Litany for Peace and Unity in the Holy Land

In keeping with the request of Cardinal Nichols and others we had a 3-4pm Holy Hour to pray for peace and unity at the very hour when the Pope is greeting Christians in Bethlehem.
For peace in the Holy Land
For a restoration of unity between the Churches.
Cardinal Nichols has asked us to "unite in prayer at the very hour that Pope Francis will visit Christ-ians in Bethlehem on Sunday 25 May between 3pm and 4pm (UK time)… [in] an hour of prayer before the Bless-ed Sacrament". The Cardinal also spoke of the import-ance of supporting the Pope’s mission and of “praying for peace” in the Holy Land. The Pope’s three day visit to the Holy Land begins on Saturday, 24 May – the intense programme includes a visit to Jordan, Palestine and Israel. Pope Francis will encounter the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem. They will sign a joint declaration and then preside at an ecumenical prayer service at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre together with other Christian leaders. About the visit, Chair of the Department for Dialogue and Unity, Arch-bishop Bernard Longley said: “The meeting of Pope Francis later this month in the Holy Land with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew marks a very significant step on the road to Christian unity. This year sees the 50th anniversary of the two great documents of Vatican II on ecumenism and inter-religious relations “Unitatis Redin-tegratio” and “Nostra Aetate… I hope that the Holy Father and Patriarch Bartholomew will draw attention to the struggling Christian communities of the Holy Land. I am delighted that many of our parishes will pray in solidarity with Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Pat-riarch on the afternoon of Sunday 25th May. I am also grateful for all that the Friends of the Holy Land have been doing to highlight this important visit and ecumenical encounter.”


Lord, have mercy - Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy - Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy - Lord, have mercy
Christ hear us - Christ, graciously hear us

God the Father of heaven, Have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us
Holy Trinity, One God, Have mercy on us

For the sins preventing peace and unity in the land of Your birth,
Forgive us, Lord
For hatred and division,
Forgive us, Lord
For clinging to past offences,
Forgive us, Lord
For prejudice and racism,
Forgive us, Lord
For tolerance of unjust suffering,
Forgive us, Lord
For our complacency while others suffer,
Forgive us, Lord

To the harmony humanity enjoyed at creation,
Restore us, Lord
To the peace You bestowed on Your Apostles,
Restore us, Lord
To the unity You founded in Your Church,
Restore us, Lord

For peace in the Holy Land,
We ask You, Lord
For an end to bloodshed
We ask You, Lord
For security and stability in Israel,
We ask You, Lord
For justice for the Palestinian people,
We ask You, Lord
For an end to the suffering of Christians in the Middle East,
We ask You, Lord
For an end to religious persecution and intolerance,
We ask You, Lord
For the freedom to worship,
We ask You, Lord
For unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches,
We ask You, Lord
For unity with the ecclesial communities of the Reformation,
We ask You, Lord
For unity across for world,
We ask You, Lord
For unity in England,
We ask You, Lord

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Lord

Let us pray
Priest:
Eternal Father, give to the land of Your Son’s birth that peace that only the Prince of Peace can bring, and restore to His Church that unity for which He prayed. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


In a dropbox file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ny2nj2qwha4mk3c/Litany%20Peace%20and%20Unity%20Holy%20Hour.docx

5th Sunday of Easter, Year A, Shaftesbury

Jn 14:1-12
I want to say a few words about two of our inner yearnings, to ‘go’ and to ‘see’, and about how only Jesus can satisfy these.
Of course, not everybody in life seems to be ‘yearning’. Many people seem to have given up the quest. But even so, there remains an inner restlessness that flows from the fact that we humans are made for something MORE than the mundane realities we find in this world.
And so we repeatedly yearn to 'go' someplace, so like Thomas we ask the ‘way’ (as in today’s Gospel text).
And we yearn to 'see' more, so we ask to be shown, like Philip.

I was reading from Pope Benedict’s book, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol 1, Introduction (he’s the retired pope now, but his book is still worth reading!), and he notes the link between ‘seeing’ and ‘going’ -because when I first read the comment of Thomas and the comment of Philip in today’s Gospel they seemed unrelated –but they’re not.

Pope Benedict starts his comments about Jesus by looking at Moses in the Old Testament. Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, prophesied that One would come after him -the prophecy of the messiah: “The Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me”(Deut 18:15). This messianic prophecy was repeated and amplified down the centuries, a prophecy of One would HAVE even more fully, and GIVE even more fully, what Moses had had and what Moses had given the people.

What was it that Moses had had?
Friendship with God. This is what we all yearn for, even if we don't realise quite what we are seeking.
We seek the companionship of the One who will satisfy.
The Bible tells us that Moses talked with God, “as a friend speaks with a friend”(Ex 33:11). Wow!
And because Moses knew and ‘saw’ God in this sense He knew the destiny, the goal, the path to lead the People of God towards: the Exodus, the Promised Land etc.
Because he ‘saw’ he therefore knew the path to ‘go’ –so the questions of Thomas and Philip are linked.

But, even the mighty Moses, who led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, who parted the Red Sea, even he did not see God FULLY:
He spoke to God amidst the pillar of cloud, in the Tent of Meeting (Ex 33:10);
But he did not see the “glory” of God’s “face”(Ex 33:23)
–when he asked, he was allow to see the glory of God from behind as the Lord passed, but to see God’s “face” would have been more than he could have endured (Ex 33:20).
Yet, his capacity to the lead the people, his capacity to know where they should ‘go’, stemmed from his familiarity with God, from the extent to which he ‘saw’ the Lord in the cloud.

What of Jesus?
He is the One who has an utterly more profound communion with God,
because the godhead is not something apart from Him,
but is something He is a 'part' of: He is Himself God.
He is Himself the One eternal Son of the Father.
“No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest the Father’s heart, who has made Him known”(Jn 1:18)

To return to today’s gospel text:
“how can we know the way?”, asked Thomas
“let us see the Father”, said Philip
Jesus is the way. Jesus is the face of the Father.
To have ‘seen’ Him is to know the ‘way’ to go. He is the One we are all ‘yearning’ for.
And we recall this is Eastertide because His rising from the dead has proven the truth of His claim.

4th Sunday of Easter, Vocations Sunday, Shaftesbury

I'm not going to say much now because two holy Dominican Sisters (from the New Forest priory) are going to speak to you at the end of Mass and I'd like you to save your attention for them.
Today is the worldwide day of prayer for vocations.
We tend to think of this as vocations to the priesthood, which is its initial focus, being always on 'Good Shepherd Sunday', the 4th Sunday of Easter.

But the simple point I want to make to you now is that one of the ways that God cares for and shepherds His Church is through vocations to 'Religious Life', to monks, nuns, and religious sisters and brothers.
This has taken a wide variety of forms through the Church's history:
We read of the order of widows that St Paul speaks in his epistles,
We know of hermits like St Anthony in the desert,
And of monks like St Benedict in abbey communities,
And nuns like St Scholastica.
And we know they did a wide variety of different apostolates:
Enclosed contemplatives in prayer like St Clare,
& Active caring for the poor and destitute like Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

As you know, for some decades there was a great crisis in Religious Life in the 1960s onwards, and many left.
But you may be less aware of the fact that there has also been a great renewal and revival, and the sisters speaking to us at the end of Mass today are a part of that:
A new congregation, doing a slightly new apostolate,
But part of an old and eternal thing in the life of the Church: 'Religious Life'
-one of ways Christ still shepherds His Church today.


Here is a photo of Sr Mary Catherine OP, speaking at the end of Mass today:




Here is a photo of Sr Mary Benedicta OP and Sr Mary Catherine OP in the hall after Mass, over tea and coffee, with Fr Dylan:




Fr Dylan showing the two sisters Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, the 'must see' sight for every visitor: