Our Father: Give us this day our daily bread

The eyes of all creatures look to you

and you give them their food in due time (Ps. 145(144):15)

This verse from the Psalms is taken up in the monastic Grace before meals. We ask God to bless our food, trusting that he is the source of all good things who will satisfy our daily needs. We are bodily creatures, not angels. So, in the Lord's Prayer, having asked that our wills and minds be turned to the Lord, we ask him to attend to our bodily needs too: "Give us this day our daily bread".

In Jesus's context, as in much of the world today, bread is the staple food. In the Old Testament, bread is often interchangeable with “life” itself. In Psalm 103(104), we sing God's praises for his providential care of all creatures, giving them food, drink and shelter. Human beings are part of this ecosystem and so God provides “bread to strengthen man’s heart” (v. 15). This Biblical notion of "bread" covers all our daily needs, as St Augustine notes: “we ask for a sufficiency of all things necessary under the one name of bread” (Ep. 130:11).

'Prayer before meals', Manansala

And yet – “man does not live by bread alone”! Jesus thus rebukes the devil in the desert, because a focus on material needs can distract us from the priorities of our spiritual life (Mt 4:4, Lk 4:4, quoting Dt 8:3). After giving us the Lord's Prayer, Jesus goes on to say (Mt 6:25): "do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" Food is there to serve our higher goal of becoming God's children; we should not seek to curry favour with God just to receive material rewards. As St Maximus the Confessor said, we should eat to live, not live to eat! Life means so much more than natural nourishment. “For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

But what about all the starving people in the world? Should they be satisfied with purely spiritual goals? Of course not: ordinary bread is not to be neglected! The obligation to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness", does not mean God wants us to ignore material needs; instead he tells us to seek his kingdom in order that "these things [bread, etc.] shall be yours as well" (Mt 6:32-3). The more we focus our goals on God's righteousness and justice, the better we understand the urgency of the task to create a fairer world. Nearly 1,000 million people go hungry every night, and yet there is more than enough food in the world, but it is unfairly distributed. Inequality builds up when we selfishly build structures to guarantee our future security, not noticing how this damages other people around us – as when people “panic-buy” during a shortage, meaning that those who really need the goods are left without (cf. the parable of the Rich Fool, Lk 12:16-21). God has not abandoned the starving; he is very close to them. But he needs us to act in truth and righteousness so that justice may flourish on earth.

Finally, there is an important double-meaning in the word "daily" in "our daily bread". The Greek term, epiousios, is totally unique in the Bible and Classical Greek literature, so Origen was probably right that the Evangelists coined it (leaving the original Aramaic term a mystery). It can mean "sufficient for the day" (either today or tomorrow), hence "daily" or "needful". But St Jerome was equally justified in translating it supersubstantialis – "more than substantial" – which would later occur even in the English Douai-Rheims translation as "supersubstantial". The Christian tradition, especially in the West, has long seen a connection between the daily need for ordinary bread and the ultimate need to receive the "living bread" that Jesus promised us would be his very own body. That is why the Council of Trent called the Eucharist by this Biblical term, "supersubstantial" (Session 13, Ch. 8). Only Jesus himself is the "living bread which came down from heaven", which a person may eat and live forever (Jn 6:51). The natural substance of our being is transformed by the grace-filled "supersubstance" of the "living bread" – the Body of Christ – which we receive in the Eucharist. That is why all people may call on God for their food, but only Christians may pray for their "daily bread" in precisely the way that Jesus taught us.

Velasco, 'Hapag ng Pag-asa' (Table of Hope)

Our Father: Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven

                                   “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

So familiar is recitation of the Lord's Prayer to many of us that often, I suspect - if some readers are anything like me - we have not really tuned in, not really got around to focusing on what exactly it is we are petitioning the Lord for with these words, before we are already over half-way through the prayer and thinking about who we might be forgiving for their trespasses against us!

The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel

These are difficult words. Obviously they are not difficult to say, but they can be very difficult to mean. Throughout the history of the Church it has ever been thus. Think of Peter's confession to Jesus in Mark 8: "You are the Christ", whereupon Jesus foretells of how he must suffer, be rejected and killed, before He will rise again. And what is Peter's reaction to this? Peter has the audacity to rebuke Jesus, before being swiftly rebuked himself by Jesus with those cutting and chastening words, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men."

Peter desired that the Lord's will be conformed to his – to his ideas of what the Messiah should be –and this desire has remained prevalent to this day. To will what God wishes is hard. It is much easier to pray that God would will what we wish. And yet, whilst we go on doing this, we will not become truly Christ-like; in fact, we will grow apart from him. We must aspire to follow the example of Christ at Gethsemane who said: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this chalice from me; yet not what I will, but what you will.” This is Jesus perfectly living out the perfect prayer He taught us.

The Agony in the Garden, El Greco

The first stage in living out this petition has to manifest itself in an earnest to desire to learn what it is that the Father wills. Again, to do this, we are best to follow the Lord’s example; to pray and to be familiar with the scriptures. The Father’s will is not necessarily ours! Thomas Aquinas reminds us, in his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, that the third gift which the Holy Spirit works in us is called the gift of knowledge. He goes on to say that “among all that goes to make up knowledge and wisdom in man, the principal wisdom is that man should not depend solely upon his own opinion.” We can know the truth, but we do not always find it by contemplating our own desires.

This takes humility; as St Thomas goes on to say: ‘Out of humility one does not trust one's own knowledge: "Where humility is there is also wisdom." (Proverbs 11:2) The proud trust only themselves. Now, the Holy Spirit, through the gift of wisdom, teaches us that we do not our own will but the will of God. It is through this gift that we pray of God that His "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And in this is seen the gift of knowledge.’

Now the second part of fulfilling this petition is perhaps the most difficult. To will God’s will over our own when the two are in conflict is challenging. But paradoxically this is the only way that we will ever be truly free. Whilst we are slaves to our own wills, we will never obtain the freedom that Christ promises, we will never be our true selves; we will never allow grace to perfect our nature.

But conforming our will to His is easier said than done. It is not an easy thing to confront greatness. We can struggle enough when we find it in another person, let alone when we contemplate our finitude in relation to God. If we are not careful this can discourage, even paralyse, for the greatness of the other makes me feel my own littleness, perhaps even deluding ourselves that we don't really matter. Goethe said that there is only one defence against great superiority, and that is love. And perhaps this is true, for it is only love of Christ that can help us partake in the divine life. But Fr Romano Guardini wonders whether this covers the entirety of the matter; for it may not always be possible to love. He suggests that it may be more correct to say that the best defence against great superiority consists in truth and reverence, which say: “He is great, I am not. But it is good that greatness should be, even if it is not in me but in another.” Then there is an open space, and envy disappears.

As I write this, I think of how much pressure there is on the Church to change its teaching and its practice. I cannot help but think that what we are witnessing is largely as a result of the desire that God be more like us. We find something hard or requiring heroic qualities and we wish that God did not will it that way. We delude ourselves that because God’s mercy overflows, that He can no longer judge. We forget that mercy cannot exist without justice. We begin to think that the greatest travesty is that somebody might be put off the practise of the faith because of its difficulty. And thus we seek to argue why God’s will must be for us to remain in whatever state we are in, and that the Church’s teaching should alter to condone us in our sin, not call us out of it, at the same time abandoning the notion of conforming ourselves to Christ.

St Martin de Porres OP feeds the poor, Holy Cross Dominican Priory, Leicester

Archbishop Charles Chaput wisely reminded us recently about what happens when we ignore Jesus’s teaching: “If we ignore the poor, we will go to hell. If we blind ourselves to their suffering, we will go to hell. If we do nothing to ease their burdens; then we will go to hell. Ignoring the needs of the poor among us is the surest way to dig a chasm of heartlessness between ourselves and God, and ourselves and our neighbours.” And he goes on to say that whilst all are welcome in the Church “we can’t pretend that they’re welcome on their own terms. None of us are welcome on our own terms in the Church; we’re welcome on Jesus’ terms. That’s what it means to be a Christian—you submit yourself to Jesus and his teaching, you don’t recreate your own body of spirituality.” Only if we truly heed these words can we pray with integrity: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Dominican Priories: Glasgow

The Dominican house in Glasgow is a fairly recent mission for the Order, in the grand scheme of things. The official seal of the city often used on official materials is “Let Glasgow flourish” but what is often missed out is the full text of the seal, “Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word and the praising of Thy name”. Glasgow was founded as a city by St Mungo, who is also the city’s patron saint. Since its days as a small merchant town known for salmon fishing on the Clyde, Glasgow has always been an important ecclesiastical centre. The Dominicans had a Priory in Glasgow from 1246, when William de Bondington, Bishop of Glasgow, and the Cathedral Chapter, at the behest of King Alexander III (1241-1286) welcomed the friars to the city, asking that the Friars Preachers be received in his diocese. Our Dominican priory was situated some few hundred yards south of the Glasgow Cathedral, at the bottom of the modern High Street. The priory complex included a school for the teaching of the liberal arts, and a house studium. 

The pub named ‘Blackfriars’ is located near to where the medieval Dominican priory in Glasgow was situated. 

The Dominicans were forced to leave Glasgow during the Scottish reformation, and the Priory was secularised by the state in 1566-67. It was not until 1965 that the Order made a return to Glasgow and committed to having a Dominican presence in this important Archdiocese. 

One of the institutions which the Dominican Order was associated from the very beginning, is the University of Glasgow, when in 1451 when Bishop William Turnbull founded the University. The foundation of the University was an event, but its growth and development was a long, gradual process, involving the coming together of several factors. It was in the buildings of the Dominican ‘Black Friars’ priory in Glasgow, that the first university meetings and business, and the first lecture, took place. The priory continued to provide teaching facilities until the University gradually acquired its own permanent premises. The Dominican church was also used for university worship.

A major factor in kick-starting Glasgow as the ‘second city of the British empire’ was its location on the river Clyde. Glasgow had a competitive advantage compared with London or the major centres of trade in Europe: the travel time for ships going to and from North America was around three days less going from the ports on the Clyde. That meant it was cheaper and easier for industries to set up in Glasgow. Central Scotland also had cheap natural resources such as coal and iron ore to fuel the industrial growth of Glasgow, which became a powerhouse of one of the world’s first industrialised economies. The merchants of the city made their money in trading tobacco, cotton and textiles. Just as today, land was a solid investment with a great potential for making a good return on investment. The merchants invested their money in buying up marshy land, draining the marshes surrounding the medieval city of Glasgow, so they could build on the land. It was typically unskilled Catholic Irish immigrants who were employed for the heavy manual labour of turning swamps into solid ground to expand the city, and to improve the farm land to feed the ever-expanding population. These merchants of Glasgow were some of the first capitalists who acquired this ‘new money’ from trade, and spared no expense in building their luxury mansions, wearing the best clothing made in the textile factories, smoking tobacco from their plantations in Virginia. As Glasgow expanded as an industrial hub, larger factories producing more technologically advanced goods were opened, for an expanding industrial era. Money was to be made in buying raw materials from abroad and turning them into high-value products to sell across the world market. It was the growth of the British Empire which enabled Glasgow to have this access to raw materials and a market of buyers at home and abroad. The engineering expertise that Scots are known for aided the expansion of heavy industry. It was the need for cheap labour in shipyards, factories and dockyards which led to an influx of Catholics moving to Glasgow - much of the immigration came from Catholic Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, England and later Italy, Poland and beyond.

The Doulton Fountain, Glasgow Green. The fountain depicts four water-carriers, representing parts of the British empire - India, Australia, Canada, South Africa

History matters to the Dominican mission. Around 30% of the population in Glasgow identify as Catholic. This puts Glasgow and the surrounding conurbations proportionally higher in Catholic population than most of the United Kingdom. The Dominican friars currently run the parish of St Columba’s in Woodside, in the city’s West end. One of the friars is Catholic chaplain to the University of Strathclyde, with the chaplaincy centre also a hub for the city centre higher education establishments. One of the other friars is involved with prison chaplaincy, and the other friars also help with parish duties and have their own academic work.

The Parish of St Columba's

The Dominicans started running the Parish of St Columba’s in the mid 2000s. The church and presbytery are examples of the early work of the architect Jack Coia. It is one of the only buildings still under construction during World War II, with the sanctuary holding a marble reredos and carved crucifix by the sculptor Benno Schotz. 

For the Dominicans, the city of Glasgow is an important place to be. With such a large population of the city identifying as Catholic, but a comparatively small number of the population actually attending Mass, there is a considerable evangelical mission to bring Catholics back to Church. There is a huge task ahead, in meeting what is asked of the ‘new evangelisation’ that Pope Francis speaks of. This involves educating people in a core Catholic theology that is fit for purpose in a postmodern context, a liturgy that will nourish and sustain our faith, and hopefully being able to answer the questions that people want answers to. The Dominican mission also includes practical support for initiatives such as pro-life or social justice projects, as well as lay evangelisation. The demographic of Catholics in Scotland now is hugely different when compared with the origins of the Catholic Church in Scotland after the hierarchy was restored. This new demographic of Catholics who have opportunities that were previously never possible is an interesting challenge. How do we engage with where people are at now? People who wish to maintain and strengthen their Catholic faith whilst working in all sorts of spheres of society.

Our Father: Thy Kingdom come

In this part of the Our Father we echo that well known invocation Marana tha - Come, Lord Jesus. This is because when we pray for the coming of the Kingdom, we also pray for the coming of its Sovereign, Jesus. 

Fra' Angelico, Christ's Glorified in the Court of Heaven

In another sense, according to St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine, the “kingdom” is eternal life. We look forward to obtaining and sharing in eternal happiness in heaven. As Our Lord later says in the Gospel of Matthew, “Come, O blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” [Mt 25:24]. In saying the words, “thy kingdom come”, therefore, we are making a statement of faith of the world to come.

Further, St. Thomas Aquinas notes, we can think of these words as asking for the Lord to reign over us: “for when we serve justice, then God reigns, but when we serve sin, the devil does: let no sin reign in your body, (Rom 6:12); they have not rejected you but me, from reigning over them (1 Sam 8:7).” So, on this understanding, we are asking the Lord to make us his agents, to reign in our heart in order that we act with charity and in accordance with the God’s law;  in order that we may do justice rather than evil.

Of course, these three ways of reading the words are closely connected. If we synthesise what we have said already, we could say that we invoke God’s blessings for the present, serve justice through the practice of charity and avoidance of evil, and that we do all of this in the hope of gaining a place in heaven.

As far as summaries of the Christian life go, that’s not bad in three words! Then again, one shouldn’t be surprised - they are Jesus’s words after all! 

The Godzdogz Team 2014-15

The Godzdogz Team, 2014-15

We are pleased that the Dominican community at Blackfriars has grown to 27 this year. The Godzdogz Team (i.e. the student brothers) is larger thanks to new vocations in the English Province. Earlier this month, Brothers Joseph Bailham OP and Christopher Pierce OP began their studies in the Blackfriars Studium, having made Simple Profession in Cambridge.

We also welcomed Br Richard Steenvoorde OP, who recently made Simple Profession in Zwolle for the Province of the Netherlands, having completed his novitiate in Cambridge. Br Jean-Baptiste Régis OP joined us from the Province of France, having made his Solemn Profession in Lille last month, and will study in Oxford for the next two years. From Poland, Br Mateusz Grzelczak OP has come for a year to continue his studies.

We also have more priests in the community. Fr Irenaeus Vincent OP has moved from London to continue his Doctoral studies. There are three priests from the Province of St Joseph (USA), two of whom are on sabbatical: Fr Albert Paretsky OP, Biblical scholar, and Fr Thomas Joseph White OP, director of the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington. Fr Gregory Schnakenberg OP has begun a Master's in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford.

Deo gratias.

Dominican Priories: Oxford (Blackfriars Hall)

The plaque on the outside of Blackfriars highlighting its existence as a Priory, a Studium, and a Hall of the University

In a previous post, Br Oliver explained how Blackfriars in Oxford exists as a Priory, as well as a home to the Studium. Blackfriars is also home to Blackfriars Hall, which is a Permanent Private Hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford. Like the more familiar colleges of Oxford, such as Christ Church and New College, Blackfriars Hall can admit students for degrees from the University. PPHs are generally much smaller than colleges both in physical size and number of personnel, and tend to have a more religious character.

Blackfriars Hall was established in 1994 on 1st January. We Dominicans were involved in the life of the University long before this date (though admittedly with a substantial hiatus in between; but that was not our fault!). After our first priory in Oxford was established in 1221, Dominicans very quickly took up high-ranking positions within the University's theology faculty. 

The Aula at Blackfriars, which is where most lectures take place

The Hall offers an intimate and friendly academic setting for mature undergraduate and postgraduate students, who have the unique opportunity to be taught, particularly in the case of theology and philosophy students, by the brethren, and to study alongside the student friars, as well as the other religious and non-religious students in formation as part of the Studium. 

Before being accepted by the Dominicans, I was a postgraduate student in the Hall reading for my Master's in theology. It was a period in which I was privileged to have had the opportunity to get to know the brethren better and to see a little closer the life they lived, which without question contributed to my wanting to be a Dominican friar. The Hall serves as a special bridge between the religious world of the friars and the secular environment of a modern university, thus existing as a very unique and important form of outreach for us as friars in the English context.

Our Father: Hallowed be thy name

A Dominican friend from Panama suggested to me that the English translation of the Our Father is the worst of all of the modern languages. I have always disagreed with him, until pondering the use of ‘hallowed be thy name’ in the Lord’s prayer. How often do we ever hear the word ‘hallowed’ used in any other context than the Our Father? Hallowed is a strange word sounding a bit like like ‘halloween’ but not really having much other use than here in the Our Father. I would translate the Latin text ‘sanctificetur nomen tuum’ into English as ‘sacred is your name’ or perhaps ‘your name is most holy and sacred’. When we pray to God, perhaps no language can express the magnitude of sacredness and holiness of God.

In a letter to Proba by St Augustine, he ponders the purpose of praying. If the Lord knows what we need before we ask for it, then what is the point of approaching God who is all-knowing (omniscient) and omnipotent? If God knows what we want, what we need and can provide then do we really need to ask in the first place? This uber-sacredness of God, His hallowed name, is highlighted by St Augustine, who teaches that our Lord and God does not want to know what we want (as he cannot fail to know this), but instead wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what he is preparing to give us. His gift is very great indeed, but our capacity is too small and limited to receive it. That is why we are told, Enlarge your desires, do not bear the yoke with unbelievers. The deeper our faith, stronger our hope, the greater our desire, the greater our capacity will be to receive that gift.

Just as sacredness or ‘hallowed-ness’ is difficult to imagine or perceive, it requires effort to remember just who and what God is. God is the highest of all that is sacred and holy, and the way for us to obtain a life of happiness in eternity. St Augustine reminds us that we are limited, but we can grow in our capacity to receive the gift of a life of happiness, through prayer. Yes, our understanding of the sacred is limited, but what we can do is try our best to have the sacred be exactly that. Sacred liturgy, music and artwork in our churches help direct us to the Almighty. The hallowed nature of Catholic churches needs to be maintained and promoted as being something that is not disposable, everyday or open to unthinking reform. This is partly why I despise some of the tacky and banal Church architecture of the mid to late 20th century. Such buildings do not represent hallowed ground or the sacred, they just look like some concrete community centre. Catholicism means turning our lives to God rather than selling out to worldly pursuits. We are taught to build up virtues that will serve us for life, rather than believing money will give us permanent happiness. To paraphrase Frank Underwood in the US series House of Cards, “Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after ten years.” Hallowed is the old stone building that stands for centuries.