Good evening, it’s lovely to be able to speak to you all again. Last time I had the honour was 5 months ago at the healing Mass that we had here at St. Thomas More. It was a beautiful occasion that I am sure many of you will remember but, my most vivid memory of the talk that I gave was my sister, at the back of church, gesturing `Time Out’ (`T’) after I’d hit the 10 minute mark. Well she’s living it up in Bali, Indonesia at the moment, so if you feel yourself drifting off, feel free to give me the signal.

For anyone who doesn't know me – my name is Andrew Robinson. I’m in the 4^th year at Oscott College training for the priesthood and last July I was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. However, thanks to the mercy of God as a result of your prayers, after 2 courses of Chemo., as you can see, I’m still standing. And so I would like to thank each and every one of you for those prayers both for me and for all those suffering ill health.

Of course it is not just Coventry that has seen an increase in prayer. I was at the Queen Elizabeth not so long ago chatting to a fellow sufferer there at the outpatients while having treatment. After about half an hour I asked her name, "Mary" she said, "What’s yours?" "Andrew" "Oh, she said, we pray for an Andrew at our church… Andrew Tach…er… Tachbrook ???" "Not me" I said, "I’m Andrew Robinson." "That’s the feller!!"

On a more international scene I’m sure you have heard of Veronica and Mike Hammond’s shock, when they heard a bidding prayer in English for Andrew Robinson at Mass whilst on holiday in Tenerife of all places.

And so I felt the very least I could do was to offer up this Mass in thanksgiving for all the prayers that have been said on this the 200^th anniversary of Cardinal Newman. And also in thanksgiving for God’s presence with me over the last 6 months, both directly particularly during my pilgrimages to Lourdes and San Giovanni Rotondo, the home of Padre Pio and through the kindness of all of you, as we journey to God together.

Prayer of course is all about love; it is an act of love and charity which has the sole purpose of drawing us closer to God and to each other. The Catechism says that prayer and Christian life are inseparable, conforming us more and more to Christ Jesus. St. Paul tells us to,

But raising our hearts and minds to God in praise adoration and thanksgiving, asking him for all our needs is not always easy. We get distracted by our busy lives and if our prayers are not always answered as we would like, we can very easily lose heart, lose faith, and we may even stop praying altogether.

However, in love we persevere and try to overcome these problems in prayer. For example, the busy life requires an attitude of heart and mind that brings God into all the events of the day. A coffee break or a lunch break can both be opportunities for prayer. Even a toilet stop! Although perhaps we don’t offer all we do in prayer to God!!

The catechism states, quoting from St. John Chrysostom,

OK, so we need to persevere in prayer in our busy lives, but what about the problem of unanswered prayer which can cause us to lose heart?

When I was about 15-16 I remember distinctly, cutting back on my prayers before some of my `O’ Level exams because I’d noticed a trend of doing worse in those exams before which I had remembered to pray. The fact that these exams happened to be in the subjects I didn’t like had nothing to do with it?!

But the point is: What was my motivation in prayer? Was it to be successful at any cost or was it to grant me the strength to do my best and trust in God’s will whatever the outcome? Do I seek the pleasures and goals of this world or do I seek the virtues and will of God? Do I seek the gifts and fruits of the Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Fortitude, Charity, Patience, Faithfulness etc… or am I after success, power, money, so as to accommodate my own selfish pleasures?

St. James, writing to Christians in different parts of the Greco-Roman world, tells them that they need to submit themselves to God. With respect to prayer he tells them,

So for me, when I pray for healing from cancer, what are my motives? Am I like the thief, who hung on the cross next to Jesus saying, "Save yourself and us too"? In other words – show how powerful you are, Oh and incidentally I’ll be able to avoid suffering and enter back into the pleasures of life or do I seek the strength and capacity to carry my cross in faith and love submitting to God and his Will whatever that may be, so that I can say in good faith, "Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom."?

Today’s responsorial psalm 118 is all about finding peace and God’s Will, which for the Jews equated to the Law of Moses.

"The lovers of your Law have great peace, O Lord.

Lord, I long for your saving help and your Law is my delight."

Today’s first reading comes from Ecclesiasticus, written about 20 years before Christ on the subject of wisdom, its purpose was to inform the Jews and Greek intellects that true wisdom did not lie in the high-brow philosophies and pagan temples of Athens but rather, in the Will of the God of Israel in the Temple, at Jerusalem. Wisdom in Ecclesiasticus is integrated with the observance of the Law, and so again, we see that it is in God’s Will, which for the Jews was the Law of Moses, that Wisdom, Peace and Freedom is found. For us, of course, Christ is the fulfillment of that Law.

So in order to obtain true peace and happiness, our motive in prayer is that our own will be united to God’s Will in love, faith, trust and joy.

So is it God our Father’s Will then, that someone who is trying to give their life to God be struck down with cancer? Is it the Father’s Will that anyone suffer for that matter?

Not necessarily, but the fact of the matter is that we live in a world that is broken. The earthquakes in India and El Salvador, the war in Israel, floods in Mozambique, broken families, all kinds of abuse, depression, the homeless, abortion. The list goes on. We live in the shadow of the Cross. All to often we turn away, we try to run from it, hide from it, ignore it, we want to make it better, take people down from the cross that they bear. But it is in this same broken world that Christ, in His love for us, bore His Cross and died. And it is in the very sufferings of those around us that the face of Christ is most profoundly seen. This was brought home to me on my recent pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo, the home of Padre Pio, who, united to the passion of Christ, suffered the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, for 50 years, for the salvation of souls. God will use our sufferings if we can offer them up to him in love.

It is the Mass that unites our own sufferings to those of Christ for the salvation of all who live in hope of the resurrection, when every tear will be wiped away.

So in prayer then, we seek to be united to God’s Will. We seek the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit as we journey through both the joys and the sufferings of this life in faith, love, and in the hope of the resurrection that we may be open to the peace, freedom, and happiness that only God’s Spirit can give.

One person who persevered in prayer in suffering was Cardinal Newman. On his travels around Southern Europe, he became seriously ill in Sicily and whilst stationary on a ship on a fog bank, off the coast of Sardinia, he wrote the prayer that later became a hymn, "Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom."

His prayers no doubt carried him through many trials and conflicts as he battled to find freedom in the truth of God’s Law which led him to the faith of the Catholic Church.

Three of many friends I know who have persevered through great suffering in faith and who have gone to their eternal reward are Rina Gregory and more recently Stephen Rooney and Anne Fellows. I would like to finish with a prayer which Cardinal Newman wrote for the faithful departed which I would like to say especially for Rina, Stephen and Anne, and of course Val Keane whose body is being received into church after this Mass.

[Prayer for the faithful departed, extracts from]

"O God of the Spirits of all flesh, O Jesu, lover of souls, we recommend unto Thee the souls of all those Thy servants, who have departed with the sign of faith. May the heavens be opened to them, and the Angels rejoice with them. May the Archangel St. Michael conduct them to Thee. May Thy holy Angels come forth to meet them, and carry them to the City of the Heavenly Jerusalem. May all the Saints and the elect of God who in this world suffered torments in Thy name, befriend them; that, being freed from the prison beneath, they may be admitted into the glories of that Kingdom, where with the Father and the Holy Ghost Thou livest and reignest one God, world without end."

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