reconciling to mother church

A trail is forming of new Catholics in recent times in England. A careful observer will acknowledge that several now former Anglican bishops have reconciled with the Mother Church: the Catholic Church, that is, after a period of discernment that has questioned the increasing secularization of the CofE.

Most Catholics on this side of the pond would not be too aware of these events in the CofE, or even care. But they ought to care. Catholics outside the UK need to be aware of the trends not only in ecclesial polity but also in theological reflection, in particular the reality of Divine Revelation. These recent conversions are good examples of the horizon of faith and reason.

For my money, the point worth exploring further is Ashenden’s point:

“Evangelicals of [Peter] Forster’s generation were always alive to the primacy of the Holy Spirit. They believed in the miraculous conversion of the heart and the rebirth of the soul. But to their dismay, the generation that followed would find progressive identity politics more compelling than repentance and would exchange salvation for social revolution.”

Gavin Ashenden, a recent “convert” himself adroitly explores the phenomenon in the UK in a blog post, “The Conversion of Evangelical Bishops to Rome –A Diagnosis.”

Before the Catholic Church, East and West goes further down the D.I.E (diversity, inclusion and equality) trail, she better come to terms with the radical agenda and consequences of the CofE. It is true, and we have experience here, the CofE is not projected to be serving the Good News and tradition for much longer. The American equivalent, the Episcopal Church, has adopted DIE and is now no more than a social justice group, a club of old elites unconcerned about preaching the liberating word of Jesus Christ and nor is it impacted by the sacramentality of Tradition. When you abandon true, apostolic and one catholicity of faith and reason you become no better than a society of do-gooders.

Blessed Sebastian Valfrè was committed to Christ in the person

Today is the Feast of the Oratorian Blessed, Sebastian Valfrè (1629-1710). In 2013 and then again in 2014, I wrote a brief blog post on Blessed Sebastian with two links. A fuller biography notes the following of today’s beatus of the Church.

Sebastian Valfrè is one of the most important members of the Piedmontese clergy, and the forerunner of the many Saints who have graced the Church of Turin in recent centuries. Sebastian was born at Verduno, in the Diocese of Alba, on 9th March, 1629. His family was poor, but despite hardships and difficulties he managed to follow a course of studies at Alba, Bra and finally Turin. He joined the Oratory of Turin on 26th May, 1651, and was ordained priest on 24th February, 1652. He gained his doctorate in theology in 1656. He went on to hold many of the offices at the Oratory and, although he declined being made Archbishop of his city, he nevertheless, through his tireless work, is honoured as the Apostle of Turin. His particular concerns were the teaching of the Catechism, hearing confessions, giving spiritual direction, helping the poor and the sick, widows, orphans and prisoners. Sebastian became confessor to the Piedmontese Royal Family and his influence at Court enabled him to do much for the poor of the city. He was greatly devoted to the Shroud of Turin, and there is a print in existence, showing him supervising some repair work being done to the Shroud.

During his years in Turin the Kingdom endured several wars, including a siege of the city. He organised practical aid for the soldiers – so much so that today he is invoked as the patron of military chaplains. He introduced to Turin the Forty Hours Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and encouraged devotion to Our Lady, inspiring King Victor Amadeus II to build the Basilica of Superga. Sebastian also helped in the founding of the Accademia at Rome, for the training of Papal diplomats. He is remembered, too, in difficult times, for striving to build up good relations with both Protestants and Jews in Piedmont.

The Archives of the Turin Oratory possess some 22 volumes of his writings. One of his most important works was his ‘Compendium of Christian Doctrine’, a catechism organised on a question and answer basis. This rapidly became a well-used teaching aid, and lasted until the introduction of the Catechism of Pope Pius X.

‘The Father who had Paradise in his eyes’ died at Turin on 30th January, 1711, and was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI on 31st August, 1834. His body rests in a silver shrine in the Oratory Church in Turin. His feast is kept each year on 30th January.

Blessed Sebastian Valfrè, pray for us!

St Hilary of Poitiers

This post was written for members of the Order the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and posted on FB.

Today the Church gives us the feast of a great Father and Doctor of the Church of the West: St Hilary of Poitiers (315-368), one of the important figures of the fourth century. He was a convert to the faith. At the time of his election as bishop of Poitiers by the lay faithful and clergy, he was married with one daughter (who became a nun known for her charity and later a saint). Our saint was known as the “Hammer of the Arians” (Malleus Arianorum) and the “Athanasius of the West.”

In the controversy with the Arians, Hilary devoted his energy defending and teaching orthodox Christian faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God as the Father who begot him from eternity; by comparison the Arians considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but only human. You might remember that Arian “theology” spread through music. Opposing the Arian hymns, Hilary wrote hymns to foster Catholic faith. St Hilary’s method for his theological reflection began in baptismal faith. The starting point of Christian life is and has always been the sacrament of Baptism, and it is a point that members of the EOHSJ take as critical in living our vocation.

In his famous work, De Trinitate, Hilary writes: Jesus “has commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that is, in the confession of the Author, of the Only-Begotten One and of the Gift. 

The Author of all things is one alone, for one alone is God the Father, from whom all things proceed. And one alone is Our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, and one alone is the Spirit, a gift in all…. In nothing can be found to be lacking so great a fullness, in which the immensity in the Eternal One, the revelation in the Image, joy in the Gift, converge in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.” 

God the Father, being wholly love, is able to communicate his divinity to his Son in its fullness. Particularly beautiful and insightful is the formula of St Hilary composed to understand the Mystery: “God knows not how to be anything other than love, he knows not how to be anyone other than the Father. Those who love are not envious and the one who is the Father is so in his totality. This name admits no compromise, as if God were father in some aspects and not in others.”

St Hilary of Poitiers is the patron saint fighting against snake bites. As his name suggests, Knights and Ladies of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem ought to be people of good cheer as we give good witness to the truth of Jesus Christ.

St Hilary, pray for us.

St Aelred

“One can make a rather easy transition from human friendships to friendship with God himself.” St Aelred of Riveaulx –the ‘St Bernard of the North,’ is a true man of consequence for people who care about their development of the spiritual life but also for those are seeking God.

At the age of twenty-four Aelred took up his mission as a Cistercian monk at Rievaulx in Yorkshire, England. His biography relates:

“There he pursued with rigor the friendship of Jesus Christ, gladly submitting to mortification and hard labor, to constant prayer, meditation, and study. “This is the yoke,” he said, “which does not crush but liberates the soul; this burden has wings, not weight.”

“Gracious and sensitive toward his fellow monks, Aelred became Abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire and later abbot of the great monastery at Rievaulx. There he presided over some three hundred monks. Under Aelred’s leadership the community became a living model of peace and charity, a true colony of the kingdom of heaven. There he wrote his book, Spiritual Friendship, warmly extolling the joy and strength of friendships, divine and human.

Let us pray.

O God, who endowed Saint Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx, with the gift of fostering Christian friendship and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness, grant to your people, we pray, that same spirit of fraternal affection, so that in loving one another we may know the love of Christ and rejoice in the eternal possession of your supreme goodness. (from the English Missal)

Where and how are we educated?

This post was written for the Order of the Holy Sepulchre for January 8, 2022.

“The place where the educational process unfolds must be a place where all of reality is presented” (Luigi Giussani, The Risk of Education, 133).

This blog post is less about an educational theory of two well-known theologians than about staying in front of the reality we are presented as a place where grace operates in our life, that is, the inner Life of the Holy Trinity. Grace is relational not a bag of good things given by God to make us feel good.

As we move into 2022 I think we are faced with some serious questions regarding our life and work as members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Being in realtionship with the Holy Trinity requires us to face life squarely and with certainty. How do the real events of life of the human person affect us personally or the Church at large? What or who responds to our human questions? Do we place our constructed utopias in the path as an answer to the thirst within the heart of man?

“What does your Lord require of you, but to look at all things as they really are, to account them merely as His instruments, but to believe that good is good because He wills it, that He can bless as easily by hard stone as by bread, in the desert as in the fruitful field, if we have faith in Him who gives us the true bread from heaven?… Doubt not, then, His power to bring you through any difficulties, who gives you the command to encounter them” (St. John Henry Newman, CO).

As 2022 progresses I hope that we find the reason and hope for living: Jesus Christ here and now. Intellectually many of us know that only Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the answer and response to reality as it is. But does this fact impact us deep in our sinews? Nicodemus knew this when Jesus challenged him to question to whom did he belong. The same challenge remains for us when we consider our Noble Ideal: teach the faith, feed the poor, educate children, visit the elderly, or live in relation with our enemies.

May Our Lady of Palestine, pray for us.

St. John Henry Newman, pray for us.

May Blessed Bartolo Longo, intercede for us.

Synaxis of the Baptist

The Greek Church honors the Lord’s forerunner today. It is one of six times the Church recalls the liturgical memory of the Forerunner. St John the Baptist has achieved quite a place in our theology. We recall that John is the cousin of the Lord (Elizabeth’s cherished son); he was a member of an ascetic group; he’s known as a prophet; he preached the coming of the Messiah; he “spoke truth to power”, and lost his head as a consequence.

“The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for you, O Forerunner. You were shown in truth to be the most honorable of the prophets, for you were deemed worthy to baptize in the streams of the Jordan Him whom they foretold. Therefore, having suffered for the truth with joy, you proclaimed to those in hell God who appeared in the flesh, who takes away the sin of the world, and grants us great mercy.” (Troparion, Tone 2)

While the Roman Church has a different way of honoring the saints, the Byzantine Church has its own and immediately following the Theophany, the commemoration of Jesus’ baptism, we have John the Baptist, the holy man inextricably connected with the Theophany. And this is a critical point: saints, especially the prophets, need to be located on the liturgical calendar that closely relate to the Paschal Mystery or to the season preparing for a great feast.

What is the message of the Baptist? Why must we attend to his announcement? St. John the Baptist announces the coming of the one who would baptize with fire and the Spirit, proclaiming a new life for humanity. We believe that the Baptist precedes Jesus into Hades, the Kingdom of Death, to announce liberation to the souls held there. He is, therefore, the model of sanctity manifesting not his own glory. The controlling idea: the Son of God is the center of our attention. As a parenthetical idea, John’s image was always painted in scenes where the artist would be trying to communicate the virtues of religious life. So, at point in art history you would not see a St Pachomius or a John Cassian or a Francis of Assisi without the Baptist nearby.

John tells us three important points:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me’” (John 1:29-30). “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). AND “He [Jesus] must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

The Church proposes the Holy Forerunner to us today as a paradigm of what we need to do: we must “prepare the way of the Lord,” by a similar ascetical struggle John engaged in. This ascetically struggle is possible for all of us, even in small ways. The Church as a good parent that the discipline of our souls and bodies can be filled with Jesus Christ. Here we believe that to be a faithful Christian also means imitating John the Baptist. To venerate John in body and spirit is not an easy task, yet must be undertaken if we are to be in heaven with the Holy Trinity.

St John the Baptist, pray for us.

St. André Bessette

Today is the feast day of St. André Bessette. The holy brother who, as he said, was shown the door, and there he stayed.

Br. André Bessette, C.S.C., more commonly known as Brother André, or since his canonization as Saint André of Montreal, was a Brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He was credited with thousands of healings associated with his devotion to Saint Joseph.

On October 17, 2010, André Bessette became the first saint of the Congregation of Holy Cross when he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. On this day, the Church recognized that God chose a very simple man for a remarkable life of service to the Church. He had previously been beatified by Blessed John Paul II on May 23, 1982.

To learn more about St. André visit https://www.saint-joseph.org/en/

St Elizabeth Ann Seton

We have in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) the first native born American saint today.

Image of Mother Seton. Author unknown.

In her own words:

“We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives – that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.”

“The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is his will.”

“The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.”

“And in every disappointment, great or small, let your heart fly directly to your dear Savior, throwing yourself in those arms for refuge against every pain and sorrow. Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.”

“God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere, but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross.”

St Thomas Becket

And specially, from euery shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blissful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

( Chaucer – Canterbury Tales – Prologue).
29 December St Thomas of Canterbury
Patron of the English Pastoral Clergy

St. John the Apostle model for Knights and Dames of Holy Sepulchre today

This reflection was written to explore, to renew, and to re-commit my life as a member of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in light of the liturgical memorial of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist (whose feast is celebrated by the Latin Church today. It’s also published on one of the Facebook groups of the Order.

St. John the Evangelist giving Holy Communion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the Baroque Spanish painter Alonzo Cano.


The opening collect for the liturgical memorial of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist reads:


O God, who through the blessed Apostle John have unlocked for us the secrets of your Word: Grant, we pray, that we may grasp with proper understanding what he has so marvelously brought to our ears.


The Church’s prayer elicits for me two things: 1.) am I a protagonist in sharing Divine Revelation and Tradition with those in the Church and with those who have fallen away from the practice of Catholic faith, and 2.) has my understanding of the Good News taken firm root in myself so as to be a witness to the noble ideal that the Grand Master spoke of in the Jerusalem Cross (October 2021)?


The Apostle who is called the Beloved Disciple knew so well, Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation; as God-Man Jesus is love par excellence. The image of John resting on the breast of Jesus comes to mind. But how does that image impact me? Benedict XVI told us St. John’s work was to demonstrate that “the essential constituent of God is love and hence, that all God’s activity is born from love and impressed with love: all that God does, he does out of love and with love, even if we are not always immediately able to understand that this is love, true love” (Audience, 9 August 2006).


In the same audience the emeritus Pontiff said the “precept to which John refers, Jesus presents his own Person as the reason for and norm of our love: ‘as I have loved you.’ It is in this way that love becomes truly Christian: both in the sense that it must be directed to all without distinction, and above all since it must be carried through to its extreme consequences, having no other bounds than being boundless.”


The feast of St. John the Apostle ought to be one of the points of our reflection today to renew our commitment to know and to live more abundantly a life of conversion, vocation, and mission as knights and dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Apostle teaches us to be in love, to act in love, and to be missionary of Love.


Cardinal Filoni wrote in the spirit of “as I have loved you.”: “As an Order that has a constitutive commitment to the Holy Land, we must ceaselessly re-evoke the two aspects of our commitment: the ecclesiological dimension of our work, which delineates the horizon of the commitment itself, and the personal spiritual and charitable dimension, which renders us the protagonists of our work which is never mediocre or mechanical.”


In Thomas à Kempis’ famous late Middle Ages book, The Imitation of Christ, wrote:


“The love of Jesus is noble and generous: it spurs us on to do great things, and excites us to desire always that which is most perfect. Love will tend upwards and is not to be detained by things beneath. Love will be at liberty and free from all worldly affections… for love proceeds from God and cannot rest but in God above all things created. The lover flies, runs and rejoices, he is free and not held. He gives all for all and has all in all, because he rests in one sovereign good above all, from whom all good flows and proceeds” (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book III, Chapter V, 3-4).


A fun fact for today’s feast: we bless wine on the feast of St. John the Apostle. The blessing of wine is sign of God’s love for us.


Happy Christmas and Happy Feast.