The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of Father Charles Briggs who died in the early hours of this morning at St Christopher’s Hospice, fortified by all the rites of Holy Mother Church.  Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum, per misericordiam Dei, requiescat in pace. Amen. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Fr Briggs is very grateful to you all for your Masses, prayers, cards and kind wishes. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. As expected, Father’s health has continued to worsen because of the cancer that he has, along with his existing health problems. Following medical advice, his family today agreed to transfer him for the time being, to St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham where additional support is on hand.  In the current circumstances, St Christopher’s has told us that they cannot allow visitors apart from two named people. Father Charles has asked his brother Matt Briggs and his priest friend, Father Finigan to take on this role. Cards and letters can be sent to Father Charles care of: St Christopher’s Hospice 51-59 Lawrie Park Road London SE26 6DZ Emails can be sent to him care of the parish email address: chislehurst@rcaos.org.uk  Thank you for your support and concern, and especially your prayers. Fr Tim Finigan Matt Briggs 23 August 2020

The parable of the good Samaritan presents us with a moral lesson, and the saints who have commented on it do refer to this lesson. However the parable is also remarkable for the way in which the Fathers of the Church consistently understood it as an allegory in which the traveller is the fallen human person, Jericho is the world, Jerusalem is heaven, and the good Samaritan is Our Lord. This kind of interpretation is found in St Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, St Ambrose and St Augustine.  This line of tradition is such that a scholar like Jean Danielou could suggest that it goes back to the first Christian community. If that is the case, it is probable that it goes back to Our Lord himself, in the “many other things” that Our Lord said. (Jn 21.25) This is why the Fathers of the Church are so important; they preserve for us the apostolic tradition, the lessons which the apostles themselves learned from Christ but are not written down. St Basil, for example, speaks of this t

Saint Gaspar del Bufalo (1786-1837) was an apostle of devotion to the Precious Blood. Imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon, and notable in charitable works, he preached with such power that the banditti came to lay down their weapons at his feet. Devotion to the Precious Blood is of fundamental importance. The talk quotes from St Gaspar, St John XXIII and our great English priest, Father Faber. (While you are on YouTube, I would be most grateful if you were to click or tap on the button to "Subscribe" to my channel .) Here is the text if you prefer just to read it: **************************** [Text] St Gaspar del Bufalo and the Precious Blood St Gaspar del Bufalo was born on the feast of the Epiphany in 1786, so his mother named him Gaspar, Melchior Balthasar when he was baptised (on the same day). His family worked in service and lived opposite the Church of the Gesù in Rome, so the young Gaspar would have known the painting there of the