FR JULIAN'S WEEKLY BLOG
16/11/25
I’m sitting here listening to Franck’s Chorale No 3 in A minor. I would have loved to have lived in Paris at the end of the 19th century, when composer/organists such as Franck, Widor and Vierne were in post at some of the major churches. I’ve been lucky enough to see some of those churches, making it all so real. If eyes are windows to the soul, then music can be its expression.
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The Franck. An item for the Desert Island discs. The one. A mixture of romance, wistfulness, consideration, frivolity, drama and a burst of triumphant hope at the end, as the final chord blares out in the major, not the minor. Not necessarily adjectives that you might immediately associate with me, but not denying these aspects in my priesthood, they always present within me. The music, a metaphor, perhaps for the person I do not always reveal, or feel shouldn’t reveal.
God calls us as we are. If he can accept our imperfections – as we see them – then so should we. We should accept ourselves as we are, and not try to be that perfect image we often try to present to the world. Sinners we may be, but redeemed and forgiven. Loved uniquely and called to live honestly, created for a purpose, and fully equipped to fulfill God’s expectations and hope.​
09/11/25
This Sunday is the third act or remembrance that we will have had in 8 days. The first was last Sunday when we remembered all the Saints, followed by All Souls when we remembered departed loved ones. And this Sunday is, of course, Remembrance Sunday, when we remember those who suffered, primarily, in the two world wars, but also the many other subsequent conflicts.
Remembering is not just the opposite of forgetting, like a birthday or putting the bins out. Rather, it is bringing the past into the present: re-membering. This isn’t the same as reliving past events, but rather allowing the past to inform the future and enable the future to be faced. We recall, however, that WW1 was supposed to be ‘the war to end all wars’, yet WW2 started less than 20 years later, most likely because of the allies’ imposing punitive reparations on Germany. We haven’t learnt the lessons of war fully yet; due to national arrogance, political expediency, ‘religious’ imperative, war flourishes today, nailing Christ ever more firmly to the cross of salvation.
As we remember those who have died, seeing the war memorials at roadsides, in the park, in the church, let us re-member and learn from the past and build a better future.​