By Fr Brian O’Connell
In this hemisphere February is usually the launch pad for the new year of grace and endeavour. Summer holidays for most are over. Provincial Anniversary holidays, Australia Day, Waitangi Weekend and the Sydney to Hobart ocean race provide a brief respite before the academic year proper kicks in.
The Catholic year begins fittingly with the Presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple, mirroring the crowds of young parents presenting their new entrants at schools. Mid-month, Ash Wednesday catches us right in the middle of the BBQ season, and invites us to turn our minds to the preparation for the defining Christian Festival of Easter.
All of us have our individual hopes and aspirations for the the church.
In the English-speaking world we have a new English translation for the Mass to look forward to –that it will envigorate our Sunday worship.There have been lead-up preparation programmes. Precious few people have actually seen the texts but we are assured that the Bishops and their experts are taking a long hard look. Some commentators have expressed alarm that we are going back to a version closer to the Latin texts, but we are the Latin Rite after all, so some relation to the Latin text seems proper. It is not reassuring when experts assure us that the previous English translation was incapable of handing on the richness of the Roman Rite. It was all we had, and most Catholics I know did their best to pray these prayers given to us in red-covered books with all the required Imprimatur. It is a matter of ‘watch this space’ and hope for inspiring Mass prayers.
It will be fascinating to see the outcome of various efforts to bring estranged groups back into the bosom of the church. The Vatican has spared no pains to reconcile the tiny schismatic SPPX group to the post-Vatican Council church. When Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications on the four Lefebvrist Bishops, one commentator said “they treated it like a surrender and proceeded to dictate terms”; but now Rome is trying again, and we ought pray for a better outcome. At the same time hoping that some other groups on the outer, like married former priests, be extended a similar olive branch.
It will be a special year for the Editor. With my 40th ordination anniversary looming, God willing and health permitting I have been reappointed as editor of the Messenger for another 5-year term. And there is the prospect of sabbatical study leave in the second half of the year. It is a great blessing to be able to stop for a while, and devote more time to reflection, and observation of people being Church in other places.
