Newsletter 0802



FSSP Finland Pyhän Pietarin pappisveljeskunnan Suomen apostolaatti Isä Benjamin Durham FSSP

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Newsletter 2008/02

December 17th, 2008

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Gaudete – Rejoice: the Lord is nigh! As Christmas draws near, the Church emphasizes the joy which should be in our hearts as we contemplate the reality and deeper meaning of Our Saviour’s coming into the world. Saint Paul bases Christian joy on the assurance of salvation brought to us by Christ; he desires it to be so firmly rooted in the soul that no reason of human anxiety or sadness can overcome it, since the great peace of God henceforth must predominate over every other feeling. Yet for Saint Paul this coming of our Lord is not His birth at Bethlehem but His second coming. The great joy of Christians is to see the day drawing near when the Lord will come again in His glory to lead them into His Kingdom. The oft-repeated veni (“come”) of Advent is an echo not only of the prophets but also of the conclusion of the Apocalypse of Saint John: “Come, Lord Jesus,” the last words of the New Testament. This reflection should encourage us, Christians, to not view Christmas merely as a past event but as a joyful expectation that animates every moment of our passage here in this world, as we follow in the Light as children of Light marching with confidence in the Way to life everlasting… Wishing you a happy and holy Christmastide in Christ our Lord, Fr. Benjamin Durham, FSSP

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini When I take Holy Communion to the sick I always wear a stole under my coat or jacket, as a priest or deacon is supposed to. I hate those piddly little ribbons, I wear a normal stole. A few weeks ago taking Viaticum to someone, two Anglican clergyman approached me, noticed the stole at my neck, smiled, made the sign of the cross and both knelt side by side on the kerb until I passed, one was saying “Benedictus qui venit in Nomine Domini”. A year or two ago the ends of my stole had fallen out of my pocket and were dangling around my knees, I hadn’t noticed but a down and out Glaswegian had, he was selling the Big Issue, he fell to his knees and bent his head. I took communion to the sick person and on my return spoke to the man. He said to me,

 “Sr Marie Louise she always told us when you see a priest wearing a white thing over his shoulders, he is bringing God to a poor dying person, possibly for the last time, and we are supposed to kneel down, and we are supposed to pray, aren’t we Father?” I know for a fact he hasn’t been to Mass in 40 years. Occassionally the spouse or a family member will still greet one at the house door holding a lighted candle, a laudable practice. Compare and contrast this with the lack of preparation one often finds with the practising sick themselves, who are so often more concerned to give you a cup of tea than to express devotion to their Lord and God. No matter how much catechesis we might give, it is meaningless if we haven’t taught devotion. A reflection by Fr. Ray Blake, St Mary Magdalen’s, Brighton, UK. Fr. Blake hosts an excellent blog and has been very generous in welcoming FSSP priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in his parish. He has recently begun to celebrate this Mass in his parish.

One finds here the most precious page that has ever been written, a text which places a seal on the revelations of God. Its inspired author summarizes and explains these in a few words: “Et Verbum caro factum est.” Life and Light, from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, the Word of God, made man in Jesus of Nazareth, enlightens and vivifies those who have received his coming in the flesh. The Incarnation appears as the summit of theology, and it becomes the key point of history. With a clear allusion to the first lines of the Book of Genesis, the Prologue begins with the eternal existence of the Word. In the beginning was the Word: when time began with by the creation of heaven and earth, the Word was. Before the beginning of contingent things, there is only eternity. Therefore, the Word is eternal. Of all those who have had their place in history, only Jesus Christ speaks of “a glory that He possessed before the world was.” In him was life and the life was the light of men. Even though nothing yet lived outside of God, life was in the Word: first of all, divine life, not as an added grace, nor as something as received from without; but as proper and essential prerogative. Even human life was in the Word, like water is found in a well or fire in its source. All human life was ignited by divine life, as Michelangelo so brilliantly portrays in his fresco of the creation of man, which decorates the vault of the Sixtine Chapel. One must ask which human life is mentioned here: life according to nature or the life of grace? Both, but perhaps it could be better phrased as the natural life in view of supernatural life. In fact, in the order of things which is ours, everything finds itself ordered to this life of grace. In a single act, the Word created in the same being who was Adam, both a man and a child of God.

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A Commentary of the Prologue of Saint John (I, 1-18)

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 In writing that Life, which comes from the Word, was the light of men, the Evangelist follows the logical order of divine intervention in the world of men. In the supernatural order, our life begins with the ‘light of Faith’ which finds its end in the light of everlasting glory; so much so that the Greek fathers call this grace an ‘illumination’. One finds an echo is the words of the Psalmist: “For with thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light we shall see light.” When Christ states that He is in the world ‘the Light’ and ‘the Light of the world’, he indicates an opposition to a whole series of things which He calls ‘darkness’, and it is the precise term used by the Evangelist: And the Light shineth in darkness. Saint John evokes an idea which will be the pivotal point of his gospel: the Incarnate Word has as mission to make known God in the world. He does so through His works and His Spirit, who dwells in the Church. The fourth gospel is the story of the Anointed of God, the Life and Light of men. Between the light and the darkness, there is an antagonism that has in view the destruction of the world of darkness by the Light. This general meaning, and as one that is transcendental, characterizes the entire movement, retold in Sacred Scripture, of the conflict between the light of divine goodness and the darkness of human malice. Here the mention of the failure of darkness is foretold which places us in a perspective of joyful expectation of the final defeat of the world of darkness and its prince by the Light who is the life of men. All the saints, from the just Abel to John the Baptist, place themselves not only in this perspective but also in the grace of Christ, although it must be added that this grace was merited for them in what follows, by Our Lord’s Incarnation, of which the summit will be His sacrifice on the Cross. God has never left Himself without witnesses to His divine intervention on earth. But the human world received Him not. We must earnestly prepare ourselves to receive this Light and Life in our lives, in response to our vocation to be children of God, who are children of this Light and this Life. The Word was made flesh precisely in order that we may be born again of God and that we may have the divine life in us, as the light of our souls. We begin to see the true meaning of Christmas and the reason for which the Word of God assumes our humanity. We are created anew, spiritually regenerated and thus receive the power to become children of God. If the mystery of the Incarnation finds its place at a precise moment in human history, it is also given to us to contemplate during this Christmas season that God so loves us that He wills for us to be his children, and this has been willed from all Eternity, which cannot be properly described as a moment but rather that which precedes the creation of the universe. In the person of Jesus Christ, we find the beginning and end of all things for which the universe was created for he is Alpha and Omega. Before the universe existed, the Word was in God and the Word became flesh, so that all creatures of the flesh endowed with human reason may understand that Almighty God is the end for which they were created, just as He is the source and cause of their being in time and in the world. ■

 Isä Durhamin seuraava vierailu 19.-21.12.2008 Fr. Durham’s next visit on Dec. 19-21, 2008 PERJANTAI 19.12. FRIDAY Tampere: Pyhän ristin kirkko / Holy Cross Church 19:30 Pyhä messu / Holy Mass - messun jälkeen keskustelu / discussion after Mass LAUANTAI 20.12. SATURDAY Helsinki: Pyhän Henrikin katedraali (sakramenttikappeli) / Saint Henry’s 16:00 Pyhä messu / Holy Mass SUNNUNTAI 21.12. SUNDAY Helsinki: Pyhän Henrikin katedraali (sakramenttikappeli) / Saint Henry’s 14:00 Kasteen sakramentti ja pyhä messu / Baptism and Holy Mass http://fsspfinland.wordpress.com/

Tervetuloa! Welcome!