Teachers

The solemnity of SS Peter and Paul. On this feast a brief meditation. These men were very different from each other. We know from the Scriptures that they clashed, and Paul had to rebuke Peter when the first pope got it wrong. That said, both had a common mission and, most importantly, a common love, and it was this which united them, saw them reconciled and led them to shed their blood together. That love was for Jesus Christ who changed their lives. 

As Pope Emeritus Benedict reminded us during his pontificate, each generation must discover Jesus Christ for themselves, it is only when a person encounters Christ and falls in love with him that he or she will become a true disciple, one who follows the Master. All our work, our efforts at evangelisation, our catechesis must be aimed at bringing our people to Jesus. Once we embrace him and his teaching (as he actually taught it) then things fall into place, then we understand what the Church is saying.

SS Peter and Paul are our models and teachers in this effort - they preached Christ, and him crucified and risen. From that we see Paul's great theology emerge; from that we see the decision to die rather than renounce the Lord. 

May these Holy Apostles assist us with their prayers, that we may come to know, love and serve Jesus ever more generously.

Solemnity Of SS Peter And Paul: A Spiritual Pilgrimage

A happy feast day to you all - the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles, SS Peter and Paul.  I love these days at the end of the June, they bring us right of the heart the Church in Rome as we reflect on the first beginnings and the persecution of the first martyrs there, among them SS Peter and Paul.   This is the "Quo Vadis" week really, when we immerse ourselves in the heroism of our brothers and sisters who shed their blood for Christ and sanctified the city we now look to as the See of our Holy Father, the successor of St Peter.

It is a time when we can do a spiritual pilgrimage to those holy places.  Starting at the Mamertine prison, beside the Roman Forum, down in the lower cell, dank and damp, where Peter and Paul were held in chains together awaiting their fate. 

The Mamertine Prison

Then the journey out the Via Appia (the Appian Way) to the Quo Vadis Church, stopping off at the Circus Maximus where many of the first martyrs died. 

The Circus Maximus

The Via Appia Antica

The "Quo Vadis" Church

The "footprints of Jesus"

After a prayer in the church, and having looked at the "footpints of Jesus", back into Rome with Peter renewed, to visit his tomb in St Peter's Basilica on the Vatican hill where he was crucified upside down and then buried in the cemetery nearby.

The Crucifixion of St Peter

St Peter's Tomb

Then on out to Tre Fontane, to the site of St Paul's beheading, taking a moment to reflect on the three fountains which may well indeed symbolise the waters of baptism being poured out all over the world on countless converts redeemed by the blood of Christ and won by the intercession of the blood of the Apostles.

The beheading of St Paul

Pillar on which St Paul was beheaded at the Monastery of Tre Fontane

Then the walk into the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls to spend some time praying at his tomb, and perhaps some moments reading from his epistles.

The Tomb of St Paul

And finally back in to the city to the Basilica of St John Lateran, the Pope's cathedral, to pray for the Holy Father, and to venerate the heads of the two Apostles which are enshrined above the Papal Altar.

Reliquary busts containing the heads of SS Peter and Paul

above the Papal Altar in the Lateran Basilica

In news today: the US Catholic bishops have rejected the US Supreme Court's judgement on Obamacare.  An interesting analysis of the judgement on Fr Frank Pavone from Phil Lawlor.  And Scripture scholar, Fr Jerome Murphy-O'Connor believes Jesus had a nervous breakdown in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Fr Murphy-O'Connor has many interesting and insightful things to say on the Scriptures, but sometimes he just loses the run of himself, and I think he has done it again with this particular theory.  Another of his strange notions concerns St Paul's marital status.  Even though there is not a shred of evidence to suggest St Paul was married, Murphy-O'Connor maintains that he was but his wife and children probably died in a dreadful accident and so he could not bring himself to even refer to it when he gives his biography and lists his sufferings in his epistles.  It's one thing having a theory, but theories must be backed up with evidence, or at least a tradition however vague, but Murphy O'Connor offers no evidence, just fanciful notions. 

And finally Cardinal Dolan's reflections on the Venerable Fulton Sheen and the Venerable Angeline McCrory following the Holy Father's decrees yesterday.  You know something, the Saints keep us sane.  In the midst of the craziness of the world we can look to them and see that at every point in history there were people who "got it", who convince us that we are walking the right path to Christ and urge us to keep walking, and to get up when we fall.

Friday: Tombs of St Peter and Blessed John Paul II

This morning, coming to St Peter's Basilica, we honour St Peter, coming "ad limina" to his tomb, and for the first time since his beatification we come to the tomb of our Fraternity's co patron, Blessed John Paul II.

On this rock, Christ has built his Church - this rock is Simon Peter, the fisherman, a weak man, one who denied the Lord three times at a moment when Christ needed him most.  But for all his mistakes, Peter loved Christ, and this love made him worthy of being the rock.  In this Easter season, as we read from the Acts of the Apostles we are astonished at the transformation which has taken place in Peter.  Now, thanks to the grace the Risen Christ conferred on him, and thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, this rock is solid, determined and devoted: nothing will stop him.  Such determination for the mission and love for Christ should be desired by all Christians and especially those of us in the Fraternity.

O Blessed Peter, rock on which Christ built his Church, watch over the flock now as you did in life.  Inspire us with your love for the Saviour, and help us to overcome our weaknesses by prayer, penance and generous co-operation with the grace of God.  Amen.

In Blessed John Paul II we see a worthy successor of Peter, a Pontiff who merits the title "Great" for his work.  A mystic, he was ever practical.  Though not perfect, his love for Christ and his people urged him on to heroism in face of tyranny as priest, bishop and pope.  In his zeal for a New Evangelisation, he inspires us to push out into the deep and proclaim anew the Gospel for Christ.  May he help us in the Fraternity to fulfil his desire to bring Christ to every corner of the world.

Blessed Pope John Paul, pray for our Fraternity, and guide us in our work as we seek, through prayer and sacrifice, to assist the men and women of the theatrical and cinematic arts, and to be of service to the Church in the New Evangelisation.   United with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, and the prayers of our Holy Mother Mary, pray that we may we offer ourselves more generously as a sacrifice acceptable to the Father for the sake of our brothers and sisters. Pray that they may come to know, love and proclaim Christ and his Gospel to the people of our time and, in the life to come, share eternal life with you, St Genesius and all the saints.    Amen.