This year my mind has been taken with the words "GOD IS WITH US" These 4 words seemed to jump out of the page when I read then in the nativity narrative in Matthew's Gospel. I immediately also remembered the end of the gospel with Jesus' assurance 'to be with you until the end of the age' So the Gospel of Jesus' earthly life is enfolded in this presence and the whole of his gospel is an affirmation of the presence of God in all that is. Now it isn't that it started with the incarnation but that is more like a sacrament that makes visible that which is invisible and brings alive God's intimate presence. God becomes accessible and vulnerable and is alongside us and not over against us as a strict judge and taskmaster. It is this intimate, loving and totally giving God that we can discover in our hearts as we enter a stillness and silence of contemplative prayer.
On Saturday I had a great time at the 90th birthday of a dear friend, Dom Sebastian Moore a monk of Downside Abbey. We began with mass at noon at which I concelebrated with Seb. Here i are the few words he said at homily time.
God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. A question we don't think of asking is: what does 'so' mean? Does it mean what all assume, 'so much', or does it mean 'in this way' and then go on to explain what 'this way is: sending his Son. Love is an act. God loves us by sending his Son. God loved the world this way, he sent his Son. This is how God loved the world: he sent his Son. I labour the point, it's so important. No one has ever seen God, John explains. God is inaccessible. So God becomes accessible in his Son. Accessible? And how! Accessible, available with a vengeance, vulnerable and able to be killed by us so that he could be manifest beyond the power of death in all his divine reality, in the whole truth of him as his glorious body of which we are members. God the inaccessible becomes God the vulnerable, and when Jesus shows himself his disciples adore, and the Holy spirit rearranges the furniture of the mind to see that Christ had to suffer and so - that little word 'so' again! - come into his glory at the sight of which the heart burns, as we learn from the story of the walk to Emmaus.
How disarmingly simple John is. It's a simplicity that evades busy pious souls. God loved us by becoming vulnerable to us, so that, arrested - in a revelatory film-still - at the act of murder by which, unknowingly, we run the world, we are exposed to the blinding light of his love.
The party afterwards was filled with countless numbers of family and friends and the English public (Exclusively private) school accents were much in evidence. It was a jolly affair with many there whose acquaintance I knew only by seeing their names in the papers, books and magazines.
Here's another of Seb's sayings: "Evil is the desperate being exploited by the unscrupulous"
He also reminded us the the search for God can only be found in the ordinariness of our lives amongst the love of family and friends.
ENGLISH INFO:
Ex prime minister Tony Blair became a Roman Catholic on Saturday evening. It is interesting that while Bishops in the USA excommunicate politicians who are not anti abortion that the cardinal Archbishop of Westminster receives one who as actively worked for many moral issues that are contrary to current catholic teaching!
BOOKS
My enforced extra day in Tulsa due to the ice storm gave me time to read O'Murchu's book @Catching up to Jesus' I found the first half a good summary of current biblical scholarship on the Jesus story that contained many challenging thoughts. The second half where he tells the story as if it were Jesus setting the record straight I found less satisfactory.
As part of my study I have been carefully reading Taigan Dan Leighton's Faces of Compassion where he looks at classic Bodhisattva archetypes and their modern expression. The book begins with a general orientation of Buddhist history and practice of which the portion on practice is particularly helpful. he then goes on to describe the characteristics of the Bodhisattva with their wisdom and compassion. Without much difficulty one can easily apply what he says to the Christan contemplative or Zen practitioner. It would be worth reading!
I WISH YOU ALL A MOST JOY FILLED CHRISTMAS
Finally here's a tip for a long life; just keep breathing !!!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
AMAZING DISCOVERY December 21,2007
PHOTOS OF CLIFTON CATHEDRAL 
Today when I opened my emails I found the following sent from someone in the USA. I thought that you would like to see how one cannot remain hiddn in the depths of the Cotswolds for long
As you see by this email, my name is Donald Conroy. I am writing you because I bought a book on the internet and it has your name on the frontespiece. The book is A Second Collection, by B.Lonergan. I was curious that you were reading this, and I decided to try to contact you. In the process, I learned that you had his complete writings at one time. I found this email address thru the Diocese of Tulsa. I hope it reaches the right person.
I don't want to spend a lot of time describing my interest in this email, I will just say that I was ordained in 1955, spent 12 years in the active life,10 as a Newman Chaplain at the Univ. of MN, Mpls, married and PHD and license as a psychologist, and now retired. I continued to read religious studies (I have an MA in religious studies from the U of Iowa) and mysticism and on to Lonergan. I have not read a lot, nor do I claim to really understand him ( I have Insight but have not been able to get far), but The Second Collection is another story. I am getting a lot out of this and hope it will open Insight for me.
What I am curious about is what a priest today does with Lonergan. It seems to me that he represents a corrective to the institution as I experience it. So that is why I wanted to contact you. I was told that you were a parish priest and not a professor, which also raised questions for me. How did you get along with the other priests in Tulsa? They were not reding this kind of thing were they? I have stayed in touch with the church these years. My older brother is ordained, was a theology prof at our local college and now retired. I talk with him at times.
Thet's enough for now. I hope this reaches you in England and that you are well and will enjoy the Christmas season. Peace, Don Conroy
CLIFTON CATHEDRAL GETS AN AWARD AS THE BUILDING OF THE MONTH
December 2007
Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral, Bristol, by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership, 1966-73
Text and images by Robert Proctor
Set amongst the leafy stone terraces of Clifton, the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul happily ignores its neighbours, concealing itself in a closed sheath of purple aggregate panels, a concrete spire emerging from inside, and a bridge extending almost reluctantly over its car park to pick up pedestrians from the street. Inside, if it were not for the stacking chairs, visitors would probably look up to the light-filled acoustic-sculptural lantern over the sanctuary before making their over-hasty and predictable judgements of ugliness. The building came about despite the economic disasters of late 1960s and early 1970s Britain. It was designed in 1966 by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership before rampant inflation and the devaluation of the pound put the scheme in danger; it was begun in 1970, and opened in the year of the oil crisis. Only an anonymous donation from a local businessman, insistent that the Diocese could not use the money on anything else, convinced a dubious clergy it should go ahead. The Liturgical Movement was, of course, well established by the time of Clifton’s design, and the post-Vatican II New Order of Mass was in use almost everywhere in the Catholic Church by the time it was opened. So it may not be surprising that this building should have been a mature realisation of Liturgical Movement aims. What is surprising is that such an approach finally came about in a cathedral design, where the acute sense of a civic duty and the need to create a visual statement felt by those involved in other cathedrals was replaced by a more unassuming modesty. Clifton is more like a big parish church. British cathedral architects had been given a hard time by architectural critics. Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral was derided as an irrelevant neo-Gothic artwork. Frederick Gibberd at Liverpool tried out the circle in a nod to the Liturgical Movement, and was roundly condemned for over-literal symbolism and naivety. Nobody bothered very much with Guildford (which was, in any case, a pre-war design). At Clifton, in contrast to both Coventry and Liverpool, where competitions were held, the architects announced their intention from the start to work closely with their priestly clients. And so they did, preparing complex diagrams of circulation routes and ceremonies, discussing and carefully noting their meanings. Even the fan-shaped nave was not imposed, but decided by a clergy committee after a range of plan types had been intelligently discussed. The baptistry was located near the entrance so that its symbolic meanings of initiation were clear, and plan drawings of how baptism was carried out were used to decide its form and position. Even the way people queued in chairs for confession was examined (how did they move along when they were at the end of a row?). Organisational bubble-diagrams like those pioneered by RMJM were used alongside sketches of sections and plans. Volume, light and artistic commissions (the Stations of the Cross to William Mitchell, who had worked at Liverpool; the windows to Henry Haig) turned the plan into a dynamic and meaningful building. Clifton Cathedral has recently been accused of ‘relativist’ and people-centred space, but the experience of the building rebuffs such charges as unfounded – its nave is focused on the sanctuary, and subsidiary spaces fixed in liturgically and symbolically appropriate places; ritual movement is woven into its architectural fabric; light and height give glimpses of transcendence and a clear sense of hierarchy. Liverpool Cathedral is something of an architectural precedent for Clifton, especially in the treatment of the podium (Weeks had entered the competition). Inside, the concrete trusses (actually a star beam) over the sanctuary recall the cut-out beams at S. Maria dei Poveri in Milan; and the informal hexagonal geometry is typical of its period. But there is not much point looking for visual precedents with a building so clearly founded on a careful analysis of liturgical function. If the suspicion remains that Clifton Cathedral is not quite as beautiful or exciting as it could have been, it is undeniably intelligent and valuable. Its owners seem to have changed very little in the building in thirty-four years. Only the wooden doors have gone, replaced with glass, so that the original hierarchical contrasts of light and dark are lost.
Dr Robert Proctor is Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He is currently researching post-war Roman Catholic church architecture.
As you see by this email, my name is Donald Conroy. I am writing you because I bought a book on the internet and it has your name on the frontespiece. The book is A Second Collection, by B.Lonergan. I was curious that you were reading this, and I decided to try to contact you. In the process, I learned that you had his complete writings at one time. I found this email address thru the Diocese of Tulsa. I hope it reaches the right person.
I don't want to spend a lot of time describing my interest in this email, I will just say that I was ordained in 1955, spent 12 years in the active life,10 as a Newman Chaplain at the Univ. of MN, Mpls, married and PHD and license as a psychologist, and now retired. I continued to read religious studies (I have an MA in religious studies from the U of Iowa) and mysticism and on to Lonergan. I have not read a lot, nor do I claim to really understand him ( I have Insight but have not been able to get far), but The Second Collection is another story. I am getting a lot out of this and hope it will open Insight for me.
What I am curious about is what a priest today does with Lonergan. It seems to me that he represents a corrective to the institution as I experience it. So that is why I wanted to contact you. I was told that you were a parish priest and not a professor, which also raised questions for me. How did you get along with the other priests in Tulsa? They were not reding this kind of thing were they? I have stayed in touch with the church these years. My older brother is ordained, was a theology prof at our local college and now retired. I talk with him at times.
Thet's enough for now. I hope this reaches you in England and that you are well and will enjoy the Christmas season. Peace, Don Conroy
CLIFTON CATHEDRAL GETS AN AWARD AS THE BUILDING OF THE MONTH
December 2007
Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral, Bristol, by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership, 1966-73
Text and images by Robert Proctor
Set amongst the leafy stone terraces of Clifton, the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul happily ignores its neighbours, concealing itself in a closed sheath of purple aggregate panels, a concrete spire emerging from inside, and a bridge extending almost reluctantly over its car park to pick up pedestrians from the street. Inside, if it were not for the stacking chairs, visitors would probably look up to the light-filled acoustic-sculptural lantern over the sanctuary before making their over-hasty and predictable judgements of ugliness. The building came about despite the economic disasters of late 1960s and early 1970s Britain. It was designed in 1966 by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership before rampant inflation and the devaluation of the pound put the scheme in danger; it was begun in 1970, and opened in the year of the oil crisis. Only an anonymous donation from a local businessman, insistent that the Diocese could not use the money on anything else, convinced a dubious clergy it should go ahead. The Liturgical Movement was, of course, well established by the time of Clifton’s design, and the post-Vatican II New Order of Mass was in use almost everywhere in the Catholic Church by the time it was opened. So it may not be surprising that this building should have been a mature realisation of Liturgical Movement aims. What is surprising is that such an approach finally came about in a cathedral design, where the acute sense of a civic duty and the need to create a visual statement felt by those involved in other cathedrals was replaced by a more unassuming modesty. Clifton is more like a big parish church. British cathedral architects had been given a hard time by architectural critics. Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral was derided as an irrelevant neo-Gothic artwork. Frederick Gibberd at Liverpool tried out the circle in a nod to the Liturgical Movement, and was roundly condemned for over-literal symbolism and naivety. Nobody bothered very much with Guildford (which was, in any case, a pre-war design). At Clifton, in contrast to both Coventry and Liverpool, where competitions were held, the architects announced their intention from the start to work closely with their priestly clients. And so they did, preparing complex diagrams of circulation routes and ceremonies, discussing and carefully noting their meanings. Even the fan-shaped nave was not imposed, but decided by a clergy committee after a range of plan types had been intelligently discussed. The baptistry was located near the entrance so that its symbolic meanings of initiation were clear, and plan drawings of how baptism was carried out were used to decide its form and position. Even the way people queued in chairs for confession was examined (how did they move along when they were at the end of a row?). Organisational bubble-diagrams like those pioneered by RMJM were used alongside sketches of sections and plans. Volume, light and artistic commissions (the Stations of the Cross to William Mitchell, who had worked at Liverpool; the windows to Henry Haig) turned the plan into a dynamic and meaningful building. Clifton Cathedral has recently been accused of ‘relativist’ and people-centred space, but the experience of the building rebuffs such charges as unfounded – its nave is focused on the sanctuary, and subsidiary spaces fixed in liturgically and symbolically appropriate places; ritual movement is woven into its architectural fabric; light and height give glimpses of transcendence and a clear sense of hierarchy. Liverpool Cathedral is something of an architectural precedent for Clifton, especially in the treatment of the podium (Weeks had entered the competition). Inside, the concrete trusses (actually a star beam) over the sanctuary recall the cut-out beams at S. Maria dei Poveri in Milan; and the informal hexagonal geometry is typical of its period. But there is not much point looking for visual precedents with a building so clearly founded on a careful analysis of liturgical function. If the suspicion remains that Clifton Cathedral is not quite as beautiful or exciting as it could have been, it is undeniably intelligent and valuable. Its owners seem to have changed very little in the building in thirty-four years. Only the wooden doors have gone, replaced with glass, so that the original hierarchical contrasts of light and dark are lost.
Dr Robert Proctor is Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He is currently researching post-war Roman Catholic church architecture.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
December 20,2007
Well I have succumbed to having a blogspot. In the past I have always thought it excessively arrogant to post the meanderings of one's mind on the interenet for all to see. But perhaps it can be of some value in helping people to be encouraged. My own particular interest, of course, is prayer, meditation and Zen practice. So here I am as we swiftly run up to Christmas with all the rush and same old trotted out moans and whines! It this any way to really be grateful for the very gift of life? This gift is really a deep mystery - not that we can't explain it but that it is 'more than meets the eye' It is always more than we can ever comprehend. Surely the fact that our life is one that the divine creator could become a very real part of indicates the magnificence of just life. The scripture readings for this upcoming Sunday includes 'God is with us' meaning the incarnation but what does it mean that God is with us? Was there ever a time when God wasn't? Perhaps the incarnation is a visable manifestation of the fact that God has been, is now and always will be with us and life should be lived in this awareness. However to do that joyfully we have to be liberated from all the distorted images of God as the one who watches all our failures and is such a harsh judge. I am preaching at tall the masses at St. Peter's Cirencester this weekend and I hope I can get across that this life is so precious and that our ordinary life is the place of our spirtual practice and God's presence in every bit of it is that of an encouraging, benevolent creator.
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