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Booklets: 'The Watchful Hour', 'Vaughan'

  • Fr John Buckley

The Watchful Hour - A Scriptural Companion to Eucharist Adoration by Father Florian Racine.

Let me promise that I shall eat my proverbial hat if this is not a CTS bestseller in 2017 and beyond.

The breadth and scope of this 'Companion' is stunning. There are two dangers, among many, that confront a person who is embarking on path that is 'Eucharist Adoration'. One temptation is to become introverted in one's devotion and end up being segregated from real living. The prayer of adoration becomes..me..me ..me..and ends up in a spiritual disaster. The second is like it but with a different slant. That is when Eucharist Adoration becomes a false superiority complex. This results in some thinking that Eucharist Adoration makes them better and those who don't are a bit inferior. Then those who don't think they are not as holy as those who do and they feel like second class citizens. Not true.

I have met some of these aberrations in my ministry but how prevalent they are I am not able to say. What I can say is that, armed with 'The Watchful Hour' no such deviations are possible. The presence of the Crucified and Risen Christ in the Eucharist Celebration and consequently in the Reservation , is the Father's gift to us who have accepted His Son in faith in our lives. To use a modern simile, the Eucharist is the nuclear core of our church. It is the power of the Crucified and Risen Christ in us and with us. When we kneel in Eucharist Adoration in the Eucharist Presence we are in time and eternity.

But as Father Racine instructs us, in his masterpiece, we are also in communion with the total Christ. But as Christ is present in the 'Host' he is also present in the person adoring. He is also present in the homeless person sleeping in the bag in the streets of London. He is present also in the young man and woman holding hands in love and preparing for the sacrament of matrimony. He is also present in the politician who is dedicated to his constituents and working for a better society. He is present in the atheist who is searching in his own way for a meaning to his existence.

All this we must take in to our Eucharist Adoration and come away from our moments of adoration refreshed and ready to walk back our into that world that belongs to Christ. Father Racine's work is a complete catechism and is salvation history unfolding. We may not have the time or opportunity to take part in Eucharist Adoration but it is word and sacrament and wherever we are or whatever we are doing we can have this 'Watchful Hour' with us. And in a very special way Christ is with us when we open it and pray it.

Vaughan - His Life, Work & Mission. Fr. Robert O' Neil. CTS

Recently I was thrilled to read that " The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School", Kensington London, had received two prestigious awards in the field of education. I thought how Herbert Vaughan must have smiled as he looked down from Heaven.

To my mind Herbert Vaughan ranks with the great Catholic giants of history. He should be placed alongside Fisher and Moore and Manning and Newman. Vaughan was a man of great integrity, deep faith and a passionate hope and which finalised in a capacity to love as Christ his master beckoned. He was a true patriot and one might say the very best of British. Truth and a sense of Justice were so evident in all his dealings with Church and State. He had about him a serenity and calmness that impressed all who came into contact with him. His oyster was the world and made him the great missionary and all this especially he got from his mother the beautiful Eliza Rolls Vaughan. Till death he kept her picture with him.

This beautifully produced and written CTS pamphlet is a worthy tribute to it's founder.



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