St. Ives and St. John's Parish Church

The Season of Lent will soon be upon us, a meditation by Father Malcolm.

2020-02-03T12:10:00.003+00:00

Following the Season of Epiphany, Lent asks us to reflect on the action of God in our lives. Particularly relevant is the story of Jacob described in the Book of Genesis. Genesis is the Book of beginnings and Lent is a time of beginnings. In other words it’s a fresh start each year to answer the call of Jesus.

It was at the Ford of Jabbok that that the Lord revealed his purposes to Jacob. After Jacob had taken his two wives, his two maids and his eleven children across the brook that he was left alone.

A man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he had not prevailed against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh. From henceforth he limps.

The man asks Jacob to let him go. “Let me go,” he cries, “for dawn is breaking. “

“I will not let you go,” Jacob says, “until you bless me.”

So the man asks Jacob his name. “Jacob is my name,” he tells the man.

“Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel because you have striven with God and have prevailed. “

So Jacob called the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved. “Peniel means “The Face of God.)

King David many years later takes up that theme of the face of God in Psalm 27, verses 8 &9.

“Thy face Lord, I shall seek. Do not hide thy face from me.”

I don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination to say that the man who wrestles with Jacob is the Messiah who was eventually to be revealed in Jesus.

This brings us to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. We remember that we are dust.

“Remember you are dust and to dust, you will return,” the priest says as he anoints the worshippers with the ashes of Palm Crosses from the previous year.

“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord,” the crowds cry as Jesus enters Jerusalem.

“Behold, the Lamb of God,

Behold him who takes away the sins of the world

Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb” the priest says at the Eucharist.

Quite simply Lent is a season when through prayer and self- discipline we seek to grow closer to Jesus. There is little doubt that over the year since Easter we have grown slack and need a time of renewal and fresh dedication to follow Jesus. We limp like Jacob.

Father Malcolm.

Advent and the Christmas longing to belong. A reflection by Father Malcolm

2019-12-02T10:08:00.001+00:00

As we move into the Advent and Christmas season it is necessary to reflect on the desire that Jesus evoked in those who listened to his message.

In Jesus of Nazareth God shows us in a very special way how urgently he seeks for us and our ultimate happiness and fulfilment. “Come unto me,” He says.

Through the birth of the WORD or Logos, in time, God shows each of us how completely we can belong to Him. Jesus gives us a future beyond death. We discover that in the Gospel and our life in the Church and her sacraments. The Eucharist above all takes us to the very threshold of the kingdom.

Advent may be a time of preparation, but it is a preparation in the full knowledge that we already belong to God. To believe in Jesus is to belong. Two words that are closely connected are longing and belonging. It is the longing within us that draws us into belonging. Its why as believers we look forward to the Feast of the Nativity and the coming of Jesus among us as a helpless infant.

Those words “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory” are the central message of the Christmas Gospel. However before the birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem there is the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mary.

The reply of the Virgin Mary to the Angel Gabriel, “Behold the hand maiden of the Lord,” symbolises a much more solemn message than most of us consider at Christmas. Being the bond-servant of God, involved Mary offering her Son as a sacrifice and witnessing him stumble up Skull Hill for our eternal salvation.

Such love requires a response from us. That is our reception of the utterly priceless, un-priced gift that God desires to give us. This is the dynamic message of Christmas. The everlasting light continues to shine in our dark world. All we have to do is to receive the “Light of the world” manifested in Jesus, and rejoice that we are loved. In our Advent and Christmas worship we embrace our Lord as his children, because in his eyes we are his children and remain so even within the Kingdom when it is finally revealed

As we enter the Advent Season it is good to reflect on those first disciples of Jesus.

His disciples believed on him. It is the phrase expressive of personal trust and belonging. They are not here said to believe him, in the sense of believing what he said was true, but to commit themselves to Jesus in personal trust. This is the faith that justifies. Personal commitment to Jesus in trust is the very heart of discipleship. The entire Gospel of John is concerned with that trust which is a life of eternal belonging.

“And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17: 3)

All Saints, All Souls and Sinners by Fr. Malcolm Uren

2019-11-04T08:39:00.000+00:00

All Saints, All Souls and ourselves must be viewed in light of Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection. (A reflection by Fr Malcolm for All Saints-tide)

Very frequently questions arise in our minds that we can’t answer. Talking them through with the Lord and waiting to see to see what comes up is necessary. More often than not we are drawn to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus.

I regularly visit a care home where practically all the inmates are suffering from some form of dementia. They do not remember who they are and no longer recognize their loved ones. They wander around as if in a dream. It’s distressing, not just for me, but especially for their families. We must trust that all are in the hands of God who remembers them.

“Lord do you remember us when we cease to exist on this earth?” It’s a question that is very relevant for priests when preaching at funerals, and celebrating the Eucharist in thanksgiving for departed loved ones. Comforting the bereaved is a very significant part of a pastor’s vocation.

“Leave this to me,” God says. “I’m in charge.” There are many problems in life that are unanswerable. This is where our faith in God allows us to go on rejoicing without having to know everything. As people of faith we just have to trust God.

The key to all matters of life and death is with the Resurrection of Jesus who we celebrate at every Eucharist.

St Paul in his letter to the Romans makes a remarkable statement. In fact the entire eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans answers most of our questions and searches.

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.” (Romans 8:11.) That really covers all our questions concerning matters of life and death. Clergy are often challenged by people who do not believe and want us to provide some kind of proof. In the end it’s the case of them having to make a commitment to the God who raised Jesus from the dead.

This prayer is very meaningful for me. It’s by Adam Bittleston. His little booklet “Meditative Prayers for Today” has much influenced me over the years.

“O Christ! I remember with love and thankfulness those I have known, who have passed through the gate of death. I know that many of these have looked on my soul from the realm in which their souls now dwell. I thank you for all I have received from them, for you have brought our lives to meet. Let my thoughts and feelings come to them through you. Please let them add warmth and purpose to my earthly life. Let my meeting again with them be blessed by Thee.”

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

The Vicar and the Pentecostal Postman by Fr Malcolm Uren.

2019-10-21T10:40:00.002+01:00

My life was turned upside down in 1975. Up until then I’d been a typical clergyman, and orthodox in my theological convictions, but somewhat laid back and dull. Around that time there was a temporary postman delivering my mail. I’d met him a number of times whilst walking across to the church at St Blazey. He made a number of attempts to have a chat with me. Each time I’d made an excuse not to get involved. He was from a very different tradition to mine. He worshipped at the Four Square Gospel Church in Par. At the time I knew nothing regarding Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism was a bit looked down on by Anglicans, but strangely enough not by Catholics. The local Catholic Priest in St Austell was appearing on platforms with all manner of Pentecostal Christians.

However on this particular day, the postman had accidentally dropped one of my letters on the path leading to St Blaise Church. The following morning I challenged him and told him to be more careful. I was feeling a bit low and was rather sharp. I learned much later that he regularly walk up the path leading to the church and prayed for me before delivering my letters. Prior to the Internet Vicars used to get a fair amount of post each day.

“I’d love to come and have a chat sometime,” he said. His gentle manner rather took the wind out of my sails and in a moment of weakness I invited him for coffee that evening. I must be absolutely honest and confess that spiritually I was in need of a pick me up. It was worth the risk even if I wanted nothing further to do with him.

Promptly at seven he arrived at the vicarage. After a lengthy interval we got to chatting about the Gospel. Alfred Cooper, that was his name, was a temporary postman prior to working as a teacher in Chile. He talked quite a lot about the Holy Spirit in his life. He wasn’t in any way extreme and the genuineness of his faith was beautiful. I found my opposition to him weakening and warmth growing between us. On reflection, God, the Holy Spirit, was overcoming all the obstacles that I had set up against a more explicitly Holy Spirit centred walk with God. The Holy Spirit, although the third Person of the Trinity, tends to be neglected in favour of the Father and the Son.

To cut a long story short, I realized that Alf had a “spiritual dimension” that I wanted and lacked. We prayed together just before he left to return home.

When he’d gone I was aware of a sense of sadness that engulfed me. I wept. It’s all very well to believe in the Bible and the dogmas of the Church, but it’s not enough. The Holy Spirit is the key.

I knelt down in my study and asked God to renew me with the Holy Spirit.

The following morning I went across to the church as usual to open the church and celebrate Holy Communion. The usual faithful little congregation who worshipped each morning was waiting for me.

The Gospel for the day was the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. (John 5:1-18.)

Although I’d read the passage many times, the story suddenly came alive in a shattering way. All my defences were blown down by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be made whole?” As I read those words aloud to the congregation, it was as if Our Lord was speaking personally to me. I remember saying aloud “Yes Lord.”

I was embraced with new awareness of the Lord’s presence and love. I continued with the Liturgy. Jesus had entered my life with a love that reached down into my soul’s depth.

Much water has flowed under the bridge of my life since then, but Jesus is still as real as he was on that cold February day during Lent. The renewal of the Spirit strengthened my entire commitment to the Lord. The Eucharist came alive in a new way. My prayers especially were affected.

I won’t say that there haven’t been many ups and downs since 1975. But through it all the Holy Spirit has been constant. Accompanied with my renewal was the gift of tongues or glossolalia.

Fr. Malcolm

Protect me from myself. A reflection by Fr Malcolm Uren.

2019-08-08T19:12:00.000+01:00

I recently come across a prayer of St Philip Neri (b.1515)

“Protect me from myself O Lord. I could well be a Mohammedan before the day is over.”

In my own life I am very conscious that there is a constant danger of falling away. We must always be vigilant and on our guard. It must be Jesus all along the way. To this end it is good that we have the Gospel to call and reprove us continually. No one whom God has really worked upon can be content with anything less. Ben Arabi, an Andalusian Mystic and scholar, (b.1165) said, “The man whose sickness is called ‘Jesus’ can never be cured.” Ben Arabi continues, “His words have stuck fast within me. I could not tear out of my flesh the dart God’s word had left there.” It is an incurable wound.

Was Ben Arabi a Muslim or a Christian? History is silent on the matter. His prayer, “O Lord don’t forsake me, don’t give me a moment’s rest, keep talking to me, I beg you, keep calling,”finds an echo in my own wayward soul. I can never be cured of Jesus and would never wish to be because he is our life. His broken life on the Cross speaks to our broken lives as sinners.

On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s fresco depicts the finger of God and the finger of Adam with a small space between them. They are not quite touching. The wounded Jesus fills that gap between God and Adam. Not only does he fill it, but he is the wound who heals us and shares his wounded and risen life.

T. S. Eliot expresses it so well in his poem ‘East Coker’ from his ‘Four Quartets.’

“The wounded surgeon plies the steel

That questions the distempered part;

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel

The sharp compassion of the healer’s art

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease

If we obey the dying nurse

Whose constant care is not to please

But remind of our, and Adam’s curse,

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital

Endowed by the ruined millionaire”

John the Baptist & Moving towards High Summer, A thought by Father Malcolm

2019-05-28T17:56:00.003+01:00

“Ne’er cast a clout e’er May is out” runs the old saying. And the may tree is in full flower, heralding the approach of High Summer. The lane between my bungalow and the towans is resplendent with may blossom over-hanging its stony path. High-Summer, and what a wonderful season it is. As we move towards the Summer Solstice on June 21^st, the Church celebrates the Birth of John the Baptist on the 24^th, Mid-Summer’s Day.

Our Pagan ancestors were wont to celebrate the Summer Solstice by lighting bonfires on mountains and high hills. Here in Cornwall, in common with other Celtic lands, we are aware of a great heritage that is more intense than the usual historical events that mark our lives on Mother Earth. We no longer light bonfires to placate the old gods that our forebears worshipped. It isn’t that we celebrate no less a reverence for the sacred nature of human existence, but what our ancestors worshiped has been transfigured and transformed by the Resurrection of Christ. A new world came into being with the birth of God into our world. The coming of Christ was truly a fresh start for mankind.

In the light of this new beginning we still recall the Celtic world that animated our pre-Christian mothers and fathers. That world was full of the creative energy that gave their lives substance and form as it does ours, but in a transfigured way.

The Resurrection is in the deepest sense a Christian Resurrection. For it is the abiding image of Jesus of Nazareth, the lamb that was slain, and who rises in the glory of his Risen life that we are ourselves re-born.

So it is, that the symbol of the Resurrection, is the Celtic-Cross where the Sun of Easter shines through the dark icon of the Crucifixion.

The beginning of the Christian story, as we know and interpret it, is with the Birth of John the Baptist. In him is fulfilled the prophetic hope and dreams of Ancient Israel’s Prophets.

St Mark’s Gospel opens with earth shattering words.

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet” I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

Prepare the way for the Lord,

Make straight paths for him.” Alleluia.

Resurrection ….The Jesus of faith……Fr Malcolm

2019-03-25T09:20:00.002+00:00

It is problematic attempting to make a historical reconstruction of Jesus. The only Jesus we can know and love is the Jesus of the Church and the Gospels. Historical reconstructions are entirely dependent on the person who is attempting to research the original events that occurred in first century Palestine.

Although the creeds make a number of assertions about Jesus, Christian faith isn’t just about facts, no matter how feasible or seemingly accurate. Christian faith as a living experience is love for the Jesus who God raised from the dead.

He isn’t just a figure from the past like Julius Caesar, but a living person who I meet in the worship and sacraments of the Church. This is especially true of the Eucharist or Mass.

We cannot explain or intellectualize about the Risen Christ because it is an event beyond our intellectual understanding.

The most meaningful resurrection appearance of Jesus for many, and me, included is that of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24:13-22.) The two disciples don’t recognize Jesus until he breaks the bread and only then are their eyes opened. Our Lord is given back to those two disciples. Emmaus ends with lovers meeting.

This fact stands out above all the rest in the accounts given by the four evangelists. The resurrection is a giving back of Jesus to his loved ones by God.

The Crucified Risen Lord is given back to Peter, who denied him, to the disciples, who all forsook him and fled, and to the women who loyally followed him his ministry to Calvary and the tomb. This brings us to the Holy Spirit and Pentecost. What the Holy Spirit gives us is the whole life and death of the Risen Lord.

The only Jesus we can know and love is the Jesus of the New Testament and who comes to us in the Eucharist.

Christian faith as a living experience is a response to the Real Jesus who God raised from the dead. He isn’t just a figure from the past, but a living reality who we meet daily in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Gospels, Epistles, and above all in the Eucharist.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. Alleluia, He is Risen indeed. Alleluia.

Fr Malcolm

“Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in their midst.” – Jesus. An article by Father Malcolm.

2019-02-25T09:08:00.003+00:00

Acts 2:46 – has an important commentary on that text.

And day by day continuing in one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.

The rituals of our daily lives do not work through novelty or by seeking to raise our emotional temperature. What they try to effect is the constancy of a sustaining rhythm.

I’m one of six siblings, and our meal times together as children, under the guardian ship of our parents, was a ritual that sustained and consolidated our lives. (Sunday Lunch especially).

Our life in the Church is sustained and consolidated when we take to heart the Lord’s promise in Matthew’s Gospel. “For where two or three gather in my name, I am there among them.” (In their midst.)

In other words - The process of becoming who we are can only be perfected in relationships. The Gospel suggests that relationship is at the heart of who we are, and who God is. We are made for each other, and we are made for God

The Early Church took that promise literally

As Christians living to-day, we need to take that same promise literally. Christian life is not only sustained by private devotions, prayer, justice and virtue. Christian life is also maintained in a community by gathering ritually around the Word of God and through the breaking of the bread.

Origen, one of the early Church Fathers said –

“We are said not only to drink the Blood of Christ when we receive it according to the rite of the mysteries, but also when we receive his words, in which he dwells, as he said himself:

“The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”(John 6;33)

“In truth before Jesus, Scripture was like water, but since Jesus it has become for us the wine into which Jesus changed the water.”

We can therefore say, already in Scripture there is an aspect of incarnation. Scripture embodies the Word, and the incarnation of the Word completes the transformation into Eucharist of the hearing or reading of the Word.

True Christian thought is Eucharistic. The Eucharist of the mind – God must be loved with all one’s mind – prepared us for the nuptial encounter of the sacrament. And the sacrament in its turn enlightens the mind.

Christianity has sustained itself for two thousand years. How has it done that?

In answering that question we can uncover a secret well worth knowing. Faith sustains itself through ritual gathering around the Word of God and the breaking of the bread.

Like a family that keeps itself from falling apart by saying: “We will all be at home by regular times. We will all eat Sunday Lunch (Dinner) together and we will all be together in the living room at least once a week. We will all do this, because if we do not, we will eventually fall apart and die as a family.

As a human family needs to sustain itself by set straight-forward, repetitive, predictable, unexciting rituals, so too the Christian family without ritual gathering, we will like any family, fall apart.

We are living in an age when it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain faith and to sustain community. There can be no better advice that that of Jesus himself.

“For where two or three gather in my name, I am there among them.”

Ritual worship and faith are different sides of the same coin. The act of worship dovetails into faith and faith into worship. The very heart the Eucharist is thanksgiving to God through Christ in the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Divine Forces that we encounter in the Eucharist are infinitely loving and personal. We are taken into the Blessed Trinity and share the life of the Kingdom. The Eucharist is a foretaste of the Kingdom, of heaven and the abiding presence of God in our present life. We neglect it at our peril.

Gather around the Word of God and break the bread together. We do not even have to understand what we are doing. We do not have to be brilliant, imaginative or stimulating.

We have to gather in his NAME around the simple clear ritual he gave us. HE PROMISED TO DO THE REST.

Father Malcolm.

A Reflection on Epiphany by Fr Malcolm.

2019-01-07T09:18:00.003+00:00

New Year heralds the advent of the Epiphany Season: the Revelation of Christ to the Nations. It is the completion of Christmas and cannot be separated from the Nativity of Jesus.

The visit of the Magi, the Baptism of Jesus, and especially the miracle of the water into wine all speak of the Glory of God revealed in Jesus. We are taken to the very threshold of the Father who will finally be revealed in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus.

The Christmas Epiphany Mystery is the celebration of the transmission of the Divine Light in Human Consciousness.

In the clear light of Epiphany our eyes and hearts are opened to the Grace of God’s coming to dwell within us. This began at our Baptism and is continued in the Holy Eucharist. This is the primary thrust of the liturgy.

The Eucharist is the transmission of Grace and the means of our continued immersion in the life of the Holy Spirit. The rest of the liturgical year through to Lent, Holy Week, the Resurrection and Ascension flow from the Christmas Epiphany celebrations.

While the theological idea of the light predominates on the Feast of the Epiphany the theological ideas of divine life and love also appear pointing to the great mysteries of Holy Week Easter and Pentecost to come.

The Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan and the changing of the water into wine are the source of the great river that runs through time and history taking us along in its flow.

Epiphany is the crowning Feast of Christmas. It is very significant that Epiphany in the Eastern Orthodox Churches take precedence over Christmas.

We tend to get so wrapped up in our own problems and interests that we fail to grasp the big picture that God is presenting before us at very moment of our lives. “Christ within us the Hope of Glory,” writes St Paul to the Christians at Colossae.

Many years ago I came across this wonderful passage in the letter to the Ephesians by St Ignatius of Antioch. (AD 98-117.)

“A star in heaven shone above all stars, its light was unspeakable and its new power struck bewilderment, all the rest of the stars - yes, sun and moon as well – were like attendants upon it, whilst its light surpassed them all…From that moment magical arts grew feeble, every bond of evil lost its power, ignorance perished, ancient empire crumbled, for God was shown in human shape with the renewing power of a deathless life.” Ignatius to the Ephesians verse 19 - (Early Christian Writings.)

Father Malcolm

Advent’ s Gift. A meditation by Father Malcolm

2018-11-26T14:22:00.000+00:00

Recently a friend mentioned this poem to me by Ann Lewin.

Prayer is like watching for

The kingfisher. All you can do is

Be there where he is like to appear, and

Wait.

Often nothing much happens;

There is space, silence and

Expectancy.

No visible signs, only the

Knowledge that he’s been there

And may come again.

Seeing or not seeing cease to matter,

You have been prepared.

But when you’ve almost stopped

Expecting it, a flash of brightness

Gives encouragement.

In a remarkable way the poem gives us a clue as to the meaning of Advent. Our life as Christians has much to do with the Advent hope. It is the season when we look forward to the coming of Christ. There is expectancy in our minds and hearts for the new life that God wants to give us in Jesus. Waiting for the coming of the Lord plays a significant role in the Church’s life. However let us recall that Jesus is already living among us. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” writes St John in his Gospel.

The Lord we wait for and anticipate is here. Through prayer and the Eucharist, in the sacred scriptures, and most especially in the Gospels and Epistles Jesus comes to us. “Behold I stand at the door and knock.”

The Danish philosopher and Christian, Soren Kierkegaard, made a very relevant observation. “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”

In the 1960s, when I was a theology student, Kierkegaard was much in vogue among one’s teachers and professors. To-day, many years later, I am grateful for the grace of God that I meet in his philosophical thoughts. He’s not an easy read, and I had to struggle with his writings.

It is vital that we remember those experiences of grace when there has been that “flash of brightness giving encouragement.” We make sense of our lives when we reflect on the grace of God in our past, and go forward with those recollections of God’s grace. The Church’s solemn season of Advent invites us to look forward to the new life that Jesus continually offers. Yes we also look forward to celebrating the Feast of the Incarnation, to Christmas, but Jesus is among us, and continually comes to us, inviting us to share his life and love.

“Expectancy.

No visible signs, only the

Knowledge that he’s been there

And may come again.

Father Malcolm.

Psalms, or the Songs of Ancient Israel – a reflection by Father Malcolm

2018-11-05T14:38:00.002+00:00

Priests, by virtue of their ordination vows, pray the Psalms every day at Matins and Evensong. They are a link with Ancient Israel and take us to the heart of faith in God. The Psalms are the hymns and prayers of Israel as she journeys with God. In fact they emerge from the hearts of real people and the events of their lives. They cover an exceedingly wide range of human experience and emotion; joy and sorrow name but two.

Taken at their face value, the Psalms evoke within us loves, passions, questions, doubts, hatreds and fears.

Weaving through all the Psalms is the golden thread of God’s Spirit in his dealings with his first born people, the Jews.

Take Psalm 137 –

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars

we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord

while in a strange land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

may my right hand forget its skill.

There is all the yearning in that psalm of a people suffering the homesickness of exile. Closer to our own day is the holocaust when six million Jews were murdered by the Gestapo in the concentration camps of Eastern Europe.

In Psalm 22 we encounter King David surrounded, ridiculed, cut off, and feeling abandoned by both the people and God. In this remarkable Psalm of David, as with so many other similar psalms we share the lament followed by remembrances of God with Israel in the past. Yet there is at the end of the psalm the hope that all will be well.

In the very words at the beginning of the psalm, - “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” we are taken to the foot of the Cross and hear those self -same words spoken by Jesus. Picture the scene as Jesus hung on the Cross. There he was surrounded by his enemies, the dogs circling him, the ridicule, his thirst and loneliness. In the intense and desperate experience of our Lord we hear the echo of King David’s experience years ago, but magnified out of all proportion.

Psalm 23 needs no explanation, but it’s a powerful image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

I’ve only mentioned three psalms, but all of them fulfil the function that Christian tradition has always demanded of them. This is to dispose the souls of men and women for union with God in the mystery and love of Christ.

I carry a little book of Psalms when I’m out walking on the Towans. My faith has both been strengthened and confirmed by repeating a single verse over and over again as I walk along. The mind goes into a dimension that deepens one’s spiritual awareness.

THE PSALMS HAVE HAD A PROMINENT ROLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH THROUGH THE AGES

According to Paul’s letter to Timothy the reading of Scripture was to play an important role in the assembled worship of the saints (1 Tim. 4:13). From 1 Corinthians 14:26, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 we can safely infer that the singing of the Psalms was a vital part of the corporate worship experience of the first Christians.

Not only did the church continue to sing the Psalms, the early fathers often chose to write commentaries on the Book of Psalms. Among these fathers were Saints Chrysostom and Augustine. The church of the Reformation made much use of the Psalms and men like Luther were known for their love of this book. Perhaps we are safe in saying that no biblical book has seen more use throughout Christendom than has the Psalter.”

In the Daily Offices of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Churches the Psalms are said or sung every day. Anglican Evensong in our cathedrals attracts a large number of people. The beauty and solemnity of the Psalms have a great capacity to move the human heart and open it to Jesus.

They cover every aspect of our lives.

Father Malcolm.

God is an ebbing flowing sea, by Father Malcolm

2018-08-30T09:42:00.000+01:00

“God is a flowing and ebbing sea which ceaselessly flows out into all his beloved according to their needs and merits and which flows back with all those upon whom he has bestowed his gifts in heaven and on earth.” (John Ruusbroec in The Spiritual Espousals)…

This suggests an image of the ocean that flows on to the shore at high tide and draws into itself whatever is in the harbour with its receding waves. Some boats are tied to a post on the quay. The sea surrounds them and caresses them as if inviting them to follow. For a little while the boats are lifted up and float, but since they are tied or anchored they do not follow the sea as it draws back. They stay in the harbour while other vessels that are not tied put out into the deep under the sun on a calm sea. I’ve seen it happen in St Ives and here in Hayle many times.

God, the Blessed Trinity, sends out his word and grace like a beneficial wave, that envelops us. He invites us to flow with his embracing immensity. Some souls are untied, ready, and they follow with joy. Others, instead, are tied by the ropes of old habits, by worldly attachments, or by fear of the unknown. For a moment they allow themselves to be lifted up and gently rocked, but when the time comes to decide to go forward, they do not feel like going and they stay on land. What will happen to them? Will they one day know the intoxication of the open sea, or will they be like the boats that stay anchored to the shore and become corroded by sea salt? Real and vigilant prayer, waiting upon God, and flowing with him, involves launching out into the deep.

“Hoist the sails,” Jesus says, “lift the anchors.” Let us not fear of venturing forth into the open sea of God’s holiness. The Gospels urge us to do this time and time again.

“Love comes out of God, and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to him on the tide of his infinite mercy. So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into his own house. “Thomas Merton in Seeds of Contemplation.)

Eternal beyond time,

The fountain of the life that never dies,

Creation returns to you

In a never ending stream of love.

We sing to you, O immense One,

In this brief Sabbath of time

That heralds the great day without night

In which we will see you as living light.

We give our praise to you,

O most love and Blessed Trinity,

Which always flows forth and always flows back

In the calm sea of your own love. (St Bonaventure)

Our Celtic Heritage, by Father Malcolm.

2018-07-03T10:56:00.001+01:00

Over the years I have found myself adopting a Celtic spirituality. It runs like a computer program in the depths of my unconscious and profoundly affects my view of reality. Living here in West Cornwall we cannot ignore the effect that landscape has on our spiritual growth. The rich blend of earth, sea and sky against the background of hills and woods adds a scenic dimension to our faith.

From a high sand dune just behind my home you can see Carn Brea, St Agnes Beacon, Trencrom and Rose Hill. The Abbey on top of St Michael’s Mount is also clearly visible. You are as it were are at the centre of a circle or ring. In early Celtic mythology the circle or wheel is a symbol of the sun, the light of the World. In turn this was adapted as a Christian symbol.

Just beyond the main entrance to Phillack Church, only a few yard along the road from me, is an ancient Wheel Crucifix and the figure of the Crucified Jesus has been carved out of the granite. The Church is open from dawn to dusk and I go in most mornings, but never without first reverencing the Wheel Crucifix. It has a sacred power that resonates within the soul. This quotation from “Hebridean Altars by Alistair Maclean” is relevant.

“I came to the Cross, the dew still wet upon it, and knelt down. I cried, ‘O my dear Lord will you not spell out the secret of your Passion, of your courageous enduring of death and pain?’ At which he whispered gently, ‘Beloved, go and live your life in the spirit of my dying, in righteousness and love, then truly shall you share my victory and taste My Peace.’"

Prior to Christianity in Britain the Druid Religion was the main religion. The Celtic Wheel was originally a Druid symbol. The ring is also the symbol of Eternity. It has no beginning or end. The seasons are also symbolized by the wheel Cross. Spring, summer, autumn and winter follow each other year after year. This is known as the myth of the eternal return. Like a revolving wheel the seasons follow each other eternally. The wheel also symbolizes the creation and destruction of the world by fire. The four points of the cross symbolize the Four Elements, Fire, Earth, Air, and Water which compose the universe. The four points of the compass are also symbolised. There are parallels with the Dance of Shiva in the Hindu religion.Nataraja or Shiva is known as Lord of the Dance.

The Druid Wheel was adapted by the first Christian Missionaries from the Mediterranean in the third and fourth centuries as a Christian Symbol. The wheel or sun becomes Christ, the Light of the World. The four points of the compass represents the spread of the Good NEWS of the Gospel with the Cross at the centre. Christ dances at the heart of the creation, the Light of the World. Have you never noticed how reflected sunlight dances on the ocean?

Here in Cornwall we live in a county that is rich in ways that the saints have trod. There are churches in Cornwall dedicated to early missionaries from Ireland and Brittany whose exploits are often legendry and cannot be substantiated. But in these ancient holy places prayer has been valid and rises up to meet us. Many are deserted or alternatively have become venues for tourists. The prayers of the saints have nevertheless left their imprint on these places. People who have been blessed with religious imagination feel the power of it. The Hayle Estuary at low tide is particularly meaningful because it was here that the Irish saints first entered West Cornwall with the Good News of the Gospel.

Father Malcolm

The Wheel Cross outside Phillack Church Hayle.

Walking in summer and all the year round. By Father Malcolm

2018-06-12T10:05:00.000+01:00

For close on fifteen years I’ve been trekking the beach twice daily in all weathers and conditions. It has had a profound effect on me and imparted a form of wisdom and understanding of God that goes beyond words, feelings and emotions. Early mornings in summer are best at low tide. The sand stretches before me merging with the sky and the distant horizon. The same is true of the ocean.. It has holy “energy” that evokes a corresponding “energy” within me. It’s very similar to the desert of Western Syria where the dunes and sand meet the sea.

Our beach because of its particular physiognomy approaches very closely to the deserts of Syria, Israel and Jordan where they meet the ocean. The great religious truths revealed by God to Moses and the Prophets, to Jesus. and to the Desert Fathers of the Early Church occurred in desert. Deserts have spiritual energy that resonate with us.

One of the sad mistakes that contemporary humans have is to divorce the Cosmos from God. What is this energy we call the universe? The Earth, the cosmos, the skies we see are aspects of a universe that is, as a whole – in a profound sense of the term – the expression of God’s energy enfolded into every part of it. I could never be an atheist, not in the face of the miraculous Cosmos that confronts us at every turn of our brief yet so mysterious lives.

The scale of the universe is awesome. Our galaxy is but a tiny speck among countless billions of galaxies that occupy the universe revealed by the Hubble Telescope As it travels on into deeper and deeper outer space so more worlds within worlds are discovered. Where did it all come from? How, when? By what energies did what we observe, only in tiny glimpses, come into being?

This universe containing infinities of organized, living worlds, earths, suns, galaxies - cells, organic life, atmosphere, directions, purpose, and lawful order, fundamental forces at work everywhere and in everything – all of which emerged out of what? By what greater Mind, by what intelligence did it all appear, an intelligence that embraces even the automatisms of Darwinian evolution on the ground of which everything from a mosquito to a Christ or Buddha appears on this earth?

Time and time again I find myself thrown back on God. Every walk is a different journey into God. We’re nomads journeying into an unknown who knows, embraces and loves us. All the great religions express these truths in different ways. It isn’t important which one, as long as the one we choose, or rather than chooses us, is followed in humility.

The Bright Mountain behind the Mountain. By Father Malcolm

2018-05-23T08:17:00.005+01:00

“Yet I have glimpsed the bright mountain behind the mountain,” is a line from Kathleen Raine’s poem that profoundly changed my view of reality. I’ve travelled a lot in the Highlands of Scotland, the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia in Wales. I’ve also trekked in the Himalayas. (15,000 ft in the Annapurnas. Over many years I’ve come to see mountains and indeed the whole of the natural creation spiritually. Those who see the mountain spiritually are constantly conscious of a presence or presences behind what they see and touch. By some strange alchemy, that presence that disturbed Wordsworth with joy, speaks of a reality deeply interfused, with the colours of dawn and sunset. That presences, or presence, somehow seeks communication with us through the voices of the winds, the murmurings of the ocean, through the touch of the air, through the scent of gorse and the taste of clear bright water and wild strawberries.

What I’ve said in this meditation is one of the ways that God communicates with me. Never forget - Our language about God can only be approximate like distant mountains seen through the evening haze. The same goes for Christ. There is so much that is left unsaid in the Gospels and we are not given a total plan for living. Much is left for us to work out using our imagination. Canto XVII: 1&2 in Dante’s Divine Comedy Volume II (Purgatory) has the following lines

Reader if you have found yourself

caught in a mountain fog, trying to see

your way through it, as sightless as a mole,

Remember how at last the damp, dense air

starts to dissolve, and how the sun’s pale disc

feebly begins to penetrate the mist.

You don’t actually have to be on a mountain. Often I’ve been out walking in a thick sea mist and unable to see the sun. Yet there have been brief intervals when the solar disc shines through the murk and gloom. For a brief interval all around is illuminated with warmth and light. Darkness or unknowing has a part to play in every expression of faith and unbelief. Free of illusions of certainty, we can freely explore the mysteries that make up a life and encounter others who like ourselves are open to a reality that defies explanation. Real faith is about trust and not certainty.

The Symbol of the Broken Bread. ..by Father Malcolm.

2018-02-13T20:18:00.000+00:00

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ” This is my body which is broken for you.” (I Cor 11, 23-24.)

The New Testament does not speak about a beautiful, unbroken, unmutilated Christ. The moment of the breaking of bread became a most sacred moment for the Christian Church.

Jesus left with his intimate disciples this strong and effective symbol of love that has no equal. The fractured Host, the torn mutilated Christ is the one that heals the torn broken world. We are all of us part of that torn broken world. Our own healing is prefigured in the broken bread of the Eucharist.

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified writes St Paul to the Corinthian Christians. (I Cor 2:2)

The word broken is a negative word. It is used in such expressions as Broken family, broken marriage, broken heart, broken friendship, broken promise. The list is endless and speaks of our own brokenness by sin and corruption.

Yet in speaking about the broken Christ we are speaking about creation, construction, reconciliation and healing. We are “hearing” not merely listening to, but HEARING the ancient words of Isaiah, “He was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. ( Isaiah 53:5)

The image of the Broken Christ comes to us every time we approach the Eucharist.

In the last night with his disciples, he broke the bread. He created the space between one piece of bread and another as he held up the broken bread. New Space is created at the cost of the life of Christ.

his is not an ordinary space like our living room, our kitchen or playing field. This space is charged with the suffering love of Christ. This is the space in which the Church is built. It is a sacred space. All other space must receive its meaning from this space. And it was not only sacred space that was created there, but also sacred time. The event of love took place in the night of his betrayal. Did not time also receive a new sacred meaning from such as event?

Every time I break the bread and hold up the broken pieces before the worshippers, I’m aware that all of us are placed through God’s Grace between the broken pieces. In turn as we receive the broken bread we are made one with Him who has given his love for us.

Christ has died, Christ is Risen. Christ will come again. Alleluia.

Trusting Jesus for 2018 By Father Malcolm.

2018-01-09T11:38:00.003+00:00

As we move into 2018 we can do no better than to trust our Lord, who speaks to us from the Gospel of John.

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” John 12:20& 21.

St John’s Gospel is considered by many as the most spiritual of the four Gospels. It was the Gospel that at university we studied in the common Greek of New Testament times. The Divine inspiration of the original language has never ceased to confirm my own trust in God.

It was the favourite of Fr Christopher Donaldson, my parish priest, when I was a curate at St Martin’s Canterbury between the years 1964-67. He often preached on 12:21 – “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

I can see him now standing in the pulpit and looking at us, and speaking those luminous words, his eyes shining with light and love. He was a very caring parish priest. God grant we shall meet again in the world to come. He believed that preaching Jesus should be the main subject of every homily.

When I read St John’s Gospel, and very significantly the quotation that begins this article, I accept it as the Word of God. Yes it was written by a human hand but if we believe in the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit will enlighten us with the Lord’s grace. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ in the written word. We must trust the Holy Spirit.

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth...He shall glorify me. John 16:13&14.

We should not worry too much about the future. We will cross that bridge when we come to it and the Lord will be there when we do, as he is with us now.

Jesus was, is and is to come. Christ has died, Christ in risen and Christ will come again, as we say at Mass.

Spending time with Jesus, in Word and Sacrament, in prayer and contemplation, is the only solution to the fears of life and death. As we age, this “spending time,” with our Lord becomes essential. He is with us now. Why should he not be with us when we die and continue our pilgrimage to the Kingdom?

Almighty God, your Son told us, “Eternal Life consists in this: to know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ the one whom you have sent.” Teach us through your Son in the power of His Holy Spirit, that in fully seeing and hearing Him, we are seeing and hearing you, so that whoever believes in your Son receives your own life. Amen.

May you have a New Year filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A Message for Christmas by Father Malcolm.

2017-12-18T15:03:00.000+00:00

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed….and Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem.”

What grace those words have as they conjure up images and feelings from our past that continue to break into our present and guide us into the future.

Long forgotten memories surface in our minds and our present is transfigured and renewed by the Christmas message of hope and joy.

“In those days” and in our days we hear that same message to be pondered and taken into our hearts as we journey towards the Kingdom.

A question I ask myself regarding the birth of Christ at Bethlehem is this, Could it be that God created the world in the first place because of a burning desire to be exactly like one of us, and so to experience everything that human beings experience? Just as the committed love of a man for woman creates the new life of a baby, so too the divine essence of extravagant and unconditional longing for human love gives birth to the world and to everyone and everything within it.

There is a remarkable passage in Hakim Sanai’s “The Walled Garden of Truth.”

God said; “I was a hidden treasure; creation was created so that you might know me.”

Hakim Sanai was a Sufi Mystic. Sufism is a form of Islam. He lived between 1070 and 1150. Sufism was much influenced by Christianity.

As Christians we know God through Jesus; the Word made flesh through whom, as John’s Gospel relates, God created the world.

However we interpret the New Testament, there is one truth that stands out clearly above all the rest, God’s passionate longing for human intimacy.

“God possesses the heavens,”writes the poet W B Yeats, “but how he covets the earth.”

I remember reading somewhere that the incarnation, the birth of God in Man, is a fleshing out of God’s eros, God’s jealous, ravenous and loving desire for us.

Did the Lord God come to us with a passion for our human senses? Did he want to see and be seen, to touch and be touched, to understand and to be understood. Did God yearn to fall in love in a human way, to feel the shock of forgiveness, to say I believe in you.

Did he enjoy being a baby? I rather think so. O Come O come Emmanuel.

Fr Malcolm

A message for Advent by Fr. Malcolm Uren

2017-11-25T14:05:00.000+00:00

Judging the signs of the times or Singing the Lord’s Song in times of change and uncertainty.

We should refuse to be intimidated by anything of whatever source. The world has in a sense always been a foreign country. We are strangers and pilgrims seeking the City of God, a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 8-11)

Consider the Jews going into exile in Babylon in 597 BC under King Nebuchadnezzar. He levelled the Temple and the City of Jerusalem. Psalm 137 expresses the sorrow of the Jews in Babylon.

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars

we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord

while in a foreign land? (Psalm 137)

Psalm 137 was written by one of the Exiles in the Babylonian Captivity. Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed and the Children of Israel taken into captivity. It was a time of mourning and regret.

It was an unknown prophet, who we call Second Isaiah, that in the name of the God of Israel told the exiles that they must sing a new song. Second Isaiah opens with those wonderful words – “Comfort ye, O comfort ye my people,” Says your God.’ Those words from Isaiah 40:1 were the inspiration behind Handel’s Oratorio, “The Messiah.”

The exiles in Babylon inspired by Isaiah’s God did indeed sing a new song, We likewise living in a world that is indifferent to the God of Israel are bidden by Isaiah to sing the Lord’s song.

Many ancient texts in Holy Scripture explode with fresh power in our contemporary world.

The God inspired poem by Second Isaiah was originally directed to the exiles in Babylon. It was then a message of hope and encouragement sent by God. Likewise it is for us to-day.

Let us sing the Lord’s Song as Isaiah urges. It is our God given duty and right. It is only by singing the Lord’s Song that we can counteract the dark powers that threaten all life on this planet. King David sang and danced before the Ark of the Covenant.

10 Sing to the Lord a new song, says Isaiah. (See chapter 42 of Isaiah)

Let the people sing for joy;

let them shout from the mountaintops.

12 Let them give glory to the Lord

and proclaim his praise in the islands.

16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn the darkness into light before them

and make the rough places smooth.

Advent should be a season when we look to the coming of the Lord in glory.

These are the things I will do;

I will not forsake them.

. The entire Chapter 42 of Second Isaiah is as relevant for us o-day as it was for those to whom it was written.)

Can we imagine the Prophet Isaiah defying the Babylonian Empire, and singing this song in defiance of the rulers and army of Ancient Babylon?

This prophecy/poem was composed by Isaiah in opposition to the authorities, encouraging hope and a return to Israel. Living in hope opens God’s Grace in our fallen world.

Think of it: new reality conjured in worship, by the choir, inviting to new courage, new faith, new energy, new obedience and new joy. O come O come Emmanuel.

Isaiah’s song is as subversive as is the New Reality. The New Song never describes the world as it is now. The New Song imagines how the world will be in God’s good time to come. We must look to the future with hope.

We ought to spend much more of our energy promoting the God of Israel? Our vocation is to proclaim the true God as manifested in Christ Jesus. We may have to sing the Lord’s Song in a land that has become increasingly dominated by Militant Islam. But sing the Lord’s Song we must with unceasing fervour like King David when he sang and danced before the Ark of the Covenant.

The New Song is a refusal to accept the world as it is, a refusal to believe that present circumstances are right or will last. Singing a new Song to the Lord is a constant theme in the Psalms. Psalm 33: 3 - Sing unto the Lord a new song

Particularly relevant is Psalm 40: 3 – “And he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” As Christians we must NOT be defeatist or discouraged. Heads held high. The Lord will give us the words of HIS SONG.

The New Testament proclaims that at some unforeseeable time in the future, God will ring down the final curtain on history, and there will come a Day on which all our days and all the judgements upon each other will themselves be judged. The judge will be Christ. In other words, the one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully.

Romantic love is blind to everything except what is lovable and lovely, but Christ’s love so wishes our joy that it is ruthless against everything that diminishes our joy. The worse sentence that love can pass is that we behold the suffering which love has endured for our sake, and that is also our acquittal. The justice and mercy of the judge are ultimately one.

God of homecoming,

be with us as we journey through these uncertain times.

May we learn to relinquish our old habits

so that we are ready to receive your newness.

In our exile we look for you, O God.

Teach us your new song and celebrate your faithfulness

And the new life that you are ever bringing into being, Amen

“November is the month of remembrance.” By Father Malcolm

2017-10-25T17:18:00.000+01:00

All Saints and All souls Days tell us that we live in an eternal dimension that links us with heaven.

“Much upon the earth is concealed from us, but in recompense we have been gifted with a sacred sense of our living connection with another world; with a celestial and higher world.” Thus wrote the Russian author Dostoyevsky in his great novel “The Brothers Karamazov.”

We touch and are lifted up into that other world by the Church’s offering of the holy Eucharist. The Eucharist makes present the One who loves us and who has saved us for all eternity.

“This is my Body, This is my Blood.”

“And if I be lifted up will draw all men to myself.” (Jesus says in John’s Gospel.)

“The living bread which came down from heaven,” made present in the Church’s offering of the Holy Eucharist, lifts humanity into the Kingdom. It is truly an ascension that occurs at the celebration of every Mass. We ascend to heaven.

“Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven …” we proclaim at the Parish Mass .

Upon earth we are wanderers like nomads in the desert. Were it not for the precious offering of Christ humankind would have been lost for good. The Good News of Jesus is our map to God’s Kingdom.

Behold I show you a mystery,” so writes St Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians.

“These things have been written that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through faith you might have life in his name,” writes St John at the end of his Gospel.

The Holy Scriptures continually inform us that we are on a journey to the Kingdom. We have an eternal longing built within us that only the living God can satisfy. St Luke’s Gospel expresses this mystery in a very moving way.

His account of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus speaks to that longing within us. He invites us to move into that “further intensity” mentioned by T S Eliot in his poem The Four Quartets.

The two friends, on their way to Emmaus, discovered in the “Breaking of Bread,” the love from which they will never be separated.

It was while they were discussing the events regarding the loss of their Lord, that Jesus met them. Luke tells us that at first their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

“Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free.”

Perhaps they remembered his teaching as they walked along the road and wished that they had been more faithful to it. Now he was gone, the time was past and it was too late. There was no undoing the thing that had been done, and the best they could do was to bury it decently.

Starting with Moses and the Prophets, their new companion opened for them the ancient scriptures, and revealed to them that deeper intensity that would reshape and remodel their lives. In his moving explanation of the prophets, he gave back to them the hopes and expectations that they thought were dead.

“Abide with us,” they said as they reached Emmaus, “for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent.”

It wasn’t until he broke the bread that their eyes were opened and they recognized their Lord in all his loving glory. “Did not our hearts burn within in us while he was speaking to us on the way?”

Yes, November is the month of remembrance.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards,” Is one of the sayings of Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Philosopher and Christian. (1813-1855)

He also said “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

Both sayings are significant when it comes to Remembrance. What we truly remember gives meaning to our experience of life. In relation to our faith in God both these quotes have profound meaning. Remembrance is NOT FORGETTING and this is especially relevant to our Life in Christ.

Father Malcolm

NEVER ALONE - by Father Malcolm.

2017-09-19T17:26:00.002+01:00

When we pray, we never pray alone, even when we are alone. We are in the company of the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the angels and saints...especially our own guardian angel. The Communion of Saints reminds us that we are not alone in our earthly pilgrimage.

Prayer is a mystery. It cannot be scientifically investigated. It emerges from the call of the Lord Jesus in the secret depths of our hearts and assures us that he is present with all the hosts of heaven.

The Lord’s life that climaxed in his sacrificial offering on the Cross was the most complete prayer ever uttered. He prays from the Cross in an agony so intense that his death is a total act of love. He prays at every Eucharist when the bread is broken and the wine out poured. His is a love that encompasses earth and the entire cosmos drawing all to himself. The Holy Name “Jesus” is the password to God’s Kingdom.

Christian prayer above all centres on Jesus Christ in the Church’s offering of the Eucharist. Our personal prayer life is an extension of the Eucharist.

We pray surrounded by angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven. We also pray within the Life of the Blessed Trinity – Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Therefore we must see earth as a material aspect of heaven. Earth is one of the mansions or resting places that Jesus talks about in St John’s Gospel.

“In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. (Mansions) (John 14:2) Earth is also the house of God. Through the Holy Spirit he lives among us.

This is confirmed by St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

Just one more thought. It isn’t necessary to use many words in our prayers. Calling with love on the Divine Name “Jesus” is an effective prayer.

The blind man’s cry “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me,” related in the Gospel of Mark is a great prayer. It can be shortened to two words - Jesus Mercy. Try it sometime.

Its simplicity commends it to us who are living during these complicated times. It’s known as the Jesus Prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ: have mercy on me,” can be prayed resting, standing, walking or working. It requires no great intellect or learning and becomes part of one’s very being. The Name Jesus, said with love, is prayer, and opens us to the Kingdom of God. It is truly the password to Life.

“Of your own will O God, you have brought into being all things which before were not, and by your providence you uphold the world.” (Byzantine Liturgy)

Fr Malcolm

God is an ebbing flowing sea, by Father Malcolm

2017-09-04T20:50:00.005+01:00

“Hoist the sails,” Jesus says, “lift the anchors.” Let us not fear of venturing forth into the open sea of God’s holiness. The Gospels urge us to do this time and time again.

Eternal beyond time,

The fountain of the life that never dies,

Creation returns to you

In a never ending stream of love.

We sing to you, O immense One,

In this brief Sabbath of time

That heralds the great day without night

In which we will see you as living light.

We give our praise to you,

O most love and Blessed Trinity,

Which always flows forth and always flows back

In the calm sea of your own love. (St Bonaventure)

Transfiguration & Resurrection by Father Malcolm

2017-08-16T10:38:00.000+01:00

The Christian Faith is not about morality or ethical behaviour. That is to reduce the Christian Mystery to a legal system far removed from the abundant life offered to us by Christ. The Gospel of the Transfiguration, which we observed on 6th August reminds us that the living and the dead are one in Christ.

Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration talking with Jesus in the presence of Peter, James and John.

Thus we perceive that the living and the dead are one in Christ. The Old and the New Covenants cannot be separated. The Cross and the Glory are one. In a very vital and mysterious way the age to come is already here. Our human nature has a destiny in Glory.

I’m reminded of this every time I offer the Holy Mysteries. (The Eucharist )

“This is my Son in whom I am well pleased listen to Him,” says God the Father. The Transfiguration points back to the incarnation of the Word in Jesus Christ and forward to the second coming of the Lord. In between there is the Cross, the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Through the life giving power of the Holy Spirit, the revelation on the Holy Mountain unfolds the humanity and divinity of God before our eyes. The light and beauty of Jesus that Peter, James and John witnessed at the Transfiguration, and again at the Resurrection, gives substance and form to our individual humanity and divinity in Christ.

Sunday by Sunday, and often during the week, we partake of the Glory when we receive our Lord in Holy Communion. In truth it is He who receives us and unites us with the Kingdom of his Glory. Therefore with angels and archangels…”

There is a sublime verse in Dante’s Divine Comedy. I often ponder it. The poet has in mind the final in gathering by God at the Second Coming of Jesus.

“Within its depths I saw all gathered together by love in one volume, the scattered leaves of the universe.” (Paradiso, 33: 85)

In Dante’s Vision nothing is lost except the will that has failed to respond to the call of love.

All rational attempts to explain the Resurrection will fail. It totally confounds our intellectual capacity, but NOT our experience and imagination.

Christ is Risen, Alleluia.

He is Risen indeed, Alleluia.

Fr Malcolm.

Father Malcolm Writes:

2017-07-23T08:50:00.000+01:00

Plato was credited with the quote, "An unexamined life is not worth living". It originates from Plato's Apology, which is a recollection of the speech Socrates gave at his trial

An interregnum is an opportunity for a congregation to examine its motivation and priorities. No church is an end in itself. We meet together to become the Body of Christ, to make present the One who has called us into being.

To-day’s Gospel is about the GOOD GROUND and is most relevant.

We must be prepared to be turned up made vulnerable and ploughed.

We must simply allow ourselves to be led by our living faith in whatever is presented to us during the interregnum.

To be led by faith means that each member of the church commits himself or herself to Jesus Christ. Only then can we seek the Holy Spirit. No one can say Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.

Our sins and failures are very important. Failure particularly makes us dependent on God’s Grace as shown forth in the crucified Christ.

God works best in human failure and helplessness.

Failure prepares the Good Ground much better than success. Success can make us arrogant and hard. Being good in business dealings may hinder the preaching of the Kingdom…counter-productive.

Matthew was probably a lousy business man and when the moment came left all and followed Jesus.

The greatest adventure of all in life is God’s redeeming action for the world in his Son.

It means sharing the Son’s life – being YOKED to him.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

AND YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS,

for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus has born the heaviest load on the yoke of the Cross.

All we have to do is be yoked to him.

“I am the vine, you re the branches. My Father is the vinedresser. “

Father Malcolm

A sermon on the Old Testament character Samson by Father Malcolm.

2017-07-03T19:52:00.000+01:00

Samson is one of the most interesting characters in the Old Testament.
(Book of Judges, chapters 13-16.)
We can learn much about ourselves through his story. It is real drama and has many implications for us. The conclusion lies far beyond the Old Testament narrative.
Samson’s story is a powerful saga about a man who was NOT the brave leader commonly supposed by the average person. The book of Judges presents him as a man who was given to whoring and sexual exploits. The Bible is littered with characters that are seriously flawed. King Saul, King David and his son Solomon were far from perfect. Samson could be said to head the list.
“Samson the hero,” is what every Jewish child the first time he or she hears about him. Over the years that is how he has been portrayed in works of art, theatre and film. Saint-Saens composed an impressive opera about him, the music of which captures the pathos of his lonely existence. Grand Opera is a wonderful media for portraying loss and tragedy. All the best operas end with a death. Think of Madame Butterfly in the opera by Puccini.
Verdi’s opera based on Shakespeare’s Othello adds considerably to the tragedy of the story. Othello you will remember kills Desdemona, his lover, out of rumour and misplaced jealousy.
Samson was a man whose calling was a never ending struggle to accommodate his life to the powerful destiny thrust upon him. That is true of all Christians. We are all flawed. How otherwise can we understand others?
Samson couldn’t grasp the tragic role into which he had been cast. He’s a very fragmented individual. He was born a stranger to his parents. Despite being the strongman of popular myth, he constantly yearned to win the affections of his father and mother and love in general. The whole of his existence was the quest for love that he was never to know.
There are few other Bible stories with so much passion, action, fireworks and raw emotion. The battle with the lion, the three hundred burning foxes, the women he bedded and the one woman that he loved, are intensely dramatic. He was betrayed by all the women in his life, from his mother to Delilah his lover.
His murderous suicide, when he brought the house down on himself and three thousand Philistines, is not calculated to give comfort. The lesson of Samson’s story is what the Spirit communicates to us through it despite the turmoil and confusion.
Beyond the untamed wildness, impulsiveness, the chaos and the din, we sense a life story that is at bottom the tortured journey of a single, lonely and turbulent soul who never found anywhere a true home in the world. His very body was a harsh place of exile. This discovery, call it recognition, which like all tragic stories, slips silently into the day to day existence of each of us, into our most private moments, and our buried secrets. There’s a little bit of Samson in every one of us, hopefully without such drastic results.
Now the conclusion – Only the Lord Jesus can give us the love for which we have been created and only He can heal our conflicts and lead us into the present reality of his Kingdom. Jesus is as much for Now as any future life that might exist beyond the grave.
I don’t say that Jesus solves all our problems. But he does help us live with them
Father Malcolm.