With regards to fasting, compared to our ancestors we get off pretty lightly, say 70 years ago we would have been avoiding meat for most of the days of Lent, including Sundays, abstinence still was obligatory. However when we think of fasting, whichever manner we may take it upon ourselves, it is not something that should and can be done every day, we have our feast and solemnities in thanksgiving where we can make merry. One would never dream of fasting during the Easter Octave. It goes against the nature of what we are celebrating. With Almsgiving we should help people according to our means, we can do this by providing items for the Easter hampers.
But prayer, it is not a special edition that we can just practice particularly during lent. No day can go by without some form of prayer. Sometimes we can fret over prayer and worry about what we are to say. I suspect that perhaps when we consider prayer, we might be afraid of the realisation that may come upon us, by God’s grace and the working of the Holy Spirit, that we are not really at ease in dealing with it. Prayer always brings and element of self-knowledge to us. Always pray as you can, it may be in the simplest words, maybe even sometimes there are no words to your prayer. We should always be ready to offer ourselves to the Lord. He will always accept it.
Prayer is essential, it is the very food that strengthens and cleanses our hearts and minds, our very soul. We should only pray as we can pray in a particular moment. Whether it be a quick glory be, or a very short prayer to our patron saint. We can have that realisation that as we place ourselves before God, before Christ in the tabernacle, that we are close to Him. We should keep those moments. They can be strengthening, helping us realise our closeness to God, and more importantly His closeness to us.
We share in the public prayer of the Church when we come and assist at Mass. We are here; however we should try and avoid those distractions that come our way. St. Philip Neri said that when we are distracted in our prayer that we should turn those into intentions. It may be something that is troubling us, make it one of our motives to bring it to the Lord.
Consider a garden, with all its different plants and bushes and trees. All have importance, but their life is dependent on the vagaries of nature, will there be rain or sunshine? Does the land need weeding? In the same way, we too form the growth of garden, which is our soul. Prayer is therefore vital for us to make ourselves ready to receive those graces which God wishes to give us.
]]>The second of Lent has in previous years where I have spoken on stewardship. At the end of March, the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia will cease to have us bank with them as another stage in our progress to become an Oratory of Pontifical right, we will be a more independent entity in the life of the Church here in Cardiff. As a result of that, whereas in the history of the Parish it has come under the umbrella of the archdiocese, paying the levy and things being prescribed by them, as of the 31st of March St. Alban’s enters a new period of its life and history. So as of that date the parish will, of course, still be a part of the archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia through the person of his grace the archbishop, we are no longer part of the archdiocesan trust. What it does mean in practical terms for us a parish, all of us have to stand alone as it were. This is not just us, but those parishes in the care of the Rosminians and the Benedictines of Belmont Abbey. So the entire finances of the parish, the security of the parish, the direction of the parish, all now fall on the parish priest’s shoulders. Therefore in previous times when we could have asked for aid from the archdiocese, from the 31st of March we will not be able to do this.
So that is why; in moving forward we have to be more prudent and more attentive to our needs. The only money the parish will have access to will be the weekly collections, donations, and fundraising. It is a big moment in the life of the Parish. In the last eight years, through the generosity and constant giving of yourselves, the Parish has done an enormous amount of work. The church on the inside and outside has been transformed, and the school has improved. So it is possible to carry on.
It is our next job to have £100,000, in the bank that we do not touch, that if there was a disaster that is not covered by the insurance, then we will have that reserve. Just simple housekeeping. I am confident that we will do this because we make savings, that £100,000 will not be for works but will be that buffer.
Stewardship for us in the Parish has a keener meaning because now we realise we won’t have to pay the levy, which is around £14,000, so that is helpful. But that does not mean that we can have that to play around with, it will be used for those things which the archdiocese provided, such as safeguarding. So I would ask you to be conscious of this new moment in the life of the Parish, we have always trusted in Providence since we have arrived, Providence has never let us down. I will tell you all when we reach the £100,000 mark, and we will then start as if from zero.
I ask you, as your Parish Priest; if you by law are a taxpayer, you can take the gift aid envelopes, fill them in and place them in the collections. The ability for us to draw back tax 25p for every £1 becomes for the Parish so much more critical. If you pay 40% tax, we can draw back that 25p and you can draw back 15% rebate for yourselves. It is all covered by GDPR and only the Parish priest knows who gives what, nobody else. Nobody knows how much you earn. All you are saying is that you pay tax.
Next week I will be putting in the gift aid application form and I would as you, as long as you are paying tax, that you would sign it. It will make an enormous difference. The budgeting of the Parish falls entirely on my shoulders, but together we can ensure we have a bright future. We need to pray, we need to try to be generous, we need to try to be attentive.
]]>Take St Thomas Aquinas, he states that fasting is virtuous for three reasons. 1Firstly it tempers our desires. That when we abstain from meat and drink we are no longer tempted to do certain things, because we either do not feel the need to do them, or we are distracted from them by our hunger. Secondly, that mind is easier to contemplate on higher things without thinking about material needs. He uses the example of Daniel fasting for three weeks when he had a revelation from God.2 We need not worry about what to eat so we can think of something else, namely God, instead. The third reason is that it makes satisfaction for sins. We heard the scriptural evidence for this on Ash Wednesday when the prophet Joel said, “be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, weeping and mourning.”3 Through the act of fasting we are mortifying ourselves, not because we want to do it, but because the Church says it is a holy and good practice. As Fasting does all this, then clearly it can be seen as something virtuous to do.
Therefore, Pope Leo in his Lenten address highlighted the importance of this pillar of lent. He said, “fasting makes it easier to recognize what we “hunger” for and what we deem necessary for our sustenance”.4 What is it that we hunger for? Our relationship with God. For Easter is that great solemnity where we see the greatest love anyone has ever shown. We yearn to see the stone rolled away on Easter morning, that moment when Christ conquered the grave and made satisfaction for our sins. That desire is why we fast, that we can not be distracted by sin which breaks our relationship with God, that we can have our sins blotted out, and that we can think on how great the Father’s love is for us.” Understood in this way, fasting not only permits us to govern our desire, purifying it and making it freer, but also to expand it, so that it is directed towards God and doing good.”5
Therefore, as we continue this Lenten journey, let us not see fasting as an obligation, nor as a relic of a harsher age, but as a gift. The wisdom of Thomas Aquinas reminds us that fasting disciplines the body, elevates the mind, and makes satisfaction for sin. The words of Pope Leo XVI call us to recognise our deepest hunger: not for food, but for God. If we fast well, our desires are not diminished but purified; not crushed, but redirected. In hungering, we learn what truly sustains us. And so we fast in hope, that when Easter dawns, our hearts may be freer, our love deeper, and our joy greater in the Risen Lord.
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