OUR VISITING SEMINARIAN, BARNABAS, WRITES - 26th April

The Gift Aid boxes for this new tax year are at the back of the church for collection. Please don’t use any of your current envelopes for future collections, as a number of the box numbers have been changed. There are special, thinner, boxes of envelopes for those of you who normally donate by monthly standing order and only use envelopes for the second collections, and for Easter and Christmas. If you have any queries, please contact the Parish Office. Thank you for your generous support.

We warmly invite you to our Silent Prayer gatherings, now moving to a monthly meet-up. We will continue to gather in the same gentle rhythm and format: arriving at 3.30pm in the hall, upstairs, for refreshments, followed by a short reflection on Silent Prayer and the Carmelite Saints. We will then move into the church for a time of Silent Prayer, finishing at around 5.00pm. Our next date is Saturday 25th April and then Saturday 23rd May , keep an eye on the newsletter for future dates. Whether you are new to silent prayer or have been walking this path for some time, you are most welcome to join us. Please feel free to come along at any point.

And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him. And he vanished from their sight. At the breaking of the Bread, the disciples finally recognise Jesus, who has been with them throughout their walk on the road to Emmaus. As if to confirm their realisation, Jesus vanishes the moment their eyes are opened. In some ways it seems strange; having spoken to them at great length before they recognised Him, Jesus slips away the moment they realise that they had Him with them all along. Perhaps we too have, in some way, experienced this. There can be moments where, quite suddenly, Christ’s presence is so unambiguously obvious to us; whether that be whilst reading the scriptures, praying before bed, or indeed during Adoration or Mass. For a brief moment all the specific details of our fears and anxieties that weigh us down are simply not in the picture when we behold Being, Truth, Love Himself, who has not merely entered the scene just now, but has been with us the whole time, though we may not have known it. And then, perhaps as suddenly as it began, the moment passes.  However, the disciples not only realise that they had Christ in their midst the whole time, but that they had been given a sign of His presence throughout; “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”. This burning within our hearts, be it a great furnace, or just the tiniest flicker of a candle, is the sign of the peace that only Christ can give, the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, when we chase the spiritual consolations that God gives us for their own sake, it can be frustrating when they are fleeting. But if we search our hearts, even in the midst of turmoil so great that prayer feels impossible, we can know, as long as we acknowledge that Christ is Lord and that we trust in Him, that Christ is there with us, walking alongside us on the road, and wants to listen to our troubles and sorrows. So let us this week be particularly mindful of Christ’s presence to us, beside us, and within us, as we continue to celebrate His conquering of sin and death this Eastertide.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” This Sunday we find ourselves between various significant points in the Church’s liturgical calendar; last week we celebrated Laetare Sunday, in which we rejoiced in anticipation of the coming celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. This week, we celebrated the feast of St Patrick and the solemnity of St Joseph. Next Sunday, we will process with palm branches in our hands as we begin that solemn journey to Calvary with Our Lord in Holy Week. And this week, the Church gives us one of the most moving Gospel readings in the lectionary; the bringing of Lazarus back from the dead. Something that has always struck me in this passage is the unapologetic way in which Jesus shows us His humanity, whilst also showing us so clearly His Divinity. In the midst of the death of His friend Lazarus, after Jesus testifies that He is the Resurrection and the life, we read one of the most awe-inspiring passages in scripture; that “Jesus wept”. Why are we told this? For what reason does Jesus let us in on this little secret, this brief glimpse into His emotions, His frailty, His pain? How are we to respond to Jesus’s tears? Perhaps one reason among many is so that we may be consoled. If Jesus had merely brought Lazarus back to life, of course, that would be enough. But how generous it is of Him to share with us not only His power, but also His sorrow. Jesus’s moving display of emotion emphasises to us a simple fact of life that He does not ask us to deny; death is tragic, and it is painful when we lose someone we love. And yet, God’s glory shines through all the same. Jesus weeps, yet He does not let death have the last word. Instead, He makes them open the tomb, not so that He can say a last farewell to his friend, but instead so that He can confidently call him out of the sleep of death. And so, as God’s children who await the glory of the Resurrection, we may also weep when faced with life’s tragedies, but we can do so not just with the comforting knowledge that Christ has wept with us, but also with the joyful hope that, at the end of all things, He will stand before the tombs of all His friends and say, this time without tears, ‘ come forth ’.

You can download our full schedule of Holy Week and Easter Services - HERE (PDF)

“Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning;” Laetare Sunday is already upon us! “Laetare” meaning “rejoice”, the Church now encourages us to remember the ultimate destination we are journeying to on our Lenten pilgrimage; the joyful celebration of Christ’s conquering sin and death. Therefore, we can take this as an opportunity to slightly relax our observances, whilst keeping in mind that this is merely a little foretaste of the paschal celebrations that are to come. It is particularly fitting therefore to see which passage of scripture the Church has given us for this Sunday’s Gospel; Jesus’s healing of the man born blind. Whilst others see in the man’s misfortune an indication of guilt, Christ sees this man’s vulnerability as an opportunity for God’s grace to shine through, and brings him healing and transformation ‘that the works of God might be displayed in him’. Through his healing the man is transformed beyond recognition…crucially, not only did Christ show the power of the Father over natural evil by working this miracle, but also He showed His disciples a sign of the inner transformation that was to come to us once He had defeated sin and death on the Cross, and ascended to His Father, sending the Holy Spirit to His Church. A cause to rejoice indeed, and yet all the Pharisees choose to see is an infraction of the Law, given that a work had been performed on the Sabbath…  Laetare Sunday is a timely reminder to us in Lent as to why we fast, pray, and give. It is not merely to satisfy a rule, or prove to ourselves and others how religious we are; quite the opposite! It is, amongst other things, to show more clearly our vulnerabilities, our frailties, and our wounds, so that Christ may enter into them to bring them healing, or indeed, so that the works of God might be displayed in us. Ultimately, it is to prepare us to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, He who gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, and transforms us beyond recognition into the people we are called to be. Let us joyfully continue our Lenten resolve to draw closer to Christ then, and ask Him to strip away any obstacles in our lives to Him as we continue this holy season of Lent.

How is your Lent going? If you are anything like me, it may be not be 'spectacular'! I don't think I've succumbed to any massive temptations yet (at the time of writing this!) but, at the same time, I certainly don't think I've been living the season as intensely as I could do. The main way to do this, of course, is to spend time pondering the Scriptures that the Church gives us in the liturgy. But it's very easy to put this off and to miss hearing the Word of God with fresh ears. And this is more than a shame, because, as we remember from last week's narrative of Christ tempted by the devil to make bread from stones, in fact the Word of God is our true food. But Lent has only just begun. It is never worth putting off our conversion to Christ, just because we feel we have already dragged our feet. On Ash Wednesday, we heard the words of St Paul saying 'Behold now is the favourable time; behold now is the day of salvation.' (2 Cor 5:20-6:2) 'NOW' is the crucial word. Jesus, revealing Himself as the Son to the apostles in the dazzling sight of His Transfiguration, shows us that He, although truly a man, as a divine person, will lift that which is human, limited, temporal into the life of eternity. He is always "NOW" - as the Letter to the Hebrews puts it: "Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" (Heb 13:8). He is speaking to us in every moment, waiting for our hearts to return to Him, and working hearts that accept Him. As we also have heard in the previous week: "I have set before you life and death" (Deut 30:19). We must choose at every moment to follow Him or not: to spend eternity with Him, or not. We should not believe we can put off that choice indefinitely.  In the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John receive a 'sneak preview' (or 'foretaste') of the beauty, glory and majesty of the Risen Lord, dwelling in the eternal day of the Resurrection. Now is the time to choose that day, and not the night of our own self-absorption. The thought of Jesus's eternal divine love can spur us on in the here and now, even when that here and now is troubled.... and it already brings us back to life in the 'NOW' when we are struck and transformed by the sweetness of His grace. In particular, do not delay to respond to His call to experience Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where His Word washes us clean. Hear the Father's voice calling us in the now: 'This is my Son the Beloved: listen to Him!'

Today's Gospel reminds us of the importance of fasting and abstinence in the face of temptation. In the first of his annual Messages for Lent, Pope Leo XIV reminds us: "Fasting is a concrete way to prepare ourselves to receive the word of God. Abstaining from food is an ancient ascetic practice that is essential on the path of conversion. Precisely because it involves the body, fasting makes it easier to recognize what we “hunger” for and what we deem necessary for our sustenance. Moreover, it helps us to identify and order our “appetites,” keeping our hunger and thirst for justice alive and freeing us from complacency. Thus, it teaches us to pray and act responsibly towards our neighbor. [...] In this regard, I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor. Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves. Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities. In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace."

On Wednesday, Lent begins: forty days where the Church invites us to return, with all our heart, to Christ, in preparation to celebrate the mysteries of our redemption in Holy Week. When we receive ashes on our forehead we hear the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." It is a beautiful phrase: not really a comment on our sinfulness, so much as a reminder of our fragility. We are creatures, made in God's image; we are utterly dependent on Him! It is the illusion of independence that is what so often leads us astray, and it is this illusion which the disciplines of Lent - prayer, fasting and almsgiving - seek to put right, by putting our relationship with God and with others first. Each action of Lent is a chance to "remember" our dependence on the Father. In recalling our dust, which He gave life to, He fills us again with the breath of His mouth, the everlasting life of the crucified Son so that we may not die in sin, but rise as He did on Easter Sunday. Together, we walk as a community through Lent, in reconciliation with the Father and one another, like the people of Israel on their forty years wandering towards the Promised Land. Last year, you may remember that I recorded a short podcast each day entitled "A Lenten Alphabet"; these are still available on YouTube, should you wish to use them. This year, on Mondays, I will be giving a live catechesis on the meaning of the Lenten liturgies and the Triduum to prepare us to celebrate the Easter Mysteries together. And on Fridays, Barnabas will be leading in-person sessions on the beauty of St Matthew's Gospel (together with video material from renowned biblical scholar and Catholic convert Scott Hahn). Along with extra time for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Stations of the Cross, there is plenty for us in the parish to help kick start a time of spiritual renewal, and to walk more closely with Christ; to die to self and live for others: to live for Him, who died for us.