Several months ago, the priests of Australia’s Sale diocese asked their bishop, Bishop Prowse, to give them some guidelines regarding Catholic funerals.

He did.

The guidelines include recommending that non-religious  music, power-point presentations and eulogies of praise for the deceased are not appropriate.

When asked whether these rules might drive some away from a church funeral — preferring to go somewhere where they can make up their own program with pop music etc., the bishop said, “I hope not . . . .”

He added, “We are there to pray. It’s a Catholic church . . . .”

* * *

This constitutes a bit of a crossroads for the Church.

We must ask ourselves, what is the Church for?

Is its role to comfort everybody . . . making us feel that our current attitudes and tastes are all that God wants for us . . . ?

Or must we face the fact that funerals – like everything else in life – should be done in such a way as to show God that we love him and want to offer him respect.

It’s a matter of putting first things first.

The first thing God wants from us is that we offer him prayers for the soul of the person who has died.

After that, by all means hold a wake at somebody’s house or a hall somewhere and reminisce, joke, play secular music, look at photos etc.

All of that can be very good. But it comes second.

* * *

To be honest, none of us can be certain that we are good enough to face the judgment of God trusting in our own merits.

The Church reminds us that we need each others’ prayers at the hour of death.

God is no rubber stamp, consigning everybody to heaven – regardless of whether they obeyed him in this life or not.

For some non-Catholic “churches”, a funeral may be primarily a time for “celebrating” a person’s life.

But for Catholics, the prayers of intercession for the dead are the central focus.

We are now halfway between Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and the highest point of the Christian year, Easter Sunday.

There are six Sundays in Lent. Today is the fourth.

Entering the second half of Lent, a person should check his progress.

 (1) Every Christian must make his Confession at least once during Lent. Do that today or sometime this week.

(2) We should also make some sacrifice (e.g. giving up meat) and do something extra to help others (e.g. sponsoring a poor child).

(3) We should also make regular PRAYERS.

* * *

One prayer used for centuries during Lent is the Prayer of Saint Ephrem — traditionally said morning and evening.

It is in three parts. After each part, kneel briefly and reflect for a moment before going on:

“O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.  (kneel)

“Give me instead the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love. (kneel)

“Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; for Thou art blessed forever and ever. Amen (kneel)

* * *

The great thing about this prayer is how practical it is — a three-part check-list.

* What sins most distract us from preparing to celebrate Our Lord’s Passion? Aren’t they sloth (laziness), faint-heartedness (apathy/despair), lust for power (worldly ambitions) and idle talk (gossip)?

* This prayer reassures us that God wants to give us the virtues needed to overcome our weakness.

* Finally, we must abandon pride — knowing that only with God’s help can we please him.

* * *

The KNEELING is important.

We pray, not only with our minds, but also with our body.

Our body contributes to our sins. Now let’s conscript it into the fight against sin.

Kneeling is “psycho-somatic” evidence of our real desire to lose our pride and humble ourselves before Christ — by whose Passion our salvation is made possible – and our celebration of Easter a reality.

Every Islamic man is obliged to attend midday Friday prayers at the nearest mosque.

The prayers are preceded by a sermon from the imam — also compulsory.

The sermons are often overtly political.

Yesterday people in Syria emerged from prayers chanting slogans and ready to destroy a statue of an ex-political leader.

The success of the rebellion in eastern Libya – and its non-success in Tripoli – has been attributed to the different stances of the imams in the two areas.

Most Muslim men do, in fact, turn up to Friday prayers.

One poll in Turkey found that 56 percent attend Friday prayers regularly, 25 percent sometimes, 19 percent never . . . .

* * *

Christians are obliged to attend Mass every Sunday.

But most don’t.

A 2006 Australian survey found just 13.8 percent of Catholics attending Mass every Sunday.

Yet Church law specifies that “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.”  (CCC, 2180)

Bound.

Any Christian aware of this duty and free to do so — not sick,  not forced to work — but skips Mass for no good reason, is guilty of Mortal sin.

* * *

There is a spiritual war to the death in today’s world — the head-on clash between Christianity and the enemies of the Church.

Numbers of atheists are dwindling.

Eastern religions, New Age fads, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness-ism, Scientology etc. – all seem unlikely to have long-term staying power.

Islam is the big worry.

What matters most is that professing Catholics get serious about their Faith — put it first in their lives and in their politics — and stop being pathetic.

Film star Elizabeth Taylor has died at the age of 79.

Elizabeth spent her whole life in the public eye.

Famous as a child star in films like “Lassie Come Home”, she went on, as an adult, to act in some of the biggest-ever films , including “Cleopatra” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”.

Those who knew Elizabeth Taylor spoke of her sense of compassion and an ability to laugh at herself . . . .

She was admired for her attempts to improve the lot of those suffering from AIDS.

Not just public statements and photo opportunities . . . .

She spared time to visit and mix with people in poor health, with little prospect of getting better.

She was into this kind of thing in the 1980s, before it became fashionable . . . .

* * *

What will Elizabeth Taylor remembered for most?

Probably for her multiple marriages — eight weddings involving seven different men.

She was part of (one of the worst examples of) a regrettable trend that Hollywood and the “celebrity” industry has managed to sanitise.

The sin of adultery went from being acknowledged as a grave sin, liable to lead to an eternity in hell . . . . to becoming a bit of a joke.

Perhaps she never intended any of that . . . .

But today’s laws regularising “no-fault divorce” may never have existed without the undermining of loyalty to family made fashionable by “film stars” like Taylor.

* * *

So was she a good person or a bad person?

Her influence seems, on balance, to have been overwhelmingly bad.

But God is her judge — not you or me.

He will judge us – so we have plenty to think about without looking around too much at others.

One thing he does expect of you and me is that we respect the institution of Marriage.

On Sunday nights, ABC Local Radio features a show called “Sunday Nights with John Cleary”.

Last week (March 13) it ran an interview with an elderly Catholic monk – for many years head of a British monastery.

They introduced him as “one of the great spiritual teachers”.

Enough to give any seriously Catholic listener a sinking feeling . . . .

In Australian Broadcasting Commission talk, “great spiritual teacher” is code language for “hostile to traditional Catholic religion”

And that applies whether the person in question is on the Catholic Church’s payroll or not.

In this case the sinking feeling was justified.

* * *

For one thing, the old fellow found it necessary to use gutter language that my children wouldn’t have tried using at home, even in their teenage years.

One of his themes was how desirable it is to have high self-esteem, and how, in understanding the human condition, we need a better concept to replace Catholic teaching about Original Sin.

Then he threw in the remark that, “I’m homosexual, of course . . . .”

He went on telling how the Catholic Church must eventually give its blessing to same-sex “marriages”.

He mocked priestly celibacy.

And so on . . . .

* * *

They asked him plenty of Dorothy Dix-type questions.

Nobody put it to him that he come over as a bit of a fraud/hypocrite/traitor — and that if he really holds those beliefs, he might, in all honesty, have quit his post sometime in the last 50 years.

If we have Church big-shots picking out which bits of the Faith they like, and which bits aren’t trendy enough for them . . . .

If priests and monks can get away with that – it makes it even harder for the rest of us Catholic Joe Blows, trying to live as faithfully as we can as Catholics in a difficult environment . . . .

It’s urgently necessary that believers should pray for each other – for the Church and its leaders . . . .

And that we all put in a big effort be loyal to God above all else.

Thursday’s big news seemed to be Prime Minister Gillard’s speech to the US Congress.

Making them choke with emotion when she told them how good they are.

“America can do anything,” she said — on the strength of them having once put a man on the moon.

She knows it isn’t true.  The congressmen know it isn’t true. We all know it isn’t true.

Perhaps if we give each other standing ovations and shed the odd tear, that will make it true . . . ?

The US wasn’t able to do anything meaningful in Vietnam (except kill people).

Or in Iraq.

Or in Afghanistan.

The same will be true about Libya.

Likewise when Saudi Arabia blows up.

* * *

Interestingly the Gillard speech — and the Gillard US visit– even Gillard’s existence – have gone un-mentioned by America’s major news networks (FOX, CNN etc).

No matter, the speech’s purpose was, beyond doubt, to boost her popularity back in Australia.

The day is coming when the USA will be a has-been — a failed state reduced to minimal world significance.

Then we’ll find Australia’s Prime Minister making syrupy speeches to the Chinese, Indians – or whatever nation is then on top.

* * *

Do these remarks seem too negative?

On a positive note, let’s remember that we are now in the season of Lent — a time to fast and to pray.

Pray for the poor souls who have elbowed their way to the top in their nations, and must now answer to God for how they lead their people.

“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,” wrote the poet Tennyson.

If God exists, he is no doubt right.

And no doubt we need to be in a state of obedience to God for him to grant that our prayers achieve anything.

The greatest prayer of all is, “Thy will be done.”

Lent is the time to redouble our efforts to make ourselves live every moment strictly as God desires.