A long overdue post!!!

I recently met a friend who I hadn’t seen since last summer. One of his first questions was “So how was Spain, I thought you were going to keep us up to date with your happenings through your blog?” If you are reading this then you can see that I didn’t! Therefore I apologise for my complete laziness.  It would be impossible to try and tell you about all that happened in Spain. What I can tell you is that it was a very good and helpful year for me and as a result I am preparing to begin four years of study in Rome at The Beda

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As I type this post I am on a train heading north to Lancashire where my final destination will be Fleetwood and the Catholic parish of St Wulstan’s and St Edmund’s. This is a return visit for me because I spent four weeks in January doing a pastoral placement as part of my year in Spain. At the time I was very happy and even now that month is one that I see as a vocation affirming time.

Why was it so affirming? Simply, it is because of the priest and people of the parish. The parish priest is Canon Alf Hayes who is a real inspiration to anybody thinking about priesthood. He is an excellent example of what being a parish priest is all about. The first thing that we did together when I arrived was to pray Evening Prayer together. This was a sign of what the foundation of our life together over the next few weeks was to be – prayer! For Fr Alf prayer was the bedrock of his life as a parish priest, not only the formal prayers of the church and the Mass, but also that quiet one to one meditation with God each morning.  I would arrive in church on the dark January mornings to find him already in church deep in prayer.

The parish is a two church parish that has recently merged under the ‘Fit for Mission’ plans started off by the last Bishop of Lancaster. I was amazed at how little bitterness there seemed to be in the parish about it. St Edmunds on paper could have been a place of bitterness because they no longer had their own priest and the presbytery had been sold. The church was in remarkably good form and one of my first meetings was with a group of parishioners who were looking at how to develop the life and ministry of the church in that parish.

The life of Fr Alf was certainly a full and busy one – but he is not a priest who feels he has to do everything himself. He is a great enabler. I was extremely impressed by the number of people who would take responsibility for different aspects of church life. In his time there, one of the churches needed painting, so the scaffolding went up and a willing team of volunteers all helped give the church a facelift.

For me the most impressive bit of work that the parish had done in Fr Alf’s time was to set up a food bank. When the credit crunch set in, the parish noticed that people were losing jobs and some families were finding it a struggle to make ends meet. So they decided that it would be good to do food parcels. They were able to link up to local agencies to be put in touch with those in need (or rather the other way round as people have to be referred by an agency). They ran the food bank from a local community centre and in my time there they were providing food parcels for up to forty or so families. This ministry was carried out with Divine Providence. It depended on food donations from parishioners and other local churches or on financial donations from people that would enable the team to go and buy food from the supermarket. There were also regular donations from the local open prison’s market garden, which meant piles of fresh veg! The helpers told me of an occasion where they were down to the last £25.00 in the bank and nothing in the cupboard and they were afraid that they would not be able to open the next time. In the post that day came a cheque from a local parish for £300. They all knew that God is good!

The parish has a large number of sick and housebound who are not always able to get to Mass. On Friday morning there is a team of extraordinary ministers of communion who take the Blessed Sacrament to the sick. Fr Alf also has Friday morning down in his diary for sick communions. He takes a different round each week which enables him to get to see a great number of parishioners over a number of weeks. In my time there I was given my own round and was able to meet a number of different people. I was struck by the fact that once I had given communion there were no expectations for me to stay and chat. They knew I had more people to see and they wanted to be able to give thanks to Our Lord for being able to receive him in the Sacrament.

There was a real core of parishioners who were very prayerful, some would say Morning Prayer before weekday Mass in St Edmund’s and some would recite the rosary before Mass in St Wulstan’s. Each week on a Wednesday and Saturday there was a period of exposition after Mass for half an hour. The intention of each Holy Half Hour was to pray for vocations. The number of priestly vocations that have come from this parish is not insignificant.

The parish also has two schools. The parish primary school is next door to St Wulstan’s and the Cardinal Allen High School is next door to St Edmund’s. I had the privilege of spending time with both. In the High School I would meet with different students in a small group. I would begin with telling a little bit about myself – why I was there, bits of my past. Then I would open it up to questions. There would be the normal questions about “Why do you want to be a priest?” and because they were teenagers the subject of sex would inevitably come up. I always answered the questions that they asked, but would make it clear what the Church teaches on the subject.  The primary school was excellent and it was quite clear that there was a good relationship between the school and the parish. Fr Alf was always a welcome guest and the children would flock around him as soon as he entered the playground. Amazingly they were the same with me. There was one class that I attended which I was very impressed with, but I’m going to leave that for another post as it is too good to just mention in passing.

One of the things I haven’t mentioned is the fact that Fr Alf had already booked his post-Christmas break in January. So I arrived on the Monday and he went off on holiday on the Friday. He had thought about putting me with another priest whilst he was away, but felt it was better that I see what it is like to be a priest in a parish on your own. As my first week went by, he saw that I had various experience from my days in SSF and so he put more opportunities my way. This included taking the RCIA class.

I think I got a wonderful glimpse of parish life on a particular day. I began with Morning Prayer and meditation. Then I prepared for a funeral at the local crem – was picked up by the permanent deacon in the neighbouring parish. After the funeral I dashed back for a Eucharistic Service and exposition. From that I went into the school, had a quick sandwich and then spent the afternoon in different classes. A cup of something warm when I returned to the Presbytery followed by Evening Prayer. I joined the church choir for their practice but had to leave near the end as some parishioners were taking me out to a local eatery. When I sat down in front of the TV to watch Newsnight I was aware that I had spent a day that had taken me from young children to death and that it was all in a day’s work of an ordinary parish priest.

This parish really helped me discern that the diocesan priesthood for me and so they have now become part of my vocation story. I couldn’t have been luckier, and so it is with a sense of excitement that I sit on the train heading north to be with them for the weekend.