Sunday Reflections

I recently noticed that Collins, the dictionary people, have chosen as their word for 2022 ‘permacrisis’ – which they define as ‘an extended period of instability and insecurity’. When we look around us we can see that this word appears apt for our experience over these past months and years. Coronavirus is still with us, the climate is still (and increasingly) of concern, the war in Ukraine is causing human and financial tragedies, floods and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are bringing untold insecurity and danger in various parts of the world … the list seems endless, not to mention our own individual and family crises – all of which, if we are not careful, can appear to be overwhelming us.

And in the midst of all this comes Advent, a season which invites us to be quiet, to be reflective, to prepare not simply for the one-day celebration of the Lord’s birth on 25 December but rather to raise our eyes from the local and individual and to see the wider picture of the work of Christ in the whole of creation. It invites us to have, alongside Isaiah on the first Sunday of Advent (27 November), a vision – a goal and a direction of travel for our daily living. Without such a vision, we run the risk of being battered and blown by the events and the permacrisis through which we are living.

For the first weeks of Advent there is, in fact, no mention of stars or stable or shepherds; the Scripture asks us to reflect rather on the coming of Christ which will be at the end of all things. How will He judge us? What criteria will be used? How do I/we understand our life in the light of such a great love which has been lavished upon us as Christ comes to us as a Redeemer, a Friend and a Brother?

Weighty questions – but in a time of crisis, weighty questions are appropriate.

I wish you a Blessed Advent and a joyful Christmastide

Sunday thoughts Mgr John Devine OBE

Fr John Gidlea was 10 years ahead of me at Upholland. With its acres of lawns and playing fields, summers were filled with the drone of motor mowing machines. Invariably the young John Gildea was at the helm, steering the mower round and round, backwards and forwards. After his death I was sent a video of him cutting the grass at St Peter’s, Woolston. It brought back memories of 60 years ago.

‘Gilly’ was not just king of the motor mowers, he was also a motorcyclist. After his ordination, I recall him driving through the college gates on his bike. I was intrigued how such a large motorbike ran so silently. It was a BMW ‘boxer’. He appeared on it again at a pop festival at Bickershaw. As senior students, some of us were invited to join the chaplaincy team in which Fr John had a key role. He explained how BMWs were shaftdriven. And he could identify the make of a motorcycle from the sound of its engine. The police rode Triumphs and Nortons at the time. It was only later that they, too, graduated to BMW boxers.

I have ridden motorcycles all my life, even during my years in South America. But it was only on my return from Peru that I managed to get a BMW boxer. It was an ex-police model, all I could afford. It was in a poor state. I turned to Gilly. He introduced me to his friend Tom. Tom and Gilly spent many summers touring Europe on their BMWs. Tom is a gifted engineer. He has a perfect ear for tuning engines. Within 20 minutes Tom had my bike running sweetly. We have been close friends ever since.

I saw Gilly just a week before he died. He sadly told me that he’d had to sell his beloved bikes.

Non-violence is the way of God

I have been working recently with a man who is so afraid of the anger that lies within him, afraid that it will burst out and do some real damage. He is afraid of the violence that lurks within him, threatening to break out. That struck a chord with me because I know there are times in my life when anger bubbles just below the surface and it frightens me. Yet to follow Jesus is to follow a path of non- violence. The Bible, from beginning to end, is a progressive revelation – or maybe it is a progressive realisation on our part, of the loving non-violence of God. This is a revelation that ends in Jesus who shows a God of radical non-violence. Even His death on the cross is a teaching on non-violence. This blows our minds. We are so violent, not just in our actions but in our language, and in the way in which we treat one another. It was Ghandi who said that ‘non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our very being … if love or non-violence be not the law of our being, the whole of my argument falls to pieces ... belief in non-violence is based on the assumption that human nature in its essence is one and therefore unfailingly responds to the advances of love … if one does not practise non-violence in one’s personal relations with others and hopes to use it in bigger affairs, one is vastly mistaken.’ The God whom Jesus reveals is free of all violence, and so for those of us who follow Jesus, non-violence has to be one of the cornerstones for our lives. Thomas Merton wrote that ‘meekness’ is the Biblical word for non-violence. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, we find many passages which deal with nonviolence. It is one of the Evangelist’s major themes. Jesus’ death is itself a teaching on how to attack violence by taking it into himself and triumphing over it by love. In a few weeks we will celebrate the birth of a child who is vulnerable, innocent, non-violent. Could it be that non-violence is the gift of the Christ child? We, as his followers, are to live non-violently too. To live in his Kingdom demands nonviolence. The Kingdom of God, where compassion, love, mercy and forgiveness reigns, is not at the top of many people’s priorities. So to live in it is to be radically different than those around us. If we are honest, much of the world’s way of living is violent, as politically we attack one another or enter into wars with one another. Where does the Gospel point us? I think it invites us towards being transformed within, that we may spread the Gospel of non-violence, captured in the birth of a baby at Bethlehem.

Father Chris Thomas

from the archives Morecambe and Wise men

by Neil Sayer, Archdiocesan Archivist

Christmas at St Augustine’s Primary School

In the olden days, as a weekly newspaper, the Catholic Pic published a TV guide for the Sunday on which it was sold. For those of us who remember the dot disappearing in the centre of the screen when you turned the telly off, looking through the programme listings is a real feast of nostalgia. In 1977 Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, and the TV schedule in that year’s Pic shows why gathering round the box in the corner was such a family activity. There were only three channels on offer then, and you couldn’t record programmes to watch later. It was also, of course, a communal activity: what you were watching was probably what your neighbour was watching, and what you discussed in the playground or at work in the days following showed how much of a shared experience television was before streaming services and a multiplicity of channels evolved. Then as now, popular programmes produced ‘Christmas specials’, and on BBC1 there was a competition for a Grace Brothers’ department store Santa in Are You Being Served? Puppets featured strongly during the day, as Basil Brush, Emu and the Muppets all gave us something Christmassy. The Queen’s Christmas broadcast went out at the same time on BBC1 and ITV, with a later showing on BBC2 in case you’d missed it. There was no Bond film over which to fall asleep after a heavy lunch, so that must be a tradition that started later. If you were expecting The Wizard of Oz to feature, you can tick that box, though you’d have had to wait until Boxing Day for The Guns of Navarone, another holiday favourite. As the evening wore on, Bruce Forsyth presented ‘a special Christmas edition’ of The Generation Game, which no doubt featured Anthea Redfern giving us a festive twirl. And the one we all remember was of course the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show. Not that you need to remember it, as there are still repeats over 40 years on. The 1977 edition was the one with Nothing Like a Dame, a Hollywood-style dance routine for acrobatic sailors, featuring a roster of BBC television presenters including Michael Aspel and Eddie Waring. With 28 million viewers, this holds the record as the most watched comedy programme on British television. It’s instructive to see how much religious content was available. Even with more channels now, I don’t think Christmas Day this year will have so much Christian celebration on offer. The day started just before 9.00 am (imagine!) with Christmas Carols on Granada and Christmas music on BBC1. Both channels had morning worship programmes, the BBC from an Anglican church in Surrey and Granada with a Christmas Day Mass from Our Lady and St Oswin’s Church in Tynemouth. BBC2 opened at lunchtime with carols from the chapel of St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill, so the Catholic contribution seems quite balanced. If you stayed up late, Granada then ended the holy day with an hour of celebration of ‘The joys of Christmas in words and music’, followed by a Christmas message from the Archbishop of Canterbury. And then, as the programmes ended on all channels, you’d be back to watching the dot disappear…

All Saints Day at St Thomas of Canterbury, St Helens

In March 2020, as we were ordered to stay indoors and lockdown began, the church of St Thomas of Canterbury in St Helens closed its doors as every other church in the country did. However, the circumstances of the parish changed during lockdown and it has not been possible to reopen the church since. It has long been discussed whether the church would ever reopen again as the building had been left empty for such a long time and people worried if it was in a state of disrepair. However, with the permission from Archbishop Malcolm to reopen the church, subject to review after one year, and the hard work of Father Michael Harwood, the parishioners and the staff and children of St Thomas of Canterbury School, the church finally reopened with a Mass to celebrate All Saints’ Day on Tuesday 1 November. The staff of the school have been instrumental in getting the church ready for reopening and have worked alongside Father Michael in preparing the building, attending meetings, washing and ironing vestments and albs and even polishing candlesticks. A genuine partnership between parish and school giving fresh foundations for strengthening the links between the school and the church even further. During the Mass the children led the Liturgy with their brilliant reading; they sang beautifully and joined in with all the responses, making Father Michael’s first Mass there a truly memorable one. As one child succinctly put it; ‘It’s exciting because it is like having a new home with one big family all joining together.’

2022

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