Money

What Fr Alan said about money?

Fr Alan said a number of countries in Europe, such as France, Spain, Italy etc., have their public holidays on religious feast days. However, in the UK, our public holidays are Bank Holidays. This shows how much people in this island love money. They love money so much that they change the first day of the week to Monday, instead of Sunday. If you do not believe me then go to WHSmith and look at the diaries there - Monday is put on top of the diaries and not Sundays. Fr Alan said M for money, M for Mondays. 

Fr Alan said when he was a seminarian, he and his brother seminarians had to pray in front of a five pound note, which had been framed! Amazing! I must ask my brother seminarians if they have to pray in front of money.

He then told us not to bring dirty money to Ogle Street. He said dirty money was not welcomed at St Charles, Ogle Street. 

So what did Fr Alan mean by dirty money? 

Well, if we were to obtain our money by doing jobs which were not approved by the Church - such as from selling drugs or from prostitution, then Fr Alan said he rather not have anything to do with our dirty money.  

Fr Alan said that there was a time in which the Church would not baptise someone if he did work which was "dirty".  For example, in the early Church, if a Roman soldier wanted to be a Christian, he had to leave the Roman Army and then he could be considered for baptism. 

How about today? Fr Alan said if one were a newsagent, one could not be a Christian. 

Why is this? Well newsagent sells pornographic magazines and Christians do not look at pornographic materials, sell pornographic magazines or materials. So for those who watches pornographic materials online - stop it!

My neighbour, a medical doctor, went for a conference on Christianity and medicine and she discovered the addictiveness of pornography.  

Therefore, if you are trying to be a Christian, then you need to avoid watching or handling such materials, as pornography is as addictive as drugs.

So other professions which hinder you from being a Christian includes pushing drugs. Imagine the harm this does to the people who take drugs, their families and friends, including their neighbours. So if you were to be doing this, then Fr Alan would not want your money at Ogle Street. 

Only the grace of God has allowed us not to take drugs, deal with prostitution, handle pronographic materials and Fr Alan said do not think of yourself better than those who have these vices.  Without the grace of God, we could do a lot worse. So when we look on at these people, we need to look at them like the way Jesus would look at them - with a lot of love and pity.

So, let us pray. Almighty God, thank you for giving us the grace not to do all these bad things and earn dirty money.  We pray for those people who are addicted to drugs, pornography, prostitution and other vices. We ask you to love these people too with tender loving care and give them graces to avoid these vices. Amen. 

BTW: Fr Alan allowed people who wanted to give up vices to come to Ogle Street and meet in the rooms below the church. 

Such groups include Alcoholic Anonymous, Gambling Anonymous, Debt Anonymous and others. These groups are still meeting in St Charles Ogle Street up to today.