THIS WEEKEND, WEEK BEFORE LAST,

The month of June has traditionally been devoted to contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This Heart, we are told by our Lord himself, is ‘gentle and humble’ and is the place where we can find ‘rest for our souls’. This Heart is where we can all be ‘One’ as Jesus prayed and it is the Heart which ‘so loves’ all people and asks only for love in return. (This was the theme of Friday’s night’s concert, see last week’s newsletter front).

This devotion in June follows on from the month of May in which Our Lady is especially honoured. During May we think of Mary’s Heart, which is the Immaculate Heart in which Jesus is conceived and loved. To mark this devotion the week before last a small group of parishioners made a pilgrimage to the little known shrine of Our Lady Queen of Love in Schio, Italy. Here the message is of the ‘immense’ love of Jesus for which all souls are made and are longing, whether self-consciously or not. Those who made the pilgrimage seem to have gained from it and become more aware of the role of this new shrine. It is one of the places in which heaven is encouraging us to renew our witnesses to God’s love in the world at this time. See an upcoming Magdala for a fuller report.

This weekend sees over forty of our young people being confirmed in the parish. In this sacrament they receive the essential formation in the Holy Spirit of God’s love for them and the call to be ‘Good News’ to others. As a parish let us pray for them, that they may be a light of God’s love to all those they meet, especially other young people. We pray also for each other; that we may be an example for them as people who have responded with love to Jesus’s call in this Sunday’s Gospel: ‘Follow me’.