When Jesus ascended into heaven, he vanished from the Apostles' sight, and they spent a short while gazing into heaven. But as they looked up two men in white robes appeared before them and asked them what they were doing. 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?' (Acts 1:11) It was a rhetorical question, and one that we could pose of ourselves. 'Looking into heaven' is clearly a good thing to do! After all, it is where Christ, risen from the dead, and now ascended, has taken His seat to reign. Indeed, St Paul tells the Colossians to keep gazing in his direction: 'If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.' (Col 3:1-2) After the Ascension, our lives must surely be ones of contemplation, constantly putting before ourselves the face of Jesus, and the mystery of His death and Resurrection for us, and the glory to which he calls us.  However, still the angelic figures in Acts ask the Apostles 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?' The reason why is given immediately, when they add: 'This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.' (Acts 1:11) The concern of these heavenly messengers is that the Apostles do not think that Jesus's story is now complete. In fact, He will return to earth, just as He had taught them before, from the throne of the Father, as Judge of humanity (cf. Mt 25:31ff). We should never for a moment live our lives as if Jesus's story is done and dusted. In fact, like the disciples, apart from gazing into heaven, we need to keep our eyes open to observe the world around us in the here and now. The disciples are not to rest on their laurels having witnessed the Ascension. Instead, they must go straight to Jerusalem and take up the task the Lord left them to spread His Gospel. In order to do this, they will need the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:5) The Holy Spirit, far from making them 'other worldly' - members of a sect who will no longer be concerned with the world's affairs - actually sends them into the world in a new way. We are constantly being called and empowered by the same Spirit to do likewise. In the face of great changes in our local church at this time, as we prepare to become one parish with the other communities of our diocese, we will also need to invoke the Holy Spirit's help, and Jesus's presence within us, bringing heaven and earth together. We will need both contemplation and action.

Our Parish Pastoral Council meeting minutes for February 2024 have now been uploaded to the website and can be viewed here

The main Collection taken at our Masses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is our gift to Fr Tristan and to Fr Xavier, who do not receive a salary but rely on our generosity in the Christmas and Easter collections, the offerings we give for Mass Intentions and sacramental celebrations. If you are giving through online banking, please make a separate payment with the reference ‘Christmas’. You can also give via the basket or the card machine as normal. If you gift aid, please put your offering in an envelope of any kind and write your name or Gift Aid number on it – cheques should be made payable to ‘St John the Evangelist’. Please note that if you have a standing order with the parish, this is your parish offertory and is NOT transferred to the priests. Thank you! (More details about online giving, and gift aid can be found at: https://www.stjohnshorsham.com/church-giving ).