Editorial:
Why does the camel have so supercilious an expression, with that smug muzzle swaying at the end of that long neck? He knows the Hundreth Name of Allah.’ The other 99 are contained in this issue of Mission Outlook and a noble enumeration it is – ‘The Merciful, The All-Pitying, The Holy’ and 96 more of them. In one of them, ‘Al-Nur’, The Light (No. 93) we recognise the familiar Koh-i-Noor, Mountain of Light. The Names remind us too of the litanies which formed so great a part of the old RSB – Rosary, Sermon and Benediction. Some of the titles by which we saluted the Sacred Heart, the Holy Name or the Virgin Mary had a mysterious ring to them: ‘Desire of the Eternal Hills’, ‘Tower of Ivory’, ‘House of Gold’. Even the jaw breaking ‘Heart of Jesus, hypostatically united to the Word of God’ was redolent of ancient theological controversies and fiercely exchanged condemnations.
Can we look for a revival in our British parishes of the non-eucharistic devotions of a generation ago? Certainly in the days of the Latin Mass the popular Jesus Psalter, for instance, spoke in a tongue ‘understanded of the people’. The accompanying sermon was usually somewhat longer than the faithful would have heard at Mass and, if well presented gave the priest a chance to treat the truths of the Faith in some depth and to enrich the spiritual lives of his parishioners. Perhaps this was for a minority but, after all, St Francis de Sales used to declare that one soul was diocese enough for a bishop.
One factor that should facilitate the provision of such devotions is that they do not need the presence of a priest or a deacon. Hearteningly, in many parishes the congregation itself recites the Church’s Morning Prayer before weekday Mass. Such a situation is commonplace in Africa where the catechist is a virtually indispensable part of parochial organisation. If the present crisis of strength in priestly numbers continues in our midst we shall have to accept another aspect of African mission life where the peripatetic missionary ‘trekking the bush’ tells his flock that as far as they are concerned Sunday is when he says it is, even though he arrives on a Friday.
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