Our Lady of La Salette and St Joseph Church

In the re-education camp, we were divided into groups of 50 people. We slept in a common bed, and everyone had a right to 50 centimetres of space. We managed to make sure that there were five Catholics with me. At 9:30pm we had to turn off the lights and everyone had to go to sleep. It was then that I would bow over the bed to celebrate the Mass by heart, and I distributed Communion by passing my hand under the mosquito net. We even made little sacks from the paper of cigarette packs to preserve the Most Holy Sacrament and bring it to others. The Eucharistic Jesus was always with me in my shirt pocket.

In this way, the darkness of the prison became a paschal light, and the seed germinated in the ground during the storm. The prison was transformed into a school of catechesis.

Thus, in prison, I felt beating within my heart the same heart of Christ. I felt that my life was His life and His was mine.

By the late Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan

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The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Looking forward to Holy Communion

Jesus said: I have longed to eat this meal with you

Let's listen to Jesus

God said:
This is my Son, the beloved.
Listen to Him.
***

Jesus said:
Let the little children come to me;
do not stop them;
for it is to such as these
that the kingdom of God belongs.
***

Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish.
He raised His eyes to heaven,
and said the blessing over them.
Then He broke them
and handed them to his disciples
to distribute among the crowd. ***

Jesus said:
Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry,
because I am to stay at your house today.
Zacchaeus hurried down
and welcomed Jesus joyfully.
***

Jesus said to them:
'Come and have breakfast'.
None of the disciples was bold enough to ask,
Who are you?'
They knew quite well it was the Lord.

When they had eaten,
Jesus said to Simon Peter,
'Simon, son of John,
do you love me more than these others do?'
He answered,
Yes, Lord, you know I love you.'
Jesus said to him,
'Feed my lambs.'

Let's look at the Mass

Jesus said:
Where two or three meet in my name
I shall be there with them.
*

The whole Mass is about our Communion
with the Lord and each other.
***

Everything leads up to sharing the
Body and Blood of Christ
as bread and wine, food and drink.
*

Above all we come together
to say thank you to God.
***

We say sorry and ask forgiveness together.
Like Jesus we give praise to God together.
Then we are ready to listen to the
Word of God together;
to think about it, and to pray.
*

Our gifts of bread and wine are taken
to the altar and we thank God
for everything He has given us.
***

We remember how Jesus
took some bread and took some wine
He gave thanks to God
He said
Take and eat. This is my Body
Take and drink. This is my Blood
Then He said
Do this in memory of me. *

After Communion there is stillness:
we talk with Jesus. ***

Then the disciples told their story
of what had happened on the road
and how they had recognised Jesus
at the breaking of the bread.
Luke chapter 24

Let's look back

When do we start preparing
for Communion?

Think back to Baptism.

"Received the light of Christ"

Parents and Godparents
this light and this life
are entrusted to you."

"This child of yours
has been enlightened by Christ."

Babies in arms are brought
to the Altar for a blessing
when their parents
receive Communion.

As they grow up they come
forward with their families and
ask for a blessing for themselves.

All this time they have gradually
been preparing to receive the
Body and Blood of Christ
in the way Jesus chose.

This is my Body given for you"

This is my Blood shed for you"

The Body of Christ
Amen

The Blood of Christ
Amen

Let us Pray

Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness
we have this bread to offer,
which earth has given
and human hands have made.
It will become for us the bread of life.

Blessed be God for ever.

Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness
we have this wine to offer,
fruit of the vine and work of human hands
It will become our spiritual drink.

Blessed be God for ever.

My God, how great thou art.

*****

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

Thank you, God,
for the gift of creation.
Thank you, God,
for the wonders I see.
All around us your love
is everywhere.
Thank you, God,
for giving this world to me.
Thank you for giving me this day.

*****

Lord, teach us to pray.

Our Father

Give us this day our daily bread

***

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Let's choose the day

That's right: the choice is yours

In our Parish
we do not set one First Communion Day

Each family chooses the day to celebrate
their child's First Communion.
This makes it very personal.

Some people choose a birthday
or an anniversary.

Some families like to celebrate
First Communion and a Baptism
on the same day

Sometimes a day is chosen
because family and friends can be there.

Sometimes two or three friends
want to celebrate together.

*****

The choice of the Mass is yours too

Many families like to celebrate their Communion
with the people
they usual meet at Mass

****

Our Parish is truly blessed

Every year we rejoice
at the First Communion
of many children

We celebrate First Communion
over and over again throughout the year

Thanks be to God

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The Sacrament of Confirmation

Preparing for Confirmation as a Parish

Over six weeks
From Sunday 13th October 2002 to Sunday 17th November 2002

Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King
Sunday 24th November 2002
The last Sunday of the Year

A day of special prayer and celebration of the younger people of our parish.

Bishop Howard Tripp will be coming to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation with us at the 11 o’clock Mass. This gives all of us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the Gift of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Sacrament of Confirmation
When we are Confirmed the Bishop makes the Sign of the Cross on our forehead with the Oil of Chrism.
He calls us by our chosen name and says:
Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit
We answer: Amen
He then says: Peace be with you
We answer: And also with you

Usually the word ‘seal’ suggests a piece of wax or lead marked with some kind of stamp and attached to a document as a sign and guarantee of its authenticity.
In Confirmation we are ‘sealed’ or ‘stamped’ or ‘marked’ with the sign of Christ’s Cross. And we all pray that we will gradually and for the rest of our lives become More like Christ.

So let us pray
For ourselves and for those young people of our Parish who are going to be Confirmed on the Feast of Christ the King.

Come Holy Spirit
Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love

The First Reading
A reading from the prophet Ezekiel
Chapter 34

The Lord says this: I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep so shall I keep my sheep in view. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered during the mist and darkness. I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where to rest – it is the Lord who speaks. I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them.
As for you, my sheep, the Lord says this: I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and he-goats.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

THE RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 22

R. The Lord is my shepherd;
There is nothing I shall want.

1. The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose. (R.)

2. Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.
He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name. (R.)

3. You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing. (R.)

4. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever. (R.)

Lord, Rescue us – We are lost
Feed us – We are hungry
Show us where to rest – We are weary
Make us strong – We are weak
Thank you Lord
For being my Shepherd
For giving me rest
For feeding me
For guiding me
And for inviting me to dwell in your house

THE SECOND READING
A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians
Chapter 15

Christ has been raised from the dead, the first–fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of his enemies to be destroyed is death. And when everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subject in his turn to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Something to Think about

‘Those who have fallen asleep’
We believe we fall asleep in the Lord and wake up in heaven.

In Baptism we die to sin and rise to New Life in Christ
‘Claimed for Christ our Saviour by the Sign of His Cross’

‘Belonging to Christ’
By the Sign of His Cross
By the Seal of the Holy Spirit

There is a Heavenly Kingdom and an earthly kingdom
Which do you belong to?

‘Subject to Christ’
Is Christ your Lord and Master, Your Shepherd and your Guide?

Something to Pray about

May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace

Dying you destroyed our death
Rising you restored our life
Lord Jesus come in glory

Thy Kingdom come

May God be all in all

Glory be to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Sprit
as it was in the beginning
is now and ever shall be
world without end
Amen

Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!
Alleluia!

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Chapter 25

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, naked and clothe you; sick or in prison and go to see you?” And the King will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.” Next he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink; I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, naked and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me.” Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?” Then he will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.” And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.’

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ’s Body Today
Christ has no body now on earth but yours;
No hands but yours;
No feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ is to look out on the world with compassion.
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which He is to bless people now.

St. Theresa of Avila

A RENEWAL OF OUR COMMITMENT IN BAPTISM

Do you reject sin, so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?
I do.

Do you reject the glamour of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin?
I do.

Do you reject Satan,father of sin and prince of darkness?
I do.

Do you believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?
I do.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
I do.

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who came upon the apostles at Pentecost and today is given to you sacramental in Confirmation?
I do.

Do you believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
I do.

THE LAYING ON OF HANDS

The Bishop invites us to pray for those who are to be confirmed

My dear friends:
In Baptism God our Father gave the new birth of eternal life to His chosen sons and daughters.
Let us pray to our Father that He will pour out the Holy Spirit to strengthen His sons and daughters with His gifts and anoint them to be more like Christ the Son of God.

And we all pray for them in silence.

Then the Bishop extends his hands over those who are to be confirmed
All-powerful God,Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their Helper and Guide.

Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence.

Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in Your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

And we all answer: nbsp;nbsp;Amen.

THE LAYING ON OF HANDS
Have you noticed at Mass how the Priest spreads his hands over the bread and wine and prays that they will be changed into the Body and Blood of Christ? At Confirmation the Bishop extends his hands over those who are to be confirmed and prays that they will become the Body of Christ. Think of some of the key words

NEW BIRTH:
What does Baptism add to our physical birth?

CHOSEN:
Why has God chosen to tell you and me about Jesus, when so many others have not heard about Him?

ANOINT:
People are Anointed for a special purpose. What is God asking us to do?

Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.
It’s not always easy to see clearly.
Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.
We often wonder what is happening in our lives.
Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.
Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.
Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.
It’s not easy to stand up for what we know to be right.
Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.
We want to get to know God better.
Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.
We really need to listen more carefully to Your Word.
Come Holy Spirit: help us and guide us.

‘My God how great Thou art!’
And we say Amen to that.

Amen means we agree with everything that has gone before it.
We should never say Amen without thinking!

Prayer over the people
Bow your heads and pray for God's blessing.

God our Father,complete the work You have begun and keep the gifts of Your Holy Spirit active in the hearts of Your people.

Make them ready to live His Gospel and eager to do His will.

May they never be ashamed to proclaim to all the world Christ crucified living and reigning for ever and ever.

Amen.

Blessing
God our Father made you His children by water and the Holy Spirit:
May He bless you and watch over you with His fatherly love.

Amen.

Jesus Christ the Son of God promised that the Spirit of truth would be with His Church for ever:
May He bless you and give you courage in professing the true faith.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples and set their hearts on fire with love:
May He bless you, keep you one in faith and love and bring you to the joy of God’s kingdom.

Amen.

And may the blessing of almighty God,
The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Come upon you and remain with you for ever.

Amen.

Looking to the future

Given life through love.
Given new birth by water and the Spirit.
Chosen by name.
Called by God.
Just like Moses and David and Samuel and Isaiah and Jesus.
Nourished in mind and heart
By the Word of God
Fed in body and spirit
By the Body and Blood of Christ

Now

Called by name
Of your own choosing.
Sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Anointed with oil
(Specially blessed on Maundy Thursday in Saint George’s Cathedral by the Archbishop, Bishops and priests of the Archdiocese of Southwark)
Anointed with oil
Just like King David
Anointed with the Spirit
Just like Jesus
A marked person
With special talents to offer
Sent on a mission
Just like the Apostles.
Supported by God’s Spirit
With gifts of wisdom and understanding,
Right judgement and courage,
Knowledge and reverence,
Wonder and awe
To do God’s work

CONFIRMED

A New Beginning

Father
Thank you for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And for the future continue the work
You have begun in us:
Keep us active in faith,
Ready to live the Gospel,
Eager to do Your will,
Making Your love known.

Amen

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Children and the NET

A short guide for parents produced by the Catholic Agency for Social Concern

Now the Internet has become so common, many parents are asking: How do I help my children use it wisely? This short guide is designed to give a few tips to help answer that question.

TEN KEY RULES TO KEEP SAFE

1. Explore the Net with your children and learn to use it yourself. Know the sites your children are using - not all are educational - help them find the best ones.

2. Agree who uses the Net, when and for how long. Put the computer in a family area of the home and if you have interactive TV have rules for that too.

3. Encourage children to tell you about any e-mails or anything online that makes them feel uncomfortable or bothers them.

4. Explain that personal details, passwords and credit card numbers are private so they should always check with you if anyone asks for details.

5. Caution your children never to send photos or arrange to meet anyone before checking with you and to be wary of chat rooms.

6. Take time to learn about parental controls and software to filter out Internet material, but remember - no method is foolproof yet.

7. Don't miss hidden disks and files - using pornographic or hate-filled material tends to be secretive.

8. Remind your children that these apply when using computers outside the home.

9. Complain to your service provider about anything objectionable on the Net.

10. Communicate. The best protection is a healthy Christian family life in which family members talk and pray together.

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Strange connections

I received the following extract of newspaper cutting from someone who was two years above me at school, and had seen my name and address in list of past pupils. He had found the cutting in his grandmother’s prayer-book. I found that she was married in this church by Father Arthur Staunton in 1904. He was not here for many years – as a curate – from the beginning of 1901 until very early in 1905. It seems that the lady in question had always treasured his memory.

Father Staunton – By Joe C. Meaney

Ten years ago I gazed at a picture which no artist could reproduce on canvas…. It was a picture of a priest, a little child, and a great human tragedy.

I was standing at the end of a narrow squalid, alley-way in Bermondsey one wild night. The air was cold, and the rain was falling heavily. Crouching in the doorway of one of the hovels that lined one side of the alley was a little girl. Poor, miserable little bundle of rags. Without hat, without shoes, without even stocking, the artic cold of the night was forcing its way through the thin bare legs and quivering arms.

The child cried quietly. Alone, unheeded, unprotected, the tears trickled down the little pinched and consumptive-stamped face. Hungry, unwashed, shivering, “One of us,” a strange figure in a Christianised age !

A priest walked through the alley and passed the doorway, where the lonely child crouched – and sobbed. The child saw the priest, and wiped her eyes.

“Farv-ver Staunton !”

The priest turned, and bent low over the crouching figure in the doorway. He saw, as I saw, a great human tragedy, and his heart filled with sadness.

Father Michael

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When you are down... have courage

When you can take life’s knocks all in your stride,
Even when they wound your pride,
And when things go wrong, and they certainly will,
And all the going seems uphill,
You know in your heart that you can carry on,
Have the courage to be strong.

When you’re not ashamed to shed a tear,
For the loss of someone dear,
And be prepared for the occasional fall,
And have the strength to stand up tall,
Then, never think less than the person you are,
And in this world... you shall go far...

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There's a long way to go...

God has given us Life, and a Path through Life. We do not know where it will lead, nor how long it is, nor what we will have to face. God has given us tremendous possibilities - to see, and hear, and get to know other people; and to share the journey through life with them; and even to choose one partner, for better or worse, and to be able to bring new life into God's world. And because God knows all about our fears and insecurity - God has founds ways to overcome being along and our fears of being let down, and not being understood and accepted. God made us capable of loving and being loved. So let's be extremely careful how we respect, and protect, and promote these wonderful gifts of God. We need them.

So what happens when things go wrong? God has given us yet another ability: a tender and compassionate heart. Christ came to heal a broken world. And Christ taught us how to bind up broken bones, and broken hearts, and broken promises, and broken lives. Sometimes it is difficult to get the exact balance between all these gifts of God. It takes a long time to learn to love as God loves us.

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A WORD

A careless word may kindle strife;
A cruel word may wreck a life.
A bitter word may hate instil;
A brutal word may smite and kill.
A gracious word may smooth the way;
A joyous word may light the day.
A timely word may lessen stress;
A loving word may heal and bless.

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Listen

You do not have to be clever to please me; all you have to do is want to love me. Just speak to me as you would to anyone of whom you are very fond.

Are there people you want to pray for? Say their names to me, and ask me as much as you like. I am generous, but trust me to do what I know is best...

Tell me about your pride, your touchiness, self-centredness, meannes and laziness. I still love you in spite of these. Do not be ashamed; there are many saints in heaven who had the same faults as you; they prayed to me and little by little...

Do not hesitate to ask me for blessings for the body and mind; for health, memory and success. I can give you everything...

Tell me about your failures, and I will show you the cause of them. What are your worries? Who caused you pain? Tell me about it. Forgive them, and I will bless you.

Are you afraid of anything? Have you any tormenting, unreasonable fears? Trust yourself to me. I am here. I will not leave you.

Have you no joys to tell me about? Why you do not share your happiness with me? Tell me what has happened since yesterday to cheer and comfort you. Whatever it was, however big, however small, I prepared it.

Are temptations bearing heavily upon you? Yielding to temptations always disturbs the peace of your soul. Ask me, and I will help you overcome them.

Well, go along now. Get on with your work or play. Try to be humbler, more submissive, kinder. Tomorrow I shall have more blessings for you.

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When

When people are curt,
or ignore what you say,
When others' words hurt,
and friends keep away,
Remember, God loves you.

When life feels all empty,
and weighed down with care,
When tears come in plenty
with no one to share,
Remember, God loves you.

When money is tight,
and worries just stream,
When nothing goes right,
So you're ready to scream,
Remember, God loves you.

When burdened by guilt
and plagued by the past,
When faith starts to wilt
or doubts loom too vast,
Remember, God loves you.

When death comes to prey
as up mount the years,
When friends pass away,
and you're riddled with fears,
Remember, God loves you.

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Seek and You Will Find

Lying now in the tent, you wait for sleep to quench your last spark of sense. “In the darkness and silence, there was spoken to me a word.” It is a word spoken long ago, yet waiting still to be spoken. You heard it in childhood, and you are waiting to hear it still. You found God, yet you are to seek Him forever.

This much I know about seeking: most of it self-seeking. The mind seeks peace, an end to conflict, a pillow to rest on. Can lazy searching find God? The mind loves to search idly as a way of escaping from itself, and it calls this a search for God! I will tell you what it is: it is a self-seeking escape from self, a pitiful floundering in opposite directions at once.

And yet ... and yet ... Despite everything it may not be a bad beginning or a shameful thing. A child perceives its mother first as a source of comfort and food, and only later as a full human person: but mothers find no fault with this. Why should you think God less motherly? Why should there not be stages in the approach to God? Children are often tough on smaller children, but adults regard them all benignly. Perhaps God has more tolerance on our early steps and crude stages than we ourselves have. God is not only the transcendent One; He is intimate to all things, all persons, all places - to all fumbling and groping and vague searching. He beckons and we follow sleepily. We hear His call because He is intimate, but He is calling us to transcendence. He breathes or speaks or beckons and we follow blindly.

“In the middle of the night, a word; it came like a thief by stealth.”
When you search for God ...

From “Take Nothing for the Journey”
Meditation on Time and Place
by Donagh O'Shea O.P.

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If I call you friend

If I call you friend,
You will always share a piece of my heart.
I will always pride myself,
To always be true to you.
As much as I need friends,
So must you.
I will also share a place in your heart,
To be there whenever you need me.
I may not be there in flesh,
But I will always be there in spirit.
I will cope with your moods,
And try to understand your needs.
When you are angry,
I will laugh with you.
As sadness overwhelms you,
We will cry together.
If you feel down and kicked,
I will pick you up and brush away your doubts.
When you think you can't continue,
I will remind you that you can.
As you become discouraged,
I will boost your ego high.
At times when you wish to talk,
My attention will be all yours.
Being a friend I don't take lightly,
It's my desire, never a chore.
At times when you must mourn,
I shall mourn with you.
If you need some silence, yet not be alone,
We will sit together in the peace of quiet.
When you wish to play,
You will always have a playmate.
When you feel on top of the world,
I'll pat your back and tell you, you deserve to be.
You will never be completely alone,
A piece of me will always be with you.
One thing I can always give,
Is the gift of friendship for you to accept.
Allow our friendship to make you smile,
Bring joy to your life as you have to mine.
When you become confused and lose your way,
Let me guide you in the right direction.
Lean on me when you need support,
Let me share your sorrow and pain.

What good can a friend really be?
If you can't understand we will always care.

If I call you friend,
You will always know,
A friend you have in me.

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An Angel's Prayer

I say my prayers each day, and I repeat them every night...
Because I know that when I do, my life will be alright...
Somehow the Angels comfort me, whenever I have tears...
And always they encourage me, to overcome my fears...
I tell them all my troubles, when they seem too much to bear...
And I put my faith and confidence, in their almighty care...
With all of life’s daily problems, I know that they are on my side...
They will be there for me forever, to love, to rule and to forever guide...
So I say my prayers real slowly, and I mean each word I say...
Because I need the heavens above,
to hear me when I pray.

Martina Tarandek

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Marriage

When Paul and I decided to get married, our views had changed, a few years ago we wanted a grand affair, a large Cathedral with bells ringing and everyone singing, onlookers ready to stare.

But as time moved on so did we, therefore we looked deeper at our inner selves and spoke about the purpose of marriage and what it really meant.

Well, we soon came to realise that it’s not about the size of the church, how many people attend, who sings the loudest or about having the grandest of affairs. Instead we wanted a place of worship which was important to us and to stand in front of each other to take our sacred vows.

On entering Our Lady of La Salette and Saint Joseph Church we immediately felt how unpretentious and intimate it was; we both smiled at each other and said: “Yes, this is the right place for us”. I could not believe it, I just had to laugh.

We met the priest, Father Michael. He was so down to earth, honest and opens and let us knows from the start as this is our day, we should have the service our way, play our own music, move the furniture as we pleased, and feel free to decorate the church to meet our needs.

“But most of all remember this is your day and I am here to please”, he said. We shook our heads in agreement hardly believing that this was for real, not being dictated to but us all working together as a team.

The lessons we learned whilst planning our special day validated what we believed, and that is: “Never judge a book by its cover, and most of all, work together as a team.” It is also important to remember that if something doesn’t happen when you first sit down and plan, nothing is done before the time just like Married Life!

By Paul and Sandra
28th September 2002

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We are One Race - The Human Race
A Child's Vision

Black and white play together, black and white are free.
Day and night blend together: So should we.
We should all try to live with each other just like the sun and the moon.
Paper and ink write together: we should try that too.
Summer and winter are like sisters: they need each other.
One without the other wouldn’t be so beautiful.
The world’s cultures are all special because they are so many.
What would the world be like if we were all the same?

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Friends are angels ...

“Friends are angels who lift us to our feet,
when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.”

A Friend ...
Accepts you as you are
Believes in “you”
Calls you just to say hi
Doesn’t give up on you
Envisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts)
Forgives your mistakes
Gives unconditionally
Helps you
Just wants to “be” with you
Keeps you close at heart
Loves you for who you are
Makes a difference in your life
Never Judges
Offers support
Picks you up
Quiets your fears
Raises your spirits
Says nice things about you
Tells you the truth when you need to hear it
Understands you
Values you
Walks beside you
X-plain things you don’t understand
Yells when you won’t listen and
Zaps you back to reality

“Flexible people don’t get bent out of shape.”

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Contentment

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common: this is to be my symphony.

William Henry Channing

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The Real Good

What is the real good?
I asked in a musing mood.

Order, said the law court;
Knowledge, said the school;
Truth, said the wise man;
Pleasure, said the fool;
Love, said the maiden;
Beauty, said the page;
Freedom, said the dreamer;
Home, said the sage;
Fame, said the soldier;
Equity, said the seer;
Spoke my heart full sadly:
The answer is not here

Then within my bosom
Softly this I heard:
Each heart holds the secret:
KINDNESS is the word.

John Boyle O'Reilly

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Evergreen Branches

Something Beautiful

Life, in sunshine or rain, is beautiful. We look out upon the world on a summer's day and see this age-old Earth with its youth renewed, and we think it like a dream. We walk through a wood when the red leaves are falling, and we think it all a miracle. We look out across the fields when they are white with snow, and are thrilled at the sight of all this majesty. And then awakes the joy of Spring, when all the Earth comes leaping up, and the wonder is too great for words. Perhaps, after all, the world is just a dream, God's dream. It is the beauty of which Socrates was thinking in that prayer so long ago: "I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within."

Arthur Mee

Let Me Do It Now

I shall pass through this world but once.
Any good therefore that I can do
or any kindness that I can show to any human being
let me do it now.
Let me not defer nor neglect it
for I shall not pass this way again.

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Footprints

One night a man had a dream that he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, the other belonging to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints, and that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life...

This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me." The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child. I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Margaret Fishback Powers

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Candle

Lord,
May this candle be a light
for you to enlighten me
in my difficulties and decisions.

May it be a fire
for you to burn out of me
all pride, selfishness and impurity.

May it be a flame
for you to bring warm into my heart
towards my family, my neighbours
and all those who meet me.

Through the prayers of Mary
Virgin and Mother
I place in your care those I come
to pray for (especially ……………….)

I cannot stay long with you in
this church;
In leaving this candle
I wish to give to you
something of myself.

Help me to continue my prayer
into everything I do this day.

Amen

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A Woman Who Had A Bad Name

All right, so I have a bad name. Perhaps I deserve it. I have certainly done some vile things. So now I am labelled. No escape for me now. They have decided who I am. It is fixed. And they are fixed too. There is no moving them. Those cold eyes. The looks contempt. Other looks too, frightening looks. And I could tell you a thing or two about them, but there is no point.

Then Jesus turned up. I had heard about him. People said he was different - not like the others. They said he was not afraid of the hard men. He took them on. He showed them up. But they still wanted to be seen with him. He came to our town and went to dine with one of the hard men. I thought I would take a look at him - see for myself. And he saw me.

And then it happened. I went to pieces. I fell in a heap at his feet. And I could not stop crying. I tried to dry his feet with the nearest thing to hand. You see, he looked at me. And his eyes were not hard. And I could not handle it.

I had this little jar of perfume some rich fellow gave me. And I just smashed it. I looked at it in pieces on the floor - a picture of my life - all broken jagged pieces. But there was still something precious inside.

Then I heard him say: Your sins are forgiven. The hard men thought he was pronouncing some legal sentence like a judge. But I knew better. He was just stating the obvious. I knew it was true already. He was calming me down; telling me it was all right. Just like my dad.

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Prayer for Evangelisation

As the seed grows silently in the earth,
As the yeast rises in the dough,
May your power, Spirit of God, be at work in us.
Like a city set on a hill,
Like a lamp shining in the darkness,
May we witness together,
Calling our brothers and sisters
To the glory of Your Light
And the peace and justice of Your Kingdom.

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Make Hospitality Your Special Care

These are the words of Saint Paul. They are the final words of part of his encouragement to practise Christian charity. It starts: Do not let your love be a pretence. (Romans 12: 9-13)

He is only echoing what Jesus in His story about how our loves will be assessed in the end.
"Come, you whom my Father has blessed - I was a stranger and you made me welcome."
"Go away from me - I was a stranger and you never made me welcome."" (Matthew 25: 31-46)

You see, there is more to hospitality than meets the eye. "And remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13:2)

This is an amazing story - more amazing if you read the whole story in Genesis 18: 1-15 - and its sequel in Genesis 21: 1-7, especially if you then go back to Genesis 17: 15-17. "Isaac" is a form of the Hebrew for "God has laughed" - the last laugh of joy, whereas Abraham and Sarah had laughed in disbelief.

Hospitality always brings gifts all round - those who give always receive. Look at the story of the Visitation when Mary brought her unborn child Jesus to Elizabeth before John the Baptist was born. (Luke 1: 39-56)

So it is clear that hospitality takes a thousand forms a day. A motorist who lets a pedestrian cross the road. A cashier who smiles. A child who offers a sweet.

Hospitality should always be our special care.

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Contemplation For Busy People - By: Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio

For many, the words “contemplative life” conjures up images of robed monks in choir stalls or veiled nuns behind metal grates. A chosen few of these sequestered people appear to be favoured with revelations from on high. These we call mystics. Since most of us are called to an active life, we assume that we are disqualified from contemplation. And to think we could be mystics would be simply an act of pride or worse, an indication that we might need psychiatric help.

But if we look a bit deeper into the Catholic tradition, we see that contemplative, mystical prayer is actually a normal part of the Christian life to be experienced by everyone. Certainly there are religious orders especially dedicated to contemplation. But there are also orders, like the Missionaries of Charity, especially dedicated to works of mercy. Does that mean that the rest of us can forget about mercy? Special vocations like these exist to be a perpetual reminder to all of us of something we too are called to be and do.

If we look into both Old and New Testament, we see very active people called by God to special moments of contemplative prayer. Moses spent forty days and nights with God on Mt. Sinai. Elijah encountered God in a still, small voice, and found restoration and renewed vision. The Lord Jesus himself often withdrew to spend hours in prayer. But the best example of contemplation in the midst of action is the story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10). Jesus comes to visit. Martha fusses. Mary stops, sits at his feet, and listens. She gives him her undivided attention.

"Making ourselves available to God"

This is our part in making contemplative prayer happen. We simply make ourselves available to God and focus on his presence. And his presence is most intensely experienced in two ways: through his inspired Word, and in the sacrament of his body and blood. Contemplative life is suspended between two poles, the Bible and the Eucharist.

To focus on God’s presence is easier said than done. In every age, the necessary chores of everyday life--earning a living, homemaking, parenting, relationships--have a tendency to completely absorb us if we let them. This was Martha’s problem.

Yet we have an additional obstacle that Martha did not have–modern media which invades every nook and cranny of our lives. In various schools and seminars around the world, future advertising execs, graphic artists and film-makers are taught how to get our attention, keep our attention, and put tunes and images in our minds that just won’t go away. They get to us through radio in the car, TV at home, even wireless internet access all hours of the day and night wherever we are. We can shop either in stores or online 24/7--no break for Sundays and holidays. Organized activities for abound for all ages. When I was a child aged 9-12, I walked to a field to play Little League baseball each Spring. Now kids start sports before they can read and play 2-3 sports year round with summer tournaments that require parents to drive all over creation. Modern life has magnified the distraction factor. The potential for a frenetic, scattered lifestyle has never been greater.

"Over stimulation of our culture"

Of course this kind of constant over stimulation takes its toll on the body as well as the soul. We need moments of contemplation to survive and thrive amidst this craziness. In an interesting study, praying the rosary was shown to lower blood pressure. It’s just common sense.

So how to live a contemplative life in a society that never rests? We simply look at some activities and “just say no.” That’s what Mary did, much to Martha’s chagrin. We may irk a family member, a friend or a co-worker. They’ll cope! Limit TV viewing. Limit the number of activities you or the family engages in. When you get a few quiet moments, break the habit of turning on the radio or picking up a sales catalogue. Make some space for God.

"BACK TO BASICS"

Ok, but then what do you do with the room you’ve created? Here are some practical ideas on how busy people can grow in the contemplative life:

1. Daily Quiet Time: we should offer up quick prayers to God throughout the day. But contemplative life demands a daily discipline of giving God undivided attention. If you are not currently doing this, try starting with 15 minutes and gradually expand it to 20-30 minutes. An entire “holy hour” would be fabulous, though perhaps not possible for everyone. But it is the regularity more than the exact duration that is important. Find the best time for you. For me, it is early in the morning, before the rest of the household is up and the phones start ringing.

2. Adoration: Adoration is, according to an important Vatican Document, “holding the Mass in a moment of contemplation.” It is unpacking and savoring the meaning of the entire Eucharistic liturgy. We are meant to have a few moments of silent contemplation after communion at each Mass. But we can prolong this all throughout the week by spending time in quiet, before the tabernacle. We can commit to a certain hour if our parish should have organized adoration. Or we can simply go as we can and spend anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more resting in the presence of the Lord. “Be still and know that I am God. (Ps 46:10)

3. Rosary: “mystical” prayer is pondering and uniting ourselves to the “Mystery” of Christ’s love expressed in his incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection. The rosary, then, is by nature a mystical or contemplative prayer, if we pray it correctly. The vocal prayers are meant to help us “keep time” as we ponder the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries. There is a Scriptural Rosary booklet that helps me keep my mind on the mysteries. Five decades of the rosary take about 20 minutes to pray. If you don’t have that much time, say a decade or two at a time as your schedule allows..

4. “Lectio Divina”: This contemplative approach to Scripture was first developed my monks in the early days of the Church. They selected a small portion of Scripture and read and reread it slowly. They memorized it, pondered it, and chewed on it continuously as a cow chews the cud in order to extract all the nourishment they could from it, assimilate it, and be transformed by it. Then they used it as a springboard to intimate prayer of union with God, who inspired the text. Such a form of prayer with Scripture they called “Divine Reading” or “Lectio Divina.” The Focolare movement of spiritual renewal has the practice of choosing one scripture text and meditating on it continuously for a week in this way.

5. Liturgy of the Hours: The Church’s “Liturgy of the Hours” may be sung by monks in choir stalls, but it is for everybody. Psalms and scripture readings are organized in a four week cycle for morning, midday, evening, and night prayer, with special readings and prayers for the various liturgical seasons and saints days. You can get a one volume abbreviated version (called “Christian Prayer”) or the full, four volume version. Or you can get it online or even download it into your PDA from various web sites such as www.universalis.com or www.liturgyhours.org

6. Nature walk: God’s creation is a reflection of his glory. To unplug from the media and quietly walk amidst God’s creation often helps to de-stress, dial-down, and dispose us for prayer. In fact many of the psalms are great to read on a nature walk like Ps 19 on the occasion of a beautiful sky or Ps 93 when the surf gets rough at the ocean.

7. Sunday: In his letter on restoring Sunday as the day of the Lord, Pope John Paul II called Sunday a contemplative day. It is a time to avoid unnecessary work and chores, put away the To-Do lists, and remember the salvation that Christ won for us through his cross and resurrection. It’s not just another day to catch up and get things done, but a day to pause and give thanks for what’s already been accomplished for us and through us.

8. Retreat: Prayer is like breathing. We must do it continually. But sometimes you need to pause and take a really deep breath. That’s what a retreat is for. It could be a weekend, an overnight, or even just a whole morning in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The important thing is that it is a good chunk of dedicated time to renewing and deepening our relationship with the Lord, away from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. There are many organized retreat programs that we can tap into through our parish, but it is OK too to just go away alone with a Bible and a rosary and just be with God. If you have never done this I challenge you to try it. You’ll be surprised at how fast the time goes and how powerfully the Lord will speak to you.

This essay was first published in August 2005 by Our Sunday Visitor and is reproduced here by permission of the author.

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The Other Half - by Sue Whitehead

I know that there is a lot of rubbish on TV these days but sometimes I hear something which makes me think! I cannot remember the programme but last April I heard the following: Tomorrow is a mystery, Yesterday is history and Today is a gift, that is why we call it 'the present'. I really like that!

As Christians we know that each day is a gift from God. It might not be exactly what we would choose, it might not have all the ingredients of a perfect day, but the very fact of "living" is a gift in itself. Usually a 'present' comes wrapped - there is more than meets the eye, more to discover. The present itself might be something we have longed for; something exactly right or something we never thought of! Some people are very good at receiving presents. They always make the giver feel appreciated because they respond graciously. Other people are hopeless - "You shouldn't have bothered." "Is it alright if I change it?" "It is not exactly what I would have chosen." "Did you get this in the sale?" Remarks like this do not help but I suspect that all of us have responded like this at some time.

But the gift of life, the gift of each day is, for us, a gift from God, our heavenly father. Our response to that must be positive and excited. Anything that happens needs to be accepted with grace. I know that this is not always easy as circumstances and relationships are not always what we would choose. But they are part of life, they are the reality in which we live, so we live in or with them by the grace of God.

Living in the present is challenging. There are certain things which God has planned for me today. It is up to me whether or not I do them. Some I will recognise and do with joy. Some I will see and ignore because I want to do something else, and some I will miss completely because I am engrossed with my own plans! At the end of the day it would be nice to be able to say "I tried, Father, I really tried to get it right today, and I have been amazed at what happened". And to hear his response - "Well done, just wait until you see what I have wrapped for you for tomorrow."

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Prepare The Way of The Lord

The present season is one of particular importance. It is a sacred season. As the Holy Spirit says, it is the time of the Lord's favour, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation. The patriarchs and prophets longed and prayed and yearned with all their hearts for this time. That just man Simeon at long last saw this time and his joy was boundless. And the church has always kept this season in a special way. So, we too must continue to celebrate it fittingly, giving praise and thanks to the eternal Father for the mercy he has shown us in this mystery of the coming of his Only-begotten Son.

The Father sent his Son out of his immeasurable love for us sinners. He sent him to free us from the tyrannical power of the devil, to invite us to heaven and lead us into its innermost sanctuary. He was sent to show us truth itself, to teach us how we should live, to share with us the source of all goodness, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace. Finally he was sent to make us sons and daughters of the Father and heirs to eternal life.

The Church calls this mystery to mind each year to stir us to renew constantly our memory of the great love God has shown us. This commemoration teaches us that our Saviour came not only for the benefit of the people of his own time. His goodness is still there for us to share in.

The Church wants us to understand that as he came once into the world in the flesh, so now, if we remove all barriers, he is ready to come to us again at any minute or hour, to make his home spiritually within us in all his grace.

From the Pastoral Letters of Saint Charles Borromeo

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The crib - the true symbol of Christmas - by Geoffrey Humphrys

Churchgoers thouthout Britain are familiar with the sight of a crib in their churches at Christmastime. Each year a group of volunteers, often with several young people among them, devote much time and care to setting up in some conspicuous part of the church. We have come to expect cribs in our churches, but strangely enough in comparison, very few families think of including a crib in their Christmas decorations at home.

In Britain, a decorated evergreen tree is the centrepiece of most family decorations. Although it was a pagan symbol, it was given religious significance by St. Boniface, the 8th century English patron saint of Germany. He taught his followers to regard the tree as a sign of the everlasting life which is the basis of Christian belief, that the candles were a reminder that Jesus Christ was the true Light of the World, and that the gifts signified that the birth of Jesus was the greatest gift to mankind.

Although the Christmas tree has been invested with this religious significance, it is the Christmas crib that is the true symbol of Christmas because it represents the cave-live grotto below the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the traditional site of the birth of Jesus.

Setting up the crib at home can involve the whole family, and its presence among the decorations of a familiar room can be a powerful reminder that Christmas is the celebration of the birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

After Roman Emperor Constantines's decree against persecution made it possible for people to once again avow themselves as Christians without fear of being thrown to the lions, they emerged from their underground refuges and began to build their churches in daylight. Part of these early churches was the aesee, or stable chapel, and it was within these at Christmastime that the Bethlehem scene of the first Christmas was staged.

Later, Nativity plays became the most popular dramatic productions of the Middle Ages, but as time went on they became an excuse for irreverent revelry. Herod was potrayed as a melodramatic villain who was hissed and booed at by drunken audiences, and gradually the plays lost all their religious meaning.

The Christmas tree dates back to these times, for originally it was the custom to use an evergreen tree as part of the play scenery. This was intended to symbolise the eternal life offered by the Kingdom of God. At first the trees were decorated with Communion wafers, angels and bells. It was this type of Christmas decoration that St. Boniface advised his German followers to adopt.

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Consort, remembered the evergreen tree custom from his chilhood in Germany and introduced it to Britain for the benefit of his own children. The idea immediately appealed to all who saw the decorated royal trees at Windsor, and within a few years many other homes adopted the custom. Today, some eight million real and artificial evergreen Christmas trees are sold every December in Britain.

Nowadays too all the materials required for constructing a crib in the home can be obtained quite easily. The human and animal figures are available in plywood, plaster, plastic and cardboard cut-outs, and not too expensive.

St. Francis is responsible for inspiring the custom of setting up Christmas cribs. When the Nativity plays became so sacrilegious that they were banned, he wanted a tangible way to demonstrate to his followers what he felt about the birth of Jesus Christ, the 'little Babe of Bethlehem', as he affectionately called Him.

After giving the matter much thought, he wrote the following message to his friend and disciple Giovanni Velita, from whom he received the Greccio hermitage: "If it now seems good to thee that we should celebrate the feast together, go before me to Greccio and prepare everything as I tell thee. I desire to present the birth of the Child in Bethlehem in such a way that with the eyes of our bodies, we may see all that He suffered from the lack of necessities for a new born babe, and how He lay in the manger between ox and ass".

Giovanni followed these instructions implicity, with such effect that the scene of the first Christmas was set out with painstaking accuracy. Many brothers and ordinary people attended upon invitation from Francis. Poignant songs and hymns were sung in the candlelit atmosphere of the wooded surrounds. The manger had been arranged in a clearing so that the service could be celebrated over it. St. Francis sang the Gospel and then preached in loving terms of 'the little Babe of Bethlehem'. He did this with such devotion that Giovanni had a vision of the seemingly lifeless 'babe' coming to life as Francis sang praises over him.

In the words of St. Bonaventure, "Nor was the vision untrue, for by the grace of God, through his blessed servant Francis, Christ was awakened in many hearts where formerly he slept".

Those who witnessed this inspired sight never forgot it. They told others the details of its beautiful simplicity, so that it became the pattern for all future cribs. Within a few years they were being set up in city market squares and in churches throughout Christendom. They have continued to flourish until the present day, marked by the seal of sincerity and devotion with which St. Francis endowed them.

Spanish and Italian homes have long constructed cribs at Christmas, devotedly attending to every detail to make them the chief feature of their decorations. We could easily do the same in Britain, preferably with the whole family making some contribution to its construction.

A crib can be as elaborate as one wishes, depending upon the creative skills of those doing the work. Often the simplest representation is the most striking, and there is a special appeal about those fashioned entirely by childish hands. They are a true reminder that Christmas, by its very nature, is a festival in which children should have pride of place.

By Geoffrey Humphrys

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He Will Baptize You with the Holy Spirit

It is good to cultivate a sensitivity to the Spirit for it is present in the whole chorus of creation. Indeed, the Spirit connects us to creation and confers eyes that see God as artist and as lover. Where there is truth and goodness and beauty, there is the Spirit of God whether in a painting or a person. We cannot live our lives without beauty; it is the signature of God and the seal of his Spirit. A sonnet or a love-song, the face of a girl in her prime, the swoop of a bird, an evening-blue sea or a lonely shore, these are not accidental things but divine poetry composed for our enjoyment. We receive the Spirit that we may become alert. In the Spirit we see through new eyes and can find beauty in every cranny of creation.

The artist cannot paint well unless inspired and the great artists were not merely masters of technique but ministers of a Spirit that impelled them to write and paint and compose. The Suffolk fields and meadows are there for all to see. But Constable sees more and is compelled to reveal the colour and contrasts, the harmony and holiness of a familiar scene yet not visible to unperceiving eyes. L. S. Lowry could find beauty in the industrial waste of the North; human squalor cannot totally erase hidden beauty. There is beauty in the desert.

God is aware that most of us see things through secular eyes. Our disease is dimness. The Spirit confers illumination and each one of us can be an artist. Painting or poetry may be beyond us. But the first art is the art of living. Jesus is the master-artist and his life is his masterpiece.

Hugh Lavery
Reflections on the Creed

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What Are You Looking For?

We cannot measure how You heal
Or answer every sufferer’s prayer,
Yet we believe Your grace responds
Where faith and doubt unite to care.
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,
Survive to hold and heal and warn,
To carry all through death to life
And cradle children yet unborn.

The pain that will not go away,
The guilt that clings from things long past,
The fear of what the future holds,
Are present as if meant to last.
But present too is love which tends
The hurt we never hoped to find,
The private agonies inside,
The memories that haunt the mind.

So some have come who need Your help
And some have come to make amends,
As hands which shaped and saved the world
Are present in the touch of friends.
Lord, let Your Spirit meet us here
To mend the body, mind and soul,
To disentangle peace from pain,
And make Your broken people whole.

John Bell and Graham Maule of the Iona Community

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The Kingdom of God is Close at Hand

When we pray “Thy kingdom come” we are inviting God to come and do in us all that He wants to do. We are affirming that we want Him to be our God and Father, to love us into the fullness of life. We are praying that His great plan of love for His creation be accomplished. Nothing else can satisfy the human hearts He has made for Himself. “If you knew the gift of God”, Jesus cries; He who did know it and esteemed it truly.

If God is to be really our God and Father He must be allowed a free hand. He must reign. Ah, but we want to reign in the little world of our own life. We want to own ourselves and run our kingdom. We will fly God’s flag, we will keep His laws as best we can, but hand over control? No, that we cannot do! It would mean losing everything, ceasing to be human, for after all, autonomy is our inalienable right. It is the way we are, the way we live and function.

Pray “Thy kingdom come”, says Jesus, “surrender to that kingdom, it is your blessedness. You think you will lose your life? Believe Me, you will gain it, your only true life, eternal life.” The kingdom is fully present in Jesus for He has allowed God to be His God, His “Abba”.

The kingdom is pure gift, the pure, gracious self-giving of the God of love. We can never take hold of it, never bring it in, cannot even know of its existence. To see it, to enter in, we must be born again of water and the Spirit.

Our Father: Meditations on the Lord’s Prayer
by Ruth Burrows

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God is Love

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.”

We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John’s Gospel describes that event in these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should have eternal life.” In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel’s faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. Since God has first loved us, love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.

In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.

Pope Benedict XVI
The opening words of his first Encyclical Letter
Published on the 25th January 2006
Available on the Vatican website: www.vatican.va

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Jesus Prayed so as to Find Out what His Father Wanted

In this context, praying “Thy will be done” means abandoning oneself to the mysterious designs of God. Here is a resignation that does not mean choosing the easiest path or the one that is most reasonable: true wisdom is not measured by the criteria that we use with our limited powers of reasoning, but by the parameters of God’s wisdom, which is as high above us as the heavens are above the earth. If we are to accept the mysterious path of God, even when we see and understand nothing about it, then we need to renounce ourselves and our own plans. This requires detachment from our own will, even when it has been honestly and genuinely oriented. True greatness of spirit is to recognize the limits of one’s range of possibilities and the finiteness of one’s forces; this human condition opens up the possibility of a humble decision for a more transcendent plan that involves each of us and all of creation.

To pray “Thy will be done” is equivalent to saying: let what God wants be done! There is no element of complaint or despair in this, but a confident commitment, like that of a child snuggling into the arms of its mother. God is Father and Mother of infinite goodness. He has His eternal plan; we also have our plans. As children who have never quite understood everything that our Father does nor the full import of His words, so also we, as we pursue our pilgrimage, do not comprehend all the dimensions of history, nor can we understand the total meaning of what is being realised. It is without bitterness that we recognize the finite nature of our own viewpoints and commit ourselves to Him who is the beginning and the end, in whose hands rests our entire itinerary.

Leonardo Boff
The Lord’s Prayer

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CHARITY AS A RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH

Love of neighbour, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its entirety. As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community. The awareness of this responsibility has had a constitutive relevance in the Church from the beginning: “All who believed were together and had all things in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2, 44-45) In these words, Saint Luke provides a kind of definition of the Church, whose constitutive elements include fidelity to the “teaching of the Apostles”, “communion”, “the breaking of the bread” and “prayer” (cf Acts 2, 42). The element of “communion” is not initially defined, but appears concretely in the very quoted above: it consists in the fact that believers hold all things in common and that among them, there is no longer any distinction between rich and poor (cf. also Acts , 4: 32-37). As the Church grew, this radical form of material communion could not in fact be preserved. But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.

A decisive step in the difficult search for ways of putting this fundamental ecclesial principle into practice is illustrated in the choice of the seven, which marked the origin of the diaconal office (cf. Acts, 6: 5-6)

What can we do to help each other?

From the First Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI
“Deus Caritas Est” “God is Love”

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THE HIDDEN SICKNESS OF SIN

We talk glibly about sin as though we see it easily as dust or dirt. Not so. Theft we recognise. Or mugging. These foul the fairways and offend the eye. They are obvious sin. But the worst cancer is not conscious; it is concealed. Real sin suppurates in the subconscious. We cannot diagnose it. Or deal with it. Yet how it wearies and worries us. Such a sin is envy. I have never met anyone who consciously decided to be envious. Yet envy torments us all. We seek promotion and are passed over in favour of one we believe to be our inferior. Do we accept their success? We do not. We burn with resentment, we slander and our comments are acid. This is sin and we cannot release ourselves from its grip. I choose envy because I have seen too many good people let it first disfigure and finally destroy them. Yet they remain blandly unaware of the true infection; they assign their bitterness to some other cause. Adam was envious of God and burned to replace him. Goodness attracts envy for more than evil. The crowd chose Barabbas the murderer. They rejected Christ. Sin is refusal to accept Christ as the norm of the good, the true and the beautiful. It is Christ who reveals what real sin is. He sees it as separation. And he sees its first symptom as anxiety. But in an anxiety that attaches itself to no particular thing, a floating anxiety that ticks within us at work and play, in company or in solitude. Christ takes anxiety as primary evidence of rooted and original sin. Equally, the Church does not underrate the ravages of anxiety. Like Christ, it sees sin and anxiety as riding in tandem. So many sins are the sour fruit of an anxiety we cannot assuage, cannot even uncover.

Hugh Lavery
Reflections on the Creed
The Forgiveness of Sins

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JESUS THE BRIDEGROOM

Jesus isn’t interested in Himself and His own advantage, He is only concerned with us and our happiness, and this happiness is His happiness. He is obsessed with us, wholly absorbed with caring for us; every detail of our lives, every cell of our body is a matter for His concern – Our Lord tells us so. He has all the passionate, intense concern of the most loving of parents. Specifically, His one aim is to give us Himself. This, as a simple statement, can mean little to us. We have to take it on faith that this is the highest, ultimate blessedness and until it is accomplished we remain unhappy, unfinished beings.

God is always wanting to come closer to us, and in His eyes the whole of our span of mortal life is meant to make us accustomed to His nearness. God loves us and love is always humble and respectful; it will not force itself upon the beloved. God cannot love us to the full, that is, give full scope to His love, be as lavish with us as He wishes, unless we let Him. If, from His side, our lives in this world are an opportunity for Him gradually to give Himself until we are capable of receiving Him fully, from our side they must be seen as a response to His loving advances, allowing Him to train and fit us. There is never any question of the initiative lying with us or of our having to get on the good side of God in order to win His favours.

All that has gone before is an attempt to show how, in our ordinary daily lives we should respond to God, surrendering to His loving concern for us and His loving will to give Himself. It is not a part-time thing, it covers and must cover the whole span of our lives. It is the beginning on earth of our life in heaven. It is prayer: God incessantly giving Himself, and our opening ourselves to this gift.

Ruth Burrows
To Believe in Jesus

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JESUS INVITES US

Will you come and follow Me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know
and never be the same?
Will you let My love be shown,
will you let My name be known,
will you let My life be grown
in you and you in Me?

Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare,
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in Me?

IS THIS OUR ANSWER?

Lord, Your summons echoes true
when You but call my name.
Let me turn and follow You
and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go
where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow
in You and You in me.

The Iona Community

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IF WE FOLLOW JESUS, WE WILL BE TRANSFIGURED TOO

Fast from judging others: Feast on the Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from emphasis on differences: Feast on the unity of life.
Fast from apparent darkness: Feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness: Feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute: Feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent: Feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger: Feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism: Feast on optimism.
Fast from worry: Feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining: Feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives: Feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressure: Feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility: Feast on non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness: Feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern: Feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety: Feast on eternal truth.
Fast from facts that depress: Feast on verities that uplift.
Fast from discouragements: Feast on hope.
Fast from lethargy: Feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from thoughts that weaken: Feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow: Feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from idle gossip: Feast on purposeful silence.

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THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Freedom is man’s right and birth-right. Dictators deride it; iron regimes suppress it. Only democracy has won for people the field where freedom can flourish and grow. Yet democracy has existed for only three per cent of recorded history and only in a narrow area of the globe. It is a fine achievement yet it lives under threat and, like a tree that takes a century to grow, it can be felled in minutes. The truth is this. The heart both wants freedom and fears it. Those who fear freedom are eager to take it from those who enjoy it. Freedom carries obligation. Its obligation is responsibility. Those who fear responsibility will trade their freedom to one who will live their lives for them. How unwise to assume that everyone wants freedom! The dictator climbs to power on the shoulders of the timid. He offers to undertake their responsibility, if they will surrender their freedom. And the police state with its labour camps and nocturnal arrests is born.

True freedom finds its home within. It is freedom from interior phobias and compulsions. Even in the best democracy there are many who lead pathetic lives, ragged with anxiety, because subject to the command of dark forces they cannot control and do not understand.

Many who came to Jesus had little hope. The load of sin and the weight of sorrow had led them to the edge of despair. They came to Jesus for they sensed that some strong Spirit breathed within Him and they sought to inhale its fragrance and refreshment. In coming to Christ they did all that was necessary. “Come to Me all you who labour and are burdened.” Such a sweet command. Christ is eternal refreshment and the Spirit burning within Him the one fire no power can quench. He is the salt that never loses its savour. It is from Him alone that we know of the Spirit and find that its genius is to restore, to renew, to make alive. He does not call this spirit from the deep or invoke it from the air. It is within Him, the fire of His energy and animation. It simply goes out from Him like a radiation; merely to touch the hem of His garments is to be renewed.

“Reflections on the Creed”
By Hugh Lavery

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TWO MOTHERS

A Reflection for Mothers’Day

Long, long ago, so legends relate,
two mothers once met at an old city gate.
“By the look in your eyes,” said the one to the other,
“I can see that you too must have once been a mother.
And by the blue-tinted veil on your hair,
you too have known no little sorrow and deepest despair.”
“Ah, yes,” she replied, “I once had a son,
a sweet little lad, full of laughter and fun.
But tell of your child.” – “Oh I knew he was blest
from the moment I held him close to my breast,
and my heart almost burst with the joy of that day.”
“Ah, yes,” said the other, “I felt the same way.”
The former continued: “The first steps he took,
so eager and breathless – the sweet, startled look
which came over his face. He trusted me so.”
“Ah, yes,” said the other, “I felt the same glow.
How often I shielded and spared him from pain!
And when he for others was so cruelly slain,
when they crucified him and spat in his face,
how gladly I would have hung in his place!”
A moment of silence. “Oh, then you are she,
The mother of Christ.” And she fell on one knee.
But the blessed one raised her up, drawing her near,
and kissed from the cheek of the woman a tear.
“Tell me the name of the son you loved so,
that I may share with your grief and your woe.”
She lifted her eyes, looking straight at the other.
“He was Judas Iscariot. I am his mother.”

Anonymous

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CARE NOT KILLING

In recent years voices have been heard in favour of legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide. Sometimes it is said that people have a right to “die with dignity”, by which is meant, a right to be killed on request. Euthanasia is worse than suicide, for it involves the intentional killing of someone else, albeit someone who may have asked to be killed. Those who take someone else’s life take to themselves the power of life and death and decide that another person’s life is without value. If someone is suicidal, pushing him or her over the brink is not helping, it is harming. This is obvious when young and healthy people attempt suicide. Since, however, elderly, sick and disabled people may succumb more easily to doubts about the worth or value of their continued existence, it is even more important to affirm the inherent dignity of their lives.

Respecting the dignity of people who are dying must involve respecting their lives, for without life there is no dignity. Furthermore, legalising euthanasia represents a grave danger for many vulnerable people. This was clearly recognized by the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics which reported in 1994. Having heard the arguments for legalization at length, it unanimously concluded that legalizing voluntary euthanasia would be wrong in principle and dangerous in practice, not least for the vulnerable. What is needed most of all is adequate support for those who need long term care and for the disabled. Greater knowledge of palliative medicine within the medical profession and an expansion of the work of the hospice movement are also essential, so that those who are near death can be confident of proper care and respect right up until the end.

An extract from “Cherishing Life”
Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales 2004

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“IN TRUTH THIS MAN WAS A SON OF GOD”

I was there, a Roman centurion, part of the most disciplined war machine in the world. I was witness to all the events leading to his death. Even now my guilt haunts me when I remember what we did to Jesus in the courtyard: how we blindfolded him, and played vicious games, striking and spitting in his face. I watched the King of the Jews as he took up his cross. It was my official role to make sure he died that Friday. He was just another prisoner, another criminal to be crucified with Roman efficiency. But then I began to study this man – no, he was more than a man. It was his royal, noble manner, his undaunted courage. I had seen hundreds of men face death on the cross; they cursed and screamed. Jesus was different: he had a strange peace about him that went beyond anything I’ve ever seen. He even forgave the people under the cross who taunted him. In the end, Jesus died like a god, with dignity. Under the cross, I was driven to my knees, driven to recognize him for what he claimed to be: the Son of God. Within my heart, I felt the first stirring of faith and I asked Jesus to forgive my cruelty and hardness. I was there when Jesus died on the cross. Were you there? Did you recognize him, too?

Let us pray: Loving Jesus, along your way of the cross, you met hardened soldiers, condemning priests, and compassionate men and women. As we walk that same way of the cross, let us search our innermost hearts, for they are capable of hardness or compassion, fickleness or faithfulness. Jesus, may we confront the dark side of our hearts and, through your grace, decide to remain your faithful and compassionate followers. Amen.

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NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

Resurrection, then, is no past event. Calvary is history; Jesus died once and for all. But Easter is contemporary and its tense is the present tense. “Jesus IS risen.” And, if Jesus is alive, he must live somewhere and his only home is the human heart, always sinful and often sad, yet kept from the edge of total rejection. It is void that the heart fears, the emptiness, the loss of grip and identity. To be nobody, to be superfluous, overlooked by God and disregarded by people, this is to die even when living, to be alone even in company. This is hell already here. And this is unbearable. Jesus cried his abandonment and it is the voice of us all. He descended into hell. And he was raised.

Yet few totally believe in resurrection. This is odd, for people often wish they had known Christ and dined with him and walked the evening shore beside him. How wonderful to have heard his words, to have felt the touch of his hand, looked into his kind and compassionate eyes. Yet his words were often violent, his hand once held a lash, and his eyes sometimes blazed with accusation. Christ had not come to condemn. Nor had he come to console. He had come to change. “Repent” is his first imperative. And “repent” is radical change, not superficial reform. It asks for a change of attitude, for new values, for something more than a routine practice of old pieties and a nervous attention to rubric and regulation. It asks for conversion from the real to the Really Real, from old to new. It asks for a dying. And for a resurrection.

Reflections on the Creed
by Hugh Lavery

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SO THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE

Do you believe in the Son of Man? To this question addressed by Jesus to the man He had cured of blindness I am sure each of us would reply with a hearty ‘yes’. We would be sincere, but we would not be speaking the truth. Faith in Jesus, the Son of Man, is very, very rare. If what I say is true it is a depressing assertion. It would be even more depressing if there were nothing we could do about it. As it is, we are set over a gold mine, a shovel is put in our hands, we are given the strength to dig and the absolute assurance that if we do so we shall find. No special gifts are required, no superhuman effort, only resolution and the taking of trouble. Everyone is given the chance, no one is excluded. What happens? Some of us at any rate set to work and dig but what we find is not at all what we expected. We expected a glistening nugget and instead all we have in our weary hands is an ugly, shapeless lump of metal. ‘It is gold, pure gold,’ we are told. But it doesn’t look like gold, it doesn’t feel like gold. You say you believe in Jesus. He told you that if you dug you would find the treasure. Where is your faith?

Faith is a gift but a gift that will undoubtedly be given if we take the necessary steps and choose to believe, choose to take God at His word and stake our lives on it. He has told us, through Jesus, that He loves us, that He will do everything for us; He has assured us that when we ask we receive, that when we seek we find, that when we knock the door is opened. Do we take Him at His word?

To Believe in Jesus
by Ruth Burrows

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GOD FINDS A WAY

When under house arrest in the village of Cay Vong, I was under police surveillance day and night, and this thought became obsessive: “My people! My people that I love so much; a flock without a shepherd! How can I contact my people at a time when they have most need of their pastor? The Catholic bookstores have been confiscated, the schools closed, the religious dispersed. Some have gone to work in the rice camps and others find themselves in the ‘region of the new economy’ in the midst of the general population, in the villages. This separation is a shock that destroys my heart.”

I told myself, “I will not wait. I want to live the present moment, filling it with love, but how?”

One night a light came to me: “Francis, it is very simple. Do as St Paul did when he was in prison. Write letters to the different communities.”

The following morning while it was still dark, I signalled to Quang, a seven-year-old boy who returned from Mass at 5:00 a.m. I said to him: “Tell your mother to buy old calendars for me.” That night, once more in the dark, Quang brought me the calendars. Every single day in October and November of 1975, I wrote messages to my people from prison. Each morning Quang came to take the papers and bring them home so that his brothers and sisters could recopy the messages. That is how the book, The Road of Hope, came to be written and has since been published in eleven languages.

When I was finally released from prison in 1989, I received a letter from Mother Teresa. It contained these words: “It is not the number of our works that are important, but the intensity of the love that we put into every action.”

Testimony of Hope
Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan

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WAKING UP TO GOD

I arise today through the strength of heaven –
Light of Sun, Radiance of Moon, Splendour of Fire, Speed of Lightning,
Swiftness of Wind, Depth of Sea, Stability of Earth, Firmness of Rock.

I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me,
God’s might to uphold me, God’s hand to guard me,
God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to save me,
From snare of devils, from temptations of vices,
From all who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear, alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of paganism, against spells of witches,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ to shield me this day,
So that there come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

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CHARITY AS A RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH

Love of neighbour, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its entirety. As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community. The awareness of this responsibility has had a constitutive relevance in the Church from the beginning: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.” In these words, Saint Luke provides a kind of definition of the Church, whose constitutive elements include fidelity to the “teaching of the Apostles”, “communion”, “the breaking of the bread” and “prayer”. The element of “communion” is not initially defined, but appears concretely in the verses quoted above: it consists fact that believers hold all things in common and that among them, there is no longer any distinction between rich and poor. As the Church grew, this radical form of material communion could not in fact be preserved. But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.

Pope Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical Letter
“GOD IS LOVE” paragraphs 20 and 21

NB. Is there anything we should be doing in our parish?

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STRANGERS ARE FRIENDS WE HAVE NOT MET

GOD KNOWS NO STRANGERS,
HE LOVES US ALL,
THE POOR, THE RICH,
THE GREAT, THE SMALL ...
HE IS FRIEND WHO IS ALWAYS THERE
TO SHARE OUR TROUBLES AND LESSEN OUR CARES
NO ONE IS A STRANGER IN GOD'S SIGHT,
FOR GOD IS LOVE AND IN HIS LIGHT,
MAY WE, TOO, TRY IN OUR SMALL WAY
TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS FROM DAY TO DAY ...
SO PASS NO STRANGER WITH AN UNSEEING EYE,
FOR GOD MAY BE SENDING
A NEW FRIEND BY.

H. STEINER RICE

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WHAT’S YOUR GOAL?

Throughout the Easter season we should reflect on what it means to be baptised and to live as a member of Christ’s Body, the Church. One consequence of our baptism is that we are all called to live the Christian vocation, and each of us has a particular vocation in life.

Today, we should pray for those who serve us in the ordained ministry and also ask that all might recognise the call of God in our own lives. If the whole Church community listens and responds to God, some will discern that their vocation is to serve as a priest or in consecrated life.

We need to recognise that we are not only called, but are also callers, helping others to recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd in their lives. As well as praying for more priests and religious, we need to ensure that our local communities are places where young people are helped to grow in faith and love of God so that they too may, in turn, respond to His call.

It is no good praying for vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life if we are always thinking that it is a member of someone else’s family who will hear that call. The local parish is a community of individuals and a community of families – we need to be open to the possibility that God’s call will come to one of our own, even to me.

We should also remember today those who are considering a vocation to priesthood or consecrated life and those in formation. We also give thanks to God for all those priests and religious in our diocese who celebrate important jubilees this year. May God bless them all.

The National Office for Vocation
www.ukvocation.org
www.ukpriest.org
enquiries@ukvocation.org

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A CHANGE OF HEART

The history of the saints is the history of the Spirit. They are not a superior caste exempt from the cares of our condition. They are sinners all, and they have known the agony before they have soared to ecstasy. Like us, they have known crisis. With Saul it occurred on a road. Saul was a deeply religious man. Yet Saul does not seem to have been happy. Zeal is never enough; it breeds bigotry. Unless tenderised by love zeal becomes destructive. Saul witnessed the martyrdom of the young man, Stephen, and perhaps the gentleness and courage of that martyr made him think again about Christians and their Christ. Saul, it seems, was a divided man. At the level of consciousness he was doing what was good. At a deeper level he was unsure. “Who are you, Lord?” he asks. “I am Jesus and you are persecuting me.” No more was needed. Saul was released from an uncongenial role. Paul was born. The truth had made him free.

This is conversion and this is the work of the Spirit. No man can convert. The Church cannot convert but only prepare the soil for conversion. Conversion is the work of the Spirit and Jesus is its outlet. Saint Paul never tires of the wonder of conversion. Yet, he was religious before. Where lies the difference? Simply, in freedom. The Spirit had released him from a religion of law and regulation and led him into spacious fields where the Spirit blew fully and freely. Religion was no longer a burden but a grace; no longer exterior but a whole and healthy heart. How poetically he writes of the Spirit and the space and width of its generosity. How he feels for those for whom religion is reduced to legal exactness and neurotic observance. And how boastful he is. “By the grace of God I am what I am.” But his boast is in the Spirit.

Adapted from “Reflections on the Creed” by Hugh Lavery

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LIVING WITH THE HOLY TRINITY

A woman kneels on the earth floor in her small hut in the Outer Hebrides and lights her fire with this prayer:

I will kindle my fire this morning
In the presence of the holy angels of heaven.

She started the day by splashing her face with three palmfuls of water in the name of the Trinity.

The palmful of the God of Life.
The palmful of the Christ of Love.
The palmful of the Spirit of Peace.

Then as she makes her bed she had made this a prayerful invocation to the Trinity and a prayerful reflection on the span of life itself.

I make this bed
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
In the name of the night we were conceived.
In the name of the night that we were born.
In the name of the day we were baptized.
In the name of each night, each day,
Each angel that is in the heavens.

Perhaps nothing speaks as tenderly and securely of what the presence of the Trinity can mean than a bed-blessing such as this:

I am lying down tonight as beseems
In the fellowship of Christ, son of the Virgin of ringlets,
In the fellowship of the gracious Father of glory,
In the fellowship of the Spirit of powerful aid.

I am lying down tonight with God,
And God tonight will lie down with me.
I will not lie down tonight with sin, nor shall
Sin or sin’s shadow lie down with me.

I am lying down tonight with the Holy Spirit,
And the Holy Spirit this night will lie down with me.
I will lie down this night with the Three of my love,
And the Three of my love will lie down with me.

From “A World Made Whole – Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition” by Esther de Waal

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I THANK YOU FOR THE WONDER OF MY BEING

Yahweh, you examine me and know me.
You know if I am standing or sitting.
You read my thoughts from far away.
Whether I walk or lie down, you are watching.
You know every detail of my conduct.

The word is not even on my tongue,
Yahweh, before you know all about it.
Close behind and close in front you fence me round,
shielding me with your hand.
Such knowledge is beyond my understanding,
a height to which my mind cannot attain.

It was you who created my inmost self,
and put me together in my mother’s womb.
For all these mysteries I thank you:
for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of your works.

You know me through and through,
from having watched my bones take shape
when I was being formed in secret,
knitted together in the limbo of the womb.

God, how hard it is to grasp your thoughts!
How impossible to count them!
I could no more count them than I could the sand,
and suppose I could, you would still be with me.

Selected Verses from Psalm 139

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Don’t Ask God to Explain His Actions

(The last chapters of the Book of Job)

Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning
or sent the dawn to its post,
telling it to grasp the earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it
when it changes the earth to sealing clay
and dyes it as a man dyes clothes;
stealing the light from wicked men
and breaking the arm raised to strike?
Have you journeyed all the way to the sources of the sea,
or walked where the Abyss is deepest?
Have you been shown the gates of Death
or met the janitors of Shadowland?
Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth?
Tell me all about it if you have!
Which is the way to the home of the light,
and where does darkness live?
You could then show them the way to their proper places,
or put them on the path to where they live!
If you know all this, you must have been born with them,
you must be very old by now!
Have you ever visited the place where the snow is kept,
or seen where the hail is stored up,
which I keep for times of stress,
for days of battle and war?

(and much, much more)

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A DAY FOR LIFE

The Catholic Church has always proclaimed that people are made in the image and likeness of God and that we all have an inalienable right to life. Every year the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales invites the whole Church to deepen its understanding of what this means to us as Christians. This year’s “Day for Life” invites us to reflect upon the extraordinary gifts that disabled people have to offer and how we can take practical steps to make sure that they are not excluded from the Church and society as a whole.

Here are some practical questions:-

How do we encourage disabled people to live out their place within the baptismal priesthood?

What practical steps can we take to make the parish life and buildings more accessible?

Can we adapt any parish activities to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities?

Is our parish a place of welcome and total inclusion, a true reflection of the Kingdom of God?

Part of our Offertory Collection will be set aside to support “Day for Life”, the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics and Catholic charities working with disabled people in England and Wales.

www.dayforlife.org – a newly created lively, upbeat website which includes video and audio interviews (podcasts) celebrating the life of disabled people.

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TRUST IN GOD

A few thoughts on the moment Jesus died. The first time I saw someone die was at a hospital when I was called in the early hours to minister to a man who was seriously ill. His family were around his bed and it was a very emotional experience for them as they walked with their dad on the last few steps of his journey in life. As he lay dying, the words of Jesus from the cross echoed in our minds as he prepared to make his final act of entrustment to the Father, “Into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). They remind us that eventually we will have to let go of everything and everyone until at last all we are left with is our faith in God’s love for us.

When that moment comes for all of us, all that will remain is the belief that God is there waiting for us with open arms of forgiveness and welcome to receive us into his company forever. When we think about it, we are preparing for that moment all our lives. God’s grace invites us to let go of everything and everyone that comes before him. The experience of life is one long process of learning to trust God more. In learning to trust, we are freed from our attachments to false gods and in time discover who we really are. Saint Teresa of Avila, who herself was no stranger to intense suffering, once wrote, “A person can bear all things provided they possess Christ Jesus dwelling within them as their friend and affectionate guide.”

In life, as in death, we pray that we may live each day those beautiful words of trust in God, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”.

Creed of Love
Reflections on the Apostles’ Creed
by Billy Swan

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TRUE LOVE

Erotic love, if it is love, has one premise. That I love from the essence of my being – and experience the other person in the essence of his or her being. In essence, all human beings are identical. We are all part of One; we are One. This being so, it should not make any difference whom we love. Love should be essentially an act of will, of decision to commit my life completely to that of another person. This is, indeed, the rationale behind the idea of the insolubility of marriage, as it is behind the many forms of traditional marriage in which the two partners never choose each other, but are chosen for each other – and yet are expected to love each other. In contemporary Western culture this idea appears altogether false. Love is supposed to be the outcome of a spontaneous, emotional reaction, of suddenly being gripped by an irresistible feeling. In this view, one sees only the peculiarities of the two individuals involved – and not the fact that all men are part of Adam, and all women part of Eve. One neglects to see an important factor in erotic love, that of will. To love somebody is not just a strong feeling – it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other for ever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay for ever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision?

Erich Fromm
The Art of Loving

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BEING TRUE TO GOD

One who is close to Our Lord has an instinct for what is right and is free, in the measure of his closeness, from the influence of accepted custom. He looks at Our Lord, not at what others think and do. A simple incident will illustrate this.

Someone I know was present in a workshop when the phone rang. The apprentice answered it. It was a client, asking why an article sent into the shop some weeks before had not been returned. The apprentice passed on the message to the foreman, who was there in the room. “Oh, tell him we are very sorry for the delay but we are waiting for a spare part that has not come yet. We can’t get on without it.” Now, both the foreman and the apprentice knew this was a lie. The object was there in front of them, no spare part was needed, it had been overlooked. The boy went back to the phone and delivered the message exactly as it had been given. Later, the onlooker said to him: “Don’t you get into the habit of telling lies. You knew that was a lie.” The boy excused himself, “but Mr X told me to say it.” “I don’t care who told you to say it, it was a lie and we mustn’t tell lies.”

The readiness to tell the hypocritical, kindly lie to save trouble; readiness to evade customs and other taxes; misuse of working hours when the results cannot be assessed; gladly taking advantage when fares have not been collected, these and similar immoral actions are alien to the disciples of Jesus, who are limpid and incorruptible. It is with them as Jesus wanted, their simple “yes” is yes and their “no” is no.

Too many would-be spiritual people who say they want nothing but God are casual in their behaviour. Religious are some of the worst offenders, slow to pay their bills, ready to get everything as cheaply as they can regardless of the consequences to others, expecting and demanding privileges.

On the contrary, it is the daily acts of goodness that count.

To Believe in Jesus
Ruth Burrows

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LOVE THAT IS REAL

The love of God is inseparably bound up with love of our neighbour. Nothing is clearer in scripture. In fact, the two become one great commandment. “To love the parent is to love his child.” (1st John, 5:1). It is as simple as that. Scripture does not place the weight of responsibility for our neighbour on the natural solidarity existing between men but solely on the fact that every one is like ourselves, God’s child and the brother of Jesus. Only the grace of God, only transformation into Jesus, so that his love becomes my driving force, can enable me to love my neighbour as God wishes. ‘Flesh and blood’ cannot achieve this love. We are to love others as Jesus has loved us, no less, without discrimination, without limit, to the point of death. This does not simple mean that, if needs be, we must be prepared to lay down our lives for our neighbour whoever he be, but that daily we must be dying to our own selfish needs so as to care only for the welfare of others.

There is an enormous amount of neighbourliness in the world; kindness, thoughtfulness, readiness to help in difficulties, sympathy, generosity. One meets it everywhere. Nevertheless, the disciples of Jesus must exceed the demands of mere neighbourliness, wonderful though this is. Perfect love of our neighbour must be our aim, and this can flow only from a pure and selfless heart. We must begin with our inmost heart and this, in practice, means that charity begins at home.

We all know that it is relatively easy to be kind and neighbourly to those who don’t press too closely on us, who are distanced from us to some extent. It is far more difficult to be always loving to those with whom we live or rub shoulders with day after day.

To Believe in Jesus
Ruth Burrows

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_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Seeing with the Eyes of Faith

(Unfortunately, not everyone is able to do so.)

In the beginning all was darkness and God said: Let there be light.

And because God had said it, there was Light.

In the beginning all was silence and God sang the Song of Creation.

And because God sang, all the stars and spheres danced to the music of God.

In the beginning all was still and God laughed.

And because God laughed the waters woke up and roared and rippled and ebbed and flowed and seeped and swirled.

In the beginning all was dull and God painted.

And because God painted the sky became blue, and purple, and pink, and rainbows hung there. The grass became green and flowers and butterflies danced and settled like jewels on the earth.

In the beginning nothing was alive and God breathed.

And because God breathed men and women woke up from their sleeping so hat they could look after the earth. They breathed the very life of God and stood in wonder before the work of God’s hands. They saw the glory of God in all that God had made. And they saw that it was very good.

Taken from the Harvest Liturgy at Saint Joseph’s School last Tuesday morning.

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Our Lady of La Salette and Saint Joseph Church

Parish Priest: Canon Michael Cooley 14 Melior Street, London SE1 3QP 020 7407 1948

1. “IT IS THE MASS THAT MATTERS”

2. The Sacrament of Holy Communion

3. The Sacrament of Confirmation

4. Children and the NET

5. Strange connections

6. When you are down... have courage

7. There's a long way to go...

8. A WORD

9. Listen

10. When

11. Seek and You Will Find

12. If I call you friend

13. An Angel's Prayer

14. Marriage

15. We are One Race - The Human Race

16. Friends are angels ...

17. Contentment

18. The Real Good

19. Evergreen Branches

20. Let Me Do It Now

21. Footprints

22. Candle

23. A Woman Who Had A Bad Name

24. Prayer for Evangelisation

25. Make Hospitality Your Special Care

26. Contemplation for Busy People

27. The Other Half - by Sue Whitehead

28. Prepare The Way of The Lord

29. The crib - the true symbol of Christmas

30. He Will Baptize You with the Holy Spirit

31. What Are You Looking For?

32. The Kingdom of God is Close at Hand

33. God is Love

34. Jesus Prayed so as to Find Out what His Father Wanted

35. CHARITY AS A RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH

36. THE HIDDEN SICKNESS OF SIN

37. JESUS THE BRIDEGROOM

38. JESUS INVITES US

39. IF WE FOLLOW JESUS, WE WILL BE TRANSFIGURED TOO

40. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

41. TWO MOTHERS

42. CARE NOT KILLING

43. “IN TRUTH THIS MAN WAS A SON OF GOD”

44. NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

45. SO THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE

46. GOD FINDS A WAY

47. WAKING UP TO GOD

48. CHARITY AS A RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH

49. STRANGERS ARE FRIENDS WE HAVE NOT MET

50. WHAT’S YOUR GOAL?

51. A CHANGE OF HEART

52. LIVING WITH THE HOLY TRINITY

53. I THANK YOU FOR THE WONDER OF MY BEING

54. Don’t Ask God to Explain His Actions

55. A DAY FOR LIFE

56. TRUST IN GOD

57. TRUE LOVE

58. BEING TRUE TO GOD

60. SEEING WITH THE EYES OF FAITH

(Catholic watchword during the Elizabethan persecution)

Looking forward to Holy Communion

Jesus said: I have longed to eat this meal with you

Let's listen to Jesus

God said: This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to Him. ***

Jesus said: Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ***

Let's look at the Mass

Jesus said: Where two or three meet in my name I shall be there with them. *

Everything leads up to sharing the Body and Blood of Christ as bread and wine, food and drink. *

Let's look back

When do we start preparing for Communion?

The Body of Christ Amen

Let us Pray

Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.

Let's choose the day

That's right: the choice is yours

*****

The choice of the Mass is yours too

Many families like to celebrate their Communion with the people they usual meet at Mass

Parish Priest: Canon Michael Cooley
14 Melior Street, London SE1 3QP
020 7407 1948

God said:
This is my Son, the beloved.
Listen to Him.
***

Jesus said:
Let the little children come to me;
do not stop them;
for it is to such as these
that the kingdom of God belongs.
***

Jesus said:
Where two or three meet in my name
I shall be there with them.
*

Everything leads up to sharing the
Body and Blood of Christ
as bread and wine, food and drink.
*

When do we start preparing
for Communion?

The Body of Christ
Amen

Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness
we have this bread to offer,
which earth has given
and human hands have made.
It will become for us the bread of life.

Many families like to celebrate their Communion
with the people
they usual meet at Mass

Every year we rejoice
at the First Communion
of many children

Over six weeks
From Sunday 13th October 2002 to Sunday 17th November 2002

Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King
Sunday 24th November 2002
The last Sunday of the Year

The Sacrament of Confirmation
When we are Confirmed the Bishop makes the Sign of the Cross on our forehead with the Oil of Chrism.
He calls us by our chosen name and says:
Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit
We answer: Amen
He then says: Peace be with you
We answer: And also with you

Come Holy Spirit
Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love

1. The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose. (R.)

2. Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.
He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name. (R.)

3. You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing. (R.)

4. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever. (R.)

‘Those who have fallen asleep’
We believe we fall asleep in the Lord and wake up in heaven.

Do you reject sin, so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?
I do.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
I do.

A careless word may kindle strife;
A cruel word may wreck a life.
A bitter word may hate instil;
A brutal word may smite and kill.
A gracious word may smooth the way;
A joyous word may light the day.
A timely word may lessen stress;
A loving word may heal and bless.

When people are curt,
or ignore what you say,
When others' words hurt,
and friends keep away,
Remember, God loves you.