Parish Mission 26th May – 10th June 2006

On the feast of Pentecost this year a team from the Sion Community will come to invite each one of us deepen our faith and guide us towards mission.  The Mission will last for two weeks ending on Corpus Christi.  On the middle Sunday Cardinal O’Brien will join us as the principle celebrant at the 10.00 am mass.

The Mission’s theme (indeed the theme for the whole of 2007) is ‘Rebuild My Church’ but in fact it will largely work as a theme for the next 5 years when in 2012 we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the parish.  Much will need to be undertaken during this period not least of which will be our response to the new context of ministry presented by the shortage of priests.

The theme originates from an earlier crisis, they were the words heard by St Francis in the little church of San Damiano just outside Assisi. The Church of San Damiano was a ruin when St Francis knelt before this cross. Stretching out his arms as he prayed:

O great God of Glory
my Lord Jesus Christ,
I entreat you
put light into the darkness of my mind.
Give me right faith, firm hope, and perfect charity.
Help me learn to know you, Lord, so well,
that in all things I may do everything this day
in keeping with your holy will.

Francis prayed these words in the little ruined Church, in the autumn of 1205. And as he prayed, he heard a voice which said: “Francis, rebuild my church, which as you see, is falling down.”

He did rebuild it - stone upon stone - until he came to understand that what he was called to rebuild was the living Church in the heart of humankind.

Here in St John Cantius we are called to nothing less than that same vocation – to rebuild the living people of God in this place.  Note however St Francis’ begins by seeking personal renewal.  He does not say give me a task, a job, a mission rather he asks for spiritual gifts which will help him do the Lord’s will. 

Look at what he asks for and then let us seek it for ourselves.

He asks to be enlightened, to have a new vision. Surely we need a new vision of ourselves as Christians, a new vision of the Church where we are part of its life and mission as ‘active players not as passive spectators.

He asks for right faith.  How well do we know the Catholic Faith?  How well do we trust it?  (When I hear the half truths and the misconceptions of many born and bred Catholics I wonder how they remain practicing at all – I certainly wouldn’t have joined their Catholic Church!)  We need to become learners, disciples again.

He asks for firm Hope.  How do we view the future?  It’s easy to despair. Surely our belief in God should help us look to the future with hope.  However hope is only possible if we trust that God is God and so has the future in his hands. Do we trust the Lord with your families, your jobs, your lives?

He asks for perfect Charity.  Well it’s the ideal but do we ask for it?  Most of us (and I include myself) are self satisfied: we’re good enough, we don’t do any harm, we’re not bad people.  All true but are we positively loving people? Do our motivations and intentions flow from love?

He asks to know the Lord well. To know him as a close friend and brother should be our goal: because it is as we know him we love him, trust him and hope in him.  Only then will we let him change us, convert us as he did St Francis.
So perhaps this prayer is a beginning for us just as it was for St Francis.  Perhaps, if we pray it not just once but many times, attentively and in a spirit of openness, God will speak to us giving each one of us a particular vocation in the great and wonderful task of renewing his Church in this place. 

Mission begins with renewal and renewal with conversion and conversion with prayer - so let’s get on our knees …
Fr Basil