Corpus Christi

To day we celebrate Corpus Christi, in the time honored language of the church – Thanks giving for the institution of holy Communion in the language of the modern Church of England.

The celebration of the Eucharist, translated from the Greek word meaning “thanksgiving” the Mass; the Lord Supper is not universal to the body of Christ but it is central to many of us within the body of Christ.

The Eucharist, with its roots in the last supper Jesus celebrated with his disciples on the night before he was betrayed is a meal that is not supposed to leave us unchanged. Meeting God is not supposed to leave us just as we were. Encountering the Lord in the sacrament or in any other way means that we change, and change for good, forever. What we do today changes us. And this one thing I have learned in all of these experiences of being part of a celebration of the Eucharist is – that we are loved and loved and loved by God.

For it is in this meal that we can find the most telling signs, the most powerful symbols, the most pressing reminders and the most startling revelations of that simple love of God who came and mingled with us and walked among us. The Eucharist is a reminder that God offers us the sustenance of faith and the intoxication of love, not just today but every day.

Corpus Christi affirms us in the human instinct that is in the blood of every Christian, that the most profound words we can ever utter are the words ‘thank you’. Once we grasp this, we see life in a new way, a Eucharistic way. The transformation of broken bread and poured out wine into heavenly food and drink becomes a symbol of renewed attitudes within us. G.K. Chesterton put it like this.

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the play and the opera, and grace before the concert and the pantomime, and grace before I open the book, and grace before sketching and painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip pen in the ink.

And, we should add, before we face the suffering, the deprived, the neglected, our brothers or sisters in whom the image of Christ is most to be honoured.

The Visitation

Today is the feast of the Visitation of our Lady, when we recall the story in Luke's gospel where Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. Mary is greeted by Elizabeth as full of grace, and the child in Mary's womb (John the Baptist) leaps for joy. Mary sings her song, the Magnificat, which we use every day at evening prayer:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children for ever.

There is a danger of spiritualising away Mary's words in the Magnificat, of thinking that all this talk of the lowly and the hungry is really about people who are inwardly humble, or who hunger for God (rather than for food*). No: the clear message of the prophets in the Old Testament is that our God is on the side of the poor and powerless, and this message finds an echo in Mary's song. In these times of economic crisis, it is a message we should take on board!



*Of course, it's a good thing to hunger for God - it's just that this isn't what this passage of scripture is talking about!

Funeral of the late Jean Thorpe RIP

Many of us gathered to say our goodbye's to our sister in faith Jean Thorpe. Jean has been a faithful member of the congregation of St Matthias for decades and we honoured her faithfulness and generosity that along with many others contributed to the very church building in which we gathered to celebrate the Mass.
A big thank you to Frances who organised the refreshments and ensured that Jeans wishes were fulfilled.
Rest Eternal Grant unto her and let light perpetual shine upon her.

Walsingham

Picnic lunch in the grounds of Walsingham Abbey

Yesterday I went with friends on the National Pilgrimage to Walsingham. It was an exhausting, but wonderful day, involving being up at the crack of dawn, a coach journey across East Anglia, Mass in the grounds of Walsingham Abbey, a fabulous picnic lunch, a sermon from the Archbishop of York, a procession and Benediction.

In his sermon the Archbishop reflected on the words of Mary's song, the Magnificat:

The words of Mary's Magnificat shake us abruptly from our complacent confidence. They turn the World topsy turvy.

Walsingham is the national shrine of Mary. Our parishes attend their annual youth pilgrimage. Why not have a look at the Shrine's website? And if you find yourself in Norfolk, why not visit?!

Reflection for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Today we celebrate our faith in the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

People can be quite sceptical of Christian belief in the Holy Trinity. Aren't we claiming to know too much about God? Aren't we doing away with mystery and offering a roadmap to God, a description of the divine?

On the contrary, our Christian faith frankly admits that God is a mystery. The creator of everything that exists has to be beyond our ability to understand. What the doctrine of the Holy Trinity teaches us is that the utterly mysterious God, who lies behind and beyond everything, is - if you like - eternally able to invite us to share in his mystery.

This is the God who, as Father, reaches out to us, by sending his Son in flesh like ours and by, as our second reading puts it, sending his Spirit, pouring love into our hearts. This is the God who reaches out to draw us in, to embrace us. This is the God, in other words, who is love.

Far from Ordinary!

The season of Easter ended yesterday with our celebration of Pentecost.

Today we re-enter the season known as Ordinary Time: green vestments are usually worn at Mass, and our hymns and readings lack any particular 'seasonal feel'. Our Paschal Candle has moved out of the sanctuary, and is now by the font. It will be used at baptisms and funerals throughout the year until next Easter. At St Matthias yesterday we extinguished our candle at the end of Mass, blowing it out after singing 'Happy Birthday Dear Church'!

Writing from South Africa, our reader Angharad has this to say:

In the Church kalender we are now back in 'Ordinary time'. This does not mean 'unimportant time' or 'less-holy-time'! Ordinary Time is called 'ordinary' simply because the weeks are numbered. The Latin word 'ordinalis', which refers to numbers in a series, stems from the Latin word 'ordo', from which we get the English word order. SO... Ordinary Time indicates the ordered life of the Church.

It's fitting that this longest section of Ordinary Time begins with our holding onto the challenge and excitement of Pentecost of being challenged to live lives inspired by the Holy Spirit - in the everyday! That's why there's nothing "ordinary" about Ordinary Time.

 Now that Easter is over, we say the prayer known as the Angelus again. Perhaps you would like to make this part of your prayer life during this season.

Pentecost

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”                Mahatma Gandhi

Today is the Christian Festival of Pentecost. At the heart of this feast day is the remembering of the events that are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles when the Holy Spirit descended upon a small group of followers of Jesus Christ and fired them with an unquenchable faith in God and their ability, by God’s Grace, to change the course of history for the world.

As we face the challenges in our lives, these can be personal or as a church we can think of the need to raise £10K to build a kitchen in the back of St John’s church to enhance our time together on a Sunday and increase the use of the church by the community in the week, or at St Matthias the need raise £15K to replace our boiler that will be shut down in June, we can draw comfort from the fact that with the Holy Spirit as our companion all things are possible. When faced with seemingly insurmountable odds it is hard to know where to start.

If we were planning a movement that would shape the world for all time would we have started with a baby in a stable, with God on a cross, with a small group of men and women in a small room? But this is exactly what God choose for us and we give thanks for the church that is the greatest gift left by Jesus and continuously renewed by the Holy Spirit.

As we gather together we can draw inspiration from another great leader of the 20^th century 

Martin Luther King Jr who wrote:

“ Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step”