I
first came across the Faith movement through some fellow students
when I was studying for the priesthood at the English College in Rome.
I had entered the seminary in 1986 at the age of 18. Whilst I remain
convinced that I was responding to God's call I think I was fairly
naïve. I was aware of a crisis of teaching in the Church which
seemed to me was sapping the spiritual lives of the people in the
pews. My first year, however, was marked by my own lack of spiritual
commitment and I found many distractions from following Christ. Then
in the beginning of my second year I experienced something that changed
me. It happened oddly one morning when I was waking from a dream-filled
sleep. God in his goodness, intervened in my life to change my heart,
make me aware of what I had done wrong in my life and let me see that
I needed to turn to Him through a real spiritual life. This moment
was a turning point and made me look at life more spiritually. It
made me more aware of the kind of people who might help me come closer
to God. It reduced the strength of suspicions and difficulties I had
concerning the approach of friends who had been deeply influenced
by the Faith Movement. I think that true doctrine, when it is married
to a genuine search for holiness, can often be a threat to us.
Central to the Faith Movement is the perception that the modern
scientific world view has deeply affected our culture. Any new evangelisation
needs to take account of this. Rejection of scientific discoveries
is seen as inadequate. Modern technology is evidence of the fruitfulness
and truth of the basic discoveries and theories of modern science.
Moreover the Church has always believed in the power of reason to
reach the truth. There is this need to show, for example, how evolution
is not contrary to revelation but in fact part of God's supreme wisdom
and plan for the universe, culminating in the coming of Jesus Christ.
As St Paul says, "All things were created through and for Him...
and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16,17). God
had set forth in Christ a plan to recapitulate all things in Christ,
a plan for the fullness of time (cf. Ephesians 1:9-10).
More and more scientists, in fact, have found that the discoveries
concerning the origins of the universe and of life point us more conclusively
towards the existence of a Creator. The cosmos is an ordered whole
across time and space. This can be accurately expressed by a mathematical
equation and equations are not random but the consequence of mind.
A further consequence of this approach is that if Christ is the
culmination, the crowning point of God's plan for the universe, it
means that the universe is incomplete without Him. This means that
no branch of knowledge and no person can be complete without Jesus.
Jesus is the master key that unlocks the meaning of the universe and
of every human person's life. God made man is essential to man. After
all St Paul taught, "in Him (God) we live and move and have our
being" (Acts 17.28). The Church and the Sacraments are also indispensable
for human beings. As the new Catechism says "Creation was made
for the Church" (para. 760). Holiness thus becomes the fruit
of living united to God and we can only do this through Christ in
his Church.
Such a vision as it becomes clear is thrilling. It fits in so deeply
with the Faith of the Church, takes in the beautiful teaching of the
Fathers from early Christianity, and also tries to makes sense of
modern science, in much the same way as St Thomas Aquinas attempted
to do in the thirteenth century. Initially, however I found this quite
difficult to accept, as I had been steeped in an approach to philosophy
and theology that admitted only the supremacy of the mind of St Thomas
Aquinas. The Faith Movement's approach seemed to diverge from this
in some ways. It incorporated a more relational view of nature and
of knowing.
In the end, after many arguments and discussions, I eventually met
the founder of the Faith movement, Fr Edward Holloway. I found him
an unsettling man. Holy people often are. He could be brutally honest
in a sweet and loving way. He had an encyclopaedic mind but also an
awareness that only God possesses the fullness of wisdom and we are
the servants of that wisdom. We are not masters of the Word but its
ministers. All we need to do is open our hearts and minds to see how
He has revealed Himself through His masterpiece of creation and most
of all through the Incarnation of His Son. All would reveal the beauty
and deep joy of His plan.
Jesus is the master key that unlocks the meaning of
the universe, and of every human person’s life
Fr Holloway often said that he found the whole faith vision "deeply
thrilling". You could see it in his eyes and face. He taught
that the presence of God could be a lived experience and often when
you looked at him it seemed to be the case. It was extraordinary to
see such a great and fine mind in such calm and simple communion with
God.
It was Fr Holloway who convinced me, not just by his words but by
his personal witness. He showed me that such a vision is not just
a matter of ideas but it affects everything, including one's prayer.
Good doctrine is meant to join us more fully to God. Through it I
believe that God has led me a long way though I know this is only
a part of my journey.
After having become involved in the movement I discovered that the
insights at the heart of the vision were written down by Fr Holloway's
mother, Agnes, in the 1920's. This was following what she claimed
to have been some private revelations. She died in 1991 and Fr Holloway
himself in 1997. But their teaching and insights continue to be spread.
Faith conferences - held both summer and winter - bring many young
people into contact with Jesus the Lord of the Cosmos present in his
Church. Many vocations have emerged from this not just to the priesthood
and the religious life, but also to the married state and the single
life. These conferences have been a singular source of encouragement
to me as I went through seminary and as I have lived my priesthood
in parishes. To see it all bear fruit in the minds, hearts and lives
of our people in our parishes is truly "thrilling". Perhaps
that was the work for which God had been preparing me all along.
See Coming Events
for details of the summer session of the Faith Movement
