Brave New Year!

I wish each of you a very happy, hopeful and brave New Year!  Why do I add the word 'brave' to the list?  Well, it seems to me that we are on a new journey, and for that we need most of all, courage!  They say that even the longest journey starts with the first step, and it is that first, tentative step into the unknown that requires courage.  The second thing we need for our journey into 2013 is support - people around us whom we can trust, companions who will be there for us and see us through the bad times and laugh with us in the good times.  Together we can do great things.  I believe that, don't you? 

To be an optimist is not usually to be naive, although of course it may be, but essentially it is to look at the reality of our situation and find a path through it that is possible to traverse safely.  Optimists look at possibilities and take risks. Pessimists see only the negative side and are afraid to risk being wrong!

We need role models don't we, leaders who have the courage to take the first step on a new, untried road, and beckon us to follow. 

There are many role models we can take through this New Year, many saints, many people in our own lives, perhaps.  I'm going to ask you to take a fictional character, a figment of a gifted writer's imagination, if you like. And when I tell you who he is, don't say "But he isn't a real person!"  He is an intrinsic part of an allegory, and allegories are very important in showing us something about ourselves.  Jesus used that device in his teaching - we call them parables.



JRR Tolkien



Have you seen "The Hobbit"?  If you haven't, do try to do so  The film version of Tolkien's "Unexpected Journey" is really three stories intertwined and focuses on one character in its title, a hobbit.  Let me tell you how a genius's mind works.  This genius was a lecturer at Oxford.  He was correcting some student's essays. When he got to the last one in the pile, he found that  there was a blank page at the end of the examination paper, which this particular student had not filled in.  Absent-mindedly, Tolkien scribbled something on the paper.  When he looked at it, he realised that it had nothing whatever to do with the essay he was supposed to be marking.  He had written:

In the earth was a hole and a hobbit lived in it...

He looked at it,  bemused.  But, being Tolkien, he wondered "Hole?" "Where is it?"  And he proceeded to find out what a hobbit was, and where he lived. He peopled his world with amazing characters - dwarves, wizards, magicians, the stuff of fantasy.  But he gave us Middle Earth, The Lord of the Rings, and now this Unexpected Journey we call The Hobbit for screen purposes. You may not like fantasy films, I don't think I like them usually, but this one, like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series, says something important, especially for us facing a new beginning, an adventure if you like.

The Hobbit

The main character is called Bilbo Baggins, who is the hobbit.  He lives in Bag End, and he loves nothing more than to sit by his fire quietly enjoying his solitude or entertaining his friends. He was shy and not very charismatic, if you know what I mean.  Then one night, he is visited by thirteen noisy and demanding dwarves, and Gandalf, who asks him to go on a journey with the dwarves to regain their lost kingdom.  He is an unexpected hero, yet the story is about his finding in himself the ability to lead and to find the lost home of the dwarves, and also to fight the dragon who guards it.  He is a hopeless fighter, and in the beginning has no confidence in himself. Yet he succeeds. One might say that he was naive.  Yes he was, but what he had was a sense of adventure and a growing belief in his mission. As well as that, he had unselfishness. After all, he had a home which he loved, and didn't want to leave, but he felt sorry for the dwarves who had lost theirs, and he wanted to help them to regain it. 

He also held on to his beliefs.  He arrived at the end, battered and bruised, almost dead, but he held on to the ring.  Maybe Tolkien saw that ring as not good.  I don't know.  But if we are looking for an allegorical meaning, then we can say that, to be faithful to what we believe in is good, and to hold on to what we have been given to guard is life-giving for us.  Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and he too believed that faith is very important, and without it we live a half-life.  Little Bilbo Baggins believed that someone was helping him to keep going on a journey that was well-nigh impossible, and he clutched the ring as a talisman. 

In our Congregation we have what we call our charism which is the spirit and values which our Founder, Mother Magdalen lived by and passed on to us.  We try to pass them on to others as Good News.  To be faithful to them is our challenge. We are Christ-bearers to the people of our time, being asked to bring Christ to every situation, especially where there is conflict or lack of forgiveness.  In his own way, little Bilbo did the same, although he would not realise what he was doing.

The Hobbit is also something of an allegory of leadership.  Perhaps we are reading too much into it, but I can see what people mean when they say that.  No one with any judgement would choose Bilbo Baggins as a leader, still less would they have confidence in his ability to lead others through hard times, and show them the way forward.  Yet he did it where others failed. 

So this New Year is about facing whatever comes with courage, even with a spirit of adventure, like Bilbo.  It is about helping others on the journey and finding enough courage within ourselves to pick ourselves up when things go wrong, and start again.  Those are New Year challenges!

I wish each of you once more a lovely 2013 and a special Year of Faith.  Think of Bilbo. He set out on a journey of adventure, probably found it terribly hard, but kept on, didn't turn back and came to the end of his journey stronger, more in tune with himself and others, and more at peace!  I wish the same for each one of you and for myself and each member of my Congregation.  See you next year!

(Photos courtesy of http://thehobbit.sqpn.com/, http://biographyonline.net)

(Photos/Graphics courtesy of Sr. Agnes Kavanagh and BMJL)

Just for Love - In Thanksgiving

This is belated, for which I apologise – but, like wine, thanksgiving keeps, warms and enriches! 

I want to say a fervent ‘thank you’ for your support, interest and prayers for our 140^th year, and particularly for its culmination in the Mass celebrated in Soho on the 11^th February 2012.  Let me tell you a little about it.

St. Patrick’s Church, as you know, is a very special place. It is situated beautifully in Soho Square, and seems to nestle comfortably into the corner of a bustling, lively London Piazza, if there is such a thing – but it has an Italian air about it – a little imposing, but also very welcoming, warm and well-used as most Italian churches seem to be.  Of course its congregation is wide-reaching and international; that gives it a gracious, open feeling, and a sense of the universality of the Church. 

We felt very privileged to celebrate our special anniversary there, particularly as our Foundress and the early Sisters in the Congregation worshipped there.  They walked the wide squares and narrow streets of the area way back in the late nineteenth century, visiting the tenements and crumbling houses which were the places where the poor lived then. Perhaps ‘existed’ might be a better word, for the great facades of the time hid the dirty, fetid, unhealthy rooms where they huddled around a few sticks in a grate – if they were lucky – to warm themselves.

Soho was then a violent, corrupt place, where pimps operated ruthlessly to extort money from the poor women who plied their trade as prostitutes to provide bread and other necessities for their children.  It was to these that Frances Taylor – Mother Magdalen – reached out.  She understood their sense of hopelessness and their fears.  Because she believed passionately in the dignity of each human being, she fought to give back to these young women the self-worth and confidence they had lost.  She gave them a listening ear, a smile, a respect they very much appreciated.  She taught her sisters to do the same, and never to judge them as many others did.

So for us, Soho is a special place.  One of the Convents they lived in is now occupied by the Fox Film Company.  It is right opposite the Church.  I went in there the day after the Mass, and the people who worked there were very interested in our history and in what the early Sisters had done in that building and in the surrounding districts.

St. Patrick’s Church has now been restored and is very beautiful. As we went in, we were greeted by a sense of love, unity and shared celebration which was lovely.  Every pew of course was packed with people of all ages who had come to share in our special day.  We began by taking up the flags of the countries in which we work throughout the world which set the scene for a very colourful and meaningful day.

L to R: Cardinal Murphy O'Connor,
Bishop Kieran Conry,and Fr. Alex Sherbrooke,
 Parish Priest of St. Patrick's Soho

The chief celebrant at the Mass was Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton.  He has known us all his life, as his Aunt was an SMG for over sixty years.  We were privileged to have the Cardinal Emeritus of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor with us, and also many priests who work with SMG’s in different parishes throughout the country.  It was a striking picture of the Church in miniature, which our Foundress would have loved. 

Sr. Mary Whelan, SMG
and Kenneth Campbell

It was moving and enriching to see the symbols of our past and present SMG life placed on the altar at the beginning of Mass and we felt that those who had started the SMG tradition here approved.  The liturgy was a mixture of past and present as we held hands with those who had gone before us in spirit, and embraced all that is happening to us today. 

Painting of the Sacred Heart pleading
by Gagliardi

Sr. M. Whelan, our Superior General, gave us her usual warm, loving and eloquent welcome, and she also put words on the symbols as they were brought up. Chief of these of course was the painting by Gagliardi of the Sacred Heart pleading which Mother Magdalen commissioned. It was the centre of our celebration as it showed so clearly what she wanted of us – to be friends of the poor.  “True devotion to the Sacred Heart”, she always said “means a real, practical love of Our Lord, and an actual realisation of his love for us.”  By that she wanted us to understand that devotion to the Sacred Heart was not about pious practices, but is an acceptance of his wonderful, all-embracing love for us, which invites a response of love in return.  The response she wanted was to show that love through reaching out to the poor, the lonely, the bewildered, and the lost.  That is why this special picture was at the heart of our celebration. Everything that followed reflected this, and the place we were in reminded us of the love of those first sisters, who, to quote St. Therese of Lisieux, “put love at the heart of the Church” -  and the world of their time: thus challenging us to do the same today.

Marriage in Cana, Giotto c. 1304

We were reminded in the Word of God of the heart-warming phrase “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring Good News!"  How beautiful indeed, and the Good News on that day was the Cana event, which brought the light of hope not only to the wedding pair, but also to all those who were guests – in fact to the whole village, and later, from them to everyone they met!  So it is with us, we are, as our Foundress put it, meant to be Christ bearers who bring hope and light to all those around us.  That is what she did.

Fr. Alexander Sherbrooke, the parish priest spoke movingly of the work of the Sisters and how it is carried on today in the parish – the Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament, the outreaching to the poor, and much more.  It was very uplifting to hear him.  At the end of a wonderful celebration, Sr. Frances Ennis also spoke in her inimitable way of the life, times and continuing inspiration of Mother Magdalen in a world of darkness and division.

I do not have space to say much more, but the kaleidoscopes keep returning – the meeting for refreshment after the Mass, the delight at seeing old friends and colleagues – the noise, laughter and joy...  the enjoyment of the huge birthday cake, and so much more. 

Sr. Mary Whelan, SMG
with Kenneth Campbell
and Sr. Joseph, SMG

Kenneth Campbell and niece Julia

We were so privileged to have Kenneth Campbell, his sister Julia and his daughter Jacqueline with us. Kenneth and Julia are the great grandchildren of Charlotte Dean, Mother Magdalen’s sister, so they are very close relatives of Mother herself.  Charlotte became a Catholic two years after leaving the Crimea.  She was very close always in thought and in affection to her youngest sister, and having experienced the horrors of the Crimea together, the bond was strengthened.  To talk to Kenneth, Julia and Jacqueline brought the whole story of the SMG’s to life – this was part of the family from which the first SMG came.  It was awesome! 

We’ll end where we began – with a fervent thanksgiving.  Thank you to all who organised the service and did the refreshments, to all those who so lovingly participated, and to all of you who faithfully prayed for us. 

Let’s remember to say together: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!” 

Thank you.