“Stand your ground armed with spiritual weapons!”

There is a fine bishop in England, in Shrewsbury (across the river from Liverpool).  His Excellency Most Rev. Mark Davies recently addressed the Faith Movement during their conference.  ZENIT has more.

Young Catholics Urged to Engage in Spiritual Warfare
Bishop Stresses Need to “Stand Our Ground” in a Europe in Danger of Losing Christian Foundations

Young Catholics should stand their ground “armed with spiritual weapons” ready to challenge the destructive ideologies of the 21st century, a bishop has told a summer gathering.

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, England, said Europe was in danger of losing its Christian foundation and that our times do not allow any Christian to be “mediocre”.

The bishop was addressing more than 200 people at the Faith movement’s 42nd annual Summer Session held last Aug. 11-15 at Woldingham School, Surrey. [Faith is excellent.  My friend Fr. Tim Finigan is involved, which is as fine a mark of distinction as any group would hope to have.  They have an excellent publication.  Do check them out HERE]

He said: “In the seeming quiet of British society in the early 21st century, we are urged again, in the Apostle Paul’s words, to stand our ground armed with spiritual weapons.

[…]

Read the rest there.

I agree wholeheartedly with Bishop Davies.  We are in a state of war.  We always have been, of course.  For the entirety of human history all of us are constantly struggling with the world, the flesh and Devil.

These days, however, the war is heating up.  Do you not feel this as well?

I think that, for us in the Latin Church, among the more important spiritual weapons we must buckle on are frequent confession and celebration of the sacraments and office especially in the older, traditional form of the Roman Rite.

My position is that Benedict XVI, seeing what was happening, had a kind of “Marshall Plan” in mind.  During his work as a theologian and then as Roman Pontiff, we had a three-pronged plan.  He saw that we urgently need to shore up biblical exegesis (see his intro to the first volume of his Jesus of Nazareth USA HERE UK HERE), find a proper interpretive lens, or hermeneutic, for Vatican II (see his 2005 Address to the Roman Curia), and, most importantly, revitalize our sacred worship (see Summorum Pontificum).  As the Marshall Plan rebuilt post-war Europe as a bulwark against Communism, Benedict’s plan is a defense against the “dictatorship of relativism”.

Furthermore, he called for a New Evangelization (and his three projects support that effort).  However, no initiative undertaken in support of a New Evangelization (recovery of our Christian Catholic identity in places where it has been snuffed out) can be successful without a liturgical renewal.  This must be done with the use also of the traditional Roman liturgy, which both provides a corrective for the Novus Ordo and provides in an of itself great spiritual benefit.   Ratzinger correctly say that the crisis of identity in the Church is a crisis of our liturgical worship.

So, I applaud Bp. Davies in his call for spiritual warriors.

I add my voice to the call.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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6 Comments

  1. polycarped says:

    I’m proud to say that Bishop Mark Davies is the Bishop of the Diocese in which I live. We are truly blessed. He is a rare breed over here, sadly.

  2. Simon_GNR says:

    “… His Excellency Most Rev. Mark Davies…”
    Fr. Z: May I remind you, once again, that bishops in England & Wales are “Right Reverend”, not “Most Reverend”, as they are in Ireland and the U.S.A. In England & Wales only archbishops are “Most Reverend”.

    [And when I am in England, that’s the form of address I use when I meet a bishop. On my blog, however, I’ll happily use whatever form of address that it pleaseth me to use. o{]:¬) ]

  3. Supertradmum says:

    My sem son has gone to these meetings, although I do not know if he did this year. I know he was playing cricket yesterday!

    Bishop Davies is great! Catholics are fortunate in many of the “new appointments” recently in GB. There is a Faith magazine one can subscribe to get.

  4. AdamRules247 says:

    A small correction for Fr. As Bishop Davies is an Bishop this side of the pond he is ‘His Lordship’ rather than ‘excellency’. [I don’t happen to be on that side of the pond. And this is a rabbit hole.]

    I was at this talk and I can attest to it’s marvellousness, and if people watch the Faith movement’s website they will find the whole talk uploaded on there soon enough. He questions and answers were probably the best bit. The bishop spoke of the irreverence, indifference, and coldness with which so many approach the Eucharist. He told us all there that it was first necessary to examine our own consciences and examine when we’ve been irreverent, indifferent, or cold towards the Eucharist. As part of his answer he also recommended an article by Fr Finigan, whom Fr Z mentioned above, about Communion and the problems we often witness in parishes. It can be found online on the Faith Movement’s website or on the print magazine which is most certainly worth a subscription to

  5. Gladiatrix says:

    A small geographical point. Shrewsbury is on the River Severn; Liverpool on the River Mersey. The two are not opposite each other. [Thanks for the correction!]

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