St John’s Day 2025
On 24th June, the Order celebrated our patronal feast, the Nativity of St John the Baptist. The celebrations began with First Vespers on the evening of 23rd June at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, followed by a drinks party for members. On the morning of the feast, a solemn Mass was celebrated by Abbot Hugh Alan O.Praem at the London Oratory.
After the Gospel, the following new members of the Order were admitted by the Grand Prior, Fra’ Max Rumney: John Coverdale, Esq.; Dr James Wilmore; Dr Maximilian Lau; Charles Foucque de Villeneuve de Bediesse; and Edward Herbert Esq. Two new chaplains were also admitted: Mgr Philip Whitmore, rector of St James’s, Spanish Place (which hosts an Order soup kitchen twice-weekly); and Fr Mark Elliott-Smith, rector Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick (which hosts the Wednesday morning ‘breakfast club’ and which is used by the Order as a conventual chapel).
A large number were also honoured in the knightly order Pro merito Melitensi for their dedication to the charism of the Order - tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum.
We are very grateful to Abbot Hugh for allowing us to public the text of his sermon below.
A sermon for St John’s Day
The Rt Rev. Abbot Hugh Alan O. Praem., Prior of the Priory of Our Lady of Sorrows, Peckham
A few years ago, I heard about a teacher who went to Russia after the fall of communism. She was sent to an orphanage outside Moscow. She was there from September to March and as they approached Christmas, she realised these children had never heard of Christmas. Under the communist regime, the celebration of Christmas had been banned, and these orphans had never been taught about the joy of Christmas. So, she spent a few lessons telling them the Christmas story. The children loved it. They could not hear enough and were so excited to hear about the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the stable, the star, the three kings and so on.
After speaking to them all, she asked them to draw the nativity scene. She said it was amazing how close the pictures the children drew resembled what we know of as the stable at Bethlehem, except for one boy. He drew a picture of the stable, the crib, the animals, but there were two babies in the crib! The teacher panicked and thought she had got something wrong in telling the story. She sat the orphan boy down and asked him about the picture. She said, “you do know that Mary only had one baby?” Yes, said the boy. “But then why have you drawn two babies?” asked the teacher. “Well,” said the orphan boy, “you said that we all have a home in the holy family at Bethlehem; I don’t have a family, and I thought Jesus wouldn’t mind me sharing his crib.”
This is the heart of the birth of Christ, that we belong, that we have a home, our true home with Christ our saviour. When we believe, then we also belong, and it is only possible to belong when we know we are loved.
Today we celebrate the birthday of St John the Baptist, but it is a birthday that points us always to another birthday, the birth of our saviour. In all things, St John the Baptist was the herald of the coming of the child in the manger who would bring the gift of belonging to our true home with God, of being loved by him, back into the world. The heart of one child point to the heart of another.
Anything without heart, anything without love — and I mean politics, music, law, art, even religion —anything without love, no matter how brilliant, is finally inadequate and weak. At the end of the day, the human soul yearns to be loved, and to love in return. And it won’t settle for anything less.
God loves us so deeply that he sent his only son to live, suffer, die and rise again for our salvation. That is the message of salvation. In celebrating the birthday of the one who would prepare the way of the Lord, God invites each of us to join him in a passion for evangelizing the world. We are Christ’s witnesses. Our mission is to respond to the fire of God’s love. But desire alone won’t remake the world. So how do we accomplish the work God sets before us? How do we imitate the great saint we celebrate today.
Well, I am going to give you a five point plan. Five ways in which we can become ever more like St John the Baptist. I was once told that it is good to use numbers in a homily – as the numbers reach their goal, it gives people hope that the homily will end soon. So, here is the plan, the Baptist plan, to give glory to God and seek the salvation of souls.
First, we need to wake up, shake off the cocoon of the world’s noise that tries to distract us, and recover our clarity about right and wrong. We do this by praying, and we need to pray every day. Praying, no matter how unfocused we might be at first, clears the head and the heart. It also clears the ears, so we can hear God’s quiet voice. Setting aside some silent time with God each day plants the first seed of sanity. It sends down deep roots, and the soul grows a little stronger every day. If we listen well enough and long enough, God will tell us what he wants uniquely from each of us.
Second, we need to seek out confession regularly and stay close to the Eucharist. We can’t lose hope when we know we’re forgiven. We can’t starve to death when we’re being fed with the Bread of Life. And the stronger we get in the Lord, the more we have to give to others. The sacraments are literally rivers of grace, the true Pentecostal gift. They bring us new life. They have real power.
Third, we need to share Jesus Christ consciously with someone every day. We need to make a deliberate point of it. And we don’t have to hit people over the head with the Bible to do it. Life naturally presents us with opportunities to talk about our faith with friends or colleagues. |It used to be said that you should not talk about religion or politics in polite company; well tell that to St John the Baptist, St Thomas a Becket, tell that to St Thomas More, to St Oscar Romero. Now is not the time to follow polite conventions. Be bold and be strong. Nothing is more attractive than a sincere, personal witness to the truth. And remember that what we give away in faith, we get back a hundredfold.
Fourth, we need to show a little courage. In the same Scripture passage where Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, he also tells us that he’ll be with us always, even to the end of the age. If that is so — and of course, it is so – then what can we really worry about? What better friend can we have in the struggle for the soul of the world, than the God who created it and us?
Fifth and finally, we need to be faithful to those who love us, and to those whom God calls us to love. So often we overlook the simple fabric of daily life and the persons who inhabit it. But that’s where real love begins. That’s where all discipleship starts. It’s why Augustine wrote that “to be faithful in little things is the big thing.”
Pray, keep close to the sacraments, speak about the Lord every day, be courageous and be faithful in love. Five simple ways in which we can all make a big difference in our world. This is the way in which we can all grow closer to the example of St John the Baptist.
God made each of us to make a difference. This is the gift of today’s birthday, the one who was born to prepare for the coming of the Saviour. We know that his life was a great success, but the manner of his death, the ending of his life, did not seem that way at the time. For us too, whether we seem to succeed or fail is not the point. We may never see how God uses us to achieve his will. But it is enough that we try — and then profound things can happen.
For we cannot hope to leave the world a better place, we can only hope to leave the world better people – and it is by doing that that we make the world a better place.
Dear brothers and sisters, we live in an era wounded by sadness and cynicism but also ennobled by men and women of grace; people not so very different from you and me. This year, on this great feast, we get to choose which path to follow, because while God’s Holy Spirit calls each of us by name to his service, we have the freedom to say yes or no. Let us remember that we belong, that we have a home in the crib of Bethlehem, which is for us now the ark of salvation.
If we really want to preach the Gospel, renew the Church and give glory to God in the years ahead, the only means that will work is to speak the truth in love through the witness of our lives. Just as did St John the Baptist.
May he pray for us. Amen