Fr Peter Helman

"We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another." (1 John 3:16)

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Dearly beloved,

When today we encounter on the Feast of Saint Alban, Britain’s first martyr, the history of a young man who gave his life, in the name of Christ, to save another’s, we ask, truly, what it means to live for Christ and to love what he wills.

According to Saint Bede the Venerable, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Saint Alban served in the Roman army and was converted to Christianity in the early 3rd century by a fugitive priest whom he sheltered and with whom he exchanged clothes, so that he was martyred in the priest’s place.

Saint Alban shows us a better way, that it is possible to stand with God in every situation of life because God wills in every moment to be found. Life is a series of comings to Christ, and of Christ's comings to us. Even this morning, in prayer, with eyes lifted to the hills, we ask for grace very willingly to spend and be spent for the souls of our sisters and brothers.

We plead for eyes to see the plight of the needy, for ears to hear the voices of the downtrodden and oppressed, for lips to decry injustice and to prophesy death’s undoing, for hands to lift up the lowly and meek, for feet to bring good news to the captives and those in prison, for hearts to steal courage in dark times when hope feels lost, for lives renewed and transformed in Christ’s love, and wills to persevere and resist evil.
Volo quidquid vis,
Volo quia vis,
Volo quomodo vis,
Volo quamdia vis.
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I will whatever you will;
I will all because you will it;
I will all things to be as you will them;
I will them as long as you will them.
Today we ask Saint Alban to pray for us to God for divine assistance to live holy lives worthy of Christ's calling, to count the cost, to bind to our hearts Christ's own words: "Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39).

We bid Saint Alban's prayers that we may have the grace of self-sacrifice.


Yours in Christ,
Peter+