The Dearmer Society of Ireland

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The Dearmer Society of Ireland

The Dearmer Society is a student society within The Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin. Members of our society commit themselves to a common life.

It exists under the chaplaincy of the Society for Catholic Priests for ordinands in the Anglican Communion. Through Christ’s grace we meet to join together in prayer, to hear lectures from guest speakers, to share resources, and to support each other in priestly formation. Central to the spirituality of the Society is the Eucharist, the means by which we are strengthened for our daily service of t

he Lord, and through which Christ’s redeeming work comes to life in us. We seek to uphold the values of the Society:
• To centre our lives on the real presence of Christ in his sacraments.
• To follow a corporate rule of life with integrity and humility.
• To give and receive hospitality after the example of Jesus.
• To seek the peace and unity of Christ’s church, aspiring to live in full communion with all of the baptized.
• To proclaim by word and example the Gospel of Christ.
• To encourage and equip one another in the ministry of evangelism. This is expressed in the hospitality of our meetings, the celebration of the Eucharist, mutual pastoral care for each other, and regular prayer for the priestly work of all the brothers and sisters. The Dearmer Society Prayer:
Father, we thank you that you have called us to your service. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, form us, encourage us and equip us to respond faithfully to your call. Unite us in the bonds of peace and love, that we may strengthen and support one another in the way of Christ, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen. For more information:
http://www.scp.org.uk/work/dearmer_society.html

18/12/2021

Flannan
Missionary and Pilgrim, c.640

St Flannan's Day is also celebrated in Scotland. He is one of the many travelling Irish saints, who embarked on long journeys, often by water as well as overland, partly as missionaries but also as pilgrims, making a spiritual "peregrination" to witness on the way for Christ. Flannan succeeded Mo-Lua who founded Killaloe cathedral on the Shannon. St Flannan's oratory beside the cathedral is an impressive example of early Irish architecture. Its large size and sound stone construction have been widely admired.

We pray for the diocese of Killaloe, its bishop, clergy and people.

We pray for travellers, for pilgrims, and all those who witness for Christ at home and abroad.

Almighty God,
in whose service Flannan travelled by land and water as a missionary pilgrim to witness to Christ on the way: Help us in our pilgrimage to be ever constant to Christ and in your mercy receive us at last into eternal rest;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

17/12/2021

Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of 'Save the Children', 1928

Eglantine Jebb was born in Ellesmere, Shropshire, in 1876 and went up to Oxford in 1894. Her deep Christian faith led her to work for the Charity Organisation Society and in 1913 she helped with relief work in Macedonia. This experience made her determined to help refugees and, after the First World War, she and her sister Dorothy set up the Save the Children Fund to work for the starving children in defeated Germany and Austria. The initial response to a crisis developed into a lasting international charity. Her work wa crowned by the League of Nations' Declaration of the Rights of Children (1924) which she wrote. She died on this day in 1928.

14/12/2021

John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher of the Faith, 1591

Juan de Ypres y Alvarez was born in 1542. His father died soon after, and Juan was brought up in an orphanage. (His father was probably Jewish. It is remarkable how many of the most memorable Spanish Christians have been of Jewish background.) At seventeen, he enrolled as a student in a Jesuit college, and at twenty-one, he joined the Carmelite Friars. He was ordained in 1567, and almost immediately met Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite Nun who was undertaking to return the Order to its original strict rule, which had been gradually relaxed to the detriment, as she believed, of the spiritual lives of the members of the Order. Those who followed the strict rule as promulgated by Teresa went barefoot or wore sandals instead of shoes, and so became known as Discalced (unshod) Carmelites, or Carmelites of the Strict Observance. John undertook to adopt the stricter rule and encourage others to do so.
Not all members of the order welcomed the change. In 1577 a group of Calced Carmelites, or Carmelites of the Ancient Observance, kidnapped John and demanded that he renounce the reform. When he refused, he was imprisoned in complete darkness and solitude in a Calced monastery in Toledo for about nine months. He then escaped and fled to a Calced monastery. While imprisoned at Toledo, he had begun to compose some poems, and now he wrote them down, with commentaries on their spiritual significance.

He was given various positions of leadership among the reformed friars, but then dissension broke out among the reformers between "moderates" and "extremists." John supported the moderate party, and when the extremists gained control, they denounced him as a traitor to the reform. He was sent to a remote friary, and fell ill, and finally died at Ubeda during the night preceding 14 December 1591.

His poems include:

THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL (about the experience of spiritual desolation, of feeling abandoned and rejected by God, and why this is for some Christians a means by which God increases our faith in Him; about the Christian walk, the life of prayer and contemplation, and growing in love and grace)

THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL (same poem as the preceding, but with a different commentary attached)

THE SPIRITUAL CANTICLE (about the love between the Christian and Christ as symbolized by the love between bride and groom; draws heavily upon the imagery of the Song of Solomon)

THE LIVING FLAME OF LOVE (about the soul transformed by grace)

13/12/2021

Samuel Johnson, Moralist, 1784

Born in 1709, Samuel Johnson ascribed his conversion as a young man to reading William Law's Serious Call and he became a high churchman, regular and sincere in his religious beliefs. He scandalized some by his tolerance of Roman Catholics, whilst at the same time his dislike of Presbyterianism and non-conformity was patent. He was well-known as an author, a lexicographer and a conversationalist. He died on this day in 1784 and was buried a week later in Westminster Abbey.

08/12/2021

The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child-bearing of blessed Mary:
grant that we who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature,
and your love made perfect in our weakness
may daily be renewed in your image,
and conformed to the pattern of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

07/12/2021

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher of the Faith, 397.

Born in Trier in 334, Ambrose was of an aristocratic family and was governor of northern Italy, with his headquarters at Milan. When the see of Milan fell vacant, it seemed likely that rioting would result, since the city was evenly divided between Arians and Athanasians.

Ambrose went to the meeting where the election was to take place, and appealed to the crowd for order and good will on both sides. He ended up being elected bishop with the support of both sides.

He gave away his wealth, and lived in simplicity. By his preaching, he converted the diocese to the Athanasian position, except for the Goths and some members of the Imperial Household.

On one occasion, the Empress ordered him to turn over a church to the Arians so that her Gothic soldiers could worship in it. Ambrose refused, and he and his people occupied the church. Ambrose composed Latin hymns in the rhythm of "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow," and taught them to the people, who sang them in the church as the soldiers surrounded it. The Goths were unwilling to attack a hymn-singing congregation, and Ambrose won that dispute.

He subsequently won another dispute, when the Emperor, enraged by a crowd who defied him, ordered them all killed by his soldiers. When he next appeared at church, Ambrose met him at the door and said, "You may not come in. There is blood on your hands." The emperor finally agreed to do public penance and to promise that thereafter he would never carry out a sentence of death without a forty-day delay after pronouncing it. Less creditable, to modern Christians, is Ambrose's dispute with the emperor when certain Christians burned a Jewish synagogue, and the emperor commanded them to make restitution. Ambrose maintained that no Christian could be compelled to provide money for the building of a non-Christian house of worship, no matter what the circumstances.

Ambrose was largely responsible for the conversion of St. Augustine. The hymn TE DEUM LAUDAMUS ("We praise Thee, O God") was long thought to have been composed by Ambrose in thanksgiving for that conversion. The current opinion is that Ambrose did not write it, but that he may well have written the Creed known as the Athanasian Creed. He is perhaps the first writer of Christian hymns with rhyme and (accentual) meter, and northern Italy still uses his style of plainchant, known as Ambrosian chant, rather than the more widespread Gregorian chant.

God of hosts,
who called Ambrose from the governor's throne
to be a bishop in your Church,
and an intrepid champion of your faithful people: mercifully grant that, as he did not fear to rebuke rulers, so we, with like courage,
may contend for the faith we have received
; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

06/12/2021

Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326

Nicholas was a native of the western part of what is now Asiatic Turkey. He became Bishop of Myra in the fourth century, and there are many stories of his love for God and for his neighbour.

The best-known story involves a man with three unmarried daughters, and not enough money to provide them with suitable dowries. This meant that they could not marry, and were likely to end up as prostitutes. Nicholas walked by the man's house on three successive nights, and each time threw a bag of gold in through a window (or, when the story came to be told in colder climates, down the chimney). Thus, the daughters were saved from a life of shame, and all got married and lived happily ever after.

Pictures of Nicholas often show three bags of gold next to him, and often these bags have become simply three disks or balls. Nicholas became the patron of an Italian city (I think Bari, which is where his body is now buried) that was a center of the pawnbroking business, and hence a pawnbroking shop traditionally advertises by displaying three gold balls over its front. It is thought that some persons looking at pictures of Nicholas confused the three round objects with human heads. Hence there is a story of a wicked innkeeper who murdered three boys and salted their bodies to serve to his guests, to save on the butcher's bill. Nicholas visited the inn and confronted the innkeeper, who confessed his crime, whereupon Nicholas prayed over the brine-tub and the three boys leaped out unharmed. Other stories have him saving the lives of three innocent men who had been condemned to death. Still other stories have him coming to the rescue of drowning sailors (could this be related to the brine-tub incident?). Nicholas has always been popular with children, mariners, pawnbrokers, the Dutch, the Russians, and recently, the department-store owners.

In many countries, Nicholas visits children on his feast day, 6 December, and brings them gifts then. In these countries, there is usually no exchange of Christmas presents, but there may be gifts again on January 6, the feast of the coming of the Wise Men, who brought gifts to the Holy Child of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We are told, but it is uncertain, that Nicholas was imprisoned for his faith before the accession of Constantine, and that he was present at the Council of Nicea in 325. We may note in passing that the picture of him as roly-poly is a late development. Early stories indicate that he was generous to others, but not given to self-indulgence. Indeed, even as an unweaned infant, he fasted regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Almighty Father, lover of souls,
who chose your servant Nicholas
to be a bishop in the Church,
that he might give freely out of the treasures of your grace:
make your people mindful of the needs of others,
and as they themselves have received,
so teach them also to give,
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

04/12/2021

Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637.

Nicholas Ferrar, born in 1593, was the founder of a religious community that lasted from 1626 to 1646.

After Nicholas had been ordained as a deacon, he and his family and a few friends retired to Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, England, to devote themselves to a life of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (Matthew 6:2,5,16). They restored the abandoned church building, and became responsible for regular services there. They taught the neighbourhood children, and looked after the health and well-being of the people of the district. They read the regular daily offices of the Book of Common Prayer, including the recital every day of the complete Psalter. (Day and night, there was always at least one member of the community kneeling in prayer before the altar, that they might keep the word, "Pray without ceasing.") They wrote books and stories dealing with various aspects of Christian faith and practice. They fasted with great rigour, and in other ways embraced voluntary poverty, so that they might have as much money as possible for the relief of the poor.

The community was founded in 1626 (when Nicholas was 34). He died in 1637 (aged 45), and in 1646 the community was forcibly broken up by the Puritans of Cromwell's army.

The memory of the community survived to inspire and influence later undertakings in Christian communal living, and one of T.S. Eliot's FOUR QUARTETS is called "Little Gidding."

God of peace,
make us worthy of your perfect love,
that with your servant Nicholas Ferrar and his household,
we may rule ourselves after your Word
serve you with our whole heart
and keep in the right way with you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

03/12/2021

Francis Xavier
Missionary, Apostle of the Indies, 1552

Francis Xavier, or Francisco do Yasu y Javier, was a Basque. (The Basques are a people from the region of Biscay in northern Spain, whose language is unrelated to any other known language.) He was born in 1506 and studied at the University of Paris, where he met Ignatius Loyola and joined together with him and five others in dedicating their lives to the will and service of God, and forming the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1534.
In 1541 Francis sailed with two companions from Portugal to the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India (arriving in May 1542), where he set about learning the language and writing a catechism for the instruction of converts.

He visited the prisons and the hospitals, conducted worship services among the lepers, and walked the streets ringing a bell to call the children for religious instruction. His chief method of instructing the people was to write verses in their language setting forth the truths of the Christian faith, and set them to music. Both words and tunes tended to be "catchy," and his doggerel instructions were extremely popular and were sung everywhere. He preached tirelessly, both to the native peoples and to the Europeans living there.

Francis found to his dismay that the Portuguese settlers and soldiers of the colony were brutal in their treatment of the natives, and that, even aside from this, their manner of life did not commend their nominal faith to the native observer. He wrote boldly to the King of Portugal to complain: "It is possible that when our Lord God calls your Highness to his Judgement that your Highness may hear angry words from him: "Why did you not punish those who were your subjects and owned your authority, and were enemies to me in India?'"

After five months in Goa, Francis went to the east coast of India, near Sri Lanka (Ceylon), where he preached to a people called the Paravas, with considerable success until the ruler of Jaffna in northern Ceylon became alarmed and suppressed his mission by force.

Throughout most of 1545 to 1547, Francis preached in Malacca (another Portuguese possession) and other places on or near the Malay Peninsula. Here he encountered a Japanese expatriate (Anjiro, later baptized as Paul), and became interested in the possibility of a Japanese mission. After a brief return to Goa, he set out for Japan with another Jesuit priest and three Japanese converts. Here he learned the language, wrote a catechism, and preached. The authorities welcomed him in some towns and prevented him from teaching in others. Altogether Francis, the first to preach the Gospel in Japan, made perhaps 2000 converts there.

He then determined to carry the Gospel to China, at that time closed to outsiders. He bribed a ship's captain to smuggle him into the country, but had barely arrived there when he was stricken with fever and died on 3 December 1552. His body was brought back to Goa and buried there.

By all acounts, he was a man who preached the Gospel with tireless energy, and with great power and effectiveness. Estimates of the number of converts that he personally baptized vary, but some of them are in the six-digit range. One biographer says that he preached to more persons than anyone else since New Testament times.

02/12/2021

Saints, Martyrs, and Missionaries of Asia

The Christian revelation took place in Asia, and it was there that the first martyrdoms, and the early missionary journeys took place. After the time of the apostles, this continued with early saints such as Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, both of whom bore witness as martyrs.

Christian communities have continued to exist in Asia, with many West and East Syrian Orthodox churches. The Apostle Thomas is traditionally said to have visited India, and the Syrian Church there claims succession through him.

Much later, missionaries from the West came to Asia, such as Francis Xavier whose missionary work extended to India, Japan and elsewhere, and whose feast is celebrated tomorrow.

From Cornwall, Henry Martyn went to work in India and Persia. These and other initiatives led to the growth of Christian churches as far apart as India, China, Japan and Korea.

We remember with them on this day the ancient Churches of the Middle East, some persecuted today as on occasion in the past, and we pray for their continued witness to the living truth of the Gospel.

Address

The Church Of Ireland Theological Institute, Braemor Park
Dublin
D14

Website

https://www.societyofcatholicpriests.com/ordinands

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