St Martin De Porres Parish Wakefield

Pope Benedict declared the year from October 2012 to be a Year of Faith with many events planned....

A YEAR OF FAITH for the whole Church, from the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 2012 until 24 November 2013. Various events are planned both in diocese and parish. One legacy of the Second Vatican Council is the four great constitutions Dei Verbum, Lumen Gentium, Sacrosanctum Concilium and Gaudium et Spes which redefined the Church’s place on its pilgrim journey: worth re-reading.

Details of current & forthcoming YEAR OF FAITH events in this parish are on the PARISH NEWS section to the right of this page- click there.

Mgr John Wilson's Homily at the Opening Mass for the Year of Faith at Leeds Cathedral.

Mass for the Opening of the Year of Faith

Leeds Cathedral - 11th October 2012

When the bible speaks about the ‘heart,’ it’s referring to the inner reality of who we truly are – who we really are before God, before ourselves and before the world. In our hearts reside our deepest thoughts, our deepest feelings, our deepest longings and motivations. The heart, we could say, is the hearth, the crucible, and the beacon of our faith: “If your lips confess that Jesus is Lord and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, then,’ says St Paul, ‘you will be saved.” That which falls from our lips flows from our heart, the very core and centre of our being.

In his Letter for the Year of Faith our Holy Father Pope Benedict affirms that we cross the threshold of the ‘door of faith,’ when ‘the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace,’ (PF1) that grace which is the gift of God’s love and mercy in Christ.

Faith is, of course, informed by reason, but our ongoing act of faith, our ‘choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him,’ (PF10) always remains essentially an affair of the heart, never something exclusive or private, but something intensely and deeply personal. There is, wrote the philosopher Blaise Pascal, “a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”(From the Pensees)

“If you confess with your lips and believe in your heart... you will be saved.”

It’s with a joyful sense of expectation that the Year of Faith unfolds now before us. Surely it has to be a year when the heart, what Pope Benedict calls ‘the authentic sacred space within the person’ is opened afresh to Jesus Christ:

opened afresh to the riches of His Gospel through a determined rediscovery of the Scriptures;

opened afresh to the teaching of His Church, especially in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism;

opened afresh to the evangelising service of His people by the public proclamation of faith and the practical witness to charity and justice;

opened afresh to His love for every person, whatever their belief or non-belief, and to entering into dialogue to build the common good;

opened afresh to the reality of His presence, particularly in our daily prayer and in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Confession.

This Year of Faith invites us to blow gently with the Holy Spirit upon the embers of belief wherever we find them, rekindling the flame of faith in the hearth that is the heart.

This Year of Faith calls us to discern the Lord’s words and ways, to enter into prayerful conversation with Jesus, sifting through our life with Him, in the crucible that is the heart.

This Year of Faith compels us to stand beside the poor and the marginalised, to defend human life and dignity, to put our faith into action and ignite the beacon that is the heart.

‘We want this Year,’ said Pope Benedict ‘to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.’ (PF9) For our Diocesan family - clergy, religious and lay faithful - this Year is an opportunity to reach within and to reach out, to realise anew that ‘there is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ... to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.’ (Pope Benedict, Inauguration Homily, 2005)

I read in the newspaper last week the story of a postbox at Birmingham New Street Station that had not been emptied for 23 years. Although it was decommissioned in 1989, people had still continued to use it. When workers recently opened the door they found letters and postcards destined for addresses at home and across the world, all lying under a thick layer of dust. Having now rediscovered the contents, Royal Mail is trying to deliver each item of post to its proper recipient.

The rightful destination for God’s message of love and forgiveness in Jesus, his love letter, is the human heart – your heart, my heart, the heart of every person. Let this Year of Faith encourage you to dare to hope and believe again and anew. It is Christ Himself who is calling and sending us today; and He will never abandon us. The message of our Catholic faith is something to be proud of; something to cherish, something to celebrate and to share. Tonight’s liturgy will beckon us: ‘Lift up your hearts.’ As we step out into this Year of Faith let us together ‘lift them up to the Lord.’

SOME IDEAS FOR THE YEAR...

Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, chairman of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, offers “10 Ways Catholics Can Live the Year of Faith.” Rooted in guidelines from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, some of these suggestions are already requirements for Catholics; others can be embraced by Catholics at all times and especially during the Year of Faith:

1. Participate in Mass. The Year of Faith is meant to promote the personal encounter with Jesus. This occurs most immediately in the Eucharist. Regular Mass attendance strengthens one’s faith through the Scriptures, the Creed, other prayers, sacred music, the homily, receiving Communion and being part of a faith community.

2. Go to Confession. Like going to Mass, Catholics find strength and grow deeper in their faith through participation in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. Confession urges people to turn back to God, express sorrow for falling short and open their lives to the power of God’s healing grace. It forgives the injuries of the past and provides strength for the future.

3. Learn about the lives of the saints. The saints are timeless examples of how to live a Christian life, and they provide endless hope. Not only were they sinners who kept trying to grow closer to God, but they also exemplify ways a person can serve God: through teaching, missionary work, charity, prayer and simply striving to please God in the ordinary actions and decisions of daily life.

4. Read the Bible daily. Scripture offers first-hand access to the Word of God and tells the story of human salvation. Catholics can pray the Scriptures (through lectio divina or other methods) to become more attuned to the Word of God. Either way, the Bible is a must for growth in the Year of Faith.

5. Read the documents of Vatican II. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) ushered in a great renewal of the Church. It impacted how Mass is celebrated, the role of the laity, how the Church understands itself and its relationship with other Christians and non-Christians. To continue this renewal, Catholics must understand what the Council taught and how it enriches the lives of believers.

6. Study the Catechism. Published exactly 30 years after the start of the Council, the Catechism of the Catholic Church covers the beliefs, moral teachings, prayer and sacraments of the Catholic Church in one volume. It’s a resource for growing in understanding of the faith. Another helpful resource is the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults (USCCA).

7. Volunteer in the parish. The Year of Faith can’t only be about study and reflection. The solid grounding of the Scriptures, the Council and the Catechism must translate into action. The parish is a great place to start, and each person’s gifts help build up the community. People are welcome as ministers of hospitality, liturgical musicians, lectors, catechists and in other roles in parish life.

8. Help those in need. The Vatican urges Catholics to donate to charity and volunteer to help the poor during the Year of Faith. This means to personally encounter Christ in the poor, marginalized and vulnerable. Helping others brings Catholics face-to-face with Christ and creates an example for the rest of the world.

9. Invite a friend to Mass. The Year of Faith may be global in its scope, focusing on a renewal of faith and evangelization for the whole Church, but real change occurs at the local level. A personal invitation can make all the difference to someone who has drifted from the faith or feels alienated from the Church. Everyone knows people like this, so everyone can extend a loving welcome.

10. Incorporate the Beatitudes into daily life. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) provide a rich blueprint for Christian living. Their wisdom can help all to be more humble, patient, just, transparent, loving, forgiving and free. It’s precisely the example of lived faith needed to draw people to the Church in the year ahead.

The Pope's first CHRISM MASS homily addressed, as is usual at this Mass, first to his priests:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This morning I have the joy of celebrating my first Chrism Mass as the Bishop of Rome. I greet all of you with affection, especially you, dear priests, who, like myself, today recall the day of your ordination.

The readings of our Mass speak of God’s “anointed ones”: the suffering Servant of Isaiah, King David and Jesus our Lord. All three have this in common: the anointing that they receive is meant in turn to anoint God’s faithful people, whose servants they are; they are anointed for the poor, for prisoners, for the oppressed… A fine image of this “being for” others can be found in the Psalm: “It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down upon the collar of his robe” (Ps 133:2). The image of spreading oil, flowing down from the beard of Aaron upon the collar of his sacred robe, is an image of the priestly anointing which, through Christ, the Anointed One, reaches the ends of the earth, represented by the robe.

The sacred robes of the High Priest are rich in symbolism. One such symbol is that the names of the children of Israel were engraved on the onyx stones mounted on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, the ancestor of our present-day chasuble: six on the stone of the right shoulder-piece and six on that of the left (cf. Ex 28:6-14). The names of the twelve tribes of Israel were also engraved on the breastplate (cf. Es 28:21). This means that the priest celebrates by carrying on his shoulders the people entrusted to his care and bearing their names written in his heart. When we put on our simple chasuble, it might well make us feel, upon our shoulders and in our hearts, the burdens and the faces of our faithful people, our saints and martyrs of whom there are many in these times…

From the beauty of all these liturgical things, which is not so much about trappings and fine fabrics than about the glory of our God resplendent in his people, alive and strengthened, we turn to a consideration of activity, action. The precious oil which anoints the head of Aaron does more than simply lend fragrance to his person; it overflows down to “the edges”. The Lord will say this clearly: his anointing is meant for the poor, prisoners and the sick, for those who are sorrowing and alone. The ointment is not intended just to make us fragrant, much less to be kept in a jar, for then it would become rancid … and the heart bitter.

A good priest can be recognized by the way his people are anointed. This is a clear test. When our people are anointed with the oil of gladness, it is obvious: for example, when they leave Mass looking as if they have heard good news. Our people like to hear the Gospel preached with “unction”, they like it when the Gospel we preach touches their daily lives, when it runs down like the oil of Aaron to the edges of reality, when it brings light to moments of extreme darkness, to the “outskirts” where people of faith are most exposed to the onslaught of those who want to tear down their faith. People thank us because they feel that we have prayed over the realities of their everyday lives, their troubles, their joys, their burdens and their hopes. And when they feel that the fragrance of the Anointed One, of Christ, has come to them through us, they feel encouraged to entrust to us everything they want to bring before the Lord: “Pray for me, Father, because I have this problem”, “Bless me”, “Pray for me” – these words are the sign that the anointing has flowed down to the edges of the robe, for it has turned into prayer. The prayers of the people of God. When we have this relationship with God and with his people, and grace passes through us, then we are priests, mediators between God and men. What I want to emphasize is that we need constantly to stir up God’s grace and perceive in every request, even those requests that are inconvenient and at times purely material or downright banal – but only apparently so – the desire of our people to be anointed with fragrant oil, since they know that we have it. To perceive and to sense, even as the Lord sensed the hope-filled anguish of the woman suffering from hemorrhages when she touched the hem of his garment. At that moment, Jesus, surrounded by people on every side, embodies all the beauty of Aaron vested in priestly raiment, with the oil running down upon his robes. It is a hidden beauty, one which shines forth only for those faith-filled eyes of the woman troubled with an issue of blood. But not even the disciples – future priests – see or understand: on the “existential outskirts”, they see only what is on the surface: the crowd pressing in on Jesus from all sides (cf. Lk 8:42). The Lord, on the other hand, feels the power of the divine anointing which runs down to the edge of his cloak.

We need to “go out”, then, in order to experience our own anointing, its power and its redemptive efficacy: to the “outskirts” where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters. It is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord: self-help courses can be useful in life, but to live by going from one course to another, from one method to another, leads us to become pelagians and to minimize the power of grace, which comes alive and flourishes to the extent that we, in faith, go out and give ourselves and the Gospel to others, giving what little ointment we have to those who have nothing, nothing at all.

A priest who seldom goes out of himself, who anoints little – I won’t say “not at all” because, thank God, our people take our 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 why some priests grow dissatisfied, become sad priests, lose heart and become in some sense collectors of antiques or novelties – instead of being shepherds living with “the smell of the sheep”, shepherds in the midst of their flock, fishers of men. True enough, the so-called crisis of priestly identity threatens us all and adds to the broader cultural crisis; but if we can resist its onslaught, we will be able to put out in the name of the Lord and cast our nets. It is not a bad thing that reality itself forces us to “put out into the deep”, where what we are by grace is clearly seen as pure grace, out into the deep of the contemporary world, where the only thing that counts is “unction” – not function – and the nets which overflow with fish are those cast solely in the name of the One in whom we have put our trust: Jesus.

Dear lay faithful, be close to your priests with affection and with your prayers, that they may always be shepherds according to God’s heart.

Dear priests, may God the Father renew in us the Spirit of holiness with whom we have been anointed. May he renew his Spirit in our hearts, that this anointing may spread to everyone, even to those “outskirts” where our faithful people most look for it and most appreciate it. May our people sense that we are the Lord’s disciples; may they feel that their names are written upon our priestly vestments and that we seek no other identity; and may they receive through our words and deeds the oil of gladness which Jesus, the Anointed One, came to bring us. Amen.