The Paraclete

In the words of His Holiness The Dalai Lama;

Responsibility
does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been
appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us
individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have
inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.

There is definitely something magically beautiful about Celtic music and singing. The spiritual echo and melodious wafting sound leave the soul and heart seemingly yearning for more. I am seated in my church with a congregation of about sixty or more and right now there is just silence. It is the first Friday of the month and people are invited to attend Exposition² of the Most Blessed Holy Sacrament. This month is being lead by the Guitar Choir and I like it when it is like this. They have a few religious readings and a few hymns but otherwise the majority of the time is spent in silence doing whatever the individual may want to do whether it is saying the Rosary, reflecting, going to confession, talking to God or just spending time with God and Jesus in whatever way you find suitable.

I love this Church probably because it is somewhere I have been going for the last twenty-five years give or take. I remember coming in from the farm way back when I was small and kinder of heart. I remember the Mutare Cathedral as well with Fr. Toner and Fr. McGivern of the Order of Carmelites but Mutare was not as prominent as my Fourth Street Cathedral. Mutare was only visited once in a while when we went down to visit Gran. Most of the time Gran would come to us and considering she has been dead for ten years now, Mutare has had no reason to be visited anymore.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral was for seven years across from my school, which although was the bane of my life in those days, I would still not have changed a thing. It was such things and people as Sr. Gundula, Mrs Glover, Mrs Leggett, Convent and the Cathedral with the many priests that I’ve known come and go that have moulded me through the years. I still remember Fr. Wolfe and seeing his walking stick in the door way when I would go to confession; Fr. McKenna and the way he used to remind me of a very happy duck fluffing his feathers as he sat down for the readings; Fr. McCabe and how I thought he was the tallest priest in those days and how he always walked or more the way he looked like Big Bird from Sesame Street tripping over his feet; Fr. Dale who wrote the Shona Dictionaries that I graffitied while sitting bored stiff in Shona lessons – he sadly died this year. While I sat at his funeral I remembered asking him (back in the day) why no Unicorns had been taken on to Noah’s Ark – I’m sure he gave me a really sensible reason and of course he responded to my question as if it was a very intelligent and pertinent subject which was so typical of Fr. Dale’s kindness. Now we have Fr. Berry, Fr. Liberski, Fr. Dandiro, the occasional visiting priest and of course last but not least my wonderful Fr. Meiring who is as old as the Ark of the Covenant but is the most sincerely beautiful person I know with a heart so true, holy and full of love but at the same time, he can still throw a quick right punch and he’ll take great delight in telling you. He is my idea of a living Saint.

Now don’t get me wrong! I am NOT perfect and definitely not holier than thou…far from it! I’ve left the church in the past. More because I was fighting with my mother and leaving the church was the one way I knew I could hurt her the most. Also I didn’t appreciate what I have been brought up with and taken for granted for so long.

However, in the end the only person that it truly hurt was me and no one else. Let’s just say that I’ve been away from my church, my religion and my faith and I’ve learnt what it is like and I came back of my own free will. I enjoy doing the readings every second Sunday not because I get a few moments infront of the congregation but because it feels so good to be able to allow God to speak through you in a world that doesn’t really allow one to do so very often.

What I really enjoy in my church is this wonderful feeling of peace of mind, body and soul. I know when I step into the Cathedral there is no question to the fact that all is right in the world, maybe not perfect but that is mainly because of people and their abounding greed and hatred. When in the Cathedral I know God is here, on the earth and all around us. I don’t have to look for Him, I know Jesus and God my Father in heaven with the Holy Spirit as the Trinity become One, is home in His Church and most importantly no matter the hardships we go through He is always with His people.

Now I know I’m sounding like a religious freak – that may be so. I could sit here and blame my mother for being a religious maniac herself though she would say she isn’t and I could say my father was too open minded – he had been brought up Methodist but never kept mom or me away from the Catholic side of life. He believe in UFO’s, angels, saints and spirits and even though he was not a religious man he was an extremely spiritual man who kept to a time table not only in his work but his daily prayers where every single person he had known was prayed for. I blame no one though, not for my past failings and not for my present beliefs and what ever happens in the future is, I believe already set out for me, before I was even thought of. That said I would rather be a religious freak and have a faith that I know and trust in fully than to have nothing and so live and die with emptiness.

I know I am a sinner and at every possible moment I beg my God for forgiveness.

“God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.” But he tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Luke 18:11-14

I have made millions of mistakes but I have come through them a little wiser and still learning. I don’t expect everything to be perfect for if life was perfect what are we learning from life and this life is all about learning. The great prize at the end is strangely enough death. It may not feel like a gift when our loved ones die and it never feels the same to know that they are still with us but in a spiritual form instead of the physical aspect. It would make it a hundred percent easier if I could fight with dad like I did in the old days about politics, religion, law and justice and ask him face to face why the hell did he have to die but instead people etch round the subject and he doesn’t have to justify being dead. I still know he is with me though…

However, I digress as per usual….

What I find in the Cathedral is a form of inspiration. Being a aspiring writer and if given a choice of places to go in order to find inspiration for my writings the Sacred Heart Cathedral would be one of my first choices or indeed most Catholic Churches that I have been in including Brompton Oratory and St. Cecilia's Abbey on the Isle of Wight. It is not because I have been appropriately brainwashed into believing “a deity” is present and because I’ve been taught about the light at the back of every Catholic Church near the Sanctuary signifying that presence but because I feel Him there. I know whether it by six sixth, gut feeling or simply faith that I am in the “Real Presence” of my God, Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

On a night like tonight, with the Blessed Sacrament correctly displayed upon Its thrown in the ornate and beautiful Monstrance which is placed on the altar, I can truly remember why I am not only alive but why I am Catholic and most importantly why I am Christian. As St. Padre Pio said;

Do you know what religion is? It is a school in which every soul must be trained, smoothed and polished by the Holy Spirit, who acts as a physician to our souls until, well smoothed and polished, they can be united and joined to the will of God....Religion is an infirmary for the spiritually sick, who wish to be cured and must therefore undergo the pains of surgery.

¹Paraclete comes from the Koine Greek word (Parakletos) meaning "one who consoles - a comforter" or "one who intercedes on our behalf - an advocate". The Early Church identified the Paraclete as the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5,1:8,2:4,2:38) and Christians continue to use Paraclete as a title for God's Spirit.

²Exposition is a manner of honouring the Holy Eucharist, by exposing It, with proper solemnity, to the view of the faithful in order that they may pay their devotions before It.