As Father Roy was off to Caldey Island to lead a retreat today, I stood in for him and celebrated the Class Six Eucharist at St German's. Members of the class read lessons, prayed the intercessions and sang a couple of hymns, while the summer sunlight streamed into the church and lifted our spirits. This was the first of my three Eucharistic celebrations of today, the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist.
There were nine of us at the midday at St John's, and eleven for the Sung Eucharist at seven. It's as much as we can expect in these times when the majority of committed Christians are at least partly disconnected from the traditional liturgical observance of the passage of time. Even in 'Catholic' Spain, on holiday recently, we found that the Feast of Corpus Christi was translated to the nearest Sunday from the traditional Thursday after Trinity to ensure optimum commiunity support.
The one thing the churches won't dare to do is to debate how we might sustain a common witness to the passage of time in the light of changed circumstances in the way times and seasons are themselves regarded today in the world we say we want to evangelise.
There were nine of us at the midday at St John's, and eleven for the Sung Eucharist at seven. It's as much as we can expect in these times when the majority of committed Christians are at least partly disconnected from the traditional liturgical observance of the passage of time. Even in 'Catholic' Spain, on holiday recently, we found that the Feast of Corpus Christi was translated to the nearest Sunday from the traditional Thursday after Trinity to ensure optimum commiunity support.
The one thing the churches won't dare to do is to debate how we might sustain a common witness to the passage of time in the light of changed circumstances in the way times and seasons are themselves regarded today in the world we say we want to evangelise.
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