Speaking of grace with Baptists

I was asked recently to speak at a lunch in Hong Kong - a Baptist evangelical outreach to non Christians and those who need encouragement in their faith. 

As the time of my talk approached I felt a little nervous. Did they know I'm Catholic?  Would I be booed off the stage or would there be awkward questions as to whether I would renounce propery and accept salvation?

My fears were unfounded. I began by asking prayers of all present and I didn't hide the fact I'm Catholic - quoting heroes from Saint Jerome to others who in more recent years inspired me such as Fr Hilary Carter, an Assumptionist priest in the parish I grew up in and Fr Allen Morris who was my tutor in seminary at Allen Hall. 

It shouldn't amaze me but we asked the Holy Spirit to come and He did. I had baptists telling me that they had experienced and encountered grace in a powerful way and me, a Catholic, felt a little ashamed at by fears beforehand. 

False ecumenism is sometimes about ignoring truth but true unity has to be based on truth and witness combined with love. Every story I shared was summarised by biblical quotations to emphasise the points made. 

My main focus of my talk was to share what the bible teaches us about grace and then to invite people to allow their lives to be transformed by grace. As always when I'm asked to speak to a Christian group, the main person I'm speaking to is myself. 

Sunshine award

I was delighted to hear that I was awarded the Sunshine Blog award from both Jackie Parkes and Richard Collins. 

One of my duties shall be to nominate ten other blogs which I shall do in a few days time. My other solemn duty to share ten things about myself on this blog. This doesn't come easy to me but here goes:

1.  I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God.  

2. I am a sinner, aware of my need for God's grace and wouldn't go more than a week without Confession if possible and receive the Eucharist several times a month. 

3.  I have a beautiful, loving and patient wife who encourages me to be the man I am and respects me as the head of our family under Christ. I am passionately in love with this woman, my best friend, and mother of my young son. 

4.  I'm not entirely sure who reads this blog and always appreciate feedback but made two choices: never to give my name and to refrain from needlessly criticising any other person. I hope to share thoughts, amuse and possibly inspire other people - not bring them down. 

5.  I'm an Englishman whose lived in two foreign countries: Wales and Hong Kong (where I grew in appreciation of English traditions, rugby and cricket respectively) and have been fortunate enough to have worked in and / or visited five continents and ovee 50 countries including the Holy Land and what is left of the Papal States. 

6.  Although born in the 1970s, I feel more at home worshipping at a (Tridentine) Latin Mass and once had various internet trolls threatening to have me burnt at the stake as a heretic when I wrote a spoof article wanting a more meaningful liturgy and concluding that the old rite is what is needed. Sadly, Damian Thompson, removed the death threats from the blog, which I rather enjoyed. 

7. I was once threatened with excommunication by Cardinal Basil Hume when I told him that I hoped Anglican prayers would be more efficacious for about 90 minutes when it had been reported that he and the ArchMinister of Canterbury were to attend the FA Cup final together cheering and praying for Newcastle and Arsenal respectively. 

8.  I spent a year as a seminarian and later a year as a novice monk at Ampleforth. Although neither were to be my vocation I treasure those times and the friends I made at each. I should pray for vocations more often than I do. 

9.  I was once hugged by a lady Anglican minister who was concerned that I wouldn't like her because she's a woman and I reassured her that I believe that her ordination is just as valid as her male counterparts. 

10. I believe in genuine ecumenism, but it has to based on the highest, not the lowest, common denominator. Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox friends have all encouraged me in my faith and despite being a Papist and a layman, have spoken at several Protestant churches in Hong Kong. I prefer faithful non Catholic Christians who genuinely seek God and to liberal Catholics who water down the faith any day. 

Benedict XVI - the most inspiring Pope in my lifetime

Having lived through four Popes in my lifetime, two of which I can barely remember, there is no doubting that  for me personally the current one has inspired me most.

I am only just about getting over the shock of hearing that our beloved Pope, Benedict XVI, is to resign. My thoughts and feelings have included not only shock, surprise, sadness but also joy that he will, God willing, have some peace in his final days (let's hope years).  Pope Benedict XVI has in many ways, been a Pope of surprises right up until the end including his resignation.

He chose a name honouring a predecessor from before the Second Vatican Council - which in itself was a sign that he is someone truly aware of the hermeneutic of continuity of the Catholic Church before, during and after the Council.  This choice of name, choosing to honour a predecessor who was a man of peace undermined the idiocies of those who either think that nothing good happened before the Council or nothing good happened afterwards.

Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est reinforced the core of the Gospel message opening with the words, 'God is Love.'  All of his writings have been Christ-centred - including his series on Jesus of Nazareth - and bring our focus on the core of the Gospel message.

As an Englishman, albeit one living in Hong Kong, I shall never forget the first ever State Visit of a Pope to the UK.  The site of him speaking in Westminster Hall, where St Thomas More was condemned to death reminding us that the church and state can work together for the common good.

The media, including some that are nominally Catholic, have sometimes accused the current Pope of persecuting nuns in the USA.  The truth, as Fr Z reminds us, is that some, let's hope a minority, of religious sisters in the US have moved very far away from Catholic teaching with some opposing the sanctity of life and others openly saying that they have moved beyond Christ.  It is right to at least investigate and take action where necessary.

Pope Benedict's outreach to Anglicans who wish to become Catholic but without losing the beauty of their own liturgical and cultural traditions was a stroke of genius.  Others may talk about Christian unity but he helped deliver it in this way.

One of Pope Benedict's decisions that affected me most personally was his decision to liberate the traditional Latin Mass, which as he pointed out hadn't been abolished anyway.  The beautiful, Christ-centred nature of the extraordinary form of the Mass transcends cultures, reaches across divides of time and language and focuses our attention on the tabernacle and cross rather than the priest. My wife-to-be, a non-denominational Christian at the time, accompanied me to a Latin Mass in Hong Kong before we got married and said that this was a key factor in her understanding of what the Eucharist really means.

It may seem ironic but a Pope accused by the ignorant of being an arch-conservative was in fact, perhaps one of the greatest defenders of Vatican II.  As recently reported in the Catholic Herald, he has defended the true meaning of  the Council against those who have consistently tried to undermine it - including those who hate all things truly Catholic and false traditionalists who object to its authentic teaching.

Let us thank God for Pope Benedict and pray for him as he retires in a few days time.  We cannot understand the pressures that are upon him and we do not know the extent to which he is suffering.  May our Father in heaven give him peace and comfort and may the prayers of our heavenly mother be with him.

The irony of the sheep stealers

One of my passions is ecumenism - built on a belief that all followers of Christ have so much in common that we should celebrate this and pray, evangelise and work together for unity in love.  The sad truth that often strikes me though is that some Christians use inter-denominational events to entice and convert people from one denomination to another.

I know a number of friends and acquaintances brought up in the Catholic faith but due to poor teaching never knew the truth and beauty of the Faith.  Sheep stealers are those who will undermine the Catholic Faith of those they meet and seek to convert them to a denomination instead.  

 The sheep stealers seem to be consistent in the following steps:

1.  They will ingratiate themselves with Catholics and be friendly to them but start subtly undermining their faith - ridiculing aspects of faith that they disagree with.  The sheep stealers will almost always claim that the Catholic Church hates scripture and is just interested in money.  Quite rightly - most people of goodwill will realise that this is not the way a true Christian Church would behave.

2.  The next ploy is to invite Catholics to their places of worship where they are told that Catholicism is about guilt and they instead preach freedom. They will be introduced to people who say they were "raised Catholic, but found Christ." - quite often they will be people who were simply nominal Catholics, went to a Catholic School or happen to have had Irish or Italian parents and the odd religious image in their home.

3.  Thirdly they will be invited to "be baptised" regardless of whether they are already baptised or not or perhaps to sign a form professing their membership of a particular church.  They will of course also be invited to take part in various courses and made to feel more and more part of their new spiritual home.

4.  It is only when the Catholic is firmly an ex-Catholic that they are then introduced to the importance of parting with as much of their money as possible to their newly found church and how God will bless them so much for this.  

The irony of those people who have left the Catholic Church for another "bible believing church" is that they have left an organisation that compiled and wrote the Bible and uses scripture as the greater part of the Mass for assemblies that on the whole have nothing more than one or two verses of the Bible and a lot of one person's interpretation of it.

The greater irony is that having been told that the Catholic Church is rich and obsessed with money they may end up in a community that spends  more time asking for money than it does on proclaiming scripture.  

Let us pray for genuine Christian unity and protection against those that would undermine Christ's Church.