17/05/2009

THREE SHEETS TO PICK UP THIS WEEKEND

1. For the talk this Friday evening (purple). It is given by a speaker who is popular around the world. He is good at eliciting a deeper interest in living our faith. His subject, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is right at the heart of faith and life. Please do come if you possibly can.

2. For our annual popular concert: “Gloria” on 5th June – with music in praise of God from Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Wolf, and Irish and Chinese Folk Tunes. Tickets now available and being sold outside Church next week. Please take a bundle of the small white publicity leaflets from the porch and pass around.

3. To volunteer to help at the upcoming diaconate ordination (20th June) – see white A4 in benches, fill and in and hand in today to one of the priests.

NEXT WEEK IS NATIONAL FAMILY WEEK 25th-31st May

The times you spend together with family can create special memories to treasure forever. So what will you do during National Family Week? So many things today mitigate against family life. Use next week as a chance to do something practical against the flow.Here are 7 ideas to get you thinking:
· Have a water bomb duel. Stand back to back. Walk five paces. Turn and throw your water bombs at each other. The winner is the first one to hit their rival.
· Have breakfast outside one day – hot porridge if it’s cold – and watch the sun rise.
· Start a new family tradition – a ‘party for no reason’. Invite parents, grandparents, cousins, aunties, uncles, nephews, nieces, and other family members.
· Have a ‘cinema night’ at home – take turns to pick a DVD. You could microwave some popcorn to enjoy while you watch.
· Make a date – inject a bit of romance into your marriage with a ‘date night’. Start making time for this once a week and do all you can to guard this precious time.
· Make a gingerbread family portrait. Buy a tub of gingerbread people from the supermarket, and some icing pens. Get each family member to decorate one, so that you’ve all created a family portrait. Then have fun eating each other! (Grown-ups will enjoy this too.)
· Take your parents out to lunch. Play ‘Guess the menu choice’ – everyone writes down what they think the others will order. The winner is the one who gets the most right. If you’re very adventurous, make everyone order for each other!

10/05/2009 MAY MEDITATION: CATHOLIC BELIEFS ABOUT MARY

When we begin to understand the mystery of God becoming Man, we begin to grasp that God never merely does things to us, but always with our co-operation. We are always partners in our own salvation. This is why we cannot think of Jesus without also thinking of the Church as his partner. Mary is the first - the most essential and the greatest - partner of God in saving the world, because it is through her that Jesus comes to us. This gives her a unique and continuing relationship to God and to the rest of humanity.

We can understand all the key doctrines about Mary in this light. Mary's Immaculate Conception is the sign that her vocation is rooted in the very foundations of creation before sin ever came about. She is the original Mother of the Living and in her we also see the 'dawn of redeeming grace'. She is therefore the image or archetype of what the human family in God (ie: the Church) always ought to have been like and what it will be like again through Jesus. She is the Mother of the Church not just because she is there at its beginning, but because she is its beginning.

Then in the Annunciation Mary answers God on behalf of all humanity in welcoming the Messiah. Her "yes" to Christ sets out the manifesto of her own life & of the whole Church. This enduring "yes" is then lived out by Mary in her sinless faithfulness, in her intimate discipleship of her Son and in her co-operation in prayer with his Sacrifice on the cross.

Mary continues in her unique relationship with Christ and with the members of his wider Body - the Church - when she is taken up bodily into heaven at her Assumption. She has now become what we hope to be. So in Mary redemption is complete and the final Church of heaven has been made real. Mary is a sign of hope to all believers. As Mother she spurs the Church onwards to heaven.

Mary now continues to pray for the children who are born to God from her Son's work. She does not get in the way of his irreplaceable role as our divine Saviour. She loves them because of him and she intercedes for them through him. She is the expert par excellence on receiving and responding to grace. She is Mother of Grace because she is herself 'full of grace', and as Mother of the Church she constantly gives us Jesus.

03/05/2009 WHAT IS A DEACON

WHAT IS A DEACON?
(Coming here: May 11th: Talk; June 20th: Ordination. See inside.)
He is a man called by the Bishop of the Diocese to Ordination.He is ordained to serve the Church in a threefold ministry

The Ministry of Charity –He is particularly called to serve the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalised.He will coordinate the local church’s response to their needs.He will have a special care for matters of social justice.He will foster and support parish groups and organisations.

The Ministry of the Word – He will proclaim the Gospel and sometimes preach at Mass and other Services.He will preside over Services other than the Mass.He will lead the people in PrayerHe will officiate at Funeral and Burial Services.

The Ministry of the Altar –He will offer Service at the altar at Mass assisting the Bishop or Priest.He will distribute Holy Communion at Mass, in hospital and in the homes of the sick, the housebound and the dying.He will Baptise and prepare people for that sacrament.He will officiate at Marriages and prepare couples for that Sacrament.

The Acts of the Apostles 6: 2-4 tell us about the selection of St Stephen and six others:
The twelve summoned the disciples and said; ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables Therefore brothers, pick out seven men of good repute full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty.

Some Deacons are transitory – that is, they are ordained for a relatively short time as part of their journey to Ordination as a Priest. Indeed over time this became the norm in the Church until the Second Vatican Council. Some Deacons are Permanent. They remain in this calling for the rest of their lives. They can be single or married.