order of women in the Anglican Church dedicated to nursing the sick. Many Anglicans in his day, however, were very suspicious of anything suggestive of Roman Catholicism. Only nine years earlier, John H. Newman had encouraged Romish practices in the Anglican Church, and had ended up joining the Romanists himself. This encouraged the suspicion that anyone like Neale was an agent of the Vatican, assigned to destroy the Anglican Church by subverting it from within. Once Neale was attacked and mauled at a funeral of one of the Sisters. From time to time unruly crowds threatened to stone him or to burn his house. He received no honor or preferment in England, and his doctorate was bestowed by an American college (Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut). However, his basic goodness eventually won the confidence of many who had fiercely opposed him, and the Sisterhood of St. Margaret survived and prospered.

Neale translated the Eastern liturgies into English, and wrote a mystical and devotional commentary on the Psalms. However, he is best known as a hymn writer and translator, having enriched English hymnody with many ancient and mediaeval hymns translated from Latin and Greek, including the following:

A great and mighty wonder
All glory, laud and honor
Alleluia, song of gladness
Blessed city, heavenly Salem
Blessed feasts of blessed martyrs
Brief life is here our portion
Christ is made the sure foundation
Christian, dost thou see them
Come, Holy Ghost, with God the Son
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
Creator of the stars of night
Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord
For thee, O dear, dear country
Jerusalem the golden
Jesus, Name all names above
Let us now our voices raise
Light's abode, celestial Salem
Now that the daylight fills the sky
O blest Creator of the light
O God, creation's secret force
O God of truth, O Lord of might,O sons and daughters, let us sing
O Trinity of blessed light
O what their joy and their glory must be
O wondrous type! O vision fair
Of the Father's love begotten
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright
The day is past and over
The day of resurrection
Those eternal bowers
Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise
To thee before the close of day
And many others.
More than anyone else, he made English-speaking congregations aware of the centuries-old tradition of Latin, Greek, Russian, and Syrian hymns.

Neale died on 6 August 1866 (age 48). Since 6 August is the Feast of the Transfiguration, he is remembered on 7 August.

Patron Saint of Parish Priests

John Mary Vianney

Also known as
Cure of Ars; Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney; Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney; Jean-Baptiste Vianney; John Baptist Vianney; John Vianney

Memorial
4 August

Profile
Farm hand who in his youth taught other children their prayers and catechism. Ordained in 1815, though it took several years study as he had little education, was not a very good student, and his Latin was terrible. Assigned for a while to Ecully. In 1818 he was assigned to the parish of Ars, a tiny village near Lyons, which suffered from very lax attendance; he began visiting his parishioners, especially the sick and poor. Spent days in prayer, doing penance for his parishioners. Gifted with discernment of spirits, prophecy, hidden knowledge, and working miracles. Tormented by evil spirits, especially when he tried to get his 2-3 hours of sleep each night. Crowds came to hear him preach, and to make their reconciliation because of his reputation with penitents; by 1855 there were 20,000 pilgrims a year to Ars. Spent 40 years as the parish priest.

Born
8 May 1786 at Dardilly, Lyons, France

Died
4 August 1859 at Ars, France of natural causes

Name Meaning
God is gracious; gift of God

Venerated
26 July 1896

Beatified
8 January 1905

Canonized
31 May 1925

Some Quotes

If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a greatnumber of Christians would go to Heaven.

You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.

I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the Cross than in serving the world and its pleasures.

You cannot please both God and the world at the same time. They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.

We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter.

We should consider those moments spent before the Blessed Sacrament as the happiest of our lives.

My little children, reflect on these words: the Christian's treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where out treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man's happiness lies. Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can every pull apart. This union of god with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding. My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. Some men immerse themselves as deeply in prayer as fish in water, because they give themselves totally to God. O, how I love these noble souls! How unlike them we are! How often we come to church with no idea of what to do or what to ask for. And yet, whenever we go to any human being, we know well enough why we go. And still worse, there are some who seem to speak to the good God like this: "I will only say a couple of things to you, and then I will be rid of you." I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and with a pure heart.

Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.

No man is an island

John Donne, Priest & Poet

John Donne was born in about the year 1571 and brought up as a Roman Catholic. He was a great - great nephew of Thomas More, although this seems to have had little influence on him because, as a youth, he was sceptical about all religion. He went up to Oxford when he was fourteen, studied further at Cambridge and perhaps on the Continent, and eventually discovered his Christian faith in the Church of England. After much heart searching, he accepted ordination and later the post of Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. Much of his cynicism dissolved and he became a strong advocate for the discerning of Christian vocation, and in particular affirming his own vocation as a pries, loving and loved by the crucified Christ. The people of London flocked to his sermons. He died on this day in the year 1631. His love poetry - addressed mainly to his wife - and religious poems took on a renewed life in the twentieth century and his place both as a patristic scholar and as a moral theologian are confirmed by his prolific writings and the publication of his sermons.

Meditation xvii

No man is an island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.