The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Sponsored by The Portal Magazine

11th - 18th November 2014

led by Monsignor Keith Newton

Thanksgiving is an important part of the Christian life. 

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham under the Patronage of 

Blessed John Henry Newman has many reason to give thanks.

This Pilgrimage is a wonderful opportunity for us in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, along with others, to visit the places where Jesus walked ....

It will be an amazing experience and one which will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression that will enrich our lives at all levels both during our Pilgrimage for for the rest of our lives!.

Places are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis 

. . . so make sure you book your place today.

Full Itinerary

Booking Form

Assisted Dying Bill: Faith Leaders’ Statement

The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain are amongst the 24 faith leaders who have today voiced their shared concerns about Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying Bill.

In a joint statement to Members of the House of Lords they say:"While we may have come to the position of opposing this bill from different religious perspectives, we are agreed that the Assisted Dying Bill invites the prospect of an erosion of carefully tuned values and practices that are essential for the future development of a society that respects and cares for all."

The leaders and senior representatives are drawn from a broad coalition of Christian churches and denominations, and from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian faiths.Lord Falconer's Bill will be debated in the House of Lords on 18 July 2014.

Statement in full

To Members of the House of Lords:

As leaders of faith communities, we wish to state our joint response to Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill. We do so out of deep human concern that if enacted, this bill would have a serious detrimental effect on the wellbeing of individuals and on the nature and shape of our society.

‪Every human life is of intrinsic value and ought to be affirmed and cherished. This is central to our laws and our social relationships; to undermine this in any way would be a grave error. The Assisted Dying Bill would allow individuals to participate actively in ending others’ lives, in effect colluding in the judgment that they are of no further value. This is not the way forward for a compassionate and caring society.

‪Vulnerable individuals must be cared for and protected even if this calls for sacrifice on the part of others. Each year many thousands of elderly and vulnerable people suffer abuse; sadly, often at the hands of their families or carers. Being perceived as a burden or as a financial drain is a terrible affliction to bear, leading in many cases to passivity, depression and self-loathing. The desire to end one’s life may, at any stage of life, be prompted by depression or external pressure; any suggestion of a presumption that such a decision is ‘rational’ does not do justice to the facts. The Assisted Dying Bill can only add to the pressures that many vulnerable, terminally ill people will feel, placing them at increased risk of distress and coercion at a time when they most require love and support.

‪A key consideration is whether the Assisted Dying Bill will place more vulnerable people at risk than it seeks to help. We have seen, in recent years that even rigorous regulation and careful monitoring have not prevented the most serious lapses of trust and care in some parts of the NHS and within a number of Care Homes. It is naïve to believe that, if assisted suicide were to be legalised, proposed safeguards would not similarly be breached with the most disastrous of consequences, by their nature irrevocable.

‪The bill raises the issue of what sort of society we wish to become: one in which life is to be understood primarily in terms of its usefulness and individuals evaluated in terms of their utility or one in which every person is supported, protected and cherished even if, at times, they fail to cherish themselves. While we may have come to the position of opposing this bill from different religious perspectives, we are agreed that the Assisted Dying Bill invites the prospect of an erosion of carefully tuned values and practices that are essential for the future development of a society that respects and cares for all. Better access to high-quality palliative care, greater support for carers and enhanced end of life services will be among the hallmarks of a truly compassionate society and it is to those ends that our energies ought to be harnessed.

Signatories:

Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia
Chairman, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha

‪Mr Yousif Al-Khoei
Director Al-Khoei Foundation

‪Rev Dr Martyn Atkins
General Secretary of the Methodist Church and Secretary of the Conference

‪Bishop Eric Brown
Administrative Bishop, New Testament Church of God

‪Mr Malcolm M Deboo
President, Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe

‪Rev Jonathan Edwards
Deputy Moderator Free Churches Group

‪Pastor John Glass
General Superintendent, Elim Pentecostal Churches

‪Revd David Grosch-Miller and Mr John Ellis
Moderators of the United Reformed Church General Assembly

‪Colonel David Hinton
Chief Secretary, The Salvation Army United Kingdom

‪Rev Stephen Keyworth
Faith and Society Team Leader, Baptist Union of Great Britain

‪Ayatollah Fazel Milani
Dean of the International Colleges of Islamic Studies

‪Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

‪Most Rev Dr Barry Morgan
Archbishop of Wales

‪His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster

‪Rev John Partington
National Leader, Assemblies of God

‪Mr Ramesh Pattni
Secretary General, Hindu Forum of Britain

‪Bishop Wilton Powell
National Overseer, Church of God of Prophecy

‪Maulana Shahid Raza OBE
Leicester Central Mosque, Leicester

‪Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala
Chief Sangha Nayake of Great Britain, London Buddhist Vihara

‪Dr Shuja Shafi
Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain

‪Dr Natubhai Shah
Chairman/CEO Jain Network

‪Lord Indarjit Singh
Director Network of Sikh Organisations (UK)

‪Most Rev and Rt Hon Justin Welby
Archbishop of Canterbury

Related

Visit our full section on the Assisted Dying Bill 2014-15 - resources available.

Helps you Contact a Peer who is a member of the House of Lords

WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL PILGRIMAGE TO WALSINGHAM

Time: 07:30

Location: National Shrine, Walsingham

Canon Tuckwell will be leading a Parish Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham on Wednesday 13 August. The cost will be £16 per adult and £7 for children under 12. Coach departs Westminster Cathedral at 7.30am, back by 7.30pm. Tickets may be obtained, with the correct fare only, from Theresa Giwa on 07553 846685 or from Clergy House Reception.

The existence of angels – a truth of faith

From: http://www.heraldsusa.org/news/the-existence-of-angels-a-truth-of-faith/#more-2055

The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls “angels” is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.

Who are they?

329 St. Augustine says: “‘Angel’ is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit’, from what they do, ‘angel.’”188 With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they “always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” they are the “mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word”.189

330 As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.190

Christ “with all his angels”

331 Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels: “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. “191 They belong to him because they were created through and for him: “for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.”192 They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?”193

332 Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham’s hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples.194 Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself.195

333 From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God “brings the firstborn into the world, he says: ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’”196 Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church’s praise: “Glory to God in the highest!”197 They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been.198 Again, it is the angels who “evangelize” by proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection.199 They will be present at Christ’s return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgment.200

The angels in the life of the Church

334 In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.201

335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy’s In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .["May the angels lead you into Paradise. . ."]). Moreover, in the “Cherubic Hymn” of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).

336 From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.202 “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.”203 Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.

II. THE VISIBLE WORLD

337 God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine “work”, concluded by the “rest” of the seventh day.204 On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation,205 permitting us to “recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God.”206

338 Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. The world began when God’s word drew it out of nothingness; all existent beings, all of nature, and all human history are rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun.207

339 Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. For each one of the works of the “six days” it is said: “And God saw that it was good.” “By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws.”208 Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God’s infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment.

340 God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.

341 The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created world results from the diversity of beings and from the relationships which exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They call forth the admiration of scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission of man’s intellect and will.

342 The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the “six days”, from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures209 and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: “You are of more value than many sparrows”, or again: “Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!”210

343 Man is the summit of the Creator’s work, as the inspired account expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other creatures.211

344 There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory: May you be praised, O Lord, in all your creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendor, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High.

May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste. . .
May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses. . .
Praise and bless my Lord, give thanks and serve him in all humility.

345 The sabbath – the end of the work of the six days. The sacred text says that “on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done”, that the “heavens and the earth were finished”, and that God “rested” on this day and sanctified and blessed it.213 These inspired words are rich in profitable instruction:

346 In creation God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm, on which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakeable faithfulness of God’s covenant.214 For his part man must remain faithful to this foundation, and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it.

347 Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation.215 As the rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over “the work of God”, that is, solemn worship.216 This indicates the right order of human concerns.

348 The sabbath is at the heart of Israel’s law. To keep the commandments is to correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in his work of creation.

349 The eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ’s Resurrection. The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first creation.217

IN BRIEF

350 Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: “The angels work together for the benefit of us all” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 114, 3, ad 3).

351 The angels surround Christ their Lord. They serve him especially in the accomplishment of his saving mission to men.

352 The Church venerates the angels who help her on her earthly pilgrimage and protect every human being.

353 God willed the diversity of his creatures and their own particular goodness, their interdependence and their order. He destined all material creatures for the good of the human race. Man, and through him all creation, is destined for the glory of God.

354 Respect for laws inscribed in creation and the relations which derive from the nature of things is a principle of wisdom and a foundation for morality.

Pope Prays for Victims of Malaysian Airliner and Their Loved Ones

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-prays-for-victims-of-malaysian-airliner-and-their-loved-ones
Appeals for Peace After Tragedy Claiming Some 300 Lives, Including 80 Children
Vatican City, July 18, 2014 (Zenit.org)
The Pope has made a heartfelt appeal for peace on hearing of the Malaysia Airlines flight shot down above Ukraine, claiming some 300 lives, including a much-loved Australian nun and teacher and a group of HIV/AIDS researchers.

According to a statement issued by the Vatican press office this afternoon, the Pope learned with consternation the news of the disaster of the Malaysia Airlines flight in the eastern region Ukraine, marked by strong tensions.

It added that the Pope raises his prayers to the numerous victims of the incident and for their loved ones, renewing to the parties in conflict his heartfelt appeal for peace and commitment to finding solutions with dialogue in order to prevent further loss of innocent human lives.

En route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Malaysian Airline passenger plane was shot down Thursday over Ukraine. The missile strike claimed 298 lives, some 80 of whom were children. 

On board the plane were 173 Dutch nationals, 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine passengers believed to be from the U.K., four each from Belgium and Germany, and one from New Zealand. Twenty passengers nationalities are still to be identified, the Guardian reported today.

Sister Philomene Tiernan, a teacher at eastern Sydney Catholic girls' school, Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart, in Australia, was among those killed. She was returning home from attending a retreat in Joigny in France.

"The first thing you think about her is an incredibly gentle personality," Msgr. Tony Doherty, who knew her more than 30 years said. He described her as "one of those blithe gentle spirits that you never touch without coming away a little bit enriched." Likewise, her school community was "devastated" by her loss, saying she was "much loved." 

In addition, experts bound for the 20th International AIDS conference due to start in Melbourne on Sunday have been confirmed as among those killed in the crash. 

"What if the cure for AIDS was on that plane? Really, We don't know," said Canadian HIV researcher Trevor Stratton who was among delegates who arrived earlier for the Indigenous pre-conference on HIV and AIDs in Sydney. "You can't help but wonder what kind of expertise was on that plane."

The U.S. has pointedly criticized Russia's arming of rebels in the Ukraine. The nation's former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said this time "Putin has gone too far," and has called on the EU to impose sanctions on Russia.

Today, in the strongest public suggestions yet for who was responsible, President Obama said the flight was taken down by missiles from an area within the Ukraine that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists. Reported in the New York Times, this suggested that Ukrainian separatist or Russian troops were the missile operators. (D.C.L.)

Heralds of the Gospel Concert

Catholic school governors attack plans to scrap Christian assemblies

From: http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/950/0/catholic-school-governors-attack-plans-to-scrap-christian-assemblies

07 July 2014 13:38 by Liz Dodd

Catholic school governors have criticised the National Governors’ Association (NGA) for advocating the abolition of compulsory Christian assemblies in schools.

The NGA decided to call for the abolition of laws that say daily worship is compulsory in schools at the most recent meeting of its policy committee, claiming that few schools met the requirement and that it was “meaningless” in communities where the majority were not Christian.

Elizabeth Mills, a Catholic who was governor at Henry Box School in Witney, Oxfordshire, a state comprehensive, for nine years and previously governor at Christ Church primary school in Regents Park, London, criticised the decision, saying that a period of reflection in a busy day was for good for students, whatever their faith.

“We live in chaotic times. Many young people are denied the opportunity for quiet and learning a bit about their place in the world. Learning about the Christian faith – even for non-believers – helps all to become engaged with shared values and community life,” she Ms Mills, adding that removing worship in schools was part of a general trend to marginalise Christianity.

“Removing an act of worship is another act of vandalism being encouraged by secular forces who will be the first to shout ‘shame’ as our children become increasingly selfish,” she said.

Carmelite priest, Fr Wilfrid McGreal, former chairman of governors at St Matthew’s Academy, a Catholic school in Blackheath, south-east London, agreed, saying: “There has always been a tradition of gathering pupils together to help them to pray. If this is eliminated it disassociates young people from contact with the spiritual and the transcendent. To undermine this link is a negative and an impoverishment.”

He added: “There can be a problem finding someone to lead an assembly but in a school there is always a person who can who is committed to Christian ideals in their life, even if they are not Christian themselves.”

The Catholic Education Service (CES) said that the current arrangements were flexible enough to accommodate community schools with pupils from a diverse range of faiths.

“We support the long standing arrangements for collective worship in community schools, the abolition of which would fail to appreciate over 1,500 years of Christian tradition in England,” a CES spokeswoman said.

Emma Knights, chief executive of the NGA who is also a Catholic foundation governor, said that worship was important in schools that had a religious character, adding: “However it is not reasonable to expect schools which do not have a religious character to conduct a daily act of collective worship.”

Come to Me and do not be afraid, because I love you!

From: http://heralds.ca/blog/come-to-me-and-do-not-be-afraid-because-i-love-you/

Oh, if souls only realized how I wait for them in mercy. I am the love of all loves, and it is My joy to forgive.

I am always waiting with love for the souls to come to Me! Come!… Throw yourself into My Arms! Do not be afraid! I know the very depths of souls, their passions, their attraction for the world and its pleasures; I have known from all eternity how many of them will fill My Heart with bitterness, and that for a great number, both My Sufferings and My Blood will be in vain…. But having loved them, I love them still… My Heart is not so much wounded by sin, as torn with grief that they will not take refuge with Me after it. I want to forgive. I want the world to know through My chosen ones that My Heart is overflowing with love and mercy and is waiting for sinners.

It was My intention also, to show souls that I never refuse grace even to those who are guilty of grave sin; nor do I separate them from the good whom I love with predilection. I keep them all in My Heart, that all may receive the help required by their state of soul….I would have these to understand that it is not the fact of being in sin that ought to keep them from Me. They must never think that there is no remedy for them, nor that they have forfeited forever the love that once was theirs…. No, poor souls, the God who has shed all His Blood for you has no such feelings for you!

Come all of you to Me and fear not, for I love you all… I will wash you in My Blood and you shall be made whiter than snow. All your offences will be submerged in the waters in which I Myself shall wash you, nor shall anything whatsoever be able to tear from My Heart Its love for you.

Oh, all you who are steeped in sin, and who for a time more or less long have lived as wanderers and fugitives because of your crimes… if the offences of which you have been guilty have hardened and blinded your hearts… if to grant satisfaction to one or other of your passions you have sunk into evil ways… Ah! when the motives or accomplices of your sin have forsaken you and you realize the state of your soul, Oh then, do not yield to despair! For as long as a breath of life remains, a man may have recourse to mercy and ask for pardon. Your God has no wish to see you fall into the flames of hell.

On the contrary He ardently desires you to come to Him so that He may forgive you. If you dare not speak to Him, at least look at Him and let the sighs of your heart reach Him, and at once you will find His kind and fatherly hand stretched out to lead you to the springs of pardon and life.

I want them all to have confidence in My mercy, to expect all from My clemency, and never to doubt My readiness to forgive. I am God, but a God of love! I am a Father, but a Father full of compassion and never harsh. My Heart is infinitely holy but also infinitely wise and knowing human frailty and infirmity, stoops to poor sinners with infinite mercy.

I love those who after a first fall come to Me for pardon… I love them even when they beg pardon for their second sin, and should this happen again, I do not say a million times but a million million times, I still love them and pardon them, and I will wash in My Blood their last sin as fully as their first.

Never shall I weary of repentant sinners, nor cease from hoping for their return, and the greater their distress, the greater My welcome. Does a father not love the sick child with special affection? Are his care and solicitude not greater? So is the tenderness and compassion of My Heart more abundant for sinners than for the just.

I ask … all their love and that they should not doubt Mine, but above all that they should trust Me and never doubt My mercy. It is so easy to trust completely in My Heart!

____________

The Way of Divine Love – The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World and a short biography of His messenger Sister Josefa Menéndez, Tan books and publishers, inc. Rockford, Illinois 1981.

Clifton Diocesan Annual Pilgrimage to Glastonbury - Sunday 13th July 2014

WHEN:

July 13, 2014 @ 2:15 pm – 4:00 pm

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WHERE:  

Glastonbury abbey
Glastonbury Abbey
Magdalene Street,Glastonbury,Somerset BA6 9EL

http://www.cliftondiocese.com/ai1ec_event/annual-pilgrimage-glastonbury/?instance_id=1217

A shrine is traditionally a place of pilgrimage and reminds us, in an earthly way, of our spiritual journey of faith.

Through baptism we embark on a road that is sometimes smooth, sometimes rough, but we do not journey alone.

As Christians we have our eyes firmly fixed upon the Kingdom of God as revealed to us in Scripture and Tradition by Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The message of Our Lady, His Mother, is a simple one. In John 2:5 she points to her Son and says, “Do whatever He tells you”. And so, it is in this shrine that we worship God and give honour to the Theotokos, the God-Bearer. She is a prototype of the Church in that she gives us an example of discipleship unparalleled in the history of salvation. She is humble and courageous, obedient and strong, maternal and virginal, constantly directing us towards her Son.

Father Kevin Knox-Lecky, Parish Priest 1999 – 2012

The Pilgrimage has two starts :

1. A procession through the town centre behind the statue of Our Lady, during which
the Rosary is prayed and hymns are sung. In some years this has been preceded
by a Liturgy of the Word in the Tor Field, commemorating the martyrdom of
Blesséd Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, and his fellow martyrs,
Blesséd Roger James and Blesséd John Thorne. In 2014 this liturgy takes place
in the Abbey Grounds, followed by the start of the procession at 2.15pm.
The procession exits the Abbey grounds through the Abbey House Gardens, it proceeds
through the town centre via Chilkwell Street, the High Street and Magdalene Street,
returning to the Abbey through the Magdalene Street Gates, opposite the Shrine Church
at approximately 3pm.

2. The Pilgrimage starts in St Mary’s church, the Shrine of Our Lady, at 11.30am,
when the holy Rosary is prayed, followed by Exposition of their Blesséd Sacrament,
during which Confessions will be heard and private healing prayer will be given by the
Shrine’s Healing Ministry for those who would like to receive it, finishing with Benediction
at about 2pm, to enable pilgrims to join the start of the procession, if they wish.

The two groups of pilgrims, from the procession and from the church meet in the Abbey grounds
for the pilgrimage Mass which will be celebrated by Bishop Declan Lang at 3.30pm.