Westminster: Final Year of Faith talks to focus on prayer

Fr Robin Gibbons

The four seasons of the Year of Faith in the Diocese of Westminster have been dedicated to a section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As we approach the final season, Faith Matters - a joint initiative of the diocese and the Jesuits - turns to the Church's life of prayer. A series of three evenings will explore the diversity of traditions of prayer, followed by a concluding lecture which will draw the Year of Faith to a close. It is entitled "Lord, teach us to pray".

The series begins on 16 October with an evening led by Fr Robin Gibbons on Working with Christ: Traditions of Prayer from East and West. Dr Gibbons specialises in Liturgy and Eastern Christianity at Oxford, is a Greek-Catholic Melkite Chaplain in the UK, and involved closely in ecumenism. (He also writes the Sunday Reflection for ICN).

Fr Robin will give a talk which shares his expertise and experience in the dialogue between the complementary traditions of prayer in east and west, both of which centre on the mystery of Christ. The convenor of Faith Matters, Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, says: "Focusing in particular on the Church's monastic tradition we will be introduced to the variety of ways to experience the spiritual life. From the east we have the way of light, icon and deep liturgical spirituality. From the west we are presented with a balanced way to live out our life so it is not only suffused with prayer but becomes a way of praying unceasingly. Above all we will encounter the way of listening to the Word, of God speaking to us, particularly through the meditative use of scripture."

On 23 October, Faith Matters turns from the contemplative monastic tradition to address the concrete practical issue of prayer in everyday life, especially for busy people. The speaker will be Leona Roche, a young lay Catholic working part-time as a solicitor in the charity sector, married for five years with a one-year-old daughter and with a second baby on the way. Before becoming a mum, Leona was involved for eight years with a Catholic charismatic prayer group for young adults in central London called Soul Food. "Leona's talk, Prayer is not important...it's essential!, addresses the very real challenge of how we can ensure that we have time with God each day," explains Fr Robinson. "Recognising how, in our busy lives, our prayer time can all too often be one of the first things that gets squeezed from our daily routine, we consider how we can seek to maintain a daily contact that keeps our faith alive and helps us in our day-to-day Christian walk."

On 6 November, Faith Matters will focus on a very contemporary issue: discovering God in a culture which is increasingly governed by advances in information technology, with Fr Dermot Preston SJ, the Provincial of the Jesuits in Britain. His talk will be entitled Through a Google Glass Darkly - Finding God in the Digital Age. Coming from a Jesuit tradition, Fr Preston explores ways that prayer has been shaped by the rise of the internet; and, in particular, he will highlight some of the emphases and characteristics that have fashioned the intimate search for God in the digital era. Through the lens of the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola, he will attempt to point out helps and hindrances that might be encountered along the winding road and he will suggest some means of assistance to the modern pilgrim.

Finally, on 19 November, Faith Matters concludes the Year of Faith with a special lecture by Archbishop Augustine di Noia OP, Vice-President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, on Contemporary Challenges to Proclaiming the Catholic Faith. Archbishop di Noia will speak of challenges we all face in explaining Catholic teaching in a more secular environment, in particular focusing on religious pluralism and expressive individualism as a moral ideal. Speaking to clergy of the Westminster Diocese in June, he challenged us to consider 'why we need a saviour who is not just any saviour, why we need Christ to be authentically human and why the moral law is good for us … In such circumstances retrenchment is not an option. In order to confront these challenges we need a confident evangelising and a robust, but not overbearing apologetics,'" says Fr Robinson.

Each of these talks is open to all. Prior registration, however, will be required neared the date. Check ICN listings for details;  email faithmatters@rcdow.org.uk or by phone: 020 7931 6078.