FSSP Finland
Pyhän Pietarin pappisveljeskunnan
Suomen apostolaatti
Isä Benjamin Durham FSSP fssp-finland@sanctis.net

Newsletter 2008/02 December 17th, 2008

Gaudete – Rejoice: the Lord is nigh!

As Christmas draws near, the Church emphasizes the joy which should be in
our hearts as we contemplate the reality and deeper meaning of Our Saviour’s
coming into the world.
Saint Paul bases Christian joy on the assurance of salvation brought to us by
Christ; he desires it to be so firmly rooted in the soul that no reason of human
anxiety or sadness can overcome it, since the great peace of God henceforth must
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predominate over every other feeling. Yet for Saint Paul this coming of our Lord
is not His birth at Bethlehem but His second coming. The great joy of Christians
is to see the day drawing near when the Lord will come again in His glory to lead
them into His Kingdom. The oft-repeated veni (“come”) of Advent is an echo not
only of the prophets but also of the conclusion of the Apocalypse of Saint John:
“Come, Lord Jesus,” the last words of the New Testament.
This reflection should encourage us, Christians, to not view Christmas merely
as a past event but as a joyful expectation that animates every moment of our
passage here in this world, as we follow in the Light as children of Light march-
ing with confidence in the Way to life everlasting…

Wishing you a happy and holy Christmastide in Christ our Lord,

Fr. Benjamin Durham, FSSP

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini

When I take Holy Communion to the sick I always wear a stole under my coat
or jacket, as a priest or deacon is supposed to. I hate those piddly little ribbons, I
wear a normal stole.
A few weeks ago taking Viaticum to someone, two Anglican clergyman ap-
proached me, noticed the stole at my neck, smiled, made the sign of the cross and
both knelt side by side on the kerb until I passed, one was saying “Benedictus qui
venit in Nomine Domini”.
A year or two ago the ends of my stole had fallen out of my pocket and were
dangling around my knees, I hadn’t noticed but a down and out Glaswegian had,
he was selling the Big Issue, he fell to his knees and bent his head. I took com-
munion to the sick person and on my return spoke to the man. He said to me,


“Sr Marie Louise she always told us when you see a priest wearing a white thing
over his shoulders, he is bringing God to a poor dying person, possibly for the last
time, and we are supposed to kneel down, and we are supposed to pray, aren’t we
Father?” I know for a fact he hasn’t been to Mass in 40 years.
Occassionally the spouse or a family member will still greet one at the house
door holding a lighted candle, a laudable practice.
Compare and contrast this with the lack of preparation one often finds with
the practising sick themselves, who are so often more concerned to give you a cup
of tea than to express devotion to their Lord and God.

No matter how much catechesis we might give, it is meaningless if we haven’t

taught devotion.

A reflection by Fr. Ray Blake, St Mary Magdalen’s, Brighton, UK.

Fr. Blake hosts an excellent blog and has been very generous in wel-
coming FSSP priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in his
parish. He has recently begun to celebrate this Mass in his parish.

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A Commentary of the Prologue of Saint John (I, 1-18)
One finds here the most precious page that has ever been written, a text
which places a seal on the revelations of God. Its inspired author summarizes
and explains these in a few words: “Et Verbum caro factum est.” Life and Light,
from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, the Word of God, made man in Jesus
of Nazareth, enlightens and vivifies those who have received his coming in the
flesh. The Incarnation appears as the summit of theology, and it becomes the key
point of history.

With a clear allusion to the first lines of the Book of Genesis, the Prologue
begins with the eternal existence of the Word. In the beginning was the Word:
when time began with by the creation of heaven and earth, the Word was. Before
the beginning of contingent things, there is only eternity. Therefore, the Word
is eternal. Of all those who have had their place in history, only Jesus Christ
speaks of “a glory that He possessed before the world was.”
In him was life and the life was the light of men. Even though nothing yet
lived outside of God, life was in the Word: first of all, divine life, not as an added
grace, nor as something as received from without; but as proper and essential
prerogative. Even human life was in the Word, like water is found in a well or
fire in its source. All human life was ignited by divine life, as Michelangelo so
brilliantly portrays in his fresco of the creation of man, which decorates the vault
of the Sixtine Chapel.
One must ask which human life is mentioned here: life according to nature or
the life of grace? Both, but perhaps it could be better phrased as the natural life
in view of supernatural life. In fact, in the order of things which is ours, every-
thing finds itself ordered to this life of grace. In a single act, the Word created in
the same being who was Adam, both a man and a child of God.
 

In writing that Life, which comes from the Word, was the light of men, the
Evangelist follows the logical order of divine intervention in the world of men. In
the supernatural order, our life begins with the ‘light of Faith’ which finds its end
in the light of everlasting glory; so much so that the Greek fathers call this grace
an ‘illumination’. One finds an echo is the words of the Psalmist: “For with thee
is the fountain of life; and in thy light we shall see light.”
When Christ states that He is in the world ‘the Light’ and ‘the Light of the
world’, he indicates an opposition to a whole series of things which He calls ‘dark-
ness’, and it is the precise term used by the Evangelist: And the Light shineth in
darkness.
Saint John evokes an idea which will be the pivotal point of his gospel: the
Incarnate Word has as mission to make known God in the world. He does so
through His works and His Spirit, who dwells in the Church. The fourth gospel
is the story of the Anointed of God, the Life and Light of men.
Between the light and the darkness, there is an antagonism that has in view
the destruction of the world of darkness by the Light. This general meaning,
and as one that is transcendental, characterizes the entire movement, retold in
Sacred Scripture, of the conflict between the light of divine goodness and the
darkness of human malice. Here the mention of the failure of darkness is foretold
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which places us in a perspective of joyful expectation of the final defeat of the

world of darkness and its prince by the Light who is the life of men.
All the saints, from the just Abel to John the Baptist, place themselves not
only in this perspective but also in the grace of Christ, although it must be added
that this grace was merited for them in what follows, by Our Lord’s Incarnation,
of which the summit will be His sacrifice on the Cross. God has never left Him-
self without witnesses to His divine intervention on earth. But the human world
received Him not. We must earnestly prepare ourselves to receive this Light and
Life in our lives, in response to our vocation to be children of God, who are chil-
dren of this Light and this Life. The Word was made flesh precisely in order that
we may be born again of God and that we may have the divine life in us, as the
light of our souls. We begin to see the true meaning of Christmas and the reason
for which the Word of God assumes our humanity. We are created anew, spiritu-
ally regenerated and thus receive the power to become children of God. If the
mystery of the Incarnation finds its place at a precise moment in human history,
it is also given to us to contemplate during this Christmas season that God so
loves us that He wills for us to be his children, and this has been willed from all
Eternity, which cannot be properly described as a moment but rather that which
precedes the creation of the universe. In the person of Jesus Christ, we find the
beginning and end of all things for which the universe was created for he is Alpha
and Omega. Before the universe existed, the Word was in God and the Word
became flesh, so that all creatures of the flesh endowed with human reason may
understand that Almighty God is the end for which they were created, just as He
is the source and cause of their being in time and in the world. ■


Isä Durhamin seuraava vierailu 19.-21.12.2008

Fr. Durham’s next visit on Dec. 19-21, 2008

PERJANTAI 19.12. FRIDAY

Tampere: Pyhän ristin kirkko / Holy Cross Church
19:30 Pyhä messu / Holy Mass
- messun jälkeen keskustelu / discussion after Mass

LAUANTAI 20.12. SATURDAY

Helsinki: Pyhän Henrikin katedraali (sakramenttikappeli) / Saint Henry’s
16:00 Pyhä messu / Holy Mass

SUNNUNTAI 21.12. SUNDAY

Helsinki: Pyhän Henrikin katedraali (sakramenttikappeli) / Saint Henry’s
14:00 Kasteen sakramentti ja pyhä messu / Baptism and Holy Mass

Tervetuloa! Welcome!

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