Brueghel however painted another picture, 'The Massacre of the Innocents' which portrayed Herod's atrocity. The subject may have been based on New Testament events, but the background of the painting is 16th century Flemish, the Low Countries in Brueghel's time being the scene of brutal religious warfare.
I do not suggest that these wars were particularly aimed at children although of course they suffered in them just as they do in today's hostilities, but children are badly treated in many ways apart from in armed conflict. Father Simon recently wrote of the exploitation of Indian children, and the plight of those in Africa die to poverty, AIDS and TB is well known, but what about our own British kids?
The latest edition of the Mother's Union 'Home and Family' mentions a UNICEF study which claimed that the UK is bottom of a league table for child welfare in the 21 most developed countries. I am somewhat suspicious of this type of statistic but nevertheless it does indicate that all is not well.
Child murdering Herods certainly exist in this country but thankfully they are not common. It seems to me howeverthat the physical and spiritual neglect of the young is far from uncommon.
Apart from actual abuse, of which we hear a fair amount these days, this can show itself in the total abdication of parental responsibility in some areas, mirrored by fearful over protection in others, together with the insidious general feeling among many that Christianity it irrelevant in this modern age.

Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.' (Mark 10:14). This implies that the Church, which is to say you and me, should do all it can to bring children in and of course make them welcome.

It should be obvious that unless we, you and I, do this there will be no continuity. The original Herod did his best to wipe out the Church before it even began and he did it by attacking the children. We should take that as a warning!

Michael Francis

God be with You
"Who is the third who walks always with you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you....."
(From "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot)

The story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's failed trans-antarctic expedition of 1914 is one of the most inspiring examples of courage, leadership and skill in the history of polar exploration. Despite disaster, against all the odds and without any means of communication with the outside world, Shackleton ensured the rescue of every man on the expedition.
His ship, the Endurance, was caught and eventually crushed by the pack-ice. They camped on the ice and drifted north. Five months later they were able to launch the ship's boats and make landfall on desolate Elephant Island. Shackleton and five of his crew then made the 700 mile open boat passage across the stormy Southern Ocean to the island of South Georgia, where he and two companions made the 36 hour trek across glaciers and snow-covered mountains to the whaling station to get help. It was the very place that the Endurance had sailed from 18 months previously.
Now during that final trek across South Georgia, Shackleton and his two companions all had the distinct impression that there was a fourth person with them. Shackleton himself had no doubt that Providence had guided them, both across the sea and the icefields. He clearly believed that their perception of the fourth person or presence in South Georgia was of spiritual significance. In tact his account of it influenced the quotation from Eliot's poem.
Psychologists may write of the delusions produced by exhaustion, mental and physical, but we as Christians can, I think, take a more positive view. After all, the notion of walking with God, or one of His angels, is not totally strange to us. It may not be in the same context but are we not told that Enoch walked with God? Every Easter we hear the account of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus who were, at first, unaware that the man who came to walk with them was, in fact, the Risen Lord. The angel who released Peter from prison walked with him until he reached safety and the disguised angel, Raphael guided, instructed and advised Tobias on his long journey.
The absolute conviction of a godly presence in times of great difficulty may not be a common experience, but it is one that some Christians in every age have felt. It is certainly true that many many Christians could, if asked, give some example of the strength and support they needed being given them in answer to their prayers. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we do not walk in isolation on our life pilgrimage.
St Patrick's Prayer:
May the strength of God pilot us.
May the power of God preserve us.
May the wisdom of God instruct us.
May the hand of God protect us.
May the way of God direct us.
May the shield of God defend us.
May the host of God guard us against the snares of evil and the temptations of the world.
May Christ be with us, Christ before us, Christ in us, Christ over us.
May your salvation, O Lord, be always ours, this day and for evermore. Amen.
Michael Francis

Praying the Psalms
This is about using the Psalms as part of personal prayer. I am, as it were, thinking aloud, seeking my way and using as my guide C. S. Lewis in his 'Reflections on the Psalms'. Lewis, who died in 1963, was a fine teacher, a Christian writer of superb clarity and in 'Reflections' he was at his best.
He begins by pointing out that the Psalms are poems, but happily because of their particular form, poems that translate clearly and beautifully into English. As he says, much foreign language poetry loses in translation but the Psalms do not.
He then goes on to discuss issues which the psalmists raise, such as judgement, the cursings, death, nature, the law and praising, concluding with the question as to how far we should seek second meanings and in particular Christian meanings within them.
On the subject of judgement the psalmists are much concerned with asking God to protect them, and to act against those who are responsible for oppressing them, whether it be from the rich, corrupt and unbelieving in their own community, or from foreign invaders and masters. The problem that arises for Christians is when this plea for justice turns into a cry for revenge and a curse.
One example of this is in Psalm 137 which commences with the beautiful lament 'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept' but ends exulting in the happiness for 'he who seizes your infants and sashes them against the rocks.'
Our Lord's injunction is clear. Love, not hate, is the key. We are called upon to forgive, although we all know how difficult that can be! If however we are tempted to self righteousness when reading these curses we should perhaps thank God that we ourselves have not been subject to terrible injustice and cruelty. As it says in the New English Bible translation of the Lord's Prayer, 'Do not put us to the test.' Amen to that.
Lewis goes on to discuss the psalmist's attitude to death. They seem to have no particular belief in an afterlife, perhaps because neighbouring religions such as the Egyptians were so obsessed by it. We have the greater blessing of the Christian hope of life eternal, but there is nevertheless a positive side to the psalmist's thought, in that it was turned towards the appreciation of God's gifts in earthly life and the wonders of Creation.
In Psalm 104 we read 'O Lord, how manifold are thy works: in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.' This great poem in praise of Creation touches not only upon the sun and moon, vegetation and things that are useful to people, but also upon the creatures of the wild such as whales, lions, wild goats and even the ritually unclean ravens.
As Lewis points out, this kind of praise is most unusual in a practical agricultural community of the time. There is a God-given wisdom here, but perhaps also a warning for us in the 21st century, because treating God's Creation with contempt will inevitably bring disaster.
'The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul,' Psalm 19 verse 7. It is not easy for us to appreciate the psalmist's passionate respect and love for the law, believing as we do that our salvation depends not upon adherence to a set of rules, however commendable, but upon complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless living in a society which increasingly seems to advocate self-centered individualism, throwing doubt upon any common moral stance, we can perhaps begin to sympathise. Our Christian law is enshrined in the Gospel. Do we have the same passionate regard for it?
'Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live I will praise the Lord: I will sing praise unto my God while I have any being.' Psalm 146. If our prayer lacks anything of praise and thanksgiving then we should never be ashamed of borrowing from the Psalms, for this is where they excel. Their praises soar even heavenwards so why should not ours soar with them?
The question of whether we can see a specific Christian meaning or message in the Psalms is perhaps best left to the individual reader, but what cannot be beyond doubt is that they lift the heart in faithful worship.
Michael Francis

The Miracle of Chartres
It may perhaps be wondered what possible connection there can be between a great Peak District garden and a magnificent cathedral. Well for me there is, and tenuous though it might be, it has to do with a maze.
The other week Joan and I went to Chatsworth for a walk around the gardens. In our wanderings we got as far as the maze, which I can recommend for a bit of fun, but as I have previously circumnavigated it, I didn't bother going in this time.
I find mazes fascinating whether real, as at Chatsworth, mythical as in the account of Theseus and his slaying of the Minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth, or fictional as in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. Of course they do not have to have walls of dense hedging; they can simply be traced out on the ground in grass and gravel, or in tiles or bricks, which invite you to follow the convolutions and avoid the dead ends, eventually arriving, without cheating, at the centre.
The analogy between the Christian pilgrimage through the labyrinth of life and the maze clearly struck home since many churches include some sort of maze pattern and the most famous of these is in Chartres cathedral. This labyrinth, which is 800 years old, is inlaid in the nave paving of the cathedral and it is said that pilgrims walked over it or went round it on their knees as a spiritual exercise. The maze is certainly an interesting feature but the cathedral as a whole is a wonder and a miracle, something to ponder upon when clever intellectuals tell us how wicked the Church has been and how stupidly deluded our beliefs. Against this kind of ill natured attack Chartres stands as a mighty bulwark of faith.
As well as being centres of worship medieval cathedral were intended to be educational and none more so than the cathedral church of Our Lady of Chartres. Over 1000 years ago Chartres Cathedral School was one of Europe's great centres of learning. Here were taught the Seven Liberal Arts of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. They are represented amongst the wonderful sculpture of the Royal Portal, grammar being shown as a teacher holding a book in one hand and a birch for the beating of lazy pupils in the other.
The miracle of Chartres is simply that, despite destruction and the threat of destruction, there exists today a perfectly preserved 12th and 13th century cathedral. The architecture is superb and the building is decorated with wonderful sculpture and filled with brilliant jewel-like stained glass. At a time when many could not read, the craftsmen of Chartres presented the Christian story with sublime artistry in stone and glass.
In 1194 a fire swept through the old cathedral. It destroyed all save the crypt, the Royal Portal and its towers and some glass. In those days it was not unusual to take 100 years to complete a cathedral, but such was the piety, enthusiasm, and generosity of rich and poor alike, that Chartres was magnificently rebuilt in 30 years.
Money flowed in from nobility and peasantry, farm carts transported stone from the quarry and 19 Trade Guilds contributed great stained glass windows. The names of the architects, masons and craftsmen are unknown but it cannot be doubted that they were inspired.
Chartres has survived. The French revolutionaries who despoiled and vandalised so many French churches left it alone and the cathedral was preserved from damage in the Second World War. Because of this happy preservation, the message of the builders and artists of 800 years ago is still there to be read.
It would be quite wrong for us to look to the 13th century with any kind of nostalgia. Our problems in proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st century are quite different and it is important that we live in the present, however we can surely draw some encouragement from the example of Chartres. It is pleasing to think that in those far-off days there must have been some who, having seen in their youth the burned out shell of the building, could stand in awe within the completed cathedral built by so many willing hands o the greater glory of God.

How not to be a grumpy old man!
Years ago I read an entertaining Science Fiction short story which took as its theme, the malevolence of inanimate objects. We are all familiar with this apparent behaviour. You only have to walk across a well known room in total darkness, say during a power cut, to receive a stinging blow on the shins from a coffee table which clearly seems to have moved into your path or to be pulled up sharp when a door handle cunningly hooks your sleeve as you walk past.
The propensity of a dropped screw to go down some hole or crack in the floor and the hotly debated topic of whether the fumbled piece of toast usually lands on the carpet butter-side down are further examples of what the pessimist ascribes to 'Murphy's Law', which simply states that anything which can go wrong, will!
What the short story did not mention however was that this malevolence increases dramatically when you reach old age. Things slip from your fingers, trip you up in the most cowardly fashion and drinks spill themselves over the clean tablecloth. The material universe really seems to be having a go at you.
This is all a bit of nonsense. The world is certainly full of dangerous places and so are our homes, but the hazards affect oldies like myself more because our reflexes, balance and spacial awareness are not as good as they once were. Basically I quite accept this but that does not stop me getting annoyed with myself for my clumsiness.
I do not rush out into the storm, railing against the universe, as poor proud King Lear did when his powerlessness to control the situation became manifest, but the loss of my temper is still shaming.
Now you may well think that this sort of thing is a pretty low key effect of old age when compared to the sickness, aches and pains, medication, memory loss, bereavement, loneliness and lack of mobility, not to mention the national disgrace, that in a rich country like ours, a substantial number of old people find it difficult to make ends meet. True enough, but all these problems, trivial or not, represent in some way a loss of power and the ability to act with independence which we so value.
St John tells us in the 21st chapter of his Gospel that when the risen Jesus reinstated Peter by the lakeside, he said 'Feed my sheep. I tell you that truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.' John explains that this is a prophecy of Peter's martyrdom, and so it is, but we can also see in it a view of old age where we become more and more dependent upon others.
The truth is however that this cherished independence we are losing has never been anything like complete. We have all been dependent upon others since the moment of our conception and the greater realisation and acceptance of this, which should come with age, is a move towards God's truth.
This does not mean for a moment that we can simply sit back. Our Lord's injunction to feed his sheep may have been directed to Peter, but we present-day disciples, young or old, still have the duty to forward God's kingdom as best we can.
As Christians we all acknowledge our dependence upon God, loving Creator and merciful Redeemer, but since I have instanced one exchange between Jesus and Peter from St John's Gospel, let me make the point by giving another earlier one, this time from chapter 7.
Jesus had told the crowd that he himself was the Bread of Life and many had turned away from him. 'You do now want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.' Peter with all his blunderings spoke from the heart with truth and love.
To return finally to the irritation I feel, (and express!) when I am clumsy, it seems to me that I need to pray particularly for two things. One is for an expanded sense of humour so that I can see the absurdity of it all and can laugh instead of getting annoyed and the other, which applies to all the problems of growing old, is quite simply for God's peace. In the words of Whittier's hymn:
'Drop thy still dews of quitness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives
confess
The beauty of thy peace.'Michael Francis

Review of 'Angels' by Jane Williams
Angels must be a pretty popular subject because when, last Christmas, I tried to get a copy of this book, I found that it had sold out. It was not until quite recently that a reprint appeared in the bookshops.
With the exception of one chapter of more recent thoughts on the subject, the author bases the book firmly upon Biblical sources endeavouring to present answers to the most frequently posed questions about angels. She deals with such points as what they look like, what they do for humans, guardian angels, fallen angels and why there are times of great angelic activity and other times when there seems to be none.
Because of the representations of artists, we tend to think of angels as being winged and certainly in the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel and the Revelation of John winged creatures are described which we assume to be angels as are the winged cherubim which protect the ark of the covenant. Usually however wings are not mentioned and angel messengers or protectors can assume a purely human form, as with the three who visited Abraham and Azarias who guided Tobias on his long journey, found a good wife for him, disposed of a malignant demon and showed him how to cure his father's blindness, before revealing himself as the archangel Raphael and vanishing.
At other times angels appear in dazzling white or so terrifyingly glorious that they are obliged to reassure with the words 'Do not be afraid'.
Jane Williams makes the point that most angelic activity, praising the glory of God for example, may be quite unconnected with our earthly human world although there is much angelic contact associated with truly momentous events such as the birth and resurrection of Jesus.
The supreme angelic messenger is the archangel Gabriel who brings news to Zechariah of the coming birth of John the Baptist and more importantly, gently tells Mary of her role-to-be as the mother of Jesus.
Gabriel is one of the only four angels actually named in the Bible. Apart from Raphael, there is also Uriel who spends much time instructing the prophet Ezra and Michael whose function it is to act as God's champion and leader of the angelic forces opposed to the rebel angel Lucifer. The point about Lucifer and his rebel angels can only be appreciated if we remember that angels, although supernatural and presumably immortal are still part of God's creation and were, like humans, given free will. Lucifer, brightest of angels, succumbed to the sin of pride, challenged and then rebels against God for which he was expelled from heaven becoming from that time identified as Satan, the father of evil.
The author makes no attempt to go into the fanciful medieval categorisation of angels as thrones, dominations, virtues, powers and so on but that is no great loss. I would however have been interested to know more about Islamic and later Judaic thought on angelic matters.
Although I cannot always go along with some of the interesting speculations I found this an illuminating book. It is well worth a read.
Michael Francis

Evolution and All That
It is a strange fact that the United States, which is after all the most scientifically advanced country in the world, is also the home of a large influential group of Christian fundamentalists who vehemently deny the authenticity of Darwinist evolution.
All Christians hold that God created the universe and that the first three chapters of Genesis contain important spiritual truth, but many fundamentalists insist that the Biblical account is actual fact or that in some other way Darwin's theory of Evolution by natural selection is badly flawed. The thought of evolution did not start with Charles Darwin for in fact his own grandfather Erasmus was in favour of the idea. What Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace provided in a paper presented to the Linnean Society in 1858, was a reasoned argument on the causes of evolution, natural selection. Natural selection implies that through competition and from time to time favourable mutations mutations to individuals within the particular species, these individuals are ones better fitted for survival and therefore for passing on their advantages to the nest generation. Darwin's fuller account in 'The Origin of Species' was published in 1859. At about the same time, though unknown to Darwin, an obscure Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel had, through a series of brilliant and meticulous experiments on garden peas, established the mathematical laws governing heredity.
On the basis of these two strands, through a century of research into and observation of living organisms and with all the more accurate knowledge of the relationship between species which DNA and molecular biology have brought, the evidence supporting the theory of evolution through natural selection has become overwhelming.
Now I do not suggest that this is the last word on evolutionary truth. History has shown that all scientific laws and theories are to some extent provisional and subject to subsequent modification as new researched knowledge comes to light. Nevertheless the theory seems at this time to provide a good scientific model of the situation. After all absolute proof may often be possible in the field of mathematics but in science we have to be content with just a high degree of probability.
The Darwinist explanation is accepted by the Roman Catholic Church and large sections of the Anglican and Protestant churches but it could be said to have created some problems for Christians. One is that many biological scientists and their media popularizers tend towards an atheistic attitude, some being quite strong in their anti-Christian ideas. We should not however allow these attacks to prevent us from respecting scientific truths.
Another important question which may be raised is that if our Creator God has adopted a 'hands off' approach in allowing nature to take its course in the development of species, does this non-intervention apply in other areas? This is one for the theologians but we must surely believe in God's loving and decisive intervention in human history, especially in the birth, ministry, sacrificial death upon the cross, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus and in the answering of prayer and intercession.
Finally my objection to fundamentalists is not just because of their attitude to evolution. To my mind they see things as black and white, have an inflexible set of rules and are judgemental in deciding who is or is not a true Christian and therefore worthy of salvation. It may be comforting to think you have banished all uncertainty but life can hardly be quite as simple.
I am, I think, fairly orthodox in my views but that in no way prevents me from being at times perplexed as to the right moral course or Christian approach to take. In these circumstances I endeavour to look at the Scriptures as a whole, not just some particular part and I try to keep firmly in my mind the merciful love of our Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in him and praying that he will forgive me when I get things wrong.
Michael Francis

Jesuit and Poet
'The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.' Gerard Manley Hopkins.
We took a few things down to the Oxfam shop in Nether Edge. Its a good shop and I recommend it. We had a bit of a browse round after handing in our stuff and I came across 'Gerard Manley Hopkins – A Selection of his Poems and Prose' which I promptly purchased.
Hopkins (1844 – 1889) was a talented scholar who converted to Roman Catholicism, became a Jesuit priest, served in various parishes in England, taught in a college in Blackburn and finally became Professor of Classics at University College, Dublin. During most of his life he suffered from ill health, dying from Typhoid at the age of 45.
He was very conscientious and while never doubting his vocation, was tormented by the conviction that his efforts were inadequate. He loved the countryside and nature, being much affected by the sheer beauty of God's creation, but was appalled by the squalid conditions and poverty he met in the Victorian industrial cities.
His poetry was not much appreciated by his superiors in the Jesuit Order, which is not perhaps too surprising since it was original and unusual to a degree, being not so much before the times as completely out of them, but the word music is there. Being modest and obedient he even went so far as to destroy some of his own poetical works, but fortunately through his friendship with various literary figures of the time, Robert Bridges in particular, a deal of his work survived. Bridges who later became Poet Laureat eventually produced an anthology of Hopkin's work but it was not until the 1920's that the stature of this priest-poet was recognised.
He was an acute and informed observer of the natural world and perhaps this and his love of sounds and rhythms of the English language came together in his particular poetic gift. We get a glimpse of this in his well known lines:
· 'Glory be to God for dappled things.
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings.'
· Hopkin's journals and letters are also full of interest. Here, for example, in his intention for Lenten discipline in 1866: 'For Lent. No puddings on Sundays. No tea except if to keep me awake and then no sugar. Meat only once a day. No verses in Passion Week or on Fridays. Not to sit in an armchair except can work no other way. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday bread and water.'
The poems of his last years indicate that there were times when he felt despondency, nevertheless he drew much comfort from thinking upon Christ's resurrection and promises, believing that despite all the failures 'This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond, Is immortal diamond.'
He held to Christian hope. So should we all.
Michael Francis

The Churchyard Tree
Amongst my Christmas present books this year was 'The Trees that made Britain' by Archie Miles, a companion book to the excellent BBC television series of the same name where two tree experts from Kew Gardens travelled around our country looking at our familiar trees.
There is a chapter on the Yew, Taxus Baccata, the tree of the churchyards; a tree full of interest. It is for example highly poisonous in practically all of its parts and even though birds feast upon the red berries, they rapidly get rid of the seeds within, which are very toxic, a point that parents of young children should be aware.
Fans of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple may perhaps remember that in 'A Pocket full of Rye', Rex Fortesgue, owner of the Yew Tree Lodge is done away with by mixing taxine with his breakfast marmalade, taxine being the toxic alkaloid derived from yew. Fiction aside however, yew has in some respects an evil reputation, Macbeth's three witches using 'Gall of goat and slips of yew, Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse' in the preparation of their hellish brew.
There again the tree is also famous for its use in the making of longbows and for its prestigious horticultural applications in hedges, mazes and the creation of fantastical shapes in topiary. Its wood can also be used as a superb veneer, and is the delight of cabinet makers.
Perhaps however the most interesting point about our churchyard tree is its longevity. It is not always easy to obtain the age of a really old tree because the normal method of counting annual rings may not be possible as many old trees, though perfectly healthy, are hollow, the heartwood having rotted. There are however other methods and the astounding fact is that some of our churchyard yews are 2000 years old. In Thomas Pakenham's book 'Meetings with remarkable Trees' there is a photograph of the yew at Much Marcle church in Herefordshire which is certainly over 1000 years of age and was clearly in place well before the 13th century church and there are older examples.
All this raises the interesting question as to whether yew trees originally marked pagan worship sites because St Augustine of Canterbury was certainly in favour of Christian churches being built in such locations. It was a kind of Christian 'take over' to mark the conversion of the community.
It is not of course surprising that the evergreen yew assumed a spiritual significance. Holly, mistletoe and ivy were all used as decoration at the dreary Winter solstice with its cold short days and leafless trees because they pointed to the continuation of life. So it was also with the yew, but there is more.
Before the days when fronds of palm of palm could easily be obtained, yew was often used to deck churches on Palm Sunday, sometimes even called Yew Sunday, and burned yew ash was used to mark the foreheads of the faithful on Ash Wednesday.
This tree in its few most ancient examples is without doubt the oldest living entity in Britain, if not Europe. The fact that it is perhaps a relic of a pagan past should in no way worry us because it is a symbol of conversion. St Augustine and his Celtic contemporaries in the north overcame that paganism with the message of our Lord's Gospel. It may be that to combat the new paganism of the affluent 21st century we need different ways of getting that Gospel across, but that is no reason why we should not take some encouragement from the past each time we spot a churchyard yew.
Michael Francis