Everything you need to know about the challenge that we face, and the response to the challenge that we face, at this moment in the life of the Catholic Movement: we are not called to ever greater introspection, ever greater introversion, ever greater isolation – to lock ourselves away from the world in an upper room of fear and mutual despondency – as seductive a space as that might seem to be for us to inhabit given the abundant discouragements we see writ large in the Church of England. Her drift is our sorrow. Yet, wherever you find that spirit of fear and despondency, or feel it, cry aloud ‘Get thee behind me, Satan!’, for the Devil loves nothing more than when the Church loses hope and heart. No, we believe in the one who tramples down the doors, who breaks in to dispel fear and manifest his risen power. We believe in the one who sends his Spirit to strengthen his Church in its pilgrimage through this world. He will never forsake nor abandon us.

Our response to the challenges we face is to rise to meet them, of course, with a bold and reinvigorated confidence. We have nothing to fear – Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Death and Hell are overthrown, and the gate of life is opened to those who believe. Now is the time to live our catholic life at its highest pitch and greatest intensity. Only by radical renewal can we meet the evangelistic task before us. Now is not the time for decaffeinated Catholicism: only full-fat, full-on, full-faith, full-throttle Catholicism will do. If we are to go out into the world as the Saviour commanded us to do, fearlessly; if we are to be renewed in the strength we once had; and if we are to recall the Church of England back to herself, then we must first go deeper into Christ. This means a radical obedience to the Catholic Faith; radical witness to the compassion of Christ in works of charity; radical discipline in prayer and in receiving the sanctifying gifts of the Sacraments (we must live in such a way that shows we cannot live without them!); radical trust in God’s providence and full surrender to his will for us; radical personal holiness. In short, we must consecrate the whole of our lives anew to Christ our God.

–Bishop Paul Thomas, SSC