Tag: faith

A light shines forth from the Ribble Valley

Post author By stefan
Post date January 10, 2020

Friday 10th January 2020

The CHC @ The Catholic Universe

A light shines forth from the Ribble Valley

Sr Emanuela Edwards

High in the apse of St Mary Majors Basilica in Rome is an ancient mosaic from the 12th Century by the Franciscan artist Jacopo Torriti, which represents the story of the three kings or the Epiphany of the Lord.

The three kings, in order of age, bear their gifts to the Christ child, who wears the robes of a victorious king. Above Christ’s head shines the star of David, which denotes his identity and has guided the king’s path to him.

The Epiphany is a cause for great joy because it signifies when Christ was manifested to the Gentiles as God. The three kings, led by the star, have made the long journey from the East and now kneel in adoration as they recognise the fact that God has become Man in this Child.

The story of the three kings has much to say to us about the importance of Christian witness in the world in which we live. St Pope Paul VI spoke of a, “rupture between the Gospel and culture as the drama of our time.” Therefore, it is important to learn how to make the Christian faith more apparent in modern culture, such that it becomes a ‘star’ that guides people towards God.

At the time of Our Lord, many, like the astrologers and wise men, looked to the stars for signs. Almost everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, was seeking ‘the One who would come’. It is interesting to ponder how many wise men saw that ‘special star’ but lacked the wisdom or courage to follow it. From the scriptures we know only of the wise men from the East, three by tradition. Their interest in that star was inspired by the fact that it indicated the birth of a king and this set them on a journey. These three wise men were able to ‘read the stars’ and were brave enough to go in search of God. In the end, their search was rewarded with a meeting with God that changed the whole direction of their lives. With their lives totally changed by the experience and the gift of faith they received, the kings returned home via a ‘different way’.

Our Christian traditions, history and religious celebrations act as bright stars in a darkening world to remind everyone that God exists and is present. The stars in the night sky have special properties as they cannot be blocked out. They remain there however dark it gets, to light the way or to guide all those who choose to follow them. As we see a crucifix in a school or a Church building, the statues or works of religious art, they all somehow speak silently of the existence of God who came to earth. To those without faith, they act as a way of indicating the fact that God exists and encourages them, like the kings, to ask the great question of life.

To those with the faith, they draw our minds to God encouraging us to engage in a loving dialogue with Him.

Just as the wise men were attracted by the new star, it is important for Christians to interact with all that is new in society so that it can be transformed to testify to Christ. The internet, mobile phones and social media must be filled with the Gospel message to speak of God from within our modern culture.

As people look down into the stupefying maze of content on their phones, they should find something of God that encourages them perhaps to look up. Only then can we see the light that comes from faith which can lead us, just like the kings, to find God.

St Pope John Paul II said that, “Christianity is a creator of culture in its very foundation” and so faith must lead to visible signs and tangible actions in the world in which we live to change it for the better. The Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst exists to be like a star to attract those who, like the kings, search for God. It seeks to be a light that shines forth from the Ribble Valley to speak in new and exciting ways of the wonderful Christian story and to help make new roots in today’s modern culture.

God Bless Us
And the Virgin Protect Us

Sr Emanuela Edwards MDR is a member of the Missionaries of Divine Revelation. The Missionaries of Divine Revelation are the official guides for the Vatican Museums delivering the tours of ‘Art and Faith’ that can be booked online at the Museum’s website.

She can be contacted via: sr.emanuela@mdrevelation.org, with more information via www.mdrevelation.org

Tags chc, christian heritage centre, epiphany, faith, magi, three kings

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Communicating the faith through stories of the saints and martyrs

Post author By stefan
Post date September 6, 2019

Drawing of Edmund Campion SJ by Charles Weld, c1850, from a 17th century original painting.

Friday 6th September 2019

The CHC @ The Catholic Universe

Communicating the faith through stories of the saints and martyrs

Sr Emanuela Edwards looks at storytelling and how, even in our hi-tech digital age, it remains a powerful way to communicate the faith.

One of the greatest challenges, if not the greatest, for the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst is the communication of the faith to the people of our time. The Christian faith we possess, and the roots of our Christian Heritage must be rendered interesting and challenging and be communicated to everyone. It should be done in such a way that it can reinforce the faith of those who believe, whilst at the same time reach out to the periphery to speak of God’s love for all even to those who would not usually be interested!

One way of achieving this aim is to use the ancient art of storytelling. Since primitive times, stories have been used to transmit important truths, events and lessons to successive generations. In fact, the faith was originally handed on by the Apostles who testified or told the story of what they witnessed and learned from Christ. Artefacts and relics, like those in the Stonyhurst Collection, physically bring the stories of the martyrs and saints into proximity to those who look upon the objects. Pope Leo I asked, “why should the mind toil when the sight instructs” and indeed, looking at these artefacts and explaining their story presents an opportunity to recount the Christian faith in a captivating way.

Writing in the 4th Century Tertullian said, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith”. Encountering the stories of the lives of the saints and martyrs who have shaped our Christian Heritage sows the seeds of the faith in successive generations. Each artefact in the Stonyhurst Collections works like a silent sermon because it testifies to the life and witness of the martyr in question making their stories enter the present time and touch the life of the person viewing the object perhaps causing them to consider its lesson. Therefore, the stories of the Saints and martyrs become living lessons in the faith that can teach and inspire new generations hopefully calling them to a deeper conversion.

One of the most striking stories in the Collections is told by the relic of the rope that bound St Edmund Campion to the hurdle on which he was dragged through the streets of London before his execution. (The actual relic is the property of the British Jesuit Province on loan to Stonyhurst College). That rope tells the story of a Priest who, on penalty of death, nevertheless came to England in 1580 to preach the Gospel, confess and offer the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass to the Catholics driven underground in order to practice their faith. He preached and disseminated his famous Decem Rationes – ten reasons demonstrating the truth of the Catholic religion and was eventually captured, imprisoned and tortured before his execution at Tyburn on the 1st December 1581. His story raises an interesting question: why did St Edmund not yield to the tortures and inducements to conform in order to save his life? By word and deed St Edmund most eloquently testified that the Catholic faith is worth dying for. He did not change the course of his life as he knew that a seed must die to yield fruit (cfr. Jn 12:24). Today, that fruit is harvested in the hearts of those who are told of this heroic Priest whose behaviour was inspired by the truth of Christ and are brought into contact with the faith he died to proclaim.

The Collections also have a part of the vestment worn by St Oscar Romero who was killed in El Salvador in 1980 whilst offering the Holy Mass. This relic serves as a poignant reminder that Christian martyrdom is not an ancient reality but that this story still continues today.

Another English martyr whose story is told through the artefacts and relics of the Stonyhurst Collections is St Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England, who was martyred for refusing to take the Oath of Succession in 1535. This saint’s story demonstrates how artefacts and relics can show the faith of the saint rather than just tell of it hence providing a more powerful source of Christian inspiration. During the homily for the Canonisation of St Thomas More, Pope Pius XI spoke of the “ardour of his prayer” and the “practice of those penances by which he kept his body in subjection.” Indeed, this can be borne out by close inspection of his golden crucifix with spikes on the back that was worn as a penance by the Saint. Here we learn something of the intimate life of the Saint that was founded on a deep prayer life. In fact, it was this intimacy with Christ that strengthened him to resist the tears of his wife and children over his condemnation and to be, “content to lose goods, land and life as well rather than to swear against his conscience”. In this way, the stories of the Saints also teach us that Christian witness is borne through a closeness to Christ in prayer and is not the fruit of the passing moment.

It is hoped that a visit to this beautiful collection will make the stories of the Saints vibrate in our hearts giving us a living lesson in the truths of the faith. May the stories of the martyrs strengthen us by imparting the knowledge of the faith and the inspiration to live it so that we too can witness to our rich Christian heritage that shaped our past and partake in its reconstruction in our own time.

Sr Emanuela Edwards

Missionaries of Divine Revelation
Trustee of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst
sr.emauela@mdrevelation.org
www.mdrevelation.org

Tags collections, education, faith, martyrs, saints, Stonyhurst

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Sacred places that speak of the Catholic Faith throughout the ages

Post author By stefan
Post date August 2, 2019

The Cistercian abbey at Whalley dates from the Middle Ages

Friday 2nd August 2019

The CHC @ The Catholic Universe

Sacred places that speak of the Catholic Faith throughout different ages

Stefan Kaminski

Times change; people and places come and go. But the one Person a Christian relies on never changes or leaves: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). This fundamental conviction remains true for all Christians regardless of the age or society in which they live. It provides the same foundational inspiration for every authentic Christian life, and unites people throughout history – and indeed outside of history – in the hope of the Resurrection.

Up in Lancashire, within the space of about 10 miles (as the crow flies) one can visit the ruins of Whalley Abbey, the Shrine of Ladyewell at Fernyhalgh and Stonyhurst College. Each of these speaks in a particular way of a different era and dimension of the Catholic faith: each place witnesses to individuals and communities that bore out the conviction expressed by St Paul at various times and in various walks of life.

Whalley Abbey testifies to monastic life, in the form of Cistercian monks, during the late Middle Ages. Established in 1296, it had a relatively short life of less than 250 years, before being dissolved by Henry VIII. Despite the bad press that is sometimes meted out, monasteries served as an important cultural driving force, maintaining the art of writing and illuminating manuscripts, generating artistic and architectural trade, and working the land to sustain their communities. If the Cistercian monks were more aesthetic and orientated to a life of prayer, all the more because of their desire to serve God alone.

Although the Shrine at Fernyhalgh pre-dates the Abbey with a devotional history extending back to the 11^th century, it speaks most powerfully of the harshest period of the Protestant Reformation and the testimony of the Martyr-saints. The staunch faithfulness of local recusant Catholics, the determination of missionary priests and the willingness of all to lay down their lives for their belief in the one Church established by Jesus Christ, is vividly expressed in the collection of relics and in the famous Burgess Altar. This latter is a beautifully carved wooden altar, complete with a triptych of panels and a Nativity Scene underneath, which closes up to disguise itself as cupboard. Saints Edmund Campion and Edmund Arrowsmith are amongst the many priests to have offered Holy Mass at it, risking their lives and those of their congregation for this greatest of Mysteries.

Stonyhurst College of course begins its history precisely because of the Reformation, with the establishment of the school at St Omers in France, in 1593. Its story on English soil starts in 1794. Across both periods however, the school’s story is a testimony to the creativity, ingenuity, learning and sheer hard work of the Jesuit order. The great learnedness of the Society’s members is evidenced in multifarious ways in the school’s operations: the contribution to astronomy through the work of its observatory; the design and operation of its own powerplant; the writing and production of whole series of plays; numerous musical contributions. All of this has its inspiration and final end “ad majorem Dei gloriam” (for the greater glory of God).

Across this panoply of Catholic activity, the underlying dynamic is the same: a personal conviction that God became man, and that He died and rose on the Cross for our salvation. If we wonder at the force of the conviction held by those monks, martyrs and school masters, it is because it was not simply a belief: it was faith. And therein lies a subtle, but substantial, distinction. In a society which tends towards viewing beliefs as a private matter, each as valid as the next, which may be held freely so long as they do not interfere in the lives of others, it is easy to lose a sense of the grandeur of the theological faith that the Church holds.

Beliefs are common to everyone – be they beliefs in a political system or in the wisdom of their favourite TV personality – and indeed everyone has some belief about God. In all its guises however, belief remains an intellectual act that begins and ends with the human individual. As such, it only has its foundations in that same person.

Faith, on the other hand, is a response. It is firstly the acceptance of Truth: the highest and final Truth, which is valid for all people in all places. This Truth is known to be true by the Christian, not because he or she thinks it an attractive thing to believe, but because it comes from God. How do we know it comes from God? Because we choose to believe the corporate witness of the Church: from those first Christians who saw the God-man walk this earth, down to each and every man, woman and child who has testified to that Truth with their lives over the last two millenia.

Such a faith does not remain a personal belief for private consumption: it prompts an obedience (literally, a “listening to” as the Latin roots signifies) and subsequent action. From Abraham taking all his family and possessions to an unknown destination across the Arabian desert, to those parents of the 17^th and 18^th centuries illicitly sending their sons across the Channel to receive a Catholic education, they all acted on “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1): they had faith.

We might be tempted to wonder dubiously at our own faith (or indeed, to avoid asking ourselves what might feel like an embarrassing question!). However, Rome was not built in a day, and neither were places such as Whalley Abbey, Ladyewell and Stonyhurst. The real work started with the daily prayer and attentiveness to God of each individual concerned in all of those histories. The places that remain – be they merely the stones of a ruined church or a functioning school – reach back to beyond the external achievements of those Catholics: they bear witness firstly to lives that were centred around God. Without that continued response of faith – an acknowledgement of God, a prayerful listening to His Word, a striving to live out His teachings – there would be nothing for us to marvel at.

Visiting sites such as Fernyhalgh and Stonyhurst, one should therefore see “through” each physical place to the faith of the men and women that built them. They might be of another era and walk of life, but they follow the same Lord Jesus. They are now united with Him in the great “cloud of witnesses” that watches over us, waiting for us to pick up the baton and run the good race in our own time, and so join them in our heavenly destination (cf. Hebrews 12:1).

Stefan Kaminski is the Director of The Christian Heritage Centre

Tags belief, Christianity, faith, Ladyewell, Lancashire, Stonyhurst, Whalley Abbey

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Culture is the dimension in which our faith is brought to life

Post author By stefan
Post date July 5, 2019

Pope John Paul II addressing UNESCO IN 1980

Friday 5th July 2019

The CHC @ The Catholic Universe

Culture is the dimension in which our precious faith is brought to life

Stefan Kaminski

The term ‘heritage centre’ carries with it a certain risk: that of associating it with old, even if valuable, artefacts, which do not necessarily have particular relevance to today beyond informing us of a bygone era.

Heritage, however, goes well beyond the material realm: in fact, the dictionary definition speaks of “cultural traditions that have been passed down from previous generations”. Of course, such cultural traditions find a certain embodiment and expression in works and artefacts; but to fixate purely on these as the sum total of our ‘heritage’ is to do a disservice to our cultural patrimony. When we do so, the concept of culture itself also becomes impoverished as a result.

When Pope St John Paul II addressed UNESCO in 1980 barely two years after his election, he emphatically reminded the organisation that the diverse traditions and eras of spiritual heritage and culture all have a common ground in our common human nature. Different cultures find their meeting place in the human being because culture “is a characteristic of human life as such”, he told the assembly. He went on to say that, “Human life is culture” because the cultural dimension is what distinguishes human life over and above any other animal life. Culture is therefore the societal expression of the spiritual and rational dimension of the human being: indeed, “culture is the specific way of man’s existing and being”.

This fact John Paul II traces back to the first accounts of humanity in the first two chapters of Genesis. There, the Lord’s entrustment of the earth to the dominion of mankind and His command to “cultivate the earth” is intrinsically linked to man’s (in the non-gender specific sense) creation in the image of God. From the relatively simple beginning of cultivating the soil, man’s God-given intellect enables the creation and nurture of a tradition of artistic creativity and scientific enquiry, forming the cultural dimension of the life of human society.

If John Paul II insisted on the unity of faith and reason, he similarly often repeated the mantra that ‘faith must become culture’. It could be said in fact, that culture is the primary dimension in which the unity of faith and reason should become visible. The fruits of our intellect – our work, our understanding of the world, our creative output – should be shaped by our faith, if indeed our faith is genuinely integrated as part of our lives. Such a culture will naturally be authentically human because it seeks what is good, beautiful and true: ultimately the Creator.

This is especially important in the home, the school and the parish, where faith is first handed on. If a good catechesis is not to find itself accused of hypocrisy, it needs be complemented by the promotion and nourishment of a culture that embodies the same principles. This requires Catholics who not only understand, believe and practice the tenets of their faith, but who have both the courage to challenge what does not lead to God, as well as the ability to speak their faith through what is true, good and beautiful in our culture.

On the other hand, it is worth remembering the educative power of culture, regardless of its merits. The “primacy and essential task of culture… is education”, John Paul II reminded UNESCO. To disregard and dismiss as a fad those things in our culture that lead away from the truth and are objectively harmful is to lead astray our children. To leave at a distance that which is good and true in our culture is to deprive the next generation.

For this reason, part of the task that the Christian Heritage Centre has set itself is to promote an appreciation and understanding of the Christian influences in our cultural tradition. This heritage is not one that belongs to the history books or to a dim-and-distant past: it belongs to every modern-day Christian, since “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever” (Heb 13:8). Every Christian-informed cultural work is a potential catechetical tool, just as the highest creative achievements of the human spirit, be they Bach, Michelangelo, Shakespeare or Rembrandt, remain valid as exemplars of artistic and technical genius and as inspiration for the rest of time.

The Christian Heritage Centre’s first event is thus a study weekend on faith and literature, exploring two key themes in English writings: our place within the world and our own vision for ourselves. The Christian tradition has much to offer on both fronts: from the fundamental goodness of creation to virtue-based character formation, Chesterton, Austen, Green and Tolkien (amongst others) have all incorporated Christian wisdom into their writings.

The weekend will offer both lectures and guided group discussions, within a framework of prayer, to enable participants to have a deeper understanding of the Christian thinking behind some of the best-loved pieces in English literature. Alongside a broad selection of English texts, there will also be a certain focus on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Whilst it is offered with a wide audience in mind, the weekend will be of particular interest to parents and teachers concerned with the moral and cultural formation of their children and pupils, as well as to students of the humanities. Not to mention, of course, anyone simply wanting a weekend perusing literary classics in a beautiful setting!

Stefan Kaminski is the Director of The Christian Heritage Centre

Tags culture, faith