Quick Update

Ah…

I’ve really been so busy these last few months I’m not sure where to start. For one thing, I finished my dissertation and my MA at Heythrop and moved to Limerick (though not in that order), Ireland to begin my ‘regency’ – a stage in the formation of every Jesuit when he temporarily takes a time-out from academic studies to work full-time in a Jesuit ministry. In my case, it’s at the Crescent Comprehensive College at Dooradoyle, Limerick.

At the moment, I have a couple of classes of religion and philosophy; I help coordinate the debating and chess societies and I’m a form tutor. Perhaps more on that in future posts…

It’s mid-term break at the school; so a couple of other Jesuit regents in Ireland (there are six) and I are going away to the Jesuit villa (holiday) house at Blainroe, Co. Wicklow on the east coast for a few days of “vegging out”.

London / UK Riots

Just in case people have been wondering, the Jesuits in London and across the UK are fine. While some of the rioting has been close to where we live, our religious houses, churches and works have not been attacked. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done with our local communities now.

Rioters set a London bus on fire

Here in Tottenham, where the trouble started, I wasn't actually aware that anything out of the ordinary was going on until I received a call from Fr. Tim Byron SJ, school chaplain at our college in Enfield, around 11pm asking me to turn on the news. Many in the community were actually asleep at the time. Going up to the roof, I could see the flames and smoke in the distance and the helicopter hovering above. The television pictures were rather unexpected.

CarpetRight building in Tottenham the next morning

By then, the news started arriving that rioting had turned to looting. I had hoped things would calm down by next morning, which it did. By then, looters had been at the retail park nearby, where Br. Mick O'Connor, a member of our community, often shops for gardening supplies and stationery. I'd also heard that some of the shops at nearby Wood Green, where I'd been to see Captain America only last week, had also been hit. Monday evening, a visiting Jesuit and I had to look around for a bit to find an open pub and, when we did, were surprised to watch locals with their attention glued to Sky News as events unfolded in Clapham and elsewhere. Just before we entered the pub, I thought they were looking at sporting events. The landlady was clearly in a state of shock and fear.

Police clash with looters in Manchester

What was unexpected was the way social media: Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger would be exploited by would-be looters to organise new disturbances across the capital and then the country the following nights. It took a few days for the police to get on top of the situation but things have calmed down now. Certainly the large assignment of police to the capital, plus the rain, have cooled things down here in London.

In the meanwhile, I'm busy finishing off my dissertation and preparing to move to Limerick, Ireland, for the next stage in my formation - I'll be teaching at the Jesuit comprehensive college there.

Life goes on.

On Spiritual Communion

A guest post from my fellow-Jesuit and Catching Fire co-blogger, Samuel Overloop SJ.


Roberto Beretta, an Italian journalist who writes for catholic newspapers and journals, attacks in no unclear terms the traditional practice of spiritual communion. He expresses his perplexity with this practice which he calls "one of the most subtle aberration of Christianity". I beg to differ.

For those not familiar with the practice of spiritual communion, it is often in the form of a small prayer which one says when not being able to receive communion at Mass. The purpose is to express on the one hand the desire to be united with Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist and, on the other hand, to express the belief that one is already in communion with Jesus.

My Jesus, I believe that you are in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I long for you in my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though you have already come, I embrace you and unite myself entirely to you; never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.

Beretta has basically two arguments. The first is that it 'renders abstract that which is eminently concrete', and second, that it is a practice that was influenced by Jansenist worries of having to be 'pure' in order to receive the sacrament. Let's take them in turn.

The first argument is based on the assumption that spiritual communion is a sort of Eucharistic communion without receiving the Eucharist. If that is the case, than one can receive the grace of the sacrament, namely the union with the Mystical body of Christ, without receiving the 'concrete' sacrament: res sine sacramentu. Granted that the assumption is right, the practice of spiritual communion is indeed pernicious and dangerous to the doctrine of the Eucharist. What need is there after all of going to Mass? Beretta writes that 'evidently' spiritual communion can not be compared to the sacrament. Hence it is a 'fake' sacrament and the practice should be reconsidered.

However, the assumption is false. Evidently, spiritual communion is different from Eucharistic communion. It is not intended as a para-sacrament and it never was. In the words of Aquinas spiritual communion is "an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Holy Sacrament and a loving embrace as though we had already received Him". Spiritual communion is intimately connected to the Eucharistic communion, but not in the sense that Beretta sees that relation. Spiritual communion is not the reality without the matter, but an expression of the desire to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. So instead of undermining the doctrine and practice of the Eucharist, it strengthens it.

The second argument Beretta employs consists in rendering absurd and backward those who want to defend the practice of spiritual communion. It is based on a fallacy by association. It is true that the practice of spiritual communion has been abused by 'jansenist' currents in the Church. But by affirming such a thing without qualification Beretta taints the practice of spiritual communion with the label of backward, pre-conciliar, traditionalist, ... Since he does not present a real argument, let me just reply in his own coin. People who recommended spiritual communion were among others Thomas Aquinas, Theresia of Avila and John Paul II. Surely not all were tainted with the 'Jansenist' streak?

Conclusions? There is no contradiction between practising spiritual communion and being faithful to the doctrine and practice of the Eucharist. The two arguments Beretta presents are both flawed. Of course, every practice has its excesses but that is no reason to condemn a practice. I agree with Beretta's last comments, namely that we have to take a good look at our devotional practices. Not in order to reject them, however, but in order to renew them and root them again in the Gospel and in Him who is our Salvation.

Is Cosmopolitanism the new "Catholic guilt"?

... cosmopolitan emotions are most likely to develop when actors believe that they are causally responsible for harming others and their physical environment

-- Linklater, Andrew (2006) ‘Cosmopolitanism’, in A. Dobson and R. Eckersley (eds), Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.3

Cosmopolitanism is the philosophical position that all human beings belong to a single community and our obligations are essentially not bound by culture or nation.Typical concerns of cosmopolitans include world poverty, world government and international justice. Opposed to cosmopolitanism are positions like communitarianism (moral obligations are determined by and limited to one's culture) and post-modernism (nothing matters).

Cosmopolitans like Thomas Pogge (see my friend Eddie's post here) make the point that much of the Western world is actively responsible for much Third World poverty and suffering.

Hence the question - has cosmopolitanism replaced the fabled "Catholic guilt"?

Jesuit Education Redux

"We want human excellence" - Fr. Adolfo Nicolas SJ, Superior General of the Jesuits.

Catching Fire

In my last post, I mentioned a project I was working on. Well, I'm now at liberty to reveal what it is...  (cue drumroll...) another blog! (groan?!)

But in all seriousness, this is a different blog from my previous outings. It's called Catching Fire (check it out here) after a poem by fellow-British Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins. It's a group blog run by myself and five other Jesuit scholastics (seminarians) studying in London. Like An Unworthy Knight, it offers a faith-inspired look at culture and contemporary life but it may not deal as much with aspects of Jesuit living.

I will still continue to blog occasionally on AUK, but (for the next few months, at least) the majority of my posts would be on CF. So add it to your Blogroll / Favourites / Bookmarks / Feed / whatever and enjoy!

Disappearing Act

Just in case you're wondering where I've been all these months, I returned to London in September and started my MA in Philosophy at Heythrop College. (That also explains why the header's changed!)

Over the next few days, I'm experimenting with my blog layout for another project I'm working on (no details yet - spoilers!). Keep calm and carry on ;-)