Portsmouth Roman Catholic

Yesterday, Thursday, I completed my First Watch before Jesus in the Tabernacle.    I had  a small book with me called The Watchful Hour, a CTS publication, by Fr Florian Radine which I had bought on Tuesday from the CTS stall and began at 2.30 pm to read.    It proved to be a treasure.   One of the first things I came across was an admonition not to get too comfortable by sitting back or slouching.  This helps the memory fo feel comfortable and start wandering.   So kneeling was recommended, though at my age I did sit rom time to time then kneel again. The main lesson of the day was the story of the Burning Bush.    Moses saw the bush burning but not being consumed.   He approached the scene and was told by the voice of God "Take off your sandals for the ground you walk on is holy".   I spent some time meditating on this.   Why was it Holy Ground?"    Because God was there in a very special way and was creating...

I have never been more certain in my life that Jesus and Mary are a team than I am today.   We have a glimpse of this in the Gospel where Mary approached Jesus at the Marriage Feast of Cana and asked him to do something for the host.  You might say his answer was to mumble and grumble but Mary knew his heart and went about preparing the stewards, "Do whatever he tells you"   It is a little bit like this with all of us and myself in particular.   She could well have gone to Jesus and told him "This guy needs direction he is hopeless.  What can you do?"   Jesus probably replied "Well he is very rough at the edges, see if you can smooth him out a bit, then leave him to me"   So Mary has been smoothing me out and I have been waiting to be turned over to Jesus.   Now the time seems to have come. Yesterday I was thinking of how in my youth people used to visit the Church in passing to give a nod or a prayer to Jesus.     OK, things were easi...

Putting the family into Catholic Social Teaching is unusual.   Is not Catholic Social Teaching about relieving poverty, looking and solving injustice, having a loud voice on immigration and giving to the Third World?    So why should I start with the Family. My reply is that no unit of Society in Western Culture has been so ignored in recent times that the very foundation of love and justice - the Family.   We all know it, we all see it, and we turn away.   We see young people growing up feeling unhappy because they were deprived of a father and sometimes a mother.   OK, too bad they just have to get on with their lives, we will help them in their education if we can, and we will make sure that none of their uncles or new 'Dads' are pedophiles, and we will put them in care and if 70 per cent of the girls end up in prostitution  or are abused by gangs we will look the other way, or blame Tommy Robinson.    We will do anything except look at ...

For hundreds of years everyone knelt for Communion.   Then after Vatican II a strange thing happened.  The altar rails were broken down and everyone was compelled to stand,   Some tried to kneel but in many cases the priest refused to give them Communion, for this they were told was a decision of Vatican II.   Indeed bishops sent 'scholars' round the parishes to emphasise that in this 'New Church' we would stand 'as People of the Resurrection" who were worthy of the Body of Christ.     I remember visiting a parish in Rome where at the Offertory everyone stood through the Consecration  as the enlightened new people, while we foreigners knelt like 'children'. I do not know if we have reached a stage in the Church where the truth of this can be discussed, for in the past anyone who objected to the wisdom and knowledge of bishops and priests in this matter were put down severely.    Who were they to question 'experts'.   They were just dis...

In our midweek Masses we are reading the first letter of St Peter.    St Peter is encouraging the christians to hold fast to their faith  even though they are plagued with all sorts of trials so that when they come at last to Jesus their faith will have been tested and proven like gold, only more precious and they will surely find in the end that to which their Faith has been directing them - the salvation of their souls. I wanted to make this clear in this blog.   We are not members of the Catholic Church just to do good works.  The point of being a Catholic is to save your soul.   Knowing and loving God should be the motive that brings us to good works.   There are many wonderful things done by Atheists in the field of Charity but these are motivated by the natural goodness that God infuses in the nature of everyone at their conception.   What I am talking about is exemplified by St Theresa of Calcutta who cared for the poor because they were ...