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SOME OF THE MARVELOUS CATHOLICS THAT WE MET AT NEW DAWN 2025 I was Chair of the committee who organised the Charismatic Days of Renewal at Hopwood Hall in the 1970s and 80s, a position I left to concentrate on parish work for the next 35 years. It has been interesting to visit the New Dawn Charismatic Conferences in 2024 at Walsingham and 2025 at Barton. What struck me most was the way the first experiences of spiritual renewal of the early days has now matured into a lay people increasingly stepping forward with dedication and authority to serve the Church in cooperation with the clergy. The authority comes from increasing closeness to God and dedicated attention to their own formation. I heard the stories of some amazing people – let me tell you about a few of them. Deacon David (himself not a layman) told me of 5 men entering the Church in his parish in Northwich this Easter. He called it “the Quiet Revolution”. If you look on this website at Straws in the Wind you will read more about the “Quiet Revolution”. People are increasingly turning to the Church in this age which has drenched them in trivia and misinformation, especially men. Karen told me about the Perpetual Adoration in her Church, St Joseph’s in Stockport, and how it is changing the parish and the area. Where there is Adoration, there is contemplation, which leads to intercession, the prayer that moves mountains. That is what our new book is about; it is the secret weapon of the Church. Have a look at Our Role in God’s Plan on this website. Declan, a psychiatric nurse, told me about how he and others organise a study session on Zoom from 7.00 to 8.00 every weekday morning. Last year they went through the bible with Fr Mike Schmitz, and this year they are following his Catechism in a Year. There are about 70 people taking part, and around 200 have participated. We put our ministry, Hopeful Catholics , under the patronage of St John Henry Newman. Our inspiration is this vision of his: ‘What I desire in Catholics is the gift of bringing out what their religion is. I want a Laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but people who know their religion … who enter into it, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.’ Newman would rejoice to hear of this early morning study. Nancy May , an ex-lawyer from Edinburgh, spoke with joy of her Masters Degree in Theology, which she had taken not so that she could create better job opportunities, but so that she could serve the Church in her parish, especially as a catechist for first communion children. She isn’t being reactive by just repeating material she has been given, but proactive seeking to give it her best. Rachel , who works for Rachel’s Vineyard, told me of how her own experience helps her to help women who have had abortions. She said that many despair because they think it is the unforgivable sin, and that almost all those she encounters were broken people long before they had their abortion(s). Her organisation offers reconciliation with God, integration of shattered selves and “futures full of promise” (Jeremiah 29: 11) not just to women who have had abortions, but also to mothers, fathers, grandparents, any family member and also those that worked in the abortion industry. She asked me to include this: Hurt by abortion? Contact rachel@rachelsvineyard.org.uk rachel@rachelsvieyard.org.uk rachel@rachelsvieyard.org.uk Owen , a young man who works for SPUC, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child , told me of his work with young people and students. It is very tough in Universities, where the Pro-abortion lobby are fanatically dominant. Yet there is change. Do you remember the shocking scenes in Manchester University in March of last year when some Pro-life Manchester students, most of whom are Catholic. left “terrified” as an out-of-control mob raised barricades, spat on them, threatened, and wished rape on them for their pro-life views? Owen said that on visiting them this year a remarkable thing has happened; many other students who were silent of hadn’t really thought about the issue had been so disgusted at the actions of the mob that they are coming out in support and genuinely inquiring about pro-life matters. That is a picture of modern-day martyrdom. Owen himself told me about how his friendship group at home numbering 16 were all atheists, but 6 of them are now Catholics. At university 5 friends joined the Church as well, also their professor who is now teaching scripture in a seminary in the USA. One couple spoke of their deep disappointment as their flourishing parish changed when a new parish priest came, but their charity and love are gradually having an impact. They are beacons of Christ’s hopeful people. It is not always bright skies; we will often be asked to pray our way through storms and dark moments, but “for those who love God all things work together for good,” (Romans 8: 28) Helen let us know about her own journey and how she was helped by Beginning Experience a ministry in the Catholic Church that addressed the needs of those who experienced loss of a spouse - whether through widowhood, separation or divorce. She is now working with them to help bring healing to others. These are just a few of the spirit-led Catholics we encountered. It was a joy to be there and so hopeful!

The Church is the deep, strong current moving through history by which God is drawing all mankind into the Trinity. It is his gradual process of healing humanity. Just as he focused his redemptive activity on Israel in the Old Covenant in order to prepare a people advanced in faith, he has been focusing his redemptive activity mostly on the old Roman/Greek world for the first 1500 years of the New Covenant. In and through the Church he has been drawing out of the heart of fallen humanity its deepest pathologies to begin their healing. A pathology is a deep brokenness or disease weakening a body. The ones referred to here are some of those that have been growing in humanity since and because of original sin. All are still active today, but God has been breaking their power through the saints and members of the Church in successive centuries. This process is not because the redemption of humanity by Christ on the cross was deficient. Through his sacrifice, Christ broke the grip of all sin, but he will not apply his healing remedy without the full cooperation of his brothers and sisters. He draws us into the act of salvation because he wants us to achieve our full stature, as the children of God for whom fallen frustrated creation has been longing. St Paul expresses this great honour in Colossians 1:24: “In my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church”. St Peter, in 1 Peter 4:13, expresses it like this: “Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed”. I will try to illustrate this process here. Pathology number 1 - the conviction that God is distant and will not come close to us. Although it was human beings who shut God out at the Fall, their consequent inability to know him grew into a convinction that it is impossible to be close to him. This was radically challenged by the coming of the Son of God, Jesus, as a real human being. In the first three centuries after Jesus, many Christians had a problem believing that it really was God who had come close to us. But great saints and Fathers of the Church bore the pain and strain of believing in the great mystery of the incarnation, until the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) was held to counteract the many heresies going around about the nature of Jesus. It declared that Jesus was both God and man. It is where we get the Nicene Creed which we often recite in Mass. The overwhelming, but erroneous conviction that God can never come close to us has been radically weakened. Many people still feel it, but it is more easily dealt with. Pathology number 2 - we are so broken that we cannot become part of God. The early Church Fathers, once the controversy of the union of divine and human nature in Jesus had been settled (Nicaea), quickly gave voice to a sense that was very strong in the Church, that Mary the Mother of Jesus had a unique role in the process of human salvation. This teaching was a logical consequence of the revelation of Jesus’ two natures, and also the abiding deeply felt experience of Mary’s spiritual presence among us, assisting Christ in the process of salvation. At the Council of Ephesus (431) the Church declared that Mary is the “Mother of God”. At the Second Council of Constantinople (533) the Church declared that she was a virgin all through her life, dedicated to God with her every breath and every heartbeat. The belief that she was conceived in her mother’s womb without any trace of Original Sin was strongly held from this time throughout the Church, although it was only formally proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Likewise, it was widely held from earliest times that she was assumed body and soul into heaven at her death, although that was only formally proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950. The Church Fathers grasped that, as Mary faithfully cooperated with God in reaching her own perfection, she is the sign given to the developing Church of how, through the Church, humanity would become perfect and united with Christ in the marriage of the Lamb, on the Last Day. The human race will be perfected and be drawn into the Godhead. We can and will become part of God Through all the prayer and struggle to understand Mary, a profound vision of how humanity can be perfect was realised. The overwhelming and erroneous sense in humanity that we are so broken that we cannot become part of God has been radically weakened. Many people still feel it, but it is more easily dealt with. Pathology number 3 – the strength of peer pressure cannot be broken. There are many deep stratas of human brokenness haunting fallen mankind that God is healing. All are crazy paths that humanity has followed as a result of the Fall, which need to be retroden in order to reclaim human integrity. As the Church moves through history, gathering people into the life of God, numerous holy souls are engaged in the work of bearing with Christ the pain of repairing humanity through their prayer and sacrifice. Through the Church the Holy Spirit is bringing about the reintegration of humanity. I do not intend to treat with all the twists and turns by which the Spirit is doing this – I am only trying to illustrate this dynamic of God’s Church healing humanity; I will fast-forward to the 1500s, the time of the Reformation. The Church had been very successful at converting tribes and nations, usually through converting leaders who were then followed by their people. This was because human society was largely tribal. People had group-think, which left many with shallow faith. But humanity was about to take a big step forward in development. A great awareness of the independence of the individual was developing. For centuries the Gospel teaching that each person has been freed in Christ was percolating in the heart of members of the Church. It had found immense resistance due to the organisation of society into tribes and social groupings. But like water smoothing a stone, it was building in strength until it broke the dam at this time. The freedom of each person became central in people's awareness. The universal demand for individual freedom was first focused in the Protestant Reformation and then the Catholic counter-reformation, when society began to move from being tribal to individualistic. It is important to note that individuality is a feature of the Trinity as is unity. Humanity had reached the point of growth when people wanted to know more authentically: How can I take responsibility? It involved a huge and bloody struggle. Bit by bit people gradually became more to claim their own freedom. The tribal mentality gradually changed. An example of change is St Thomas Moore who was at first virulent in attacking reformers, advocating the centuries-old practice of burning heretics at the stake. This was one of tribal society’s method of maintaining uniformity through terror. But after imprisonment in the Tower of London for over a year, he emerged to his own execution at peace and converted to love of his enemies and everyone. Those months transformed him into a mystic who battled the demon wishing to keep humanity in a primitive, limited form of responsibility. The stifling pathology of peer pressure has been radically weakened. Many people still feel it, but it is more easily dealt with. Pathology number 4 – human sin is so great that we are incapable of reaching heaven . Fast forward to the 1700s, 1800s and part of the 1900s. Individualism had become established, and with it came the need to face another deep pathology in humanity. It is all very well being free, but with greater sense of responsibility comes the dread of being wrong and failing. It was the age of dreadful guilt. Culture was formed by it. Many Christians stressed the judgment of God and the likelihood of being condemned. The question at the root of all this was: how can we find a remedy for humanity’s deep sense of guilt? Holy people battled with this pathology. One example of this was St Paul of the Cross who lived in the 1700s. He had reached a very high state of sanctity by the age of 33. Then, for over 40 years, he was given a dark night of the spirit; he felt all the time that God was displeased with him. Enduring this inner torment, he carried on his ordinary life with graciousness and humour. Paul battled with this feeling on behalf of other people for 40 years, always holding on to God in pure faith and love. God gave evidence that this hidden struggle was effective. Whenever he entered a town to preach a mission there were numerous healings, endings of discord, and lives changed for the better. The overwhelming and erroneous sense of guilt in humanity has been radically weakened. Many people still feel it, but it is more easily dealt with. Pathology number 5 – there is no God. It is obvious from the many weird religions which have been created over the ages, that there is an estrangement between mankind and God. Human beings have a pathological insecurity as they experience God’s absence, and have tried to fill the void by creating gods, which usually reflect exaggerated images of ourselves. These have been worshiped and fought over with very little positive effect. At best these religions have served to mitigate the profound insecurity that being alienated from God produces. If we do not know God, we fear the unknown, and feel incapable of making sense of events. In its strongest form it is crippling. There have always been two extreme reactions to this fundamental void in the human heart: fanatical holding to the perceived tenants of one’s religion whatever it might be, and cynicism about the whole issue of religion. These two are enormously powerful today in the West. As the Holy Spirit has brought about the weakening of humanity’s pathological sense of guilt, deeper understandings of the human psyche have emerged. The vast new insights produced by psychology, anthropology and sociology along with neurology have been so fascinating that our culture has focused on mankind itself. Much of the previous terror of God’s condemnation has been dismissed as mental sickness, and it has become accepted thought to explain God’s existence as a myth created to keep populations controlled by fear. At the same time, scientific progress, has flowered spectacularly in the West as a result of Christians seeking understanding of the universe created by the loving God who orders all things well. It is only because Christians believed in a good law-giver that we have been liberated to discover the processes which he has put in place. But the richness of scientific progress has prompted a temporary exaggerated pride in human knowledge . This sense that we can explain our world, coupled with the growing human-centred world view, has made the belief popular that we can explain everything on our own without God. And many today dismiss the notion of God, or just avoid thinking about him. Only now are we reaping the harvest of this human arrogance: young people suffering mental sickness because they see no meaning in life, people enslaved to consumerism, people doubling down on the frenetic search for distraction and entertainment, and selfishness elevated to the status of desirable life-style. Our culture projects itself as happy, but there is little joy. I believe that God has led us to this situation where we are so enabled to build a better world, and at the same time are pervaded by distress. It is so that we will seek him more earnestly and enter into a time of spiritual flowering. As Christianity has seemed to decline in its cradle, the West, God has quietly been profoundly active in holy souls preparing the coming age of more mature Christianity. An example of his mysterious activity is the life of St Therese of Lisieux. All during the last century she has been one of the most popular Saints. Her appeal was her joyful sense of God’s cooperation as we perform the simplest human activities, coupled with her ability to shine light while living an obscure life which lasted only 23 years. She has inspired millions who have enjoyed enormous spiritual strength through her closeness. It is only recently that writings of hers have been released which reveal that She was haunted by an all-pervading sense of there being no God for the last 18 months of her short life. She held on to faith in God without letting anyone know the fierce trial she was enduring; everyone admired her serenity and care for her companions. Jesus was sharing with her the struggle to overcome the deep sense of God’s absence, that age-old pathology resulting from the Fall, which he is bringing to a head for remedying in our day. Therese prophesied that a great trial of belief in God’s existence would come, and she willingly took her part in lifting the burden of this with Jesus. There is an untold army of similar souls who have offered their lives daily in union with Jesus to heal this deep pathology in humanity. We will see very soon the result of their “spiritual sacrifice” (1 Peter 2: 5) as graces are being released, enabling people to encounter Jesus in ever growing numbers today. Where is it all leading? That is unclear, but we should expect to see more and more evidence of people turning to Jesus and his Church in the West, which some have foolishly claimed to have outgrown Christianity, and thrown off its shackles. In fact, it is in the West that Christianity is undergoing the deepening of maturity which the rest of the world will follow as different peoples pursue their own development in Christ. The overwhelming sense that there is no God is being radically weakened. Many people still feel it, but it is more easily dealt with.

Easter 2023 We spent Holy Week 2023 in Lourdes. The liturgy was wonderful. Much of it took place in the Underground Basilica which holds about 25,000 people. At the Easter vigil, it was packed. There must have been about 300 priests concelebrating. As we priests processed to the sacristy at the end, hundreds of people held out statues and rosaries and holy water for us to bless. The procession was quite rapid, and most priests tried to bless the objects by touching them as we passed. I felt that was a bit casual. So I stood at the back and blessed those that were brought to me. A long queue formed, and it went on so long that, in the end, we were forced to leave so that the janitors could lock up. How did I bless? I touched the objects, or carrier bags containing them, and closed my eyes. I looked towards the Father and concentrated on his love and grace. I was like a conduit of blessing, because I focused on him. My own thoughts and attempts to formulate prayers did not matter. Gradually, people knelt down and asked me to bless them instead. It carried on for a long time. There was a French speaking African married couple. I asked them to bless me, because I had become overwhelmed by the beauty of their sacrament of marriage as I blessed them. They were surprised that I asked them to do this, but they agreed to do it. The same long session of blessing happened after the main Easter Mass in the Underground Basilica next day. Once more, we had to leave because of the impatient looks of the janitors. Starting afresh every day I don’t think I could have done that if I had not spent time in the prayer of contemplation. That is when you leave thoughts, feelings and imaginations aside, and just stand in love before the Father. You cannot do this properly without being helped by Jesus. In fact, it is really sharing in the deepest movement of his heart, his infinite love for our Father. Don’t think that I get wrapped up into the seventh Heaven. Most of the time I just stay there hoping to be in love. I will give you an example. This is how it went today. I wake up with all sorts of problems filling my mind. Pictures of war-shattered cities, children being abused, politicians acting like children, Church members polarising, and widespread indifference. I get up and come before the Lord. I struggle to seek his face because these thoughts keep chasing each other in my head. My prayer is: ‘Father, show me your face. Jesus, help me to know and love the Father’. It carries on for a long time. I try to clear my head and put my thoughts and feelings on one side, and bit by bit I settle. Even though I want to, it is not often that I can rest quietly and peacefully in the Father’s presence. But I get a growing intimation of his peace. It is there somewhere deep inside, and things calm down. I am convinced that Jesus prayed like this – it must have been a lonely lifelong struggle to find the Father’s face and touch everywhere in this very broken world. I am sure St Patrick, the young slave in Ireland, while he was minding sheep out on the hills at night, also prayed like this. What an effect proceeded from his prayer! The Irish are one of the few peoples that were converted without bloodshed, and they are a people quite capable of that. What is going on when we begin to contemplate? Imperceptibly but surely, we come to contemplation with some of the sin of the world clinging to us, and it is pulling us down. Often, we want to switch off and find distraction in other thoughts and activities, e.g. switch on the TV. But in this prayer, we are with Jesus, the child of God parting the cloud of darkness to let the light of the Father descend. When that light penetrates there is healing warmth. Then things make sense, solutions occur, and hope is reborn. Also blessing and healing (salvation) descends on the earth. It remains and it is building up. It is like an indelible pen: it cannot be obliterated. In the moments of peace and being wrapped in the arms of the Father, we are never alone. We are surrounded on all sides by our brothers and sisters in their needs and lifethrows. Consolation in the arms of the Father can never be individualistic. We may personally experience peace and enlightenment, but that will be small fry if we don’t have an open heart to the brothers and sisters. This is how contemplation flows over into intercession. As we seek to see the face of God, even faintly we begin to experience the boundless generosity of his love. That very boundlessness demands an act of communion with other people as well. One thing that was striking about the Easter Blessings in Lourdes was that the people were from all over the world, Africa, Australasia, South America, Europe and the States. It was a great blessing to me to witness their thirst for the Kingdom. It was a true experience of Church.

Connected deep down A family farmed in a vast open land. They had a well that supplied all their water. Many miles away a tanker overturned. It was carrying purple dye, which emptied out and flowed into a nearby well. Soon the family found their own water had turned purple, and they discovered that all their neighbours across the countryside had purple water also. Things gradually returned to normal, but they had all learnt that their water supply was connected deep down in the ground. We human beings are similarly connected to each other in our deepest being, our spirits. My actions influence the lives of everyone, and vice versa. We can see this on the level of our emotions and intellects. Look how the supporters of one football team will share the same thoughts and feelings. But on the spiritual level it is far more profound, even though we are usually unaware of it. It is because it is so profound that we are unaware. We were made in the image and likeness of God, who is a Trinity of persons so perfectly bonded in love that they are unity; they are one. That same profound drive for unity is integral to our human nature made in God’s image. The problem is that it has been weakened by our sin. It is fracturedness that we experience more than unity. But we are made to be united at the very deepest level, love. We know well how the disunity shows itself and proliferates. How can the unity be restored? Restoring human communion It is the Christ who is the restorer of unity. His Spirit is the life-force that penetrates the spirits of those who are open to God, or at least to goodness when the presence of Christ is obscured. The more a person opens to Christ, the more they become restorers of human unity. How does this work? Firstly, it is important to say how it does not work. Christ does not work through human engineering of society. True, we have an obligation to work for a just society in which the well-being of all is sought. And God gives many graces to people who work for the good of society. But Jesus said “my Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18: 36). He shows us that building an earthly kingdom is the wrong way round. What Jesus did was to connect spiritually with all mankind, and he works from within us. During his life on earth, his humanity developed at such a phenomenal rate that, by the time of his passion, he had drawn all humanity into his heart, and his brilliant mind knew us all. This process was not simply one of studying us intellectually; it was one of love. He was the divine lover seeking to ‘know’ his beloved brothers and sisters. He was falling in love with each of us. Lovers give their beloved power to break their hearts, and the on the cross Jesus experienced the heartbreak of all mankind. He not only knew our every struggle and pain, but experienced them all as personally as we do. Why did he drink this dreadful chalice? Because he knew that only the Father could draw out the poison of our woundedness and heal us. Someone needed to open it all up to the Father for healing. He knew that he needed to make one gigantic act of trust. It was the for-all-time cry of mankind for the saving mercy of the Father. No one else could make such an unimaginably gigantic sacrifice of self. We all give up so easily. As he hung on the cross, he must have wondered if it would ever end, but, finally, he said “It is finished ”, and, with a loud cry, breathed forth his spirit to his Father. He had joined earth to heaven once more. ‘It is finished’ - the New Creation went into operation. This whole process of identifying himself with all people had started at his conception in the womb of Mary, and had taken a huge step forward when he was baptised at the Jordan. Jesus’ choice to be baptised, and so to join himself to our sin, drew from his Father the cry “This is my Son that I love; I am so pleased with him!” (Matthew 3: 17). [2] Here is no stern, demanding parent, but one who is entirely wrapped up in the elder brother’s brave struggle of love for all the rest of his children. It was never about punishment; it is all about our healing. St Augustine said: “Our Lord came first as medicine, not as judge” After Jesus died the earth stood dark and silent for a while. Then, to prove he was dead, a soldier pierced his heart with his spear. Out poured blood and water. The Church has always understood that that is the water of baptism to birth humanity into the family of God, and the blood is the Eucharist to feed his new people on their journey into God. Another ancient understanding of the piercing of Jesus’ side is that just as Adam’s bride, Eve, was formed from his side while he slept, so the Church, the bride of Christ, was formed from his side as he slept in death. The old world, stained by sin, began its transformation into The New Creation. The second body of Christ The death of Jesus was followed by his awesome resurrection, and 42 days of wonderful intimacy with the disciples before he ascended to heaven. At Pentecost nine days later, he returned in and through the Holy Spirit, and drew the disciples into the wondrous unity of his new body, his Church. On that Pentecost day a great sign was given. Thousands of foreign pilgrims to Jerusalem had rushed to hear the tumult caused by the disturbance of nature and the Spirit-filled disciples going wild with the joy of God. Although the disciples were all Hebrew, each of their hearers heard their words in their own language. The curse of Babel was removed. At Babel mankind had united in an attempt to build their own way to heaven. Their prideful plan fell to pieces and so did their unity. Pentecost was the great sign that God is now restoring human unity. Only it is not the outward unity which we attempt to engineer. We have a special name for it: communion . The Holy Spirit is drawing people into a new cohesive body, which is none other than the Mystical Body of Jesus, the Church. That is the true Kingdom of God which Jesus announced was arriving. It had now arrived.

Today, Thursday the 17th of July, the first reading at Mass tells us how God revealed his name to Moses at the burning bush. His name is “I AM”.

D. H Lawrence has a glimmer of gods and Kings. Did not Jesus quote psalm 82:6, which says 'You are gods; you are all children of the Most High'? (John 10: 34) One night I was reading some poems of D. H. Lawrence. One was entitled “The Gods! The Gods!”. It reads: People were bathing and posturing themselves on the beach, and all was dreary, great robot limbs, robot breasts, robot voices, robot even the gay umbrellas. But a woman, shy and alone, was washing herself under a tap and the glimmer of the presence of the gods was like lilies, and like water-lilies. The poet is suddenly overwhelmed by the splendour of another person. Sometimes we experience that, but such moments are all too rare in life. But when we enter the eternal dimension of Heaven we will behold each other’s splendour. In another poem Lawrence is in Sicily and goes to the well to draw water. He sees that a venomous snake is there before him and he watches it. Twice it raises its head and turns an imperious regard to him. He is torn between fascination and the inherited instinct to kill it. He heaves a branch at it and it speeds away. He goes on: And I wished he would come back, my snake. For he seemed to me again like a king, Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld, Now due to be crowned again. And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords Of life. Isn’t that true of each person God has made; ‘a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld, now due to be crowned again’? Don’t we all hope to hear Jesus speak these words to us: “Come blessed of my Father. Take for your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world” (Matthew 25, 34). And shouldn’t we bow down in front of the mystery of the enormous grandeur each of us is being led into?  And pray for those who are on the final growth to glory, the Souls in Purgatory?

For years I have heard spiritual guides saying that it is our wills that are crucial in the prayer of the heart. I have to admit that I have found it difficult to make sense of this, because it sounds like muscular Christianity which I have found inadequate. I imbibed a strong moralising religion as a child, which meant learning what was right and willing myself to do it – this was especially reinforced by the image of a fearsome God who was keeping the score. The result was a sense of failure combined with frequent resolutions to do better. I know that was not true religion, which is about relating to the God who is love. What I was practicing was a throwback to Old Testament keeping of the law. I think that is what Jesus was talking about when he described John the Baptist as the greatest man born of woman, but added ‘yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is’ . He said: ‘Since John the Baptist came, up to this present time, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are taking it by storm’ . (Matthew 11, 11). Muscular Christianity with its stress on will power uses violence against self and even against others to take the kingdom of heaven by storm. So why do the greatest spiritual guides keep saying that the will is central? A clue lies in The Catechism of the Catholic Church’s chapter on prayer (2563). The explanation begins with the heart: “The heart is the dwelling-place where I live. According to the Semitic (Jewish) or Biblical expression, the heart is the place ‘to which I withdraw.’ The heart is our hidden centre, beyond the grasp of our reason and of other people; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully.” The Catechism’s explanation then shifts the focuses to the heart’s movement and actions beyond itself: “The heart if the place of decision , deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as images of God we live through relationship: it is the place of covenant” (my underlining). I find the words ‘decision’ and ‘choose’ more helpful than ‘will’. As I spend time in silent prayer seeking the face of God, with the conscious attempt to love him and be loved by him, it is the constant renewing of the decision and choice which gradually solidifies an attitude of love in my heart. Much of the time, there is no feeling or understanding of this living relationship, but, as time goes on, I am aware that that relationship is an attitude developing in my heart. That awareness rises up from my heart to my mind more and more throughout the day and night. It is like a catch of a tune springing up in the mind. But the word ‘will’ or 'will power' certainly describes the strength needed when there is temptation. I find that it is easy to resist temptation when I am aware of the Father’s love and Jesus’ closeness. It is when these are obscured that my will must operate most strongly. Usually it is not a matter of willing to do something, but rather a tenacious clinging on in the dark to the hand of God. That takes grit, in which I am often lacking, but as the relationship grows I expect my will to grow stronger. We might ask: what does temptation have to do with contemplation? Temptation is never far away from one who contemplates. The Evil One knows only too well what power for good flows from the lovers of God. He hates contemplation and tries to disrupt it whenever he can. Thankfully, God shields his lovers much of the time, but at others he permits us to be tempted. It is not that he is abandoning us then, but he is turning the Devils weapons back on his own head. Each time we overcome temptation with the help of God's grace, not only does the Devil weaken, but also our own inner self grows stronger. It is in that struggle, that we are tested and purified like gold in a furnace. When undergoing temptation it is important to remember four basic Catholic teachings. God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our strength. But often we will not appreciate what strength we have with the aid of God's grace until after struggle is over. All temptations eventually pass. Temptation is not sin. Sin is where we willingly indulge a temptation and welcome it into our souls. Then it restricts our capacity to experience God's love. In that state of deprivation we allow evil to become stronger in ourselves and the whole world. Temptations arise from virtues that are wounded and twisted. Anger, for instance, is a God-given power of our soul to remove evil with extraordinary force. When anger is diseased, that force is used to harm and hurt. The saints and spiritual teachers mean something much deeper than 'will power' when they are dealing with our wills. We shall consider that in Chapter 12. QUESTION How are you finding my thoughts on the prayer of the heart/contemplation? I am sure I only see a small part of this deepest activity of our spirit. Would you care to add something of your own thoughts and experience? Use the 'comment on this article' button below.

PANGE LINGUA In 1264, in response to growing demands, Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi. He asked St Thomas Aquinas , one of the greatest thinkers that the Church has ever produced, to compose hymns to be sung on the feast. Today we still wonder at the gift of poetry that he displayed.  Among his hymns was ‘Ecce Panis Angelorum’ and ‘Pange Lingua’ which most of us are familiar with. If you do not know the Pange Lingua, you will probably know its last two verses, the Tantum Ergo, sung at Benediction. On this great feast of Corpus Christi, I take the liberty of offering my own translation of the Pange Lingua. Oh tongue of mine, sing of the Mystery of the glorious body and precious blood. This is the price paid to redeem the world. which the King pours it out upon the peoples from his generous breast, He was given to us, born to us from the immaculate Virgin. And, after living in our world and scattering the seed of his word, he climaxed his dwelling among us in this amazing way. In that greatest of suppers, celebrating with his friends, after they had eaten the Passover meal as laid down by the Old Law, from his own hands he gave himself as food to his twelve companions. The Word took our flesh; now he turns actual bread into his flesh. And (wine) is transformed into his actual blood. If our senses cannot perceive (the great Mystery), Sincere hearts are assured of it by the light of faith. Let your eyes gaze with wonder at this holy revelation of God. The Old Covenant with God is completed by this new intimacy. Let your faith perceive what your senses can not. Praise the Father, the Son and the Spirit! Do it with overflowing joy, and be blessed!

OH, THE RICHNESS!!! If you blink, you could miss some of the treasure poured out into our laps at this time. First, we are nearing the end of the Easter Season. Like Christmas, it is all too short. Personally, I am just getting into re-examining the Resurrection of Jesus – it is ending too soon! In recent years I have found myself concentrating on his passion and death, the central drama of human history, in which he fought and conquered evil. I have found such richness in the acclamation, “We proclaim his death”. I see my valiant and all-loving saviour routing, in his suffering heart, mind and body, the forces which entangle me and my world. What love! What courage! What hope! But this year it is the resurrection which is stunning me. I have been thinking a lot about the aversion of our modern minds to the whole idea of miracles. Mathematics and science base themselves on strict and unchanging laws in nature. Many philosophers today say that what seems to us to be a miracle will eventually be explained by the discovery of natural forces that we are presently unaware of. They say, if there is a God, he is primarily the law-giver, and therefore he is incapable of changing the laws that he has made. Even among ‘Christians’, there are some who say that one day we will discover the bones of Jesus somewhere in Palestine. But God is not primarily the law-giver. He is the Father who is the delight of his children. He can never be put into a box of human definition and will always surprise us. Through miraculous glimpses and disciplined formation he is re-forming us into his own likeness. On Easter morning, his Son really revived his own body as it slept in death. He not only came back to life he pulsated with the glorious new life of the new creation. I can’t get to the bottom of that – I need more time! Second, Pentecost comes quickly. There was such a supernatural commotion in Jerusalem that thousands of people flocked to the scene. What they saw was some deliriously joyful men celebrating with a big ' C' . The Holy Spirit of God, released into the world at Easter was bringing the Church to life. The Apostles are inspired, there was the miracle of everyone understanding them in their own language, and 3000 were baptised that day. I feel like spending more time here to think about God’s Spirit forming mankind into Church, bringing about the new creation here and now. I feel we only get time to remember what happened at the first Pentecost, and then are moved quickly on by the liturgy. But isn’t that desire to enter more into Pentecost as it is happening here and now precisely the work of ‘Ordinary Time’? Oh, I hope so. Third, we move onto Trinity The diet of the Liturgy seems too rich. God needed 2000 years to reveal to Israel the Mystery of the amazing love life of the three persons who are united as one God. There is no truth more deep or important. How can we just give it a day in the Liturgy?  But that very deepest reality, Trinity, is what every single day is about not just Trinity Sunday. It is where we have come from, where we are now and where we are going. It is the reality in which we “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28). Every day is meant to be a new stage in our exploration into the reality of our God-filled existence. A large part of the Liturgy, the big feasts, is revisiting the events of salvation, and reliving them to receive their message and know afresh the power of God. But an equally large part is just being in God and learning reality under his mighty hand. We do that by letting the Holy Spirit give us encounters with Jesus, who gradually incorporates us into himself and takes us to our Father. That is Trinity life here and now. Suddenly it’s Corpus Christi In the last paragraph I said that Jesus ‘incorporates’ us into himself in order to take us to our Father. What a surpassing mystery that he should actually do this physically when we eat his body and drink his blood! The Eucharist is the daily bread of Christians, the food for the journey. We call our last reception ‘Holy Viaticum’, the Latin for ‘food for the journey’. In that case the journey is from this world to the fully real world of the Trinity, where there will be no more days, only the eternal now, which we cannot even imagine. We only know it is eternal bliss and beautiful complete communion. The Mass is that point when millions of Christians throughout the world gather as one with all the saints of heaven and are given a foretaste of that glory which is to come. In its strength, we go out to fulfil the next stage of our task of drawing all creation into Jesus’ new life. Through repetition we learn. The great feasts we celebrate so closely together at this time, are like the headlines in a newspaper, which we scan, and later return to in order to familiarise ourselves with the details. They highlight in dazzling dramas, the everyday drama of ordinary life in Christ. It says a lot for God’s understanding of us that we spend year after year relearning so that day by day we can live more fully.