NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE (from 5th January 2020)

Newsletter 5th July 2020

5/7/2020

Reopening of our church:
There is still no firm date for when our church will reopen. The procedure for doing so is very complicated and Fr John has received a twenty-seven page document of requirements. The resumption of lockdown in Leicester has complicated things further. When we do reopen, there will be a requirement for us to have two stewards “on duty” to ensure that the strict regulations are observed. In addition, the church will have to be thoroughly cleaned after Mass and so additional cleaners will be required for this task. Please let me know if you are prepared to fulfil either of these functions and I shall pass on your name to Fr John. It looks as if we shall have to book our place before we attend, as we might do in a restaurant or a theatre. However, the centralised website which will enable this to happen is not yet up and running. There will have to be a system in place for those parishioners who do not have access to the internet, but who wish to attend Mass. There will be a strict limit on the number of those who can attend. Lists of those attending will have to be kept for 21 days. You will appreciate that all of this is rather complex and your patience is greatly appreciated. If you have any views on the subject, please let me have them as soon as possible so that these can be relayed to Fr John who, of course, has the added burden of having to organise matters in Syston as well as in Sileby.

Sunday 5th Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Monday 6th            St Maria Goretti
Tuesday 7th            Feria
Wednesday 8th Feria
Thursday 9th St Augustine Zhao Rong & companions
Friday 10th              Feria
Saturday 11th St Benedict, abbot, Patron of Europe
Sunday 12th Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Zechariah 9:9-10 and indicates that the humility asked for by Jesus is the kind that he himself endured, for he came in meekness and without pageantry, yet his dominion would be to the ends of the earth. The example of the humble servant is the very person of Jesus himself who invites us in the second part of the gospel to come to Him for refreshment and rest.
The Lord says this: Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout with gladness, daughter of Jerusalem! See now, your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will banish chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished. He will proclaim peace for the nations. His empire shall stretch from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

The second reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans 8:9, 11-13 and contains one of the most important yet often misunderstood themes of St. Paul. The Hellenistic dichotomy (contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different or opposed) between the lower and higher nature is not found here, for flesh and spirit mean the whole man and the whole man stands in need of redemption by Christ. The Pauline teaching is not that part of man is redeemed and part of him is damnable. Rather man's whole personality is redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ. The vocation of the Christian, both "body" and "soul," is to conform his already redeemed person to the same Spirit he has already received at baptism.
Your interests are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him, and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you. So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 11:25-30.
Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

Pagans and Jews had the same hardships of life to face as we have, and even greater ones. They earned their daily bread with the sweat of brow and body. Their illnesses were more frequent and less bearable than ours, for they did not have the medical help that we have. Death came to young and old then as it does now, but for them it was a final parting from loved ones, and no hope of a future happy meeting served to lighten their sorrow. All their crosses were crushing weights, sent to make life more miserable. Life on earth was passed in gloom and darkness and there was no shining star in the heavens to beckon them on or give them hope. Surely God is good to us, to put us into this world at this day and age, and give us the light of faith, and the knowledge of God and of his loving plans for us, which make the burdens of this life so relatively light and even so reasonable for us. We still have to earn our bread. We still have sickness and pains. We still have death stalking the earth, but unlike the people before Christ we now see a meaning to all these trials. The yoke of Christ is not really a yoke but a bond of love, which joins us to him, and through him, to our loving Father in heaven. The rule of life which he asks us to keep, if we are loyal followers of his, is not a series of prohibitions and don'ts. It is rather a succession of signposts on the straight road to heaven, making our journey easier and safer. He does ask us to carry our cross daily, that is, to bear the burden of each day's duty, but once the cross is grasped firmly and lovingly it ceases to be a burden. Ours is a world which is in an all-out search for new idols. It is a world which has left the path marked out by Christ, and forgotten or tried to forget, that man's life does not end with death. To be a Christian and to have the light of faith to guide our steps in this neo-pagan darkness, is surely a gift, and a blessing from God, for which we can never thank him enough. Thank you, God, for this gift. Please give us the grace and the courage to live up to it and to die in the certainty that we shall hear, as we shut our eyes on the light of this world, the consoling words, "come you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you."

St Maria Goretti
St Maria Goretti was born of a poor family in Corinaldi, Italy, in 1890. Near Nettuno she spent a difficult childhood assisting her mother in domestic duties. She was of a pious nature and often at prayer. In 1902 she was stabbed to death, preferring to die rather than be raped.
What follows is an excerpt from a homily at the canonization of Saint Maria Goretti by Pope Pius XII:
"It is well known how this young girl had to face a bitter struggle with no way to defend herself. Without warning a vicious stranger (actually Alessandro Serenelli who lived with his father in the same house as the Gorettis.) burst upon her, bent on raping her and destroying her childlike purity. In that moment of crisis she could have spoken to her Redeemer in the words of that classic, The Imitation of Christ: "Though tested and plagued by a host of misfortunes, I have no fear so long as your grace is with me. It is my strength, stronger than any adversary; it helps me and gives me guidance." With splendid courage she surrendered herself to God and his grace and so gave her life to protect her virginity. The life of this simple girl - I shall concern myself only with highlights - we can see as worthy of heaven. Even today people can look upon it with admiration and respect. Parents can learn from her story how to raise their God-given children in virtue, courage and holiness; they can learn to train them in the Catholic faith so that, when put to the test, God's grace will support them and they will come through undefeated, unscathed and untarnished. From Maria's story carefree children and young people with their zest for life can learn not to be led astray by attractive pleasures which are not only ephemeral and empty but also sinful. Instead they can fix their sights on achieving Christian moral perfection, however difficult and hazardous that course may prove. With determination and God's help all of us can attain that goal by persistent effort and prayer. Not all of us are expected to die a martyr's death, but we are all called to the pursuit of Christian virtue. This demands strength of character though it may not match that of this innocent girl. Still, a constant, persistent and relentless effort is asked of us right up to the moment of our death. This may be conceived as a slow steady martyrdom which Christ urged upon us when he said: The kingdom of heaven is set upon and laid waste by violent forces. So let us all, with God's grace, strive to reach the goal that the example of the virgin martyr, Saint Maria Goretti, sets before us. Through her prayers to the Redeemer may all of us, each in his own way, joyfully try to follow the inspiring example of Maria Goretti who now enjoys eternal happiness in heaven."
Imprisoned for murder she appeared to Serenelli in his cell and forgave him and he was subsequently converted. Most importantly, he sat next to her mother at the beatification, who also forgave him.

St Augustine Zhao Rong and companions
Saint Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese diocesan priest who was martyred with his 119 companions in 1815. Among their number was an eighteen year old boy, Chi Zhuzi, who cried out to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: "Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian."
Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China's relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly. The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Most of them (eighty-seven) were born in China and were children, parents, catechists or labourers, ranging from nine years of age to seventy-two. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests. The thirty-three foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse (Paris Foreign Mission Society) to his martyrdom in Beijing. Augustine was baptized and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815. Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized in Rome on October 1st, 2000.

St Benedict
Founder of western monasticism, born at Nursia around 480, Benedict died at Monte Cassino in 543. The only authentic life of Benedict of Nursia is that contained in the second book of St. Gregory's "Dialogues". It is rather a character sketch than a biography and consists, for the most part, of a number of miraculous incidents, which, although they illustrate the life of the saint, give little help towards a chronological account of his career. St. Gregory's authorities for all that he relates were the saint's own disciples, namely Constantinus, who succeeded him as Abbot of Monte Cassino; and Honoratus, who was Abbot of Subiaco when St. Gregory wrote his "Dialogues".
Benedict was the son of a Roman noble of Nursia, a small town near Spoleto, and a tradition, which St. Bede accepts, makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica. His boyhood was spent in Rome, where he lived with his parents and attended the schools until he had reached his higher studies. Then "giving over his books, and forsaking his father's house and wealth, with a mind only to serve God, he sought for some place where he might attain to the desire of his holy purpose; and therefore he departed [from Rome], instructed with learned ignorance and furnished with unlearned wisdom" (Dial. St. Greg., II, Introd. in Migne, P.L. LXVI). There is much difference of opinion as to Benedict's age at the time. It has been very generally stated as fourteen, but a careful examination of St. Gregory's narrative makes it impossible to suppose him younger than nineteen or twenty. He was old enough to be in the midst of his literary studies, to understand the real meaning and worth of the dissolute and licentious lives of his companions, and to have been deeply affected himself by the love of a woman (Ibid. II, 2). He was capable of weighing all these things in comparison with the life taught in the Gospels, and chose the latter. He was at the beginning of life, and he had at his disposal the means to a career as a Roman noble; clearly he was not a child. As St. Gregory expresses it, "he was in the world and was free to enjoy the advantages which the world offers, but drew back his foot which he had, as it were, already set forth in the world". If we accept the date 480 for his birth, we may fix the date of his abandoning the schools and quitting home at about A.D. 500.
Benedict does not seem to have left Rome for the purpose of becoming a hermit, but only to find some place away from the life of the great city; moreover, he took his old nurse with him as a servant and they settled down to live in Enfide, near a church dedicated to St. Peter, in some kind of association with "a company of virtuous men" who were in sympathy with his feelings and his views of life. Enfide, which the tradition of Subiaco identifies with the modern Affile, is in the Simbrucini mountains, about forty miles from Rome and two from Subiaco. It stands on the crest of a ridge which rises rapidly from the valley to the higher range of mountains, and seen from the lower ground the village has the appearance of a fortress. As St. Gregory's account indicates, and as is confirmed by the remains of the old town and by the inscriptions found in the neighbourhood, Enfide was a place of greater importance than is the present town. At Enfide Benedict worked his first miracle by restoring to perfect condition an earthenware wheat-sifter which his old servant had accidentally broken. The notoriety which this miracle brought upon Benedict drove him to escape still farther from social life, and "he fled secretly from his nurse and sought the more retired district of Subiaco". His purpose of life had also been modified. He had fled Rome to escape the evils of a great city; he now determined to be poor and to live by his own work. "For God's sake he deliberately chose the hardships of life and the weariness of labour".
A short distance from Enfide is the entrance to a narrow, gloomy valley, penetrating the mountains and leading directly to Subiaco. Crossing the Anio and turning to the right, the path rises along the left face of the ravine and soon reaches the site of Nero's villa and of the huge mole which formed the lower end of the middle lake; across the valley were ruins of the Roman baths, of which a few great arches and detached masses of wall still stand. Rising from the mole upon twenty-five low arches, the foundations of which can even yet be traced, was the bridge from the villa to the baths, under which the waters of the middle lake poured in a wide fall into the lake below. The ruins of these vast buildings and the wide sheet of falling water closed up the entrance of the valley to St. Benedict as he came from Enfide; today the narrow valley lies open before us, closed only by the far off mountains. The path continues to ascend, and the side of the ravine, on which it runs, becomes steeper, until we reach a cave above which the mountain now rises almost perpendicularly; while on the right hand it strikes in a rapid descent down to where, in St. Benedict's day, five hundred feet below, lay the blue waters of the lake. The cave has a large triangular-shaped opening and is about ten feet deep. On his way from Enfide, Benedict met a monk, Romanus, whose monastery was on the mountain above the cliff overhanging the cave. Romanus had discussed with Benedict the purpose which had brought him to Subiaco, and had given him the monk's habit. By his advice Benedict became a hermit and for three years, unknown to men, lived in this cave above the lake. St. Gregory tells us little of these years. He now speaks of Benedict no longer as a youth, but as a man of God. Romanus, he twice tells us, served the saint in every way he could. The monk apparently visited him frequently, and on fixed days brought him food.
During these three years of solitude, broken only by occasional communications with the outer world and by the visits of Romanus, he matured both in mind and character, in knowledge of himself and of his fellow-man, and at the same time he became not merely known to, but secured the respect of, those about him; so much so that on the death of the abbot of a monastery in the neighbourhood (identified by some with Vicovaro), the community came to him and begged him to become its abbot. Benedict was acquainted with the life and discipline of the monastery, and knew that "their manners were diverse from his and therefore that they would never agree together: yet, at length, overcome with their entreaty, he gave his consent". The experiment failed; the monks tried to poison him, and he returned to his cave. From this time his miracles seem to have become frequent, and many people, attracted by his sanctity and character, came to Subiaco to be under his guidance. For them he built in the valley twelve monasteries, in each of which he placed a superior with twelve monks. In a thirteenth he lived with "a few, such as he thought would more profit and be better instructed by his own presence". He remained, however, the father or abbot of all. With the establishment of these monasteries began the schools for children.
The remainder of St. Benedict's life was spent in realizing the ideal of monasticism which he has left us drawn out in his Rule.

Mass online:
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference website gives a useful link with easy access to churches with live streaming of Mass. You can search to find churches nearest you or look further afield in different dioceses: Directory of Masses

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy
Ta’ Pinu, Gozo
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast
St. Gabriel’s, Viewpark, Uddington
Westminster Cathedral
Holy Name, Jesmond, Newcastle
St Peter’s, Brighton/Hove
St Paul’s, Falls Road, Belfast
The Grotto, Lourdes

Do you have any more to add to this list?

Bidding Prayers:
You will remember that, at the end of the Bidding Prayers each Sunday, the reader asks, “Does anyone have any other intentions?” Most weeks this question is followed by silence, but occasionally one of the congregation will make a contribution. I think that some people must feel a little daunted at the prospect of speaking up in front of everyone else, but now we can change all that. If you have a prayer intention, no matter how “trivial” it might seem, please do not hesitate to let me know and I shall include it in next week’s newsletter. This can be personalised or anonymous, as you wish.
This week’s prayer intentions include:

Everyone whose physical and mental health has been affected by Covid-19.

We pray especially for the people of Leicester.
Ginger Newby who was admitted to hospital with a broken leg after a fall.
The brother of David Cafferky who is in a critical condition after a horrific accident. Can we please all pray for him and his speedy recovery and also to give David and the family the strength they need at this difficult time. (Update below)
Two PSP contacts of Kathryn are in great need of our prayers. (PSP is the disease from which George suffered). One of them had a fall which required a hip replacement and then contracted Covid-19.
Can we please pray for my neighbour, Tony Ells, who is in hospital following a second heart attack. Also my friend Eddie Higgins in Glasgow who has terminal cancer and also is in hospital after suffering a heart attack. (Rosemary McKee)
And can we include John Brennan’s son in law who has had a quadruple bypass. John was deputy head at De Lisle in the seventies; his son in law is the same age as my children. (Kathryn Timmons)
Could we include a prayer of thanks for the very happy and safe arrival of my son Tom and Carolyn’s daughter Philippa Ivy last Thursday, 25th June (Just in time to celebrate Liverpool becoming Premier League Champions!) (Joan Wiggins)
Barbara Heath reports that her sister-in-law, Janet Wale,had an operation for cancer and then came home. However she showed signs of confusion andhas gone back into hospital. There is no sign of infection but doctors think it could be a reaction to the anaesthetic.

6th July 1995 Thomas Partington
7th July 1997 Peggie Musson
9th July 1979 Andrew Freer

Also Mary Brigstock who died on 1st June 2020.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Congratulations to Stephen and Roberta Giacchino who celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary on 30th June.

QUIZ
New Testament – some tricky ones here!
Answers below. No cheating!
1. From which language do we get the word “Gospel”?
a. Aramaic
b. Anglo-Saxon
c. French
d. Hebrew

2. Which of the following is not a synoptic gospel?
a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John

3. Which is the only Gospel attributed to a Gentile (i.e. non-Jewish) writer?
a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John

4. Which Gospel most emphasises Christ as King and fulfilment of the Jewish prophecies?
a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. John

5. In which Gospel do we find the eight Beatitudes?
a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. All of them

6. Which two gospels give us the most information about Christ’s birth and very early childhood?
a. Luke and John
b. Mark and John
c. Matthew and Luke
d. Matthew and John

7. The Gospels are listed in the order in which they were originally thought to have been written.
a. True
b. False

8. Which book was originally a part of a two-volume work by Luke but was later separated from the Gospel and placed after John?
a. Revelation
b. Romans
c. Acts
d. Titus

9. When deciding which four Gospels to choose as canonical (included in the list of sacred books accepted as genuine), the early church fathers used which of the following criteria?
a. Liturgical use
b. Universal acceptance
c. Apostolic origin
d. All of the above

10. Christ’s last recorded words are the same I all four Gospels.
a. True
b. False

Answers:

1. b            It comes from the Anglo-Saxon "godspell", which means "good news". The Greek word for good news is "evangelion", from which we get evangelism.

2. c            Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels because they all have the same basic perspective. John, however, has the most unique material of the four Gospels, and it is a more spiritualized account of Christ's life.

3. c            Luke, a physician, is also credited with writing Acts. These are the only two books of the entire Bible not written by Jewish authors.

4. a            Matthew is very concerned with presenting Christ as the prophesised Messiah and King of the Jews, and in his Gospel we find countless allusions to Old Testament prophecy. Arguably, John focuses on Christ as the Son of God, Luke on Christ as the Son of Man, Mark on Christ as Servant, and Matthew on Christ as King of the Jews.

5. a            See Matthew 5:2-10. In Luke 6:20-23 there are only four Beatitudes. Some traditions separate the Eighth Beatitude (which concerns the persecuted) into two.

6. c            Luke gives us the manger scene, and Matthew tells us of the wise men following the star to visit the young child sometime later. The other two Gospels do not give details of the birth or early childhood. Indeed, Mark does not begin until Christ is a man.

7. a            Yes, as Matthew was originally thought to be the oldest Gospel. Today, however, many scholars consider Mark to be the oldest Gospel, and some see it as a partial source for Matthew.

8. c            Acts, or "The Acts of the Apostles", tells the story of the early church, and is traditionally attributed to Luke.

9. d            There was also a fourth criteria - the canonized Gospels had to have a theological outlook that was consistent with the other New Testament writings. "Apostolic Origins" means the Gospel had to be based on the preaching or teaching of an original apostle (not necessarily written by an apostle). "Liturgical Use" meant that it had to already be the practice of Christian communities that the gospels were read aloud publicly when they gathered.

10. b            None of the Gospels tell us everything Christ may have said in his final hours, but they each give us a selection of his final words. The last recorded words of Christ prior to his death are: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke); "It is finished." (John); and "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew and Mark)

Newsletter 28th June

28/6/2020

Sunday 28th              Sts Peter and Paul
Monday 29th Feria
Tuesday 30th Feria
Wednesday 1st St Oliver Plunkett
Thursday 2nd             Feria
Friday 3rd St Thomas, apostle
Saturday 4th             St Elizabeth of Portugal
Sunday 5th Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sunday Readings
First Reading: Acts 12:1-11
King Herod started persecuting certain members of the Church. He beheaded James the brother of John, and when he saw that this pleased the Jews he decided to arrest Peter as well. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread, and he put Peter in prison, assigning four squads of four soldiers each to guard him in turns. Herod meant to try Peter in public after the end of Passover week. All the time Peter was under guard the Church prayed to God for him unremittingly. On the night before Herod was to try him, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with double chains, while guards kept watch at the main entrance to the prison. Then suddenly the angel of the Lord stood there, and the cell was filled with light. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him. ‘Get up!’ he said ‘Hurry!’ – and the chains fell from his hands. The angel then said, ‘Put on your belt and sandals.’ After he had done this, the angel next said, ‘Wrap your cloak round you and follow me.’ Peter followed him, but had no idea that what the angel did was all happening in reality; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed through two guard posts one after the other, and reached the iron gate leading to the city. This opened of its own accord; they went through it and had walked the whole length of one street when suddenly the angel left him. It was only then that Peter came to himself. ‘Now I know it is all true’ he said. ‘The Lord really did send his angel and has saved me from Herod and from all that the Jewish people were so certain would happen to me.’

Second Reading: St Paul to Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
My life is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing. The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear; and so I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from all evil attempts on me, and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel: Matthew 16: 13-19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

St Peter
St. Peter is mentioned so often in the New Testament - in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Epistles of St. Paul - that we feel we know him better than any other person who figured prominently in the life of the Saviour. In all, his name appears 182 times. We have no knowledge of him prior to his conversion, save that he was a Galilean fisherman, from the village of Bethsaida or Capernaum. There is some evidence for supposing that Peter's brother Andrew and possibly Peter himself were followers of John the Baptist, and were therefore prepared for the appearance of the Messiah in their midst. We picture Peter as a shrewd and simple man, of great power for good, but now and again afflicted by sudden weakness and doubt, at least at the outset of his discipleship. After the death of the Saviour he manifested his primacy among the Apostles by his courage and strength. He was "the Rock" on which the Church was founded. It is perhaps Peter's capacity for growth that makes his story so inspiring to other erring humans. He reached the lowest depths on the night when he denied the Lord, then began the climb upward, to become bishop of Rome, martyr, and, finally, "keeper of the keys of Heaven."
Our first glimpse of Peter comes at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. While he was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the water. When he called to them, "Come, and I will make you fishers of men," they at once dropped their net to follow him. A little later we learn that they visited the house where Peter's mother-in-law was suffering from a fever, and Jesus cured her. This was the first cure witnessed by Peter, but he was to see many miracles, for he stayed close to Jesus during the three years of his ministry. All the while he was listening, watching, questioning, learning, sometimes failing in perfect faith, but in the end full of strength and thoroughly prepared for his own years of missionary preaching.
Let us recall a few of the Biblical episodes in which Peter appears. We are told that after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus withdrew to the mountain to pray, and his disciples started to sail home across the Lake of Galilee. Suddenly they saw him walking on the water, and, according to the account in Matthew, Jesus told them not to be afraid. It was Peter who said, "Lord, if it is Thou, bid me come to Thee over the water." Peter set out confidently, but suddenly grew afraid and began to sink, and Jesus stretched forth his hand to save him, saying, "O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?"
Then we have Peter's dramatic confession of faith, which occurred when Jesus and his followers had reached the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Jesus having asked the question, "Who do men say that I am?" there were various responses. Then Jesus turned to Peter and said, "But who do you say that I am?" and Peter answered firmly, "Thou art the Christ, son of the living God." (Matthew xvi, 13-18; Mark viii, 27-29; Luke ix, 18-20.) Then Jesus told him that his name would henceforth be Peter. In the Aramaic tongue which Jesus and his disciples spoke, the word was kepha, meaning rock. Jesus concluded with the prophetic words, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock shall be built my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
There seems to be no doubt that Peter was favoured among the disciples. He was selected, with James and John, to accompany Jesus to the mountain, the scene of the Transfiguration, to be given a glimpse of his glory, and there heard God pronounce the words, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
After this, the group had gone down to Jerusalem, where Jesus began to prepare his disciples for the approaching end of his ministry on earth. Peter chided him and could not bring himself to believe that the end was near. When all were gathered for the Last Supper, Peter declared his loyalty and devotion in these words, "Lord, with thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death." It must have been in deep sorrow that Jesus answered that before cockcrow Peter would deny him thrice. And as the tragic night unrolled, this prophecy came true. When Jesus was betrayed by Judas as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and was taken by soldiers to the Jewish high priest, Peter followed far behind, and sat half hidden in the courtyard of the temple during the proceedings. Pointed out as one of the disciples, Peter three times denied the accusation. But we know that he was forgiven, and when, after the Resurrection, Jesus manifested himself to his disciples, He signalled Peter out, and made him declare three times that he loved him, paralleling the three times that Peter had denied him. Finally, Jesus charged Peter, with dramatic brevity, "Feed my sheep." From that time on Peter became the acknowledged and responsible leader of the sect.
It was Peter who took the initiative in selecting a new Apostle in place of Judas, and he who performed the first miracle of healing. A lame beggar asked for money; Peter told him he had none, but in the name of Jesus the Nazarene bade him arise and walk. The beggar did as he was bidden, cured of his lameness. When, about two years after the Ascension, the spread of the new religion brought on the persecutions that culminated in the martyrdom of St. Stephen, many of the converts scattered or went into hiding. The Apostles stood their ground firmly in Jerusalem, where the Jewish temple had become the spearhead of opposition to them. Peter chose to preach in the outlying villages, farther and farther afield. In Samaria, where he preached and performed miracles, he was offered money by Simon Magus, a magician, if he would teach the secret of his occult powers. Peter rebuked the magician sternly, saying, "Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased by money."
With his vigorous outspokenness, Peter inevitably came into conflict with the Jewish authorities, and twice the high priests had him arrested. We are told that he was miraculously freed of his prison chains, and astonished the other Apostles by suddenly appearing back among them. Peter now preached in the seaports of Joppa and Lydda, where he met men of many races, and in Caesarea, where he converted the first Gentile, a man named Cornelius. Realizing that the sect must win its greatest support from Gentiles, Peter helped to shape the early policy towards them. Its growing eminence led to his election as bishop of the see of Antioch. How long he remained there, or how or when he came to Rome, we do not know. The evidence seems to establish the fact that his last years were spent in Rome as bishop. The belief that he suffered martyrdom there during the reign of Nero in the same year as St. Paul is soundly based on the writings of three early Fathers, St. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. The only writings by St. Peter which have come down to us are his New Testament Epistles I and II, both of which are thought to have been written from Rome to the Christian converts of Asia Minor. The First Epistle is filled with admonitions to mutual helpfulness, charity, and humility, and in general outlines the duties of Christians in all aspects of life. At its conclusion (I Peter v, 13) Peter sends greetings from "the church which is at Babylon." This is accepted as further evidence that the letter was written from Rome, which in the Jewish usage of the time was called "Babylon." The second Epistle warns against false teachings, speaks of the Second Coming of the Lord, and ends with the beautiful doxology, "But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and the day of eternity."

St Paul
The historic records bearing on St. Paul are fuller than those for any Scriptural saint. We have Paul's own wonderful writings, the fourteen letters included in the New Testament, which outline his missionary journeys, exhort and admonish the various Christian congregations, discuss ethics and doctrinal matters; and in the midst of all this we get a revelation of the man himself, his inner character, his problems and fears. St. Luke's Acts of the Apostles and certain apocryphal books are other sources of our knowledge of St. Paul. Of all the founders of the Church, Paul was perhaps the most brilliant and many-sided, the broadest in outlook, and therefore the best endowed to carry Christianity to alien lands and peoples.
Born into a well-to-do Jewish family of Tarsus, the son of a Roman citizen, Saul (as we shall call him until after his conversion) was sent to Jerusalem to be trained in the famous rabbinical school headed by Gamaliel. Here, in addition to studying the Law and the Prophets, he learned a trade, as was the custom. Young Saul chose the trade of tent-making. Although his upbringing was orthodox, while still at home in Tarsus he had come under the liberalizing Hellenic influences which at this time had permeated all levels of urban society in Asia Minor. Thus the Judaic, Roman, and Greek traditions and cultures all had a part in shaping this great Apostle, who was so different in status and temperament from the humble fishermen of Jesus' initial band of disciples. His missionary journeys were to give him the flexibility and the deep sympathy that made him the ideal human instrument for preaching Christ's Gospel of world brotherhood.
In the year 35 Saul appears as a self-righteous young Pharisee, almost fanatically anti-Christian. He believed that the trouble-making new sect should be stamped out, its adherents punished. We are told in Acts vii that he was present, although not a participator in the stoning, when Stephen, the first martyr, met his death. It was very soon afterwards that Paul experienced the revelation which was to transform his life. On the road to the Syrian city of Damascus, where he was going to continue his persecutions against the Christians, he was struck blind. On arriving in Damascus, there followed in dramatic sequence his sudden conversion, the cure of his blindness by the disciple Ananias, and his baptism. Paul accepted eagerly the commission to preach the Gospel of Christ, but like many another called to a great task he felt his unworthiness and withdrew from the world to spend three years in "Arabia" in meditation and prayer before beginning his apostolate. From the moment of his return, Paul - for he had now assumed this Roman name - never paused in his labours. It proved to be the most extraordinary career of preaching, writing, and church-founding of which we have record. The extensive travels by land and sea, so full of adventure, are to be traced by anyone who reads carefully the New Testament letters. We cannot be sure, however, that the letters and records now extant reveal the full and complete chronicle of Paul's activities. He himself tells us he was stoned, thrice scourged, thrice shipwrecked, endured hunger and thirst, sleepless nights, perils and hardships; besides these physical trials, he suffered many disappointments and almost constant anxieties over the weak and widely-scattered communities of Christians.
Paul began his preaching in Damascus. Here the anger of the orthodox Jews against this renegade was so great that he had to make his escape by having himself let down from the city wall in a basket. Going down to Jerusalem, he was there looked on with suspicion by the Jewish Christians, for they could not at first believe that he who had so lately been their persecutor had turned advocate. Back in his native city of Tarsus once more, he was joined by Barnabas, and together they journeyed to Syrian Antioch, where they were so successful in finding followers that a church, later to become famous in the annals of early Christianity, was founded. It was here that the disciples of Jesus were first given the name of Christians (from the Greek “Christos” which means “anointed”). After again returning to Jerusalem to bring aid to members of the sect who were suffering from famine, these two missionaries went back to Antioch, then sailed to the island of Cyprus; while there they converted the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus. Once more on the mainland of Asia Minor, they crossed the Taurus Mountains and visited many towns of the interior, particularly those having Jewish settlements. It was Paul's general practice in such places first to visit the synagogues and preach to the Jews; if rejected by them, he would then preach to the Gentiles. At Antioch in Pisidia Paul delivered a memorable discourse to the Jews, concluding with these words (Acts xiii, 46-47): "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord commanded us, “I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, to be a means of salvation to the very ends of the earth." After this, the Jews drove Paul and Barnabas out from their midst, and a little later the missionaries were back in Jerusalem, where the elders were debating the attitude of the Christian Church, still predominantly Jewish in membership, towards Gentile converts. The question of circumcision proved troublesome, for most Jews thought it important that Gentiles should submit to this requirement of Jewish law; Paul's side, the more liberal, standing against circumcision, won out eventually.
The second missionary journey, which lasted from 49 to 52, took Paul and Silas, his new assistant, to Phrygia and Galatia, to Troas, and across to the mainland of Europe, to Philippi in Macedonia. The physician Luke was now a member of the party, and in the book of Acts he gives us the record. They made their way to Thessalonica, then down to Athens and Corinth. At Athens Paul preached in the Areopagus, and we know that some of the Stoics and Epicureans heard him and debated with him informally, attracted by his vigorous intellect, his magnetic personality, and the ethical teachings which, in many respects, were not unlike their own. Passing over to Corinth, he found himself in the very heart of the Graeco-Roman world, and his letters of this period show that he is aware of the great odds against him, of the ceaseless struggle to be waged in overcoming pagan scepticism and indifference. He nevertheless stayed at Corinth for eighteen months, and met with considerable success. Two valuable workers there, Aquila and Priscilla, husband and wife, returned with him to Asia. It was during his first winter at Corinth that Paul wrote the earliest extant missionary letters. They show his supreme concern for conduct and his belief in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which gives men power for good.
The third missionary journey covered the period of 52 to 56. At Ephesus, an important city of Lydia, where the cult of the Greek-Ionic goddess Diana was very popular, Paul raised a disturbance against the cult and the trade in silver images of the goddess which flourished there. Later, in Jerusalem, he caused a commotion by visiting the temple; he was arrested, roughly handled, and bound with chains; but when he was brought before the tribune, he defended himself in a way that impressed his captors. He was taken to Caesarea, for it was rumoured that some Jews at Jerusalem, who falsely accused him of having admitted Gentiles to the temple, were plotting to kill him. He was kept in prison at Caesarea awaiting trial for about two years, under the proconsuls Felix and Festus. The Roman governors apparently wished to avoid trouble with both Jews and Christians and so postponed judgment from month to month. Paul at last appealed to the Emperor, demanding the legal right of a Roman citizen to have his case heard by Nero himself. He was placed in the custody of a centurion, who took him to Rome. The Acts of the Apostles leave him in the imperial city, awaiting his hearing.
It would appear that Paul's appeal was successful, for there is some evidence of another missionary journey, probably to Macedonia. On this last visit to the various Christian communities, it is believed that he appointed Titus bishop in Crete and Timothy at Ephesus. Returning to Rome, he was once more arrested, and after two years in chains suffered martyrdom, presumably at about the same time as the Apostle Peter, bishop of the Roman Church. Inscriptions of the second and third century in the catacombs give evidence of a cult of SS. Peter and Paul. This devotion has never diminished in popularity. In Christian art St. Paul is usually depicted as a bald man with a black beard, rather stocky, but vigorous and intense. His relics are venerated in the basilica of St. Paul and in the Lateran Church at Rome.
Because of the pressure of his work, Paul usually dictated his letters, writing the salutation in his own hand. The most quoted of New Testament writers, Paul has given us a wealth of counsel, aphorisms, and ethical teachings; he had the power of expressing spiritual truths in the simplest of words, and this, rather than the building up of a systematic theology, was his contribution to the early Church. A man of action, Paul reveals the dynamic of his whole career when he writes, "I press on towards the goal, to the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus." Although he himself was forever pressing onwards, his letters often invoked a spirit of quiet meditation, as when he ends his epistle to the Philippians with the beautiful lines: "Whatever things are true, whatever honourable, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever lovable, whatever of good repute, if there be any virtue, if anything worthy of praise, think upon these things." are a precious legacy; they afford a deep insight into a great soul.

St Oliver Plunket
Oliver Plunket was born on 1st November 1625 into an influential Anglo-Norman family at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle, Co Meath. In 1647, he went to the Irish College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained a priest in 1654. The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland in 1649 initiated the massacre and persecution of Catholics. Cromwell left in 1650 but his legacy was enacted in anti-Catholic legislation. During the 1650s, Catholics were expelled from Dublin and landowners were dispossessed. Catholic priests were outlawed and those who continued to administer the sacraments were hanged or transported to the West Indies. To avoid persecution, Plunket petitioned to remain in Rome, and in 1657 became a professor of theology. When anti-Catholicism eased, Plunket returned to Ireland. In 1657 he became archbishop of Armagh. He set about reorganizing the ravaged Church, and built schools both for the young and for clergy whom he found 'ignorant in moral theology and controversies'. He tackled drunkenness among the clergy, writing 'Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint.' In 1670, he summoned an episcopal conference in Dublin, and later held numerous synods in his own archdiocese. However, he had a long-standing difference with the archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, over their rival claims to be primate of Ireland. He also antagonized the Franciscans, particularly when he favoured the Dominicans in a property dispute. With the onset of new persecution in 1673, Plunket went into hiding, refusing a government edict to register at a seaport and await passage into exile. In 1678, the so-called Popish Plot concocted in England by Titus Oates led to further anti-Catholicism. Archbishop Talbot was arrested, and Plunket again went into hiding. The Privy Council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion. In December 1679, Plunket was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. Taken to London, he was found guilty in June 1681 of high treason on perjured evidence from two disaffected Franciscans. On 1 July 1681, Plunket became the last Catholic martyr in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He was beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.

St Thomas
Little is recorded of St Thomas the Apostle; nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but in St John he plays a distinctive part. First, when Jesus announced his intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection:" Thomas saith to him : Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: " Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).
This exhausts all our certain knowledge regarding the Apostle but his name is the starting point of a considerable apocryphal literature, details of which are not included in this newsletter.

St Elizabeth of Portugal
Queen (sometimes known as the Peacemaker) was born in 1271 and died in 1336. She was named after her great-aunt, the great Elizabeth of Hungary, but is known in Portuguese history by the Spanish form of that name, Isabel. The daughter of Pedro III, King of Aragon, and Constantia, grandchild of Emperor Frederick II, she was educated very piously, and led a life of strict regularity and self-denial from her childhood: she said the full Divine Office daily, fasted and did other penances, and gave up amusement. Elizabeth was married very early to Diniz (Denis), King of Portugal, a poet, and known as Re Lavrador, or the working king, from his hard work in his country’s service. His morals, however, were extremely bad, and the court to which his young wife was brought consequently most corrupt. Nevertheless, Elizabeth quietly pursued the regular religious practices of her maidenhood, whilst doing her best to win her husband’s affections by gentleness and extraordinary forbearance. She was devoted to the poor and sick, and gave every moment she could spare to helping them, even pressing her court ladies into their service. Naturally, such a life was a reproach to many around her, and caused ill will in some quarters. A popular story is told of how her husband s jealousy was roused by an evil-speaking page; of how he condemned the queen’s supposed guilty accomplice to a cruel death; and was finally convinced of her innocence by the strange accidental substitution of her accuser for the intended victim. Diniz does not appear to have reformed in morals till late in life, when we are told that the saint won him to repentance by her prayers and unfailing sweetness. They had two children, a daughter Constantia and a son Affonso. The latter so greatly resented the favours shown to the king’s illegitimate sons that he rebelled, and in 1323 war was declared between him and his father. St. Elizabeth, however, rode in person between the opposing armies, and so reconciled her husband and son. Diniz died in 1325, his son succeeding him as Affonso IV. St. Elizabeth then retired to a convent of Poor Clares which she had founded at Coimbra, where she took the Franciscan Tertiary habit, wishing to devote the rest of her life to the poor and sick in obscurity. But she was called forth to act once more as peacemaker. In 1336 Affonso IV marched his troops against the King of Castile, to whom he had married his daughter Maria, and who had neglected and ill-treated her. In spite of age and weakness, the holy queen dowager insisted on hurrying to Estremoz, where the two kings’ armies were drawn up. She again stopped the fighting and caused terms of peace to be arranged. But the exertion brought on her final illness; and as soon as her mission was fulfilled she died of a fever, full of heavenly joy, and exhorting her son to the love of holiness and peace. St. Elizabeth was buried at Coimbra, and miracles followed her death. She was canonized by Urban VIII in 1625

Mass online:
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference website gives a useful link with easy access to churches with live streaming of Mass. You can search to find churches nearest you or look further afield in different dioceses: Directory of Masses

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy
Ta’ Pinu, Gozo
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast
St. Gabriel’s, Viewpark, Uddington
Westminster Cathedral
Holy Name, Jesmond, Newcastle
St Peter’s, Brighton/Hove
St Paul’s, Falls Road, Belfast
The Grotto, Lourdes

Everyone whose physical and mental health has been affected by Covid-19.

The brother of David Cafferky who is in a critical condition after a horrific accident. Can we please all pray for him and his speedy recovery and also to give David and the family the strength they need at this difficult time. (There is an update below)
Two PSP contacts of Kathryn are in great need of our prayers. (PSP is the disease from which George suffered)

28th June 1974 Michael Bailey
1st July 1976 Edith Hull
3rd July 1997 Jim Kearney

May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Happy Birthday to Bridget O’Dwyer who celebrates her 91st birthday on Sunday 28th June. Very best wishes from all the parish.

Happy Birthday on Saturday 27th to Rosemary McKee from all the parish. She passes on the dates of other birthdays, but usually keeps quiet about her own! Have a great day!

Joyeux Anniversaire to Kathryn Timmons on Thursday 2nd July. Number of candles on the cake unspecified.

Happy 9th birthday on 30th June to Kellan Cafferky from Mum, Dad and all the parish.

Belated Birthday wishes to Eva Shirreffs who was 98 on 22nd June.

Happy 12th Wedding Anniversary on 28th June to Michelle and David Cafferky from all the parish.

Quiz
How well do you know this parable? Fill in the missing words. Answers below. No cheating!
The sower, seed and soils.
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the (1) and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the (2), and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among (3), and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into (4) and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when his disciples asked him what this (5) meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the (6), but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ ” Now the parable is this: The seed is the (7). The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no (8); they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and (9) and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear (10) with patience.

Answers:
1. path
2. rock
3. thorns
4. good soil
5. parable
6. kingdom of God
7. word of God
8. root
9. riches
10. fruit

Newsletter 21st June 2020

20/6/2020

Sunday 21st Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Monday 22nd Sts John Fisher and Thomas More; Saint Alban
Tuesday 23rd Feria
Wednesday 24th Nativity of John the Baptist
Thursday 25th Feria
Friday 26th Feria
Saturday 27th Feria
Sunday 28th Sts Peter and Paul

Sunday Readings
The First Reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 20:10-13. This reading has the tone and force of a lamentation psalm where persecutors are all around the just man, and his only strength is the Lord himself.
Jeremiah said: I hear so many disparaging me, ‘“Terror from every side!” Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’ But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs. But you, O Lord of Hosts, you who probe with justice, who scrutinise the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.

The Second Reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans 5:12-15.
St. Paul is speaking of some of the immediate effects of Christian salvation, as brought to mankind by Christ. St. Paul stresses the fact that Christ through his death not only conquered sin but poured out divine grace so abundantly and lavishly on mankind, making them his brothers and therefore sons of God, that there is no comparison between the world redeemed by Christ's death and the world of sin which prevailed up to then.
Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’, yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law. Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 10:26-33.
Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Do not be afraid. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops. ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows. ‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’
What our Lord said to his Apostles applies to all Christians in the practice of their faith. By the very fact of living our faith openly and fully we are apostles by example. If we are always truthful and faithful to our promises, if we are honest in all our dealings, if as employers we pay a just wage and treat those working for us not as "hands" but as whole men and women, if as employees we give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, if we live chaste lives whether in single life or in marriage, we are true Christians. Above all, if we have true love of God and show our appreciation of all that he has done for us, and if we prove that love, by helping his other children, our neighbours, we are a light shining in the darkness, because we are helping others to see the true meaning of the Christian religion. This true light is needed more today perhaps than ever before. Our world is three quarters pagan or neo-pagan. The neo-pagans are those who once were Christians but abandoned their religion, sometimes through their own fault, but more often than not, because of the bad example that they were given by their fellow Christians. These are worse off spiritually than the pagans who have never heard of Christ or the true God. These latter have at least some idols, some ancestral deities, to whom they pay respect. The neo-pagans have only themselves to venerate, and they can find little spiritual uplift in this form of religion.
A large majority of today's teenagers, in most so-called Christian countries, have come to despise, or at least to neglect, the religion of their ancestors. In most cases the cause of this is that Christianity was never really put into practice in their own homes. There are cases of very black sheep coming out of very white Christian homes, but these are cases of weak personality - they prefer to follow the mob rather than try to force their way against it. On the whole, the decline of religion among today's youth is due to bad example from their elders.
In today's gospel message, our Lord is asking each one of us to be a fearless apostle. We will be, if we live up to our religion at home and abroad. "Have no fear of men," he tells us, "don't mind what your fellowmen think of you, if you object to obscene language in your work-place. Don't fear what will be thought of you if you say your grace before and after meals in a public restaurant or hotel. Don't take that extra drink just because your companions at the party might ridicule your control ..."
These acts and many others like them, may seem trivial to some but they are giving testimony to the faith that is in us. Those who scoff at such things at first, may begin later to look into their own hearts, and come to realise what it is to be a man of principle. Eventually they may become men of principle themselves. Let us remember our Lord's promise "Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven."

St John Fisher
St. John Fisher studied Theology in Cambridge and became Bishop of Rochester. His friend, Thomas More, wrote of him, “I reckon in this realm no one man, in wisdom, learning and long approved virtue together, meet to be matched and compared with him.” He and his friend St. Thomas More gave up their lives in testimony to the unity of the Church and to the indissolubility of Marriage.
Fisher is usually associated with Erasmus, Thomas More and other Renaissance humanists. His life, therefore, did not have the external simplicity found in the lives of some saints. Rather, he was a man of learning, associated with the intellectuals and political leaders of his day. He was interested in the contemporary culture and eventually became chancellor at Cambridge. He had been made a bishop at thirty-five, and one of his interests was raising the standard of preaching in England. Fisher himself was an accomplished preacher and writer. His sermons on the penitential psalms were reprinted seven times before his death. With the coming of Lutheranism, he was drawn into controversy. His eight books against heresy gave him a leading position among European theologians.
In 1521 he was asked to study the problem of Henry VIII's marriage. He incurred Henry's anger by defending the validity of the king's marriage with Catherine and later by rejecting Henry's claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England.
In an attempt to be rid of him, Henry first had him accused of not reporting all the "revelations" of the nun of Kent, Elizabeth Barton. John was summoned, in feeble health, to take the oath to the new Act of Succession. He and Thomas More refused because the Act presumed the legality of Henry's divorce and his claim to be head of the English church. They were sent to the Tower of London, where Fisher remained fourteen months without trial. They were finally sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods.
When the two were called to further interrogations, they remained silent. Fisher was tricked, on the supposition he was speaking privately as a priest, and declared again that the king was not supreme head. The king, further angered that the pope had made John Fisher a cardinal, had him brought to trial on the charge of high treason. He was condemned and executed, his body left to lie all day on the scaffold and his head hung on London Bridge. More was executed two weeks later.

St Thomas More
St. Thomas More was born in London and was Chancellor of King Henry VIII. As a family man and a public servant, his life was a rare synthesis of human sensitivity and Christian wisdom.
His belief that no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the church of Christ cost Thomas More his life.
Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, July 6, 1535, he steadfastly refused to approve Henry VIII's divorce and remarriage and establishment of the Church of England.
Described as "a man for all seasons," More was a literary scholar, eminent lawyer, gentleman, father of four children and chancellor of England. An intensely spiritual man, he would not support the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Nor would he acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the church in England, breaking with Rome and denying the pope as head.
More was committed to the Tower of London to await trial for treason: not swearing to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy. Upon conviction, More declared he had all the councils of Christendom and not just the council of one realm to support him in the decision of his conscience.
Four hundred years later, in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint of God. Few saints are more relevant to our time. In fact, in 2000, Pope John Paul II named him patron of political leaders. The supreme diplomat and counsellor, Thomas More did not compromise his own moral values in order to please the king, knowing that true allegiance to authority is not blind acceptance of everything that authority wants. Henry himself realized this and tried desperately to win his chancellor to his side because he knew More was a man whose approval counted, a man whose personal integrity no one questioned. But when Thomas resigned as chancellor, unable to approve the two matters that meant most to Henry, the king felt he had to get rid of Thomas.

St Alban
Alban lived in Roman Britain, but little is known about his religious affiliations, socioeconomic status, or citizenship. According to the most elaborate version of the tale found in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in the 3rd or 4th century (see dating controversy below), Christians began to suffer "cruel persecution", and Alban was living in Verulamium. However, Gildas says he crossed the Thames before his martyrdom, so some authors place his residence and martyrdom in or near London. Both agree that Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from persecutors and sheltered him in his house for a number of days. The priest, who later came to be called Amphibalus, meaning "cloak" in Latin, prayed and "kept watch" day and night, and Alban was so impressed with the priest's faith and piety that he found himself emulating him and soon converted to Christianity. Eventually, it came to the ears of an unnamed "impious prince" that Alban was sheltering the priest. The prince gave orders for Roman soldiers to make a strict search of Alban's house. As they came to seize the priest, Alban put on the priest's cloak and clothing and presented himself to the soldiers in place of his guest. Alban was brought before a judge, who just then happened to be standing at the altar, offering sacrifices to "devils" (Bede's reference to pagan gods). When the judge heard that Alban had offered himself up in place of the priest, he became enraged that Alban would shelter a person who "despised and blasphemed the gods," and, as Alban had given himself up in the Christian's place, Alban was sentenced to endure all the punishments that were to be inflicted upon the priest, unless he would comply with the pagan rites of their religion. Alban refused, and declared, "I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things." (The words are still used in prayer at St Alban's Abbey). The enraged judge ordered Alban to be scourged, thinking that a whipping would shake the constancy of his heart, but Alban bore these torments patiently and joyfully. When the judge realized that the tortures would not shake his faith, he gave orders for Alban to be beheaded. Alban was led to execution, and he presently came to a fast-flowing river that could not be crossed (believed to be the River Ver). There was a bridge, but a mob of curious townspeople who wished to watch the execution had so clogged the bridge that the execution party could not cross. Filled with an ardent desire to arrive quickly at martyrdom, Alban raised his eyes to heaven, and the river dried up, allowing Alban and his captors to cross over on dry land. The astonished executioner cast down his sword and fell at Alban's feet, moved by divine inspiration and praying that he might either suffer with Alban or be executed for him.
The other executioners hesitated to pick up his sword, and meanwhile, Alban and they went about 500 paces to a gently sloping hill, completely covered with all kinds of wild flowers, and overlooking a beautiful plain (Bede observes that it was a fittingly beautiful place to be enriched and sanctified by a martyr's blood).
Legend relates that when Alban reached the summit of the hill, he began to thirst and prayed God would give him water. A spring immediately sprang up at his feet. It was there that his head was struck off, as well as the head of the first Roman soldier who was miraculously converted and refused to execute him. However, immediately after delivering the fatal stroke, the eyes of the second executioner popped out of his head and dropped to the ground, along with Alban's head, so that this second executioner could not rejoice over Alban's death. In later legends, Alban's head rolled downhill after his execution, and a well sprang up where it stopped. Upon hearing of the miracles, the astonished judge ordered further persecutions to cease, and he began to honour the saint's death. St Albans Cathedral now stands near the believed site of his execution, and a well is at the bottom of the hill, Holywell Hill

St. Alban’s Catholic Church in Barrow
It is not commonly known that the full name of our parish is St Alban’s and St Gregory’s. It is listed as thus among the parishes that form the Loughborough Deanery in the Diocesan Year Book (p.74). There is a small stained glass plaque on the window ledge near the pulpit which depicts St Alban, the only reminder of the fact. St Alban’s Church in Barrow was opened in 1839 only ten years after the Catholic Emancipation Act which allowed Catholics to worship openly. The land and building materials for the church were given by a Mr. Worswick, whose family later lived at Birstall Hall. The building was carried out largely by the Irish labourers who, working on the Midland Counties railway, gave their time and skill. The first priest, Fr Norbert Woolfrey, was a Cistercian monk from Mount Saint Bernard’s Abbey who was, at that time, in charge at St Mary’s Loughborough. In 1841 the Rosminians were asked to take charge at St Mary’s and so St Alban’s became part of their responsibilities. In 1843 they established themselves in Ratcliffe. Sileby people were generally hostile until the Rosminians fed their children during the famine of 1865. That completely changed the atmosphere so that they were able to open St Gregory’s in 1879. In 1885 the two parishes were united. As the assistant priests at Loughborough were changed fairly frequently, St Alban’s was served by a succession of priests until Fr Albert Bowen was appointed in 1871: he remained there until 1877 and during that time set up a school in the chapel house. The first teacher was Miss Wallace and she was succeeded by Miss Sullivan who became Mrs. Lockwood. Fr Bowen was well remembered because of the children’s parties which he organised in the orchard. In about 1880 the Loughborough curate stopped saying Mass at St Alban’s and the parish was looked after by diocesan clergy. One of these was Fr Edward Baste who re-opened the school using the church itself. The children had to pay 2d a week in common with all children at school. At about the same time a Mr France, a Catholic manufacturer with a business in Leicester, who lived in Barrow, gave premises in Quorn to the Blue Sisters (the Little Sisters of Mary). The sisters taught in the school in Barrow for the few years they were there. In about 1880 Bishop Bagshawe came on visitation and confirmed in the Convent chapel. One of the candidates was Lucy Darby, the daughter of John Darby, who lived in the chapel house. Her brother Samuel Darby was organist at St Alban’s for fifty years. The same Samuel Darby took charge of the Barrow-on-Soar Silver Prize Band and acted as bandmaster until 1926. He was apparently a very good cornet player and was noted for his tact and good humour when dealing with the bandsmen. When the Blue Sisters lived in Quorn the priest was housed there but when they left the priest was briefly resident in Barrow. In 1890 St Alban’s was served by a priest from the Cathedral and then later was returned to the Rosminians in Loughborough. One of the priests during this time was Fr. Adalbert Drewe who shortly afterwards was secularised and took a degree of Master of Arts at Victoria Unversity Manchester. He later taught in Canada, the United States and Paris.
Apparently the Barrow parishioners were supporters of Edwin de Lisle of Garendon Hall when he put up for election as the Member of Parliament for Loughborough. From 1900 onwards, diocesan clergy were appointed to St. Alban’s. One notable priest was Fr. Francis C. Hays who was a great supporter of the Temperance Movement and who travelled extensively to promote the cause, travelling twice round the world for this purpose. He was a family friend of Eva Shirreffs for whom we pray each week. When Fr. Edward Hoare became chaplain to the Rosminian sisters at Loughborough a new arrangement began by which that post was combined with responsibility for the parishes of Barrow and Quorn. As well as being a biblical scholar of some renown he looked after the material care of St Alban’s and spent between £80 and £100 on painting and renovation. On his death in 1929 he was replaced by Fr. Herbert Morgan Davies who was responsible for further beautifying the church by the addition of wood panelling. In order to pay for this the congregation raised £150. As a result of the illness and eventual death of Fr. Davies, Fr Aloysius Emery was appointed to St. Alban’s and to mark the centenary of the church he published a small booklet “St. Alban’s Barrow-upon-Soar 1839-1939. A Retrospect.” It is from this booklet that much of the information about the history of the church is drawn. He concludes with what he describes as a “prospect”, and describes the position of the church as “hidden away behind hay stacks, farm buildings and orchards, it is more of the kind associated with penal times than with Catholic freedom and expansion since Emancipation”. He records that a piece of land for a new church had been acquired in 1937 next to the Post Office in the High St. A loan of £200 was taken out to add to the £230 which had already been raised; however the loan was repaid quickly thanks to the efforts of the congregation and to two benefactors who contributed £50 and £100 respectively.
After the war Fr Dennis Horgan was appointed to the parish and with his help and support new efforts were made to raise funds for a new church. A garden party was held at the Chestnuts, the home of Dr Gray in Beveridge St. His daughters organised a dance at the Lib/Lab Club in Industry Square. Fr. Horgan himself contributed to the fund-raising by selling bolts of tweed cloth. By this time a new piece of land had been given in North Street. Sadly the new church has never been built and the land was eventually sold. The money was put towards the building of the new social centre in Sileby which has been of great benefit to the whole community.
The Barrow Catholic community had to accept the closure of their church in 1989, just before its 150thanniversary. It is now two houses but there is a reminder of its first use as a church. The cracked bell, which called the Catholics to church, still hangs in its original place. (Thanks to Kathryn Timmons for this short history which was originally included in the book published in Barrow to mark the millennium in 2000 and to Father Anthony for some additional details and memories.)

The Nativity of John the Baptist
Ordinarily the Church observes the day of a saint's death as his feast, because that day marks his entrance into heaven. To this rule there are two notable exceptions, the birthdays of Blessed Mary and of St. John the Baptist. All other persons were stained with original sin at birth, hence, were displeasing to God. But Mary, already in the first moment of her existence, was free from original sin (for which reason even her very conception is commemorated by a special feast), and John was cleansed of original sin in the womb of his mother. This is the dogmatic justification for today's feast. In the breviary St. Augustine explains the reason for today's observance in the following words:
"Apart from the most holy solemnity commemorating our Saviour's birth, the Church keeps the birthday of no other person except that of John the Baptist. [The feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin had not yet been introduced.] In the case of other saints or of God's chosen ones, the Church, as you know, solemnizes the day on which they were reborn to everlasting beatitude after ending the trials of this life and gloriously triumphing over the world.
"For all these the final day of their lives, the day on which they completed their earthly service is honoured. But for John the day of his birth, the day on which he began this mortal life is likewise sacred. The reason for this is, of course, that the Lord willed to announce to men his own coming through the Baptist, lest if he appeared suddenly, they would fail to recognize him. John represented the Old Covenant and the Law. Therefore he preceded the Redeemer, even as the Law preceded and heralded the new dispensation of grace."
In other words, today's feast anticipates the feast of Christmas. Taking an overall view, we keep during the course of the year only two mysteries: that of Christ's Incarnation and that of his Redemption. The Redemption mystery is the greater of the two; the Incarnation touches the human heart more directly. To the Redemption mystery the entire Easter season is devoted, from Septuagesima until Pentecost; and likewise every Sunday of the year, because Sunday is Easter in miniature.
The Christmas season has for its object the mystery of God-become-Man, to which there is reference only now and then during the remaining part of the year, e.g., on Marian feasts, especially that of the Annunciation (March 25) and today's feast in honour of the Baptist. In a sense, then, we are celebrating Christ's incarnation today. The birth of Jesus is observed on December 25 at the time of the winter solstice, while the birth of his forerunner is observed six months earlier at the time of the summer solstice. Christmas is a "light" feast; the same is true today. John was a lamp that burned and shone. We Christians should be the light of the world.

Mass online:
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference website gives a useful link with easy access to churches with live streaming of Mass. You can search to find churches nearest you or look further afield in different dioceses: Mass streaming directory

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy
Ta’ Pinu, Gozo
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast
St. Gabriel’s, Viewpark, Uddington
Westminster Cathedral
Holy Name, Jesmond, Newcastle
St Peter’s, Brighton/Hove
St Paul’s, Falls Road, Belfast

Everyone whose physical and mental health has been affected by Covid-19.

Brian Ratcliffe who was admitted to the Royal Infirmary on Tuesday. This is unrelated to the virus. He is now back home recovering.
The brother of David Cafferky who is in a critical condition after a horrific accident. He is in a medically induced coma with multiple surgeries ahead. Could we please all pray for him and his speedy recovery and also to give David and the family the strength they need at this difficult time.
Two PSP contacts of Kathryn are in great need of our prayers. (PSP is the disease from which George suffered)
On this day, designated Fathers’ Day, let us commend all fathers to the loving care of St Joseph.
Father John and his own father.

O blessed St Joseph, loving foster father of Jesus and most chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we ask your intercession on behalf of all fathers. We pray that like yours, their actions may be loving, understanding and wise. Implore your beloved son to instil in them every grace that they need to be the best fathers they can be. Pray that like you, their hearts will be blessed with ever-increasing love for their children and that they have the fortitude to faithfully care for and provide for their needs. And dear St Joseph, when their earthly life is complete may they enjoy the beauty of everlasting life in union with you and all the angels and saints. Amen.

Let us all pray a hymn together:
If we all were to read (or sing) the parish “favourite of the week” what a great way it would be of reminding us of the community to which we belong. Some parishioners will remember the Rosary Crusade of Fr Patrick Peyton in the 1950s. He popularised the saying: “A family that prays together stays together”. We could easily adapt this to read: “A parish that prays together stays together”. Let’s give it a try.
This week’s hymn has been chosen by Joan Wiggins: “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder...”
O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

And when I think of God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And lead me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow with humble adoration,
And then proclaim, "My God, how great Thou art!"

What is your favourite hymn?Let us know and we shall publish it in the next newsletter.

Sick List: Please continue to pray for the following members of our parish: Bernard Moyers, Patrick Hodgson, Tod Smith, Angela Doyle, Ida De Melo, Maurice Nixon, Eva Shirreffs, Stefania Stasior, Irene Pallot, Muriel Barfield, Brian Ratcliffe.

Anniversaries:
Let us remember in our prayers those parishioners whose anniversaries occur in the coming week:

21st June 1987 Lily Owen
22nd June 1998 Cecilie Walker
22nd June 2004 Ida Smith
24th June 1981 Mary Simons
25th June 2015 Robert Walker
26th June 1988 Owen Doran
26th June 2000 Vera May Johnson
27th June 1987 Patrick F Carter
28th June 1974 Michael Bailey

A man decided to buy a watch for his boss because every day that he turned up to work he used to ask: “What time do you call this?”

Last week I sold a house for £200,000. I was very pleased because I was only renting it at the time
A man went into a butcher’s shop and asked for a sheep’s head for his dog. The woman in the shop asked: “Are you doing a transplant?”
I come from a very musical family; even the sewing machine is a Singer.
I saw a gadget in a shop that said it would do half the housework; so I bought two!
Sign outside an expensive undertaker’s shop: “All men are not cremated equal. See our price list.”

Amy Jarkulisz is 19 on Saturday 27th June. Happy Birthday from Mum, Dad, Ellen, Grace, Hope and all the parish.

QUIZ
How well do you know the parables? What are the missing words in this well-known parable? Answers below – no cheating!
The Good Samaritan

And behold, a (1) stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the (2)? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your (3) and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from (4) to (5), and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a (6) was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a (7), when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on (8) and (9). Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out (10) and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Answers:
1. lawyer
2. Law
3. strength
4. Jerusalem
5. Jericho
6. priest
7. Levite
8. oil
9. wine
10. two denarii

Newsletter 14th June 2020

13/6/2020

Sunday 14th CORPUS CHRISTI
Monday 15th Feria
Tuesday 16th St Richard of Chichester
Wednesday 17th Feria
Thursday 18th Feria
Friday 19th The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Saturday 20th The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Sunday 21st Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) is the solemn commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist. It is, moreover, the Church's official act of homage and gratitude to Christ, who by instituting the Holy Eucharist gave to the Church her greatest treasure. Holy Thursday marks the anniversary of the institution, but the commemoration of the Lord's passion that very night suppresses the rejoicing proper to the occasion. Today's observance, therefore, emphasises the joyous aspect of Holy Thursday.
The Mass and the Office for the feast were edited or composed by St. Thomas Aquinas upon the request of Pope Urban IV in the year 1264. It is unquestionably a classic piece of liturgical work, wholly in accord with the best liturgical traditions … It is a perfect work of art.
In the words of St Thomas Aquinas:
"How inestimable a dignity, beloved brethren, divine bounty has bestowed upon us Christians from the treasury of its infinite goodness! For there neither is nor ever has been a people to whom the gods were so nigh as our Lord and God is nigh unto us.
Desirous that we be made partakers of his divinity, the only-begotten Son of God has taken to himself our nature so that having become man, he would be enabled to make men gods. Whatever he assumed of our nature he wrought unto our salvation. For on the altar of the Cross he sacrificed to the Father his own Body as victim for our reconciliation and shed his blood both for our ransom and for our regeneration. Moreover, in order that a remembrance of so great benefits may always be with us, he has left us his Body as food and his Blood as drink under appearances of bread and wine. "O banquet most precious! O banquet most admirable! O banquet overflowing with every spiritual delicacy! Can anything be more excellent than this feast, in which not the flesh of goats and heifers, as of old, but Christ the true God is given us for nourishment? What more wondrous than this holy sacrament! In it bread and wine are changed substantially, and under the appearance of a little bread and wine is had Christ Jesus, God and perfect Man. In this sacrament sins are purged away, virtues are increased, the soul is satiated with an abundance of every spiritual gift. No other sacrament is so beneficial. Since it was instituted unto the salvation of all, it is offered by Holy Church for the living and for the dead, that all may share in its treasures. My dearly beloved, is it not beyond human power to express the ineffable delicacy of this sacrament in which spiritual sweetness is tasted in its very source, in which is brought to mind the remembrance of that all-excelling charity which Christ showed in his sacred passion? Surely it was to impress more profoundly upon the hearts of the faithful the immensity of this charity that our loving Saviour instituted this sacrament at the last supper when, having celebrated the Passover with his disciples. He was about to leave the world and return to the Father. It was to serve as an unending remembrance of his passion, as the fulfilment of ancient types - this the greatest of his miracles. To those who sorrow over his departure he has given a unique solace."

Symbols:
The usual symbol for the Holy Eucharist is a chalice, with a host rising out of it. The chalice is shown with a hexagonal base, as a rule, symbolizing the Six Attributes of the Deity (power, wisdom, majesty, mercy, justice and love), and with a richly wrought stem of gold, studded with precious stones. The host is shown as the typical circular wafer, upon which may be imprinted the letters I. N. R. I., from which proceed rays of light, symbolical of the Real Presence, the substantial presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine.

Sunday Readings
First Reading: Deuteronomy: 8:2-3, 14-16
Moses said to the people: "Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. "Do not forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its fiery serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers."

Second Reading: Corinthians 10:16-17
Brothers and sisters: The cup of blessing that we bless, is a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break, is a participation in the body of Christ. Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

Gospel: John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

St Richard of Chichester:
Bishop and leading figure in England during his era, he was also called Richard de Wyche. Born at Wyche, in Worcestershire, he was orphaned while a young lad, managed to regain his fortune which had been mismanaged by others, and received an excellent education at Oxford, Paris, and Bologna, Italy. At Oxford, he studied under the famous Robert Grossteste and became friends with St. Edmund Rich. He earned a doctorate in law from the University of Bologna. He was appointed chancellor of Oxford in 1235 and then chancellor to Edmund Rich, who by now was archbishop of Canterbury. After accompanying Edmund into retirement at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, France, he departed the community upon Edmund's death, taught at the Dominican house in Orkans, and was ordained there in 1243. Upon going home to England, he was named chancellor to Edmund's successor, St. Boniface of Savoy. When King Henry Ill appointed Ralph Neville to the see of Chichester in 1244, Boniface declared the nomination invalid and named Richard to the post, an act which caused an uproar in the kingdom. Finally, in 1245, Pope Innocent IV found in Richard's favour, but Richard was prevented from entering his palace by the machinations of Henry. Only after the king was threatened with excommunication was Richard able to take up his duties. He insisted upon strict adherence to discipline among the clergy, aided the poor, and fearlessly denounced the corruption and vices of the contemporary Church and the royal court. His death came at Dover, in a home for poor priests, while delivering a plea for a crusade. Richard was canonised in 1262, and his tomb became a popular shrine noted for its miracles until the Reformation in England.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus:
"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment" (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary).
Sixteenth century Calvinism and seventeenth century Jansenism preached a distorted Christianity that substituted for God's love and sacrifice of his Son for all men the fearful idea that a whole section of humanity was inexorably damned. The Church always countered this view with the infinite love of our Saviour who died on the cross for all men. The institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart was soon to contribute to the creation among the faithful of a powerful current of devotion which since then has grown steadily stronger. The first Office and Mass of the Sacred Heart were composed by St. John Eudes, but the institution of the feast was a result of the appearances of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1675. The celebration of the feast was extended to the general calendar of the Church by Pius IX in 1856.
The Church, in this month of June, giving us the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, wishes us to understand the consequential devotion to Our Lady traditionally lived in the Marian month par excellence: the month of May. The Heart of Jesus is the See and Throne of Divine Mercy, revealed to the world in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.
The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI speaking of the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus said: “In biblical language, "heart" indicates the centre of the person where his sentiments and intentions dwell. In the Heart of the Redeemer we adore God's love for humanity, his will for universal salvation, his infinite mercy. Practising devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ therefore means adoring that Heart which, after having loved us to the end, was pierced by a spear and from high on the Cross poured out blood and water, an inexhaustible source of new life” (Benedict XVI, Angelus 5 June 2005).
The call which comes from this important feast day is first of all a call to Eucharistic adoration, because in the Sacred Host the Lord Jesus is truly present and he offers each of us his Heart, his Merciful Love. To spend time in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord, to adore him, is the best expression of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which, as we know, spread all over the world thanks to Jesus' revelations to Saint Margherita M. Alacoque in the 17th century: “Behold the Heart which so loved mankind”!
As a prolongation and accomplishment of this message, the Lord appeared to another Sister in the 20th century revealing the depth of his unfathomable mercy; she was Saint Faustina Kowalska who wrote in her diary, now world famous, these words of Jesus: “I have opened my Heart as a living source of Mercy; from it all souls draw life, all approach with deep confidence this sea of Mercy. Sinners will obtain justification and the just will be strengthened in goodness. I will fill the souls of those who put their trust in my Mercy with my divine peace at the hour of their death. My daughter, continue to spread devotion to my Mercy; in doing so you will refresh my Heart which burns with the fire of compassion for sinners. Tell my priests that hardened sinners will be softened by their words if they speak of my boundless Mercy and of the compassion which my Heart feels for them. I will give priests who proclaim and exalt my Mercy wondrous power, unction to their words and I will move all the hearts to which they speak” (Book 5, 21 January 1938).
The deepest longing of Christ's Heart is that we discover how much he loves us, the extent of his tender love for creatures who, cooled by their selfishness, look only inwards at themselves, as if they were afraid to let themselves be loved unconditionally by their Creator, who asks nothing and gives all!
How society, culture, economics, politics today need this Heart! It is really true, the more man distances himself from God-Love the more he becomes 'heartless', agitated about a thousand things because he has mislaid the principal one: to let oneself be loved by Christ and to respond to this Love with our love.
Many times during history the Supreme Pontiffs have reminded humanity that without the Lord Jesus life has no real meaning, man gropes in the dark to find himself! John Paul II introduced the Church into the Third Millennium with a mandate to become “Apostles of Divine Mercy”. The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI picked up where his predecessor left off and never tires of reminding us of the necessity to rediscover the merciful Heart, this infinite Love of God, who reveals himself in our lives if we open to him. “Open, open wide the doors to Christ” the voice of the Holy Spirit continues to say. By means of Eucharistic adoration we are “opened” from within by his invisible working in us. The Most Holy Eucharist, celebrated and adored, as the Church teaches us, is the greatest and most effective treasure of our salvation, an infinite treasure which must be safeguarded with profound respect and deepest devotion.
Close to the Heart of the Son is the Heart of the Mother whom the Church celebrates the day after the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let it again be the Holy Father who illuminates us with regard to this mystery: “The heart that resembles that of Christ more than any other is without a doubt the Heart of Mary, his Immaculate Mother, and for this very reason the liturgy holds them up together for our veneration. Responding to the Virgin's invitation at Fatima, let us entrust the whole world to her Immaculate Heart, which we contemplated yesterday in a special way, so that it may experience the merciful love of God and know true peace” (Benedict XVI, Angelus 5 June 2005).

The Immaculate Heart of Mary
In the midst of the Second World War Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Saviour's Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church should celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is not a new devotion. In the seventeenth century, St. John Eudes preached it together with that of the Sacred Heart; in the nineteenth century, Pius VII and Pius IX allowed several churches to celebrate a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. Pius XII instituted today's feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession "peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue" (Decree of May 4, 1944).
The growth of devotion: The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The Gospel itself invited this attention with exquisite discretion and delicacy. What was first excited was compassion for the Virgin Mother. It was, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross that the Christian heart first made the acquaintance of the Heart of Mary. Simeon's prophecy paved the way and furnished the devotion with one of its favourite formulae and most popular representations: the heart pierced with a sword. But Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the Cross; "she cooperated through charity", as St. Augustine says, "in the work of our redemption". It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that slight indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St. Bernard (De duodecim stellis). Stronger evidence is discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and also in the large book De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent.
In St. Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1302) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A little earlier it had been included by St. Thomas Becket in the devotion to the joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (d.1245), one of the first spiritual children of St. Dominic, in his other devotions to Mary, and somewhat later it appeared in St. Bridget's Book of Revelations.
St. Ambrose perceived in her the model of a virginal soul. St. Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) was more absorbed in the contemplation of the virginal heart, and it is from him that the Church has borrowed the lessons of the Second Nocturnfor the feast of the Heart of Mary. St. Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for God, and dedicated to it his Theotimus.
In the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to St. Jean Eudes (d. 1681) to propagate the devotion, to make it public, and to have a feast celebrated in honour of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards in a number of French dioceses.
In 1799 Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In 1805 Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the feast was soon widely observed. Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement, started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this movement were first of all the revelation of the "miraculous medal" in 1830 and all the prodigies that followed, and then the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the source of numberless graces. On 21 July 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church.

Reopening of churches – statement from Cardinal Nichols:
I am grateful to the Prime Minister for his decision that our churches may now open again for individual prayer. I thank the Secretary of State for Communities, Mr Robert Jenrick and the Minister of State, Lord Stephen Greenhalgh, for their leadership of the Task Force which helped bring about this important step.
This is a first, measured step in restoring the more normal practice of our faith and will be welcomed by so many, who have waited with great patience since 23 March when our churches were closed, by Government decision, as part of the fight against this pandemic.
I thank everyone for that patience. It is important that every care is taken to ensure that the Guidance given for this limited opening is fully observed, not least by those entering our churches. Our preparation is taking place with thoroughness. Visiting a church for individual prayer, benefiting from the sacredness of that space, can be done safely and confidently.
Not every Catholic Church will be open on 15 June. Local decisions and provision have to lead this process. But it is a great blessing, for individuals and for the benefit of all in society, that church doors will again be open to all who long to pray there for the peace and grace we need today.
This first step enables us to learn and prepare for those that will take us to a fuller use of our churches, for the celebration of Mass and other sacraments. We await that time with deep longing but patient understanding that the protection of the health of our society, especially of the most vulnerable, is a proper cause for caution and care.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols(President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales)

The pattern which seems to be emerging is that only a few designated churches will be allowed to open initially. The Church authorities are being extra careful that, in the event of a second spike in the number of cases, the Church will not be seen as being partially responsible. Prayerful patience is needed at this time.

Mass online:
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference website gives a useful link with easy access to churches with live streaming of Mass. You can search to find churches nearest you or look further afield in different dioceses:
https://www.cbcew.org.uk/home/our-work/health-social-care/coronavirus-guidelines/online-mass-directory/

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy
Ta’ Pinu, Gozo
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast
St. Gabriel’s, Viewpark, Uddington
Westminster Cathedral
Holy Name, Jesmond, Newcastle
St Peter’s, Brighton/Hove
St Paul’s, Falls Road, Belfast

Do you have any more to add to this list?

Praying together:
Sheila Breed reports that along with Terry and Bridget, they have regular telephone prayer meeting lasting some 20-30 minutes. They have variously shared the Angelus, a decade of the Rosary, the Trinity Sunday readings and bidding prayers. Are there any other impromptu gatherings taking place in the parish?

Bidding Prayers:
You will remember that, at the end of the Bidding Prayers each Sunday, the reader asks, “Does anyone have any other intentions?” Most weeks this question is followed by silence, but occasionally one of the congregation will make a contribution. I think that some people must feel a little daunted at the prospect of speaking up in front of everyone else, but now we can change all that. If you have a prayer intention, no matter how “trivial” it might seem, please do not hesitate to let me know and I shall include it in next week’s newsletter. This can be personalised or anonymous, as you wish.
This week’s prayer intentions include:

All those people caught up in the turmoil in the USA.

Everyone whose physical and mental health has been affected by Covid-19.
Our very young parishioners who made their First Holy Communion just over one year ago (June 9th)
Fr John on the anniversary of his mother’s death on Sunday 14th.
Muriel Barfield who went into hospital on Tuesday.
The brother of David Cafferky who is in a critical condition after a horrific accident. He is in a medically induced coma with multiple surgeries ahead. Could we please all pray for him and his speedy recovery and also to give David and the family the strength they need at this difficult time.

June 14th: Kathleen St John (2019)

June 14th: Thomas Reilly (1994)
June 16th: Frederick Brant (1988)
June 16th: Jean Glenn (2014)
June 20th: Lucy Middleton (1982)
June 21st: Lily Owen (1987)

May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Youth Group Quiz:
The Youth Group held the second round of their Fancy Dress Quiz over Zoom. There are some lovely photos on the parish website (https://www.saintgregorysileby.org/youth-group-quiz.html)

Good news:
Sheila and Terry report that, thanks to Face Time and wonders of modern technology, they have seen the first three steps taken by their eighteen-month-old great-grandson in New Zealand as well as hearing him say “Grandma” for the first time.

Soup and Cake Lady:
Before lockdown, Rosemary McKee regularly supplied parishioners with soup and her cake-making prowess was also well known. The current situation has not prevented her from continuing her good work as seven parishioners in Sileby and three in Barrow continue to receive soup and cake each week, kindly delivered by Pam Looi and Simon Grant. What a star!

Newsletter typos (but not this newsletter!):
The following announcements apparently appeared in newsletters from around the world:

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7pm there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7pm. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Hugh Jinks turns 9 on Friday 19th June. Happy Birthday from Mum, Dad, Isaac and all the parish.

QUIZ
Items on or near the altar:
What are these items that can be found on or near the altar (the number of letters is given in brackets):
Most are easy, but there are a couple of more tricky ones.
Answers below – no cheating!
1. A vessel similar to the chalice, closed with a lid, in which the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. (8)
2. A kind of transparent tabernacle used for exposing the Blessed Sacrament during Benediction. (10)
3. A golden plate upon which the host is placed. (5)
4. A square piece of linen placed on the altar cloth and upon which the host rests from the Offertory until the priest’s communion. (8)
5. A square piece of linen with which the top of the chalice is covered. (4)
6. The outer ornate garment which the priest wears during Mass. (8)
7. A vestment which the priest passes around his neck and crosses over his breast. (5)
8. A white cord tied around the priest’s waist. (6)
9. A large white linen garment which reaches to the feet. (3)
10. A small container in which the Blessed Sacrament is kept when visiting the sick and housebound. (3)
11. A censer in which incense is burnt on solemn occasions. (8)
12. A small table to one side of the altar where the water and wine are kept is known as the “******** table”. (8)
13. The hooked staff carried by a bishop. (7)
14. The tall headdress worn by a bishop. (5)
15. A square, black cap with three flat projections on top worn by clergymen. (7)
16. Another term for a cotta (8)
17. A full-length garment, usually black or red, worn by altar servers. (7)
18. The name/role of the altar server who leads the procession onto the altar carrying a brass candlestick. This term is sometimes erroneously given to the candlestick itself. (7)
19. A church bench. (3)
20. A cushion for kneeling on in church. (7)
21. A candle holder that is attached to the wall by an ornamental bracket. (6)
22. A glass container that holds water and wine. (5)
23. A basin for holy water attached to the wall near the door of the church. (5)

Answers:
1. ciborium
2. monstrance
3. paten
4. corporal
5. pall
6. chasuble
7. stole
8. girdle
9. alb
10. pyx
11. thurible
12. credence
13. crozier
14. mitre
15. biretta
16. surplice
17. cassock
18. acolyte
19. pew
20. hassock
21. sconce
22. cruet
23. stoup

Newsletter 7th June 2020

5/6/2020

Sunday 7th THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
Monday 8th            Feria
Tuesday 9th            St Columba
Wednesday 10th Feria
Thursday 11th St Barnabas
Friday 12th Feria
Saturday 13th St Anthony of Padua
Sunday 14th            CORPUS CHRISTI

Trinity Sunday
The feast of the Blessed Trinity was introduced in the ninth century and was only inserted in the general calendar of the Church in the fourteenth century by Pope John XXII. But the worship of the Trinity is, of course, to be found throughout the liturgy. Constantly the Church causes us to praise and adore the thrice-holy God who has so shown his mercy towards us and has given us to share in his life.

Sunday Readings
First Reading: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets. Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name, "Lord." Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, "The LORD, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity." Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favour with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."

Second Reading: Corinthians 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Gospel: John 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Trinity Sunday
The dogma of faith which forms the object of the feast is this: There is one God and in this one God there are three Divine Persons; the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three Gods, but one, eternal, incomprehensible God! The Father is not more God than the Son, neither is the Son more God than the Holy Spirit. The Father is the first Divine Person; the Son is the second Divine Person, begotten from the nature of the Father from eternity; the Holy Spirit is the third Divine Person, proceeding from the Father and the Son. No mortal can fully fathom this sublime truth. But we submit humbly and say: Lord, I believe, help my weak faith. Why is this feast celebrated at this particular time? It may be interpreted as a finale to all the preceding feasts. All three Persons contributed to and shared in the work of redemption. The Father sent his Son to earth, for "God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son." The Father called us to the faith. The Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, became man and died for us. He redeemed us and made us children of God. He ever remains the liturgist par excellence to whom we are united in all sacred functions. After Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit, however, became our Teacher, our Leader, our Guide, our Consoler. On solemn occasions a thanksgiving Te Deum rises spontaneously from Christian hearts.
The feast of the Most Holy Trinity may well be regarded as the Church's Te Deum of gratitude over all the blessings of the Christmas and Easter seasons; for this mystery is a synthesis of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. This feast, which falls on the first Sunday after Pentecost, should make us mindful that actually every Sunday is devoted to the honour of the Most Holy Trinity, that every Sunday is sanctified and consecrated to the triune (three in one) God. Sunday after Sunday we should recall in a spirit of gratitude the gifts which the Blessed Trinity is bestowing upon us. The Father created and predestined us; on the first day of the week he began the work of creation. The Son redeemed us; Sunday is the "Day of the Lord," the day of his resurrection. The Holy Spirit sanctified us, made us his temple; on Sunday the Holy Spirit descended upon the infant Church. Sunday, therefore, is the day of the Most Holy Trinity.

St Columba
St Columba lived from 7 December 521 to 9 June 597. The name he is known by today is the Latin version of his given name Colum, though he came to be known as Colum-cille, or "dove of the church" by most people in his own day.
Columba was born at Garten, County Donegal, Ireland. He was a member of the Clan O'Donnell, and was of royal descent. His father was Fedhlimdh and his mother Eithne. On his father's side he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king of the fifth century. Much of what we know about him comes from a Life of Columba written by his successor Abbot Adomnán of Iona who lived a century later.
Columba was educated at the monastic school of Moville under St Finnian, who had himself studied at St Ninian's"Magnum Monasterium" on the shores of Galloway. In 560 a dispute arose over a copy Columba had made of St. Finnian's book of psalms. The result was Columba's instigation of a rebellion by the Clan Neill against King Diarmait of Ireland. This culminated in the Battle of Cooldrevny in 561, at which three thousand men were killed.
Following the battle, Columba's confessor, St Molaise, set him the penance of leaving Ireland and preaching the Gospel in order to convert as many to Christianity as had been killed at Cooldrevny: and never again to look upon his native land.
In 563 Columba and 12 companions left Ireland, arriving first at what is today Southend, on the southern tip of Kintyre. This, though, was still within sight of Ireland, so they travelled further north, landing on Iona on 12 May 563. The island was granted to Columba for the establishment of a monastery by King Conall of a distant relative. His contemporary, St Moluag, had established a church on the Isle of Lismore the previous year.
At this point Columba was 42 years old. He started his evangelising amongst the Scots of Dalriada, but then turned to the more testing task of converting the northern Picts of Caledonia. The corner was turned when, together with St Comgall and St Kenneth, Columba called on Pictish King Brude at his fortress overlooking what is now Inverness.Brude refused to allow the missionaries into the fortress, but - it is said - at the sign of the cross being made by Columba the barred gates of the fortress simply opened. The story goes on to record that the King, overawed by this miracle, was converted on the spot, with the rest of the Picts not long after him.
Another story relates how on one of his journeys, St Columba encountered several Picts who were burying the body of a man who had been killed by an aquatic monster which lived in the River Nesa: a story that has often since been intepreted as the first written reference to the Loch Ness Monster. It goes on to say that Columba then saved another man from the monster by ordering the beast to retreat, which it did. St Columba died in the monastery he has build on Iona, in 597. The island became a place of pilgrimage, and has remained so ever since despite St Columba's own remains being removed in 849. They were apparently divided between the Scots and the Irish, with half being sent by King Kenneth I for safekeeping to Dunkeld. The other half was taken to the Church of Downpatrick.
St Columba's feast day is celebrated on June 9. Despite his obvious candidacy for the role, St Columba was supplanted by St Andrew as the patron saint of Scotland.

St Barnabas
Barnabas (originally Joseph), styled an Apostle in Holy Scripture, and, like St. Paul, ranked by the Church with the Twelve, though not one of them; b. of Jewish parents in the Island of Cyprus about the beginning of the Christian Era. A Levite, he naturally spent much time in Jerusalem, probably even before the Crucifixion of Our Lord, and appears also to have settled there (where his relatives, the family of Mark the Evangelist, likewise had their homes — Acts 12:12) and to have owned land in its vicinity (4:36-37). A rather late tradition recorded by Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius says that he was one of the seventy Disciples; but Acts (4:36-37) favours the opinion that he was converted to Christianity shortly after Pentecost (about A.D. 29 or 30) and immediately sold his property and devoted the proceeds to the Church. The Apostles, probably because of his success as a preacher, for he is later placed first among the prophets and doctors of Antioch (xiii, 1), surnamed him Barnabas, a name then interpreted as meaning "son of exhortation" or "consolation". Though nothing is recorded of Barnabas for some years, he evidently acquired during this period a high position in the Church.
When Saul the persecutor, later Paul the Apostle, made his first visit (dated variously from A.D. 33 to 38) to Jerusalem after his conversion, the Church there, remembering his former fierce spirit, was slow to believe in the reality of his conversion. Barnabas stood sponsor for him and had him received by the Apostles, as the Acts relate (9:27), though he saw only Peter and James, the brother of the Lord, according to Paul himself (Galatians 1:18-19). Saul went to his house at Tarsus to live in obscurity for some years, while Barnabas appears to have remained at Jerusalem. The event that brought them together again and opened to both the door to their lifework was an indirect result of Saul's own persecution. In the dispersion that followed Stephen's death, some Disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene, obscure men, inaugurated the real mission of the Christian Church by preaching to the Gentiles. They met with great success among the Greeks at Antioch in Syria, reports of which coming to the ears of the Apostles, Barnabas was sent there by them to investigate the work of his countrymen. He saw in the conversions that had been achieved the fruit of God's grace and, though a Jew, heartily welcomed these first Gentile converts. His mind was opened at once to the possibility of this immense field. It is a proof how deeply impressed Barnabas had been by Paul that he thought of him immediately for this work, set out without delay for distant Tarsus, and persuaded Paul to go to Antioch and begin the work of preaching. This incident, shedding light on the character of each, shows it was no mere accident that led them to the Gentile field. Together they laboured at Antioch for a whole year and "taught a great multitude". Then, on the coming of famine, by which Jerusalem was much afflicted, the offerings of the Disciples at Antioch were carried (about A.D. 45) to the mother-church by Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11). Their mission ended, they returned to Antioch, bringing with them the cousin, or nephew of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10), John Mark, the future Evangelist (Acts 12:25).
The time was now ripe, it was believed, for more systematic labours, and the Church of Antioch felt inspired by the Holy Ghost to send out missionaries to the Gentile world and to assign the work to Barnabas and Paul. They accordingly departed, after the imposition of hands, with John Mark as helper. Cyprus, the native land of Barnabas, was first evangelized, and then they crossed over to Asia Minor. Here, at Perge in Pamphylia, the first stopping place, John Mark left them, for what reason his friend St. Luke does not state, though Paul looked on the act as desertion. The two Apostles, however, pushing into the interior of a rather wild country, preached at Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, at Derbe, and other cities. At every step they met with opposition and even violent persecution from the Jews, who also incited the Gentiles against them. The most striking incident of the journey was at Lystra, where the superstitious populace took Paul, who had just cured a lame man, for Hermes (Mercury) "because he was the chief speaker", and Barnabas for Jupiter, and were about to sacrifice a bull to them when prevented by the Apostles. Mob-like, they were soon persuaded by the Jews to turn and attack the Apostles and wounded St. Paul almost fatally. Despite opposition and persecution, Paul and Barnabas made many converts on this journey and returned by the same route to Perge, organizing churches, ordaining presbyters and placing them over the faithful, so that they felt, on again reaching Antioch in Syria, that God had "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:13-14:27).
Barnabas and Paul had been "for no small time" at Antioch, when they were threatened with the undoing of their work and the stopping of its further progress. Preachers came from Jerusalem with the gospel that circumcision was necessary for salvation, even for the Gentiles. The Apostles of the Gentiles, perceiving at once that this doctrine would be fatal to their work, went up to Jerusalem to combat it; the older Apostles received them kindly and at what is called the Council of Jerusalem (dated variously from A.D. 47 to 51) granted a decision in their favour as well as a hearty commendation of their work (Acts 14:27-15:30). On their return to Antioch, they resumed their preaching for a short time. St. Peter came down and associated freely there with the Gentiles, eating with them. This displeased some disciples of James; in their opinion, Peter's act was unlawful, as it was against the Mosaic law. Upon their protests, Peter yielded apparently through fear of displeasing them, and refused to eat any longer with the Gentiles. Barnabas followed his example. Paul considered that they "walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel" and upbraided them before the whole church (Galatians 2:11-15). Paul seems to have carried his point. Shortly afterwards, he and Barnabas decided to revisit their missions. Barnabas wished to take John Mark along once more, but on account of the previous defection Paul objected. A sharp contention ensuing, the Apostles agreed to separate. Paul was probably somewhat influenced by the attitude recently taken by Barnabas, which might prove a prejudice to their work. Barnabas sailed with John Mark to Cyprus, while Paul took Silas and revisited the churches of Asia Minor. It is believed by some that the church of Antioch, by its God-speed to Paul, showed its approval of his attitude; this inference, however, is not certain (Acts 15:35-41).
Little is known of the subsequent career of Barnabas. He was still living and labouring as an Apostle in 56 or 57, when Paul wrote I Cor. (ix, 5, 6) from which we learn that he, too, like Paul, earned his own living, though on an equality with other Apostles. The reference indicates also that the friendship between the two was unimpaired. When Paul was a prisoner in Rome (61-63), John Mark was attached to him as a disciple, which is regarded as an indication that Barnabas was no longer living (Colossians 4:10). This seems probable.
Various traditions represent him as the first Bishop of Milan, as preaching at Alexandria and at Rome, whose fourth (?) bishop, St. Clement, he is said to have converted, and as having suffered martyrdom in Cyprus. The traditions are all late and untrustworthy.
With the exception of St. Paul and certain of the Twelve, Barnabas appears to have been the most esteemed man of the first Christian generation. St. Luke, breaking his habit of reserve, speaks of him with affection, "for he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of Faith". His title to glory comes not only from his kindliness of heart, his personal sanctity, and his missionary labours, but also from his readiness to lay aside his Jewish prejudices, in this anticipating certain of the Twelve; from his large-hearted welcome of the Gentiles, and from his early perception of Paul's worth, to which the Christian Church is indebted, in large part at least, for its great Apostle. His tenderness towards John Mark seems to have had its reward in the valuable services later rendered by him to the Church. The feast of St. Barnabas is celebrated on 11 June.

St Anthony of Padua
St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most famous disciples of St. Francis of Assisi. He was a famous preacher and worker of miracles in his own day, and throughout the eight centuries since his death he has so generously come to the assistance of the faithful who invoke him, that he is known throughout the world. St. Anthony was born in the year 1195 A. D. at Lisbon (Portugal) where his father was a captain in the royal army. Already at the age of fifteen years, he had entered the Congregation of Canons Regular of St. Augustine and devoted himself with great earnestness both to study and to the practice of piety in the Monastery at Coimbra (Portugal). About that time some of the first members of the Order of Friars Minor, which St. Francis has founded in 1206 A. D. came to Coimbra. They begged from the Canons Regular a small and very poor place, from which by their evangelical poverty and simplicity they edified everyone in the region. Then in 1219 A. D. some of these friars, moved by divine inspiration, went as missionaries to preach the Gospel of Christ to the inhabitants of Morocco. There they were brutally martyred for the Faith. Some Christian merchants succeeded in recovering their remains; and so brought their relics in triumph back to Coimbra. The relics of St. Bernard and companions, the first martyrs of the Franciscan Order, seized St. Anthony with an intense desire to suffer martyrdom in a like manner. So moved by their heroic example he repeatedly begged and petitioned his superiors to be given leave to join the Franciscan Order. In the quiet little Franciscan convent at Coimbra he received a friendly reception, and in the same year his earnest wish to be sent to the missions in Africa was fulfilled. But God had decreed otherwise. And so, St. Anthony scarcely set foot on African soil when he was seized with a grievous illness. Even after recovering from it, he was so weak that, resigning himself to the will of God, he boarded a boat back to Portugal. Unexpectedly a storm came upon them and drove the ship to the east where it found refuge on coast of Sicily. St. Anthony was greeted and given shelter by the Franciscans of that island, and thus came to be sent to Assisi, where the general chapter of the Order was held in May, 1221 A. D. Since he still looked weak and sickly, and gave no evidence of his scholarship, no one paid any attention to the stranger until Father Gratian, the Provincial of friars living in the region of Romagna (Italy), had compassion on him and sent him to the quiet little convent near Forli (also in Italy). There St. Anthony remained nine months as chaplain to the hermits, occupied in the lowliest duties of the kitchen and convent, and to his heart's content he practised interior as well as exterior mortification. But the hidden jewel was soon to appear in all its brilliance. For the occasion of a ceremony of ordination some of the hermits along with St. Anthony were sent to the town of Forli. Before the ceremony was to begin, however, it was announced that the priest who was to give the sermon had fallen sick. The local superior, to avert the embarrassment of the moment, quickly asked the friars in attendance to volunteer. Each excused himself, saying that he was not prepared, until finally, St. Anthony was asked to give it. When he too, excused himself in a most humble manner, his superior ordered him by virtue of the vow of obedience to give the sermon. St. Anthony began to speak in a very reserved manner; but soon holy animation seized him, and he spoke with such eloquence and learning that everybody was fairly amazed.
When St. Francis was informed of the event, he gave St. Anthony the mission to preach throughout Italy. At the request of the brethren, St. Anthony was later commissioned also to teach theology, "but in such a manner," St. Francis distinctly wrote, " that the spirit of prayer be not extinguished either in yourself or in the other brethren." St. Anthony himself placed greater value in the salvation of souls than on learning. For that reason he never ceased to exercise his office as preacher despite his work of teaching.
The number of those who came to hear him was sometimes so great that no church was large enough to accommodate and so he had to preach in the open air. Frequently St. Anthony wrought veritable miracles of conversion. Deadly enemies were reconciled. Thieves and usurers made restitution. Calumniators and detractors recanted and apologized. He was so energetic in defending the truths of the Catholic Faith that many heretics returned to the Church. This occasioned the epitaph given him by Pope Gregory IX "the ark of the covenant."
In all his labours he never forgot the admonition of his spiritual father, St. Francis, that the spirit of prayer must not be extinguished. If he spent the day in teaching and heard the confession of sinners till late in the evening, then many hours of the night were spent in intimate union with God.
Once a man, at whose home St. Anthony was spending the night, came upon the saint and found him holding in his arms the Child Jesus, unspeakably beautiful and surrounded with heavenly light. For this reason St. Anthony is often depicted holding the Child Jesus.
In 1227 A. D., St. Anthony was elected Minister Provincial of the friars living in northern Italy. Thus he resumed the work of preaching. Due to his taxing labours and his austere penance, he soon felt his strength so spent that he prepared himself for death. After receiving the last sacraments he kept looking upward with a smile on his countenance. When he was asked what he saw there, he answered: "I see my Lord." He breathed forth his soul on June 13, 1231 A. D., being only thirty six year old. Soon the children in the streets of the city of Padua were crying: "The saint is dead, Anthony is dead."
Pope Gregory IX enrolled him among the saints in the very next year. At Padua, a magnificent basilica was built in his honour, his holy relics were entombed there in 1263 A. D. From the time of his death up to the present day, countless miracles have occurred through St. Anthony's intercession, so that he is known as the Wonder-Worker. In 1946 St. Anthony was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Mass online:
Several parishioners have used the link on the Home Page of the parish website which allows them to view Mass being celebrated at a variety of churches:
* The Cathedralin Nottingham on each day of the week. (https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)
The schedule is as follows:
On Saturdays and Sundays: Mass at 10.00am
From Monday to Friday: Mass at 1.00pm
* Also on the parish website, an additional link has been added to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsinghamwhose new website provides live streaming 24/7 of Masses, Prayers (Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet), Exposition, Spiritual Readings and Talks. This is a rich source of material in these extraordinary times.(https://www.walsingham.org.uk/live-stream/)
* Mass celebrated daily by Pope Francis from the Vaticanis also available: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
* There is another excellent suggestion from Paul Carroll: St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby. Daily and Sunday Masses are at 10.00am except for Thursday when Mass is at 7.00pm. Paul writes: “Fr David Cain has lay readers from their homes and deacons from their homes either reading the Gospel or delivering the Homily. He also uses other priests in the Deanery to deliver the homily as well as himself. I find it very inclusive. He clearly has a good technical team in the parish.” The link is: http://derbycatholiclive.co.uk

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy
Ta’ Pinu, Gozo
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast
St. Gabriel’s, Viewpark, Uddington

Do you have any more to add to this list?

You will remember that, in the days before lockdown, Mass was said at 7.00pm each Wednesday evening in Barrow. Everyone in the parish was welcome, though inevitably, perhaps, those who attended were mostly Barrow residents. Over the last eleven weeks they have tried to maintain the sense of community worship by “coming together” on a Wednesday evening at 7.00pm to pray or “attend Mass” together. All parishioners are, of course, welcome to join in this communal worship and you are all encouraged to suggest intentions for which everyone might pray.

Bidding Prayers:
You will remember that, at the end of the Bidding Prayers each Sunday, the reader asks, “Does anyone have any other intentions?” Most weeks this question is followed by silence, but occasionally one of the congregation will make a contribution. I think that some people must feel a little daunted at the prospect of speaking up in front of everyone else, but now we can change all that. If you have a prayer intention, no matter how “trivial” it might seem, please do not hesitate to let me know and I shall include it in next week’s newsletter. This can be personalised or anonymous, as you wish.
This week’s prayer intentions include:

Please remember in your prayers our young children (Reception, Year 1 and Year 6) and their teachers who returned to school on Monday. It is not an easy time for both groups and the parents involved.

On the feast of St Anthony, let us remember Fr Anthony and his twenty-three years of ministry in our parish. May he continue to enjoy a full and happy retirement.
All those people caught up in the turmoil in the USA and Hong Kong.
Everyone whose physical and mental health has been affected by Covid-19.

June 6th: Barbara Nixon (2017) This is the aunt of Lisa Heggs and the wife of Maurice Nixon who has been on our sick list for some time. They were married in St Gregory’s in 1964. Our thoughts and prayers are with Lisa on Saturday.

June 10th: Derrick Beadle (1980)
June 11th: Louise Grey (1976)
June 11th: Carmine Furno (2018)
June 12th: Arthur Cocks (1994)
June 14th: Thomas Reilly (1994)

May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Unusual present idea:
I was sent a link to the “Holy Socks” website: http://www.holysocks.co.ukWhat are Holy Socks? They’re socks with a story to tell - Biblical stories. They bring a serious message and do it, often with humour, but always with depth and thoughtfulness. The designs illustrate Biblical verses, stories or characters and they come in a leaflet with an original story, poem or meditation inspired by the design.

Youth Group Quiz:
The Youth Group held a Fancy Dress Quiz over Zoom on Saturday 23rdMay hosted by Grace Jarkulisz aka Smidge (from the movie Trolls). Everyone, including appearances from the Stickman (Isla Boland), Harry Potter (Hugh Jinks) and the chimney sweep Bert from Mary Poppins (Caitlin Banks) to name a few, had fun completing the imaginative, laughter-inducing rounds. From guessing the dressed-up characters to dashing about the house in a race to collect silly household objects including the lesser-spotted toilet roll and the currently widely-used teabag. Finally, the children thoroughly enjoyed guessing ‘the baby photos’ of their parents before sharing a prayer together. All in all a great quiz. Thank you Grace, we cannot wait for this Saturday’s quiz. (Reporter: Isaac Banks) There are some lovely photos on the parish website (https://www.saintgregorysileby.org/youth-group-quiz.html)

Newsletter typos (but not this newsletter!):
The following announcements apparently appeared in newsletters from around the world:

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
Pot-luck supper Sunday at 5:00pm - prayer and medication to follow.

Another big birthday in the Arthur household! Amelia Arthur will be 18 on June 7th. This will not be quite the big celebration that she was looking forward to, but we are sure that she will make up for it in due course! Best wishes from Mum, Dad, Beth and all the parish.

QUIZ
New Testament quotes.
Identify who said each of the following quotations.

Answers below – no cheating!

"Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?"
"You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
"Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
"Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof."
"Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter."
"Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."
"I see men like trees, walking."
"Father Abraham, have mercy on me...for I am tormented in this flame."
"Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"
"Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

Answers

Wise men from the East (Matt 2:1-2)
Jesus (Matt 23:27)
John the Baptist (Matt 3:7)
Roman centurion (Matt 8: 5-8) when he begged Jesus to heal his sick servant.
Daughter of Herodias (Matt 14:6-8); according to the historian, Josephus, her name was Salome.
A Gentile woman (Mark 7:26-28)
The blind man healed at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-24)
The rich man in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-24)
Judas Iscariot (John 12:4)
Peter (John 21:17)

Newsletter 31st May 2020

29/5/2020

Sunday 31st PENTECOST SUNDAY
Monday 1st Mary, Mother of the Church
Tuesday 2nd Feria
Wednesday 3rd St Charles Lwanga & companions
Thursday 4th Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest
Friday 5th St Boniface of Crediton
Saturday 6th St Norbert, bishop
Sunday 7th THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Pentecost Sunday
Sunday Readings
First Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travellers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

Second Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3B-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters: No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

Sequence
Holy Spirit, Lord of light,
From thy clear celestial height
⁠Thy pure beaming radiance give,
Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come with treasures which endure,
⁠Come, thou light of all that live.
Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul's delightful guest,
⁠Dost refreshing peace bestow;
Thou in toil art comfort sweet,
Pleasant coolness in the heat,
⁠Solace in the midst of woe
Light immortal, Light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
⁠And our inmost being fill;
If thou take thy grace away.
Nothing pure in man will stay—
⁠All his good is turn'd to ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew,
On our dryness pour thy dew,
⁠Wash the stains of guilt away,
Bend the stubborn heart and will,
Melt the frozen, warm the chill,
⁠Guide the steps that go astray.
Thou on those who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
⁠In thy sevenfold gifts descend;
Give them comfort when they die,
Give them life with thee on high,
⁠Give them joys which never end.

Gospel John 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Pentecost
After Jesus had ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives, the apostles and disciples returned to the Holy City. They remained together in the Upper Room or Cenacle, the place where Jesus had appeared to them and which may well be called the first Christian church. About a hundred and twenty persons were assembled there. They chose Matthias as an apostle in place of the unhappy Judas; they prayed and waited for the Paraclete. Ten days had passed, it was Sunday, the seventh Sunday after the resurrection. At about nine o'clock in the morning, as they were together praying fervently, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. Note how all the great visible manifestations of Christ’s deity in his life occurred during the course of prayer. After his baptism, for instance, when Jesus was praying, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove; likewise, it was during prayer at night that the transfiguration took place on Tabor. Surely too it was while Mary was praying that Gabriel delivered his message, and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. Pentecost followed precedent. The small community of Christians had prepared themselves through prayer for the coming of the Paraclete. The same is true at Mass today, every day; through prayer we ready our souls for the advent of the Spirit. The descent upon the apostles was internal and invisible in nature although accompanied by certain visible phenomena. There came a mighty roar, like the onrush of a violent wind. It came suddenly, from heaven; but unlike storms that strike a structure from without, this one penetrated and filled the room where the disciples were gathered. Therefore it was not a natural wind, it was a miracle peculiar to the occasion. A second visible sign consisted of tongues of fire that descended upon each one present. These fiery tongues gave visible evidence that the Holy Spirit had descended upon them. Today at Mass, particularly at Holy Communion, the power of the Holy Spirit will come down upon us; fiery tongues will not be seen, but invisible tongues of fire will not be absent. There was still another external manifestation of the Holy Spirit; the apostles and disciples were enabled to speak various languages. After the roar of the wind many of Jerusalem's pilgrims hurried to the Cenacle. Pentecost was one of the three festivals which obliged all Jews to be present in Jerusalem. Jews from distant lands, and Jewish converts from paganism too, attended these feasts. As a result, a colourful crowd speaking a variety of languages surrounded the house. Now the apostles, who so shortly before had hid in fear behind locked doors, came forth and courageously walked among the multitude speaking to each in his native tongue. It was indeed amazing! Galileans, and multilingual? But the malicious too were present; they had the answer. Nothing marvellous at all! Those Galileans were simply drunk, and their drunken babble sounded like a foreign language! Peter showed no hesitation in answering the charge. None of their number, he said, was intoxicated; it was but nine o'clock in the morning, and at that hour men usually are sober. What the multitude saw was, in fact, the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy: In those days (of the Messiah), God will pour forth His Spirit upon men and they will prophesy. . . . Then the apostle pointed his words more directly against the accusers: they had killed Jesus, had nailed him to the Cross; but God had awakened him and after his departure to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit. The pilgrims who had heard Peter give this first pentecostal sermon "were pierced to the heart and said: Brethren, what shall we do? But Peter said to them: Repent and be baptised; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Three thousand responded. One final question: why the miracle of tongues? In answer, recall the story regarding the tower of Babel. Puffed up by pride, men attempted to build a tower that would touch the heavens. To punish their sin, God confused their speech. Sin causes confusion and division. Now Christ came to gather all men into his Church and thereby to unite them to himself. This should result in creating but one family of nations again. To this blessed state the miracle of tongues points. Yes, even we as individuals have a gift of tongues which all men can understand. It is the gift of love infused into us by the Holy Spirit. Love unites, love is a common language, by means of love we can speak to all nations.

Mary Mother of the Church
Pope Francis has decreed that the ancient devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Mother of the Church, be inserted into the Roman Calendar. The liturgical celebration, B. Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris, will be celebrated annually as a Memorial on the day after Pentecost.
By issuing the Decree on the celebration of the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, Pope Francis wishes to promote this devotion in order to “encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety”.
The decree reflects on the history of Marian theology in the Church’s liturgical tradition and the writings of the Church Fathers. It says Saint Augustine and Pope Saint Leo the Great both reflected on the Virgin Mary’s importance in the mystery of Christ. “In fact the former [St. Augustine] says that Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because with charity she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church, while the latter [St. Leo the Great] says that the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, thus indicating that Mary is at once Mother of Christ, the Son of God, and mother of the members of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.” The decree says these reflections are a result of the “divine motherhood of Mary and from her intimate union in the work of the Redeemer." Scripture, the decree says, depicts Mary at the foot of the Cross (cf. John 19:25). There she became the Mother of the Church when she “accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal.” In 1964, the decree says, Pope Paul VI “declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as ‘Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother’ and established that 'the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this most tender of titles.’”

St. Charles Lwanga and Companions
Charles was one of twenty-two Ugandan martyrs who converted from paganism. He was baptised in November 1885, a year before his death, and became a moral leader. He was the chief of the royal pages and was considered the strongest athlete of the court. He was also known as "the most handsome man of the Kingdom of the Uganda." He instructed his friends in the Catholic Faith and he personally baptised boy pages. He inspired and encouraged his companions to remain chaste and faithful. He protected his companions, ages 13-30, from the immoral acts and homosexual demands of the Babandan ruler, Mwanga. Mwanga was a superstitious pagan king who originally was tolerant of Catholicism. However, his chief assistant, Katikiro, slowly convinced him that Christians were a threat to his rule. The premise was if these Christians would not bow to him, nor make sacrifices to their pagan god, nor pillage, massacre, nor make war, what would happen if his whole kingdom converted to Catholicism? When Charles was sentenced to death, he seemed very peaceful, one might even say, cheerful. He was to be executed by being burned to death. While the pyre was being prepared, he asked to be untied so that he could arrange the sticks. He then lay down upon them. When the executioner said that Charles would be burned slowly to death, Charles replied by saying that he was very glad to be dying for the True Faith. He made no cry of pain but just twisted and moaned, "Kotanda! (O my God!)." He was burned to death by Mwanga's order on June 3, 1886. Pope Paul VI canonized Charles Lwanga and his companions on June 22,1964. We celebrate his memorial on June 3rd on the Roman Calendar. Charles is the Patron of the African Youth of Catholic Action.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest
The Feast of Christ the Priest is a moveable liturgical feast celebrated annually on the first Thursday after Pentecost. Approval for this feast was first granted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 1987. The feast focuses firstly on Jesus’ Priestly Office (Latin: Munus sacerdotale). He is considered the model for believers, and for the clergy in particular, with priests acting In persona Christi (“In the person of Christ”). The laity are thus urged to pray that priests would be more like Christ, the compassionate and trustworthy high priest (Hebrews 2:17), ever-living to intercede for humanity before The Father (Heb 7:25). The Second Vatican Council taught many things about the Priesthood of Christ, and sharing in that one Priesthood through the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Orders. This development has been reflected in many subsequent documents. One effective way to build upon this teaching is to establish the Feast of Christ the Priest more widely. What Pope Pius XI wrote about the feast in honour of Christ’s Kingly Office can be said just as truly about this feast in honour of Our Lord’s Priesthood: “For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever.”

St Boniface
St. Boniface, a monk of Exeter, is one of the great figures of the Benedictine Order and of the monastic apostolate in the Middle Ages. Gregory II sent him to preach the Gospel in Germany. He evangelised Hesse, Saxony and Thuringia and became Archbishop of Mainz. He deservedly earned the title of Apostle of Germany, and Catholic Germany in our own times still venerates him as its father in the faith. He was put to death by the Frisians at Dokkum in 754 during the last of his missionary journeys. The famous abbey of Fulda, where his body lies, has remained the national shrine of Catholic Germany.
A Benedictine monk, he was chosen by divine Providence to become Germany's great apostle and patron. Boniface's first missionary endeavour proved unsuccessful (716). Before attempting a second he went to Rome and received papal authorisation (718). Under the holy bishop Willibrord he converted Frisia within a period of three years. On November 30, 722, Boniface was consecrated bishop by Pope Gregory II. In 724 he turned his attention to the Hessian people, among whom he continued his missionary activity with renewed zeal. On an eminence near the village of Geismar on the Eder, he felled a giant oak that the people honoured as the national sanctuary of the god Thor. Boniface used the wood to build a chapel in honour of St. Peter. This courageous act assured the eventual triumph of the Gospel in Germany. The resident clergy and the priests dwelling at the court, whose unworthy lives needed censure, were constantly creating difficulties. Nevertheless Boniface continued to labour quietly, discreetly. He prayed unceasingly, put his trust in God alone, recommended his work to the prayers of his spiritual brothers and sisters in England. And God did not abandon him. Conversions were amazingly numerous. In 732 Gregory III sent him the pallium, the insignia of the archiepiscopal dignity. Boniface now devoted his time and talent to the ecclesiastical organisation of the Church in Germany. He installed worthy bishops, set diocesan boundaries, promoted the spiritual life of the clergy and laity, held national synods (between 742 and 747), and in 744 founded the monastery of Fulda, which became a centre of religious life in central Germany. In 745 he chose Mayence for his archiepiscopal see, and affiliated to it thirteen dioceses. This completed the ecclesiastical organisation of Germany.
The final years of his busy life were spent, as were his earlier ones, in missionary activity. Word came to him in 754 that a part of Frisia had lapsed from the faith. He took leave of his priests and, sensing the approach of death, carried along a shroud. He was 74 years of age when with youthful enthusiasm he began the work of restoration, a mission he was not to complete. A band of semi-barbarous pagans overpowered and put him to death when he was about to administer confirmation to a group of neophytes at Dockum.

St Norbert
St. Norbert was born at Xanten near Cologne about the year 1080. As a young cleric he resided at the court of the Archbishop of Cologne and then at that of the emperor where he allowed himself to be influenced by the spirit of the world. Although a cleric, Norbert led a very worldly life for a number of years. The decisive change took place suddenly in 1115. While riding one day, he was overtaken by a thunderstorm. A flash of lightning struck the ground before him, the horse threw him, and he seemed to hear a voice upbraiding him for his conduct. As in the case of St. Paul, the experience wrought a complete transformation. Norbert decided to give away his property and income rights, and to lead a life of self-denial, devoting himself particularly to preaching. In 1120 he founded the Order of Premonstratensians (the first monastery was at Premontre) according to the rule of St. Augustine; approval came from Pope Honorius II in 1126. In 1125, he was named archbishop of Magdeburg. On July 13, 1126, Norbert entered the city and came barefoot to the cathedral. About to enter the archepiscopal palace, he was refused admission by the porter, who failed to recognise a bishop so poorly dressed. "You know me better and see me with clearer eyes than those who are forcing me to this palace. Poor and wretched man that I am, I should never have been assigned to this place," Norbert answered when the porter later sought his pardon. He died in 1134.

Mass online:
Several parishioners have used the link on the Home Page of the parish website which allows them to view Mass being celebrated at a variety of churches:
* The Cathedralin Nottingham on each day of the week. (https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)
The schedule is as follows:
On Saturdays and Sundays: Mass at 10.00am
From Monday to Friday: Mass at 1.00pm
* Also on the parish website, an additional link has been added to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsinghamwhose new website provides live streaming 24/7 of Masses, Prayers (Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet), Exposition, Spiritual Readings and Talks. This is a rich source of material in these extraordinary times.(https://www.walsingham.org.uk/live-stream/)
* Mass celebrated daily by Pope Francis from the Vaticanis also available: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
* There is another excellent suggestion from Paul Carroll: St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby. Daily and Sunday Masses are at 10.00am except for Thursday when Mass is at 7.00pm. Paul writes: “Fr David Cain has lay readers from their homes and deacons from their homes either reading the Gospel or delivering the Homily. He also uses other priests in the Deanery to deliver the homily as well as himself. I find it very inclusive. He clearly has a good technical team in the parish.” The link is: http://derbycatholiclive.co.uk

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy
Ta’ Pinu, Gozo
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast
St. Gabriel’s, Viewpark, Uddington

Do you have any more to add to this list?

You will remember that, in the days before lockdown, Mass was said at 7.00pm each Wednesday evening in Barrow. Everyone in the parish was welcome, though inevitably, perhaps, those who attended were mostly Barrow residents. Over the last eight weeks they have tried to maintain the sense of community worship by “coming together” on a Wednesday evening at 7.00pm to pray or “attend Mass” together. All parishioners are, of course, welcome to join in this communal worship and you are all encouraged to suggest intentions for which everyone might pray.

Bidding Prayers:
You will remember that, at the end of the Bidding Prayers each Sunday, the reader asks, “Does anyone have any other intentions?” Most weeks this question is followed by silence, but occasionally one of the congregation will make a contribution. I think that some people must feel a little daunted at the prospect of speaking up in front of everyone else, but now we can change all that. If you have a prayer intention, no matter how “trivial” it might seem, please do not hesitate to let me know and I shall include it in next week’s newsletter. This can be personalised or anonymous, as you wish.
This week’s prayer intentions include:

My Canadian friend, Jan Argo, who died on Friday (Kathryn)
The mother of a fried, Mrs Goldby, who died last Sunday. (Rosemary)

Let us all pray a hymn together:
If we all were to read (or sing) the parish “favourite of the week” what a great way it would be of reminding us of the community to which we belong. Some parishioners will remember the Rosary Crusade of Fr Patrick Peyton in the 1950s. He popularised the saying: “A family that prays together stays together”. We could easily adapt this to read: “A parish that prays together stays together”. Let’s give it a try. A favourite of more than one parishioner is an appropriate hymn for Pentecost is “Come from the North, giver of life”.
Come from the North, giver of life,
breathe on us now, Spirit of Christ.
Give us your strength, our faith renew
that we may hold to what is true.

Come from the South, like a caress,
Spirit of love and tenderness.
Help us to be patient and kind,
opening our hearts to all mankind.

Come from the East, Wisdom’s own breath,
that we may know our inner selves.
Teach us to pray deep in the heart,
and perfect peace to us impart.

Come from the West, as the light fades,
Sprit who guides through darkest shades.
And when our time on earth is done,
on wings of joy, then bear us home.

What is your favourite hymn?Let us know and we shall publish it in the next newsletter.

Sick List: Please continue to pray for the following members of our parish: Bernard Moyers, Patrick Hodgson, Tod Smith, Angela Doyle, Ida De Melo, Maurice Nixon, Eva Shirreffs, Stefania Stasior, Irene Pallot.

Anniversaries:
Let us remember in our prayers those parishioners whose anniversaries occur in the coming week:
3rdJune: Evelyn Wallace (1981)
6thJune: Barbara Nixon (2017)
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Recommended viewing:
A parishioner (altar server, moustache, Sheffield United supporter) recommends the BBC series “Retreat : meditations from a monastery” a three part series which goes in search of inner peace in three monasteries around Britain, (Downside Abbey, Pluscarden Abbey and Belmont Abbey) and provides a welcome retreat from the hectic pace of our daily lives. This is available on the i Player and the first episode is available until June 1st.

Unusual present idea:
I was sent a link to the “Holy Socks” website: http://www.holysocks.co.ukWhat are Holy Socks? They’re socks with a story to tell - Biblical stories. They bring a serious message and do it, often with humour, but always with depth and thoughtfulness. The designs illustrate Biblical verses, stories or characters and they come in a leaflet with an original story, poem or meditation inspired by the design.

Youth Group Quiz:
The Youth Group held a Fancy Dress Quiz over Zoom on Saturday 23rdMay hosted by Grace Jarkulisz aka Smidge (from the movie Trolls). Everyone, including appearances from the Stickman (Isla Boland), Harry Potter (Hugh Jinks) and the chimney sweep Bert from Mary Poppins (Caitlin Banks) to name a few, had fun completing the imaginative, laughter-inducing rounds. From guessing the dressed-up characters to dashing about the house in a race to collect silly household objects including the lesser-spotted toilet roll and the currently widely-used teabag. Finally, the children thoroughly enjoyed guessing ‘the baby photos’ of their parents before sharing a prayer together. All in all a great quiz. Thank you Grace, we cannot wait for this Saturday’s quiz. (Reporter: Isaac Banks) There are some lovely photos on the parish website (https://www.saintgregorysileby.org/youth-group-quiz.html)

Newsletter typos (but not this newsletter!):
The following announcements apparently appeared in newsletters from around the world:

Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
Next Thursday there will be try-outs for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

Im Namen des Vaters, des Sohnes und des heiligenGeistes
yn enw'r tad mab a'r ysbryd sanctaidd
Au nom du Père et du Fils et du Saint Esprit.
in die naam van die vader en die seun en die heilige gees
W imię Ojca i Syna i Ducha Świętego.Amen.
En el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo
Em nome do Pai, e do Filho e do Espírito Santo
Во имя Отца и Сына и Святого Духа
Nhân danh Cha... con... và Thánh thần
i faderens og sønens og den hellige ånds navn
بإسمالأبوالإبنوالروحالقدس
পিতা, পুত্রএবংপবিত্রআত্মারনামে
In de naam van de Vader, en de Zoon, en van de Heilige Geest
στο όνομα του πατέρα και του γιου και του ιερού πνεύματος
Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio e dello Spirito Santo

1. German 2. Welsh 3. French 4. Afrikaans 5. Polish 6. Spanish 7. Portuguese 8. Russian 9. Vietnamese 10. Danish 11. Arabic 12. Bengali 13. Dutch 14. Greek 15. Italian.

Newsletter 24th May 2020

22/5/2020

Sunday 24th Seventh Sunday of Easter
Monday 25th St Bede the Venerable
Tuesday 26th St Philip Neri
Wednesday 27th St Augustine of Canterbury
Thursday 28th Easter Feria
Friday 29th Easter Feria
Saturday 30th St Paul VI, pope
Sunday 31st PENTECOST SUNDAY

Seventh Sunday of Easter
Sunday Readings
First Reading: Acts 1: 12-14
So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk; and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James. With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Second Reading: Peter 4:13-16
But in so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for bearing Christ's name, blessed are you, for on you rests the Spirit of God, the Spirit of glory. None of you should ever deserve to suffer for being a murderer, a thief, a criminal or an informer; but if any one of you should suffer for being a Christian, then there must be no shame but thanksgiving to God for bearing this name.

The recipients of Peter’s letter have been persecuted for their faith in Christ. In the beginning, they might not have realised that the active exercise of their faith would lead to persecution. They might even be tempted now to repudiate their faith so that they might bring a halt to the persecution. However, Peter calls them to an altogether different response. He calls them to rejoice, because they have been honoured to participate in Christ’s sufferings - to experience a bit of what he experienced - to gain an appreciation of the sacrifices that he made in their behalf.

Gospel: John 17:1-11
After saying this, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you; so that, just as you have given him power over all humanity, he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him. And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world existed. I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now at last they have recognised that all you have given me comes from you for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me. It is for them that I pray. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified.
I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.

Today we move on to the great chapter 17 of John. Jesus is still with his disciples at the Last Supper and this is the final part of his discourse. It consists of a long prayer, sometimes called the High Priestly prayer of Jesus.
The prayer can be said to be in three parts:
– Jesus prays for his own mission;
– he prays for his immediate disciples, who are with him as he prays;
– he prays for all those who in later times will become his disciples.
Jesus begins by praying for the success of his mission. He prays that, through his passion, death and resurrection, he may find glory. In John’s gospel Jesus’ glory begins with his passion and the high moment is the moment of his dying on the cross which is also the moment of resurrection and union with the Father. This glory is not for himself but to lead people to glorify God, of whom Jesus is the Revealer and Mediator.
In turn, he prays that all he does may lead to people everywhere sharing in the life of God. And what is that life? It is stated here in one of the key sayings of Jesus reported in the Gospel: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
To know God and to know Jesus is to acknowledge their unique place as the source and end of all we have and are. To know the Father and Jesus is to have as full as possible an understanding of Jesus’ message and to have assimilated it into one’s whole life. It is not just a knowledge of recognition but a mutual identification of vision and values. As the Jerusalem Bible comments: “In biblical language, ‘knowledge’ is not merely the conclusion of an intellectual process but the fruit of an ‘experience’, a personal contact. When it matures, it is love.”
It is to be aware of that, to accept that fully as the secret of life, not just in the world to come but here and now. Everything else – and it really means everything – is secondary to this. To put anything else, however lofty, in first place is to go astray.
Jesus has given glory to the Father by all that he has said and done. He now prays again that glory will be given to him, because by giving glory to him we give glory to his Father also. In fact, it is through Jesus, through our total identification with him, that we give glory to God. Jesus now prays for his disciples, the “men you took from the world to give me”. Although it was Jesus who chose them, ultimately they are the gift of the Father to help Jesus continue his work on earth. Jesus thanks God that they have recognised that he comes from the Father and that they have accepted his teaching. And, because they belong to Jesus, they also belong to the Father and through them Jesus will receive glory.
Finally, they have been chosen from the world and yet will remain in the world, though not sharing in its values. In fact, they will give glory to Jesus precisely by challenging the values of that world and leading it to the ‘eternal life’ which they have discovered through Jesus and which they have already begun to enjoy.
We thank Jesus for his disciples. We thank them for handing on to us the secret of life.
We thank them for the giving of themselves, sometimes through a martyr’s death, to share that secret with us. We recognise that they, like us, had many weaknesses but Jesus still worked through them and through them the world came to know Jesus.

The Church and the Environment
Catholic organisations are among faith groups calling for a just recovery by divesting from fossil fuels
As major challenges for the global economy are predicted in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a diverse group of faith institutions is putting the call for a just economic recovery into practice.
On Monday 18thMay 42 faith institutions from 14 countries, including 21 from the UK, announced their divestment from fossil fuels. This is the largest-ever joint announcement of divestment from fossil fuels from faith institutions. It comes from institutions in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Myanmar, Spain, the UK, and the United States.
As governments around the world make substantial investments in an economic recovery, faith communities urge them to think long term and focus on a recovery that is low-carbon and just.
Today’s multi-faith announcement comes from Catholic, Methodist, Anglican and Buddhist institutions, among others with over £1 billion in assets under management. The group includes the Jesuits in Britain, the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace (UK) and the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, which becomes the third Catholic diocese in England and Wales to divest. There are now more than 170 Catholic institutions around the world that have made commitments to divest from fossil fuels.
The Bishop of Arundel & Brighton, Rt Revd Richard Moth, said: “Care for the world that has been given to us is an increasingly pressing need. It is therefore timely that the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton divests from fossil fuels. This positive step will contribute to the common good and, I trust, pave the way for further practical action to safeguard this and future generations.”
Several Catholic religious orders in the UK have already divested from fossil fuel companies, including the Passionists, the Congregation of Jesus, the Religious Sisters of Charity, the Presentation Sisters and the Franciscan Sisters Minoress.
Earlier this month, a new report from Operation Noah showed that none of the major oil companies are compliant with the Paris agreement targets. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rt Revd Dr Rowan Williams, said in response to the report, “The current health crisis has highlighted as never before the need for coherent international action in the face of global threat. Can we learn the lesson and apply it to the global threat of climate change? To do so means taking practical and effective steps to reduce our lethal dependence on fossil fuels.”
Illustrating the need for a just recovery for our brothers and sisters in faith globally, the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace in Bangladesh is among those committing to divest from fossil fuels.
Bangladesh is home to the world’s largest refugee camp, where more than half a million people live near the Bay of Bengal. The Bay of Bengal is extremely vulnerable to the greater risk of catastrophic storms that come with climate change. A viral pandemic and a catastrophic storm would bring one of the world’s most vulnerable communities to a halt, illustrating the need to repair the faults that have left economies near the breaking point.
The global divestment announcement comes at the start of Laudato Si’ Week, a global commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change and ecology. After being invited to participate in Laudato Si’ Week by Pope Francis, Catholics have taken up the project to build a more just and sustainable future together. In the last month, 21 Catholic organizations with $40 billion in assets under management committed to invest in companies that align with their values by signing the Catholic Impact Investing Pledge.
James Buchanan, Bright Now Campaign Manager at Operation Noah, said: “The decisions we make now will affect the future of humanity for thousands of years. These faith institutions are showing strong leadership in response to the climate crisis, and we hope that more Catholic dioceses and religious orders will join them in divesting from fossil fuels and investing in the clean technologies of the future.”
Statements from Catholic churches:
“Climate change is the most pressing challenge the world faces as climate disasters wreak more and more destruction, hitting poorer countries the hardest – despite them having done the least to cause them. The decision to divest is principally a response to the clear moral imperative of acting to safeguard our planet for future generations at a time when scientific evidence is mounting that we are facing a grave climate emergency.” Fr Damian Howard SJ, Provincial Superior of the British Jesuits
“The climate crisis calls each of us to conversion of heart and change in behavior. We felt compelled to divest of fossil fuels to reflect our values. We are also committed to using our resources to make positive investments that will help the transition to a zero carbon future.” Sister Bridgetta Rooney, trustee of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace.

In the light of the above article, you might like to pray either or both of the following:
Collect from the Mass in a time of Pandemic
Almighty and eternal God,
our refuge in every danger,
to whom we turn in our distress;
in faith we pray
look with compassion on the afflicted,
grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners,
healing to the sick, peace to the dying,
strength to healthcare workers, wisdom to our leaders
and the courage to reach out to all in love,
so that together we may give glory to your holy name.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Praised Be
A prayer inspired by the papal encyclical ‘Laudato Si’
Living God,
have mercy on us,
for the times we forget
that we belong to each other.
You call us to be still,
to hear the whisper of our Sister Wind,
to feel the radiance of our Brother Sun,
and to be nourished by our Mother Earth.
Renew us in your healing love.
Inspire us to water the earth,
and nurture one another,
so all may flourish.
Together, as one family,
may we always sing your praise.
Through Christ our Lord,
Amen.

St Bede the Venerable
St. Bede was born in England. A Benedictine, he was "the most observant and the happiest of all monks." His writings were so full of sound doctrine that he was called "Venerable" while still alive. He wrote commentaries on Holy Scripture and treatises on theology and history. He died at Jarrow, England. Bede occupies an important niche in Church history by bridging the gap between early Christian and early medieval times, the era when the Germanic nations had just been Christianized. Through him Christian tradition and Roman culture came to the Middle Ages. He is also honoured as the "father of English history." His writings were read publicly in churches while he was still alive; but since he could not be called "Saint," the title of Venerable was attached to his name, a usage which continued down through the centuries. True Benedictine that he was, his life revolved around prayer and work. On the vigil of the Ascension he felt death approaching and asked to be fortified with the last sacraments. After reciting the Magnificat antiphon of the feast's second Vespers, he embraced his brethren, had himself placed upon a coarse penitential garment on the earth, and breathed forth his soul while saying softly: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." How St. Bede loved the Bible! Anyone who intends to live with the Church must keep the Scriptures near, day in, day out.

St Philip Neri
This gracious, cheerful saint was Rome's apostle of the sixteenth century (1515-1595). A peculiar trait was his burning love of God, a love that imperceptibly communicated itself to all about him. So ardently did this fire of divine love affect him during the octave of Pentecost in his twenty-ninth year that the beating of his heart broke two ribs. It was a wound that never healed. For fifty years the saint lived on in the intensity of that love which was more at home in heaven than on earth. Through those fifty years his was an apostolate to renew the religious and ecclesiastical spirit of the Eternal City, a task he brought to a happy conclusion. It is to his credit that the practice of frequent Holy Communion, long neglected in Rome and throughout the Catholic world, was again revived. He became one of Rome's patron saints, even one of the most popular.
Philip Neri loved the young, and they responded by crowding about him. As a confessor he was in great demand; among his penitents was St. Ignatius. To perpetuate his life's work, St. Philip founded the Congregation of the Oratory, a society of secular clergy without religious vows. The purpose of his foundation was to enkindle piety among the faithful by means of social gatherings which afforded not only entertainment but religious instruction as well. Joy and gaiety were so much a part of his normal disposition that Goethe, who esteemed him highly, called him the "humorous saint." It was his happy, blithe spirit that opened for him the hearts of children. "Philip Neri, learned and wise, by sharing the pranks of children himself became a child again" (epitaph). As a youth Philip Neri often visited the seven principal churches of Rome. He spent entire nights at the catacombs, near the tombs of the martyrs, meditating on heavenly things. The liturgy was the wellspring of his apostolic spirit; it should likewise motivate us to Catholic Action.

St Augustine of Canterbury
St. Augustine was the agent of a greater man than himself, Pope St. Gregory the Great. In Gregory's time, except for the Irish monks, missionary activity was unknown in the western Church, and it is Gregory's glory to have revived it. He decided to begin with a mission to the pagan English, for they had cut off the Christian Celts from the rest of Christendom. The time was favourable for a mission since the ruler of the whole of southern England, Ethelbert of Kent, had married a Christian wife and had received a Gaulish bishop at his court. Gregory himself wished to come to Britain, but his election as pope put an end to any such idea, and in 596 he decided to send an Italian monk following the comparatively new Rule of St Benedict. Augustine set out with some companions, but when they reached southern Gaul a crisis occurred and Augustine was sent back to the pope for help. In reply the pope made Augustine their abbot and subjected the rest of the party to him in all things, and with this authority Augustine successfully reached England in 597, landing in Kent on the Isle of Thanet. Ethelbert and the men of Kent refused to accept Christianity at first, although an ancient British church dedicated to St Martin was restored for Augustine's use; but very shortly afterwards Ethelbert was baptized and, the pope having been consulted, a plan was prepared for the removal of the chief see from Canterbury to London and the establishment of another province at York. Events prevented either of these projects from being fulfilled, but the progress of the mission was continuous until Augustine's death, somewhere between 604 and 609. The only defeat Augustine met with after he came to England was in his attempt to reconcile the Welsh Christians, to persuade them to adopt the Roman custom of reckoning the date of Easter, to correct certain minor irregularities of rite and to submit to his authority. Augustine met the leaders of the Welsh church in conference but he unfavourably impressed them by remaining seated when they came into his presence — it is likely that in this he unfavourably impressed St Bede too. Augustine was neither the most heroic of missionaries, nor the most tactful, but he did a great work, and he was one of the very few men in Gaul or Italy who, at that time, was prepared to give up everything to preach the gospel in a far country.

St Paul VI
Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) was born on 26 September 1897 at Concesio (Brescia), in Italy. On 29 May 1920 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1924 he began his service to the Supreme Pontiffs, Pius XI and Pius XII, and at the same time exercised his priestly ministry among university students.
Nominated as the Substitute of the Secretariat of State he worked during the Second World War to find shelter for persecuted Jews and refugees. He was later designated Pro-Secretary of State for the General Affairs of the Church, also because of which he knew and encountered many of the proponents of the ecumenical movement. Appointed as Archbishop of Milan, he worked with great care for the diocese. In 1958, he was elevated to the dignity of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Saint John XXIII, and following his death was elected on 21 June 1963 to the See of Peter. He immediately continued the work begun by his predecessors, in particular, he brought the Second Vatican Council to its completion and he began many initiatives that showed his solicitude for the Church and for the contemporary world. Among these initiatives we ought to recall his voyages as a pilgrim, undertaken as an apostolic service which served both as a preparation for the unity of Christians and in asserting the importance of fundamental human rights. Furthermore, he exercised his Supreme Magisterium favouring peace, promoting the progress of peoples and the enculturation of the faith (the adaptation of Christian liturgy to non-Christian cultural background), as well as the liturgical reform, approving Rites and prayers at once in line with tradition and with adaptation for a new age. By his authority he promulgated the Calendar, the Missal, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Pontifical and nearly all of the Ritual for the Roman Rite with the purpose of promoting the active participation of the faithful in the Liturgy. At the same time he saw to it that papal celebrations should take on a more simple form.
At Castel Gandolfo on 6 August 1978, he gave his spirit back to God and, according to his wishes, he was buried just as he had lived, in a humble manner.

Mass online:
Several parishioners have used the link on the Home Page of the parish website which allows them to view Mass being celebrated at a variety of churches:
* The Cathedralin Nottingham on each day of the week. (https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)
The schedule is as follows:
On Saturdays and Sundays: Mass at 10.00am
From Monday to Friday: Mass at 1.00pm
* Also on the parish website, an additional link has been added to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsinghamwhose new website provides live streaming 24/7 of Masses, Prayers (Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet), Exposition, Spiritual Readings and Talks. This is a rich source of material in these extraordinary times.(https://www.walsingham.org.uk/live-stream/)
* Mass celebrated daily by Pope Francis from the Vaticanis also available: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
* There is another excellent suggestion from Paul Carroll: St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby. Daily and Sunday Masses are at 10.00am except for Thursday when Mass is at 7.00pm. Paul writes: “Fr David Cain has lay readers from their homes and deacons from their homes either reading the Gospel or delivering the Homily. He also uses other priests in the Deanery to deliver the homily as well as himself. I find it very inclusive. He clearly has a good technical team in the parish.” The link is: http://derbycatholiclive.co.uk

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby
Sacred Heart, Rochdale
St Anthony’s, Wythenshawe
St Peter in Chains, Doncaster
Shrewsbury Cathedral
Santuario di Oropa, Italy

Do you have any more to add to this list?

Top marks to Bridget O’Dwyer who spotted the deliberate (!) mistake in recent newsletters where Nottingham Cathedral appeared to have been rededicated to St Boniface. The change was inserted just to see how carefully parishioners were reading the newsletter. The Cathedral patron is, of course, St Barnabas, whose feast day is 11thJune.

You will remember that, in the days before lockdown, Mass was said at 7.00pm each Wednesday evening in Barrow. Everyone in the parish was welcome, though inevitably, perhaps, those who attended were mostly Barrow residents. Over the last eight weeks they have tried to maintain the sense of community worship by “coming together” on a Wednesday evening at 7.00pm to pray or “attend Mass” together. All parishioners are, of course, welcome to join in this communal worship and you are all encouraged to suggest intentions for which everyone might pray.

Bidding Prayers:
You will remember that, at the end of the Bidding Prayers each Sunday, the reader asks, “Does anyone have any other intentions?” Most weeks this question is followed by silence, but occasionally one of the congregation will make a contribution. I think that some people must feel a little daunted at the prospect of speaking up in front of everyone else, but now we can change all that. If you have a prayer intention, no matter how “trivial” it might seem, please do not hesitate to let me know and I shall include it in next week’s newsletter. This can be personalised or anonymous, as you wish.
This week’s prayer intentions include:

My nephews wife, Joan, in Australia who is in hospital having had heart problem when having surgery last week (Rosemary McKee)

Would you please remember my cousin Jim in your prayers. He had a triple bypass operation on Monday and is recovering in Broad Green hospital in Liverpool. Early reports indicate that he is doing well. (Joan Wiggins)
Will you remember George’s sister in your prayers. She had quite a bad fall; nothing broken but bruised from head to toe and just to complete her joys she has shingles. (Kathryn Timmons)

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

Scouts are saving aluminium cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight : “Searching for Jesus.”
Ladies, don't forget the jumble sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

Memories for Matty
You may have read the report about Matty, a young pupil of De Lisle (and formerly Bishop Ellis). A friend of the family has set up a “Go Fund Me” page to raise funds for this brave young lad. More details can be found on: https://www.gofundme.com/f/memories-for-matty?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet
You may feel moved to make a donation.

Happy birthday to Michelle Cafferky who will be 37 on Tuesday 26th from David, Kellan and all the parish.

Happy Birthday to Mark Boland who will be 74 on Thursday 28th. He should have been in Ibiza with the family, but of course this has all had to be changed. Nevertheless, we hope that he has a wonderful day and we shall all be thinking of him.

QUIZ- The Old Testament

(Answers at the end – no cheating!)

1. How many books are there in the Old Testament?
a. 27
b. 66
c. 39
d. 12
2. What is the name commonly given to the first five books of the Old Testament?
a. Pentateuch
b. Pseudepigrapha
c. Septuagint
d. Apocrypha
3. Who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament?
a. Moses
b. Adam
c. Abraham
d. Noah
4. In what language was the Old Testament written?
a. Greek
b. Latin
c. Hebrew
d. Assyrian
5. What time period does the Old Testament cover?
a. the building of the temple of Solomon to the time of its destruction
b. the time of the Messiah to the time of His death
c. the beginning of man to the time of the Messiah
d. the beginning of man to the time of the Messiah's death
6. Which of these books is NOT found in the Old Testament?
a. Amos
b. Jude
c. Hosea
d. Joel
7. Which of these books is NOT found in the Old Testament?
a. Leviticus
b. Numbers
c. Revelation
d. Deuteronomy
8. Which of these books is NOT found in the Old Testament?
a. 3 Kings
b. 2 Chronicles
c. Psalms
d. 2 Samuel
9. Which of these women is mentioned in the Old Testament?
a. Anna
b. Rachel
c. Martha
d. Elisabeth
10. Which of these books come first in order in the Old Testament?
a. Lamentations
b. Ecclesiastes
c. Ruth
d. Exodus

Answers:
1.c 2.a 3.a 4.c 5.c 6 b 7.c 8.a 9.b 10.d

Newsletter 17th May 2020

15/5/2020

Sunday 17th Sixth Sunday of Easter
Monday 18th St John 1, pope and martyr
Tuesday 19th St Dunstan, bishop
Wednesday 20th St Bernadine of Siena
Thursday 21st ASCENSION OF THE LORD
Friday 22nd St Rita of Cascia
Saturday 23rd Easter Feria
Sunday 24th Seventh Sunday of Easter

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17. In this reading Peter and John are sent from Jerusalem to Samaria to be ministers of the coming of the Spirit to the new converts in that town. These men had already been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the imposition of hands completes the initiation of these converts
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
The second reading is from the first letter of Peter 3:15-18 and indicates that baptism initiates a person to imitation of the death and resurrection of Jesus and that the destiny of all believers is to live according to the realm of the Spirit.
Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.
The Gospel is from St. John 14:15-21. In this discourse at the Last Supper, which was his last will and testament, our divine Lord promised his Church, through the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit would be with it until the end of time. The Spirit of truth will be directing it and effectively aiding it to preserve the faith, the doctrine, and the morals which Christ taught his Apostles.
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
Looking back now over almost 2,000 years of the Church's history we can see how this promise has been fulfilled. There were heretics and schismatics who threatened the very continuance of the Church as God's faithful people on earth. There were crises and near catastrophes caused by the human weaknesses of its heads and its members, yet the Church survived and spread and continued to send saints to heaven because of the direct and active aid of the Holy Spirit. During those two thousand years great empires have risen and fallen. They had large armies and vast wealth and earthly resources at their disposal, yet they disintegrated like all things human. The names of one-time mighty men who ruled over millions are now nothing more than a nuisance for children in their history classes. The large tracts of our globe which they ruled are now divided and known by other names. This was, is, and will be the lot of all merely human enterprises. Today's despots, where they rule with iron hand, will share the same fate. In the midst of all these upheavals the Church of Christ has continued to flourish because it was directed and sustained by the Holy Spirit, who abides within it. How can we ever show enough gratitude to the three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity who planned so lovingly and so efficaciously for our safe journey to heaven? The Father sent his Son as man among us so that we men could become his brothers, and adopted sons of the Father. The Son suffered hardships, insults and misunderstandings during his temporary stay on earth, and ended like a crucified malefactor because of the sins of mankind. But he rose triumphantly from the dead and set up the Church as a society which would bring to men of all races, ages and colours the salvation and exaltation of mankind, which his life and death had won for us.
Knowing only too well the weaknesses and waywardness of human nature, he and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to remain with his Church as its infallible guide until the last man has entered heaven. This is a very brief summary of what the Blessed Trinity has done, and is continuing to do for us, through the Church. We, the people of God, the chosen race of the New Testament are God's Church on earth. It is for you and me that the Holy Spirit is at work this very day. When he guides the steps of Peter's successor, the Pope, or the deliberations of the bishops, the heirs of the apostolic college, it is for us and for our salvation that he is acting. While we are faithful members of the Church, and of Christ's mystical body, while we remain live branches safely attached to the vine who is Christ, we have nothing to fear; we are on the sure road to heaven, to enjoy eternal happiness with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit whom we shall thank and glorify forever.

A Message from the Metropolitan Archbishops of the Catholic Church in England and Wales
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The radiance of the risen Lord shines upon us. At a time when so many shadows are cast into our lives, and upon our world, the light of the resurrection shines forever to renew and restore our hope.
In the words of our Holy Father, Pope Francis: “In the midst of isolation when we are suffering from a lack of tenderness and chances to meet up, and we experience the loss of so many things, let us once again listen to the proclamation that saves us: he is risen and is living by our side.” (27 March 2020)
The impact of COVID-19, both nationally and internationally, has been immense. So much of what we take for granted has changed. Our health and physical interaction, our capacity to travel and gather, have all been affected. There is uncertainty in our future, especially with work and the country’s economy. As we know, very sadly, large numbers of people have died because of the coronavirus, and others have been or remain seriously ill. Keyworkers, not least in the National Health Service and care sectors, are serving selflessly to sustain the life of our nation. Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone who is suffering because of COVID-19, and to all those battling to overcome its effects. May those who have died rest in peace and those who are bereaved find comfort.
When the Prime Minister announced the lockdown, this included places of worship and therefore Catholic churches. These measures were put in place to stem the general transmission of the virus. It is right that the Catholic community fulfils its role in contributing to the preservation of life and the common good of society. This must continue until the restrictions applied by the Government are lifted.
None of us would want to be in the situation in which we find ourselves. While the live streaming of the Mass and other devotions is playing an important part in maintaining the life of faith, there is no substitute for Catholics being able to physically attend and participate in the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments.
Our faith is expressed powerfully and beautifully though ‘seeing, touching, and tasting.’ We know that every bishop and every priest recognises the pain of Catholics who, at present, cannot pray in church or receive the sacraments. This weighs heavily on our hearts. We are deeply moved by the Eucharistic yearning expressed by so many members of the faithful. We thank you sincerely for your love for the Lord Jesus, present in the sacraments and supremely so in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The bishops and priests of every diocese are remembering you and your loved ones at Mass each day in our churches as we pray ‘in hope of health and well-being.’ We thank our priests for this faithfulness to their calling.
As the Government’s restrictions are relaxed step by step, we look forward to opening our churches and resuming our liturgical, spiritual, catechetical and pastoral life step by step. This will also be of service to those beyond the Catholic Church who depend on our charitable activity and outreach through which much goodness is shared by so many volunteers from our communities.
None of us knows, as yet, how or when the lockdown will end. There is likely to be a phased return to travelling and gathering. As a church, we are now planning for this time and our discussions with the statutory public health agencies and Government representatives are ongoing. Together with Catholics across England and Wales we desire the opening of our churches and access to the sacraments. Until then, we are continuing to pray and prepare.
We want to acknowledge with gratitude the service of our fellow bishops and priests, our deacons and religious, our families and lay faithful, together with all our parish and school communities, for the wonderful ways the life of the faith is being nourished at this time, especially in the home. We also pay tribute to the Catholic organisations and networks that are working to support the vulnerable and needy.
On that first Easter day, the disciples were in lockdown and the doors were closed. In their isolation the Lord Jesus came among them and said ‘Peace be with you.’ May the peace of the risen Lord reign in our hearts and homes, as we look forward to the day we can enter church again and gather around the altar to offer together the Sacrifice of Praise.
We unite in asking the intercession of Our Blessed Lady and assure you of our prayers and blessing
Yours devotedly in Christ,
✠Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster
✠Malcolm McMahon OP, Archbishop of Liverpool
✠Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham
✠George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff
✠John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark

St John 1, pope and martyr
On May 18, the Catholic Church honours the first “Pope John” in its history. Saint John I was a martyr for the faith, imprisoned and starved to death by a heretical Germanic king during the sixth century. He was a friend of the renowned Christian philosopher Boethius, who died in a similar manner. Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians also honour Pope St. John I, on the same date as the Roman Catholic Church. The future Pope John I was born in Tuscany, and served as an archdeacon in the Church for several years. He was chosen to become the Bishop of Rome in 523, succeeding Pope St. Hormisdas. During his papal reign Italy was ruled by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric. Like many of his fellow tribesmen, the king adhered to the Arian heresy, holding that Christ was a created being rather than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
Arianism had originated in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, and subsequently spread among the Western Goths. By the sixth century the heresy was weak in the East, but not dead. In 523, the Byzantine Emperor Justin I ordered Arian clergy to surrender their churches into orthodox Catholic hands. In the West, meanwhile, Theodoric was angered by the emperor’s move, and responded by trying to use the Pope’s authority for his own ends. Pope John was thus placed in an extremely awkward position. Despite the Pope’s own solid orthodoxy, the Arian king seems to have expected him to intercede with the Eastern emperor on behalf of the heretics. John’s refusal to satisfy King Theodoric would eventually lead to his martyrdom. John did travel to Constantinople, where he was honoured as St. Peter’s successor by the people, the Byzantine Emperor, and the Church’s legitimate Eastern patriarchs. (The Church of Alexandria had already separated by this point.) The Pope crowned the emperor, and celebrated the Easter liturgy at the Hagia Sophia Church in April of 526. But while John could urge Justin to treat the Arians somewhat more mercifully, he could not make the kind of demands on their behalf that Theodoric expected. The gothic king, who had recently killed John’s intellectually accomplished friend Boethius (honoured by the Church as St. Severinus Boethius, on Oct. 23), was furious with the Pope when he learned of his refusal to support the Arians in Constantinople. Already exhausted by his travels, the Pope was imprisoned in Ravenna and deprived of food. The death of St. John I came on or around May 18, which became his feast day in the Byzantine Catholic tradition and in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, he is celebrated on May 27, the date on which his exhumed body was returned to Rome for veneration in St. Peter’s Basilica.

St Dunstan, bishop
Born of a noble family at Baltonsborough, near Glastonbury, England, Dunstan was educated there by Irish monks and while still a youth, was sent to the court of King Athelstan. He became a Benedictine monk about 934 and was ordained by his uncle, St. Alphege, Bishop of Winchester, about 939. After a time as a hermit at Glastonbury, Dunstan was recalled to the royal court by King Edmund, who appointed him abbot of Glastonbury Abbey in 943. He developed the Abbey into a great centre of learning while revitalising other monasteries in the area. He became advisor to King Edred on his accession to the throne when Edmund was murdered, and began a far-reaching reform of all the monasteries in Edred's realm. Dunstan also became deeply involved in secular politics and incurred the enmity of the West Saxon nobles for denouncing their immorality and for urging peace with the Danes. When Edwy succeeded his uncle Edred as king in 955, he became Dunstan's bitter enemy for the Abbot's strong censure of his scandalous lifestyle. Edwy confiscated his property and banished him from his kingdom. Dunstan went to Ghent in Flanders but soon returned when a rebellion replaced Edwy with his brother Edgar, who appointed Dunstan Bishop of Worcester and London in 957. When Edwy died in 959, the civil strife ended and the country was reunited under Edgar, who appointed Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury. The king and archbishop then planned a thorough reform of Church and state. Dunstan was appointed legate by Pope John XII, and with St. Ethelwold and St. Oswald, restored ecclesiastical discipline, rebuilt many of the monasteries destroyed by the Danish invaders, replaced inept secular priests with monks, and enforced the widespread reforms they put into effect. Dunstan served as Edgar's chief advisor for sixteen years and did not hesitate to reprimand him when he thought it deserved. When Edgar died, Dunstan helped elect Edward the martyr king and then his half brother Ethelred, when Edward died soon after his election. Under Ethelred, Dunstan's influence began to wane and he retired from politics to Canterbury to teach at the Cathedral school and died there. Dunstan has been called the reviver of monasticism in England. He was a noted musician, played the harp, composed several hymns, notably Kyrie Rex splendens, was a skilled metal worker, and illuminated manuscripts. He is the patron of armourers, goldsmiths, locksmiths, and jewellers. His feast day is May 19th.

St Bernadine of Siena
The Catholic Church honours St. Bernardine of Siena on May 20. A Franciscan friar and preacher, St. Bernardine is known as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the country's Catholic faith during the 15th century.
Bernardine Albizeschi was born to upper-class parents in the Italian republic of Siena during 1380. Misfortune soon entered the boy's life when he lost his mother at age three and his father four years later. His aunt Diana cared for him afterward, and taught him to seek consolation and security by trusting in God.
Even at a young age, Bernardine demonstrated a remarkable concern for the poor as an outgrowth of his love for God. Having become accustomed to fasting, he preferred at times to go without any food in order to help someone in greater need. From the ages of 11 to 17 he focused on his studies, developing the eloquence and dedication that would serve his future work as an evangelist. Before becoming a preacher, however, Bernardine spent several years ministering to the sick and dying. He enrolled in a religious association that served at a hospital in the town of Scala, and applied himself to this work from 1397 to 1400. During that time, a severe plague broke out in Siena, causing a crisis that would eventually lead to the young man taking charge of the entire hospital. Inside its walls, up to 20 people were dying each day from an illness that also killed many of the hospital workers. The staff was decimated and new victims were coming in constantly. Bernardine persuaded 12 young men to help him continue the work of the hospital, which he took over for a period of four months. Although the plague did not infect him, the exhausting work left him weak and he contracted a different sickness that kept him in bed for four months.
After recovering, he spent over a year caring for his aunt Bartholomaea before her death. Then the 22-year-old Bernardine moved to a small house outside the city, where he began to discern God's will for his future through prayer and fasting.
He eventually chose to join the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1403, embracing an austere life focused on poverty and humility. During this time, while praying before a crucifix, Bernardine heard Christ say to him: “My son, behold me hanging upon a cross. If you love me, or desire to imitate me, be also fastened naked to your cross and follow me. Thus you will assuredly find me.” After Bernardine was ordained a priest, his superiors commissioned him to preach as a missionary to the Italians who were falling away from their Catholic faith. The Dominican evangelist St. Vincent Ferrer, just before leaving Italy, preached a sermon in which he predicted that one of his listeners would continue his work among the Italians – a prophecy Bernardine heard in person, and went on to fulfil. Bernardine's personal devotion to God, which amazed even the strict Franciscans, made his preaching extremely effective. He moved his hearers to abandon their vices, turn back to God, and make peace with one another. He promoted devotion to the name of Jesus as a simple and effective means of recalling God's love at all times. When other priests consulted him for advice, Bernardine gave them a simple rule: “In all your actions, seek in the first place the kingdom of God and his glory. Direct all you do purely to his honour. Persevere in brotherly charity, and practise first all that you desire to teach others.”
“By this means,” he said, “the Holy Spirit will be your master, and will give you such wisdom and such a tongue that no adversary will be able to stand against you.”
Bernardine's own life attested to this source of strength in the face of trials. He patiently suffered an accusation of heresy - which Pope Martin V judged to be false - and refused to abandon his bold preaching when a nobleman threatened him with death. But Bernardine was also widely admired throughout Italy, and he was offered the office of a bishop on three occasions. Each time, however, he turned down the position, choosing to fulfil the prediction of St. Vincent Ferrer through his missionary work. Bernardine preached throughout most of Italy several times over, and even managed to reconcile members of its warring political factions. Later in his life, Bernardine served for five years as the Vicar General for his Franciscan order, and revived the practice of its strict rule of life. Then in 1444, forty years after he first entered religious life, Bernardine became sick while travelling. He continued to preach, but soon lost his strength and his voice. St. Bernardine of Siena died on May 20, 1444. Only six years later, in 1450, Pope Nicholas V canonised him as a saint.

The Ascension of the Lord
The death of a member of his family or of a loved friend must be the saddest event imaginable in the life of an atheist. He is one who really is convinced that there is no God, no future life and therefore that the relative or friend is to turn into dust in the grave, never to be met with again. The thought that every day that passes is bringing him too nearer to that same sad fate, death, which will be the end of all his ambitions, all his enjoyments, the end of everything he thought he was or had, must be something hard to live with.
Thank God, we have the good fortune to know, and reason and faith convince us of this truth, that death is not the end of man. It is rather the real beginning. Thursday’s feast - the Ascension of our Lord in his human nature - to his Father's and our Father's home, is the confirmation and the guarantee of this doctrine of our faith. We shall all rise from the grave with new, glorified bodies and ascend to heaven, as Christ did. There we'll begin our true life of eternal happiness.
While it is true that even for good Christians the death of a beloved one is a cause of sorrow and tears, this is natural as we still are “of the earth”. Yet the certitude that our beloved one has gone to his true life and will be there to meet us when our turn comes, is always at the back of our minds to console and comfort us. What all human beings want is to live on forever with our dear ones. Death breaks that continuity but only for a little while. That break is necessary for the new life to begin.
It is only in heaven that this natural desire of an unending life with all those we love can be realized and death on earth is the door to that eternal life. Look up to heaven on Thursday’s feast. See Christ ascending to his Father and our Father. Say: Thank you, God, for creating me, and for giving me, through the Incarnation of your beloved Son, the possibility and the assurance that if I do my part here, when death comes it will not be an enemy but a friend, to speed me on my way to the true, supernatural life which you have, in your love, planned and prepared for me. It was written, and foretold, that Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory. The servant is not above the Master. I too must suffer. I too must accept the hardships and the trials of this life, if I want, and I do, to enter into the life of glory. Christ, who was sinless, suffered hardship and pain. I have earned many, if not all of my hardships, by my own sins. I should be glad of the opportunity to make some atonement for my past offenses, by willingly accepting the crosses he sends me. These crosses are signs of God's interest in my true welfare. Through him he is giving me a chance to prepare myself for the day of reckoning, for the moment of my death which will decide my eternal future. For every prayer I say for success in life, I should say three for a successful death, a death free from sin and at peace with God.

St Rita of Cascia
Rita's childhood was one of happiness to her parents. To satisfy her desire of a life of union with God by prayer, her parents fitted up a little room in their home as an oratory, where she spent all her spare moments. At the age of twelve, however, she desired to consecrate herself to God in the religious state. Pious though her parents were, their tearful pleadings to postpone her noble purpose prevailed on Rita, and they gave her in marriage, at the age of eighteen, to an impulsive, irascible young man, who was well fitted to try the patience and virtue of the holy girl. Two sons were born to them, each inheriting their father's quarrelsome temperament. Rita continued her accustomed devotions, and her sanctity and prayers finally won her husband's heart so that he willingly consented that she continue her acts of devotion. Eighteen years had elapsed since her marriage, when her husband was murdered by an old enemy; both of her sons died shortly after. Rita's former desire to consecrate herself to God again took possession of her. Three times she sought admittance among the Augustinian Nuns in Cascia, but her request was refused each time, and she returned to her home in Rocca Porrena. God himself, however, supported her cause. One night as Rita was praying earnestly in her humble home she heard herself called by name, while someone knocked at the door. In a miraculous way she was conducted to the monastic enclosure, no entrance having been opened. Astonished at the miracle, the Nuns received Rita, and soon enrolled her among their number. St. Rita's hidden, simple life in religion was distinguished by obedience and charity; she performed many extreme penances. After hearing a sermon on the Passion of Christ she returned to her cell; kneeling before her crucifix, she implored: "Let me, my Jesus share in thy suffering, at least of one of thy thorns". Her prayer was answered. Suddenly one of the thorns detached and fastened itself in her forehead so deeply that she could not remove it. The wound became worse, and gangrene set in. Because of the foul odour emanating from the wound, she was denied the companionship of the other Sisters, and this for fifteen years. Miraculous power was soon recognized in Rita. When Pope Nicholas IV proclaimed a jubilee at Rome, Rita desired to attend. Permission was granted on condition that her wound would be healed. This came about only for the duration of the trip. Upon her return to the monastery the wound from the thorn reappeared, and remained until her death. As St. Rita was dying, she requested a relative to bring her a rose from her old home at Rocca Porrena. Although it was not the season for roses, the relative went and found a rose in full bloom. For this reason roses are blessed in the Saint's honour. After St. Rita's death, in 1457, her face became beautifully radiant, while the odour from her wound was as fragrant as that of the roses she loved so much. The sweet odour spread through the convent and into the church, where it has continued ever since. Her body has remained incorrupt to this day; the face is beautiful and well preserved. When St. Rita died the lowly cell was aglow with heavenly light, while the great bell of the monastery rang of itself. A relative with a paralysed arm, upon touching the sacred remains, was cured. A carpenter, who had known the Saint, offered to make the coffin. Immediately he recovered the use of his long stiffened hands.
As one of the solemn acts of his jubilee, Pope Leo XIII canonized St. Rita on the Feast of the Ascension, May 24, 1900.

Mass online:
Several parishioners have used the link on the Home Page of the parish website which allows them to view Mass being celebrated at a variety of churches:
* The Cathedralin Nottingham on each day of the week. (https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)
The schedule is as follows:
On Saturdays and Sundays: Mass at 10.00am
From Monday to Friday: Mass at 1.00pm
* Also on the parish website, an additional link has been added to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsinghamwhose new website provides live streaming 24/7 of Masses, Prayers (Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet), Exposition, Spiritual Readings and Talks. This is a rich source of material in these extraordinary times.(https://www.walsingham.org.uk/live-stream/)
* Mass celebrated daily by Pope Francis from the Vaticanis also available: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
* There is another excellent suggestion from Paul Carroll: St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby. Daily and Sunday Masses are at 10.00am except for Thursday when Mass is at 7.00pm. Paul writes: “Fr David Cain has lay readers from their homes and deacons from their homes either reading the Gospel or delivering the Homily. He also uses other priests in the Deanery to deliver the homily as well as himself. I find it very inclusive. He clearly has a good technical team in the parish.” The link is: http://derbycatholiclive.co.uk

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Boniface Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.
St. Peter’s, Brighton
St Alban’s & St Hugh’s, Derby

Please pray for so many people in the world who will have little or no access to medical care during this dreadful pandemic, especially those in the townships of South Africa and the poor of South America. (Shirley Ratcliffe)
Please pray for my friend Sheila who was in a car crash in April in which her husband died. Sheila is still in a coma with brain damage and so she does not know that her husband has passed away. (Marlene Bartlett)

Let us all pray a hymn together:
If we all were to read (or sing) the parish “favourite of the week” what a great way it would be of reminding us of the community to which we belong. Some parishioners will remember the Rosary Crusade of Fr Patrick Peyton in the 1950s. He popularised the saying: “A family that prays together stays together”. We could easily adapt this to read: “A parish that prays together stays together”. Let’s give it a try.

This week’s hymn, “Sing it in the valleys”, has been chosen by Isaac and Hugh Jinks.
Sing it in the valleys,
shout it from the mountain tops; Jesus came to save us,
and his saving never stops.
He is King of kings,
and new life he brings,
sing it in the valleys,
shout it from the mountain tops, (Oh!) shout it from the mountain tops.

Jesus you are by my side,
You take all my fears.
If I only come to you,
You will heal the pain of years.

You have not deserted me,
Though I go astray.
Jesus take me in your arms,
Help me walk with you today.

Jesus, You are living now,
Jesus, I believe.
Jesus, take me, heart and soul,
Yours alone I want to be.

What is your favourite hymn?Let us know and we shall publish it in the next newsletter.

Sick List: Please continue to pray for the following members of our parish: Bernard Moyers, Patrick Hodgson, Tod Smith, Angela Doyle, Ida De Melo, Maurice Nixon, Eva Shirreffs, Stefania Stasior, Irene Pallot.

RIP:
Jake Nooney: Some parishioners may remember Jake Nooney who died recently at the age of 88. He was well known in local football circles. Also Christina Crowe, wife of Tom) who died on 1st March.

Anniversaries:
Let us remember in our prayers those whose anniversaries occur in the coming week:
17th May: Mary Butler (1973)
19th May: Ronald Sleath (2018)
22nd May: Beatrice Tipping (1974)
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Message from Wilf:
Wilf sends his best wishes to all parishioners and renews his thanks for the more than twenty cards and messages that he received after losing his beloved dog, Belle on Palm Sunday. He was greatly touched and supported by these as well as the telephone calls he has received from many altar servers. As he does not have internet, he is “attending” Mass via the American EWTN Channel which he can access on Sky (channel 588). There is daily Mass, readings, prayers provided by Franciscans throughout the day. If you do not have access to the internet, but have a Sky dish, you may like to access this facility.

Happy Birthday to Lisa Boland who will be 40 (yes, it’s hard to believe!) on Thursday 21st. The family were due to celebrate her special day in Ibiza, but of course this has all had to be changed. Nevertheless, we hope that she has a wonderful day and we shall all be thinking of her.

QUIZ

(Answers at the end – no cheating!)

Know your Popes
1. How many popes have there been? 166, 266 or 366?
2. What have the three most popular papal names been?
3. Which pope reigned the longest?
4. Who was pope during WWII?
5. Which pope opened Vatican II in 1962?
6. Which pope closed Vatican II in 1965?
7. How many popes have been canonised? 80, 100 or 120?
8. In which year was Pope Francis born?
9. In which year did Francis become pope?
10. What nationality is Pope Francis?
11. What is his family name?
12. To which order does he belong?
13. A difficult one to finish with: “Miserando atque eligendo” is his motto. What does this mean?

Answers:
1. 266
2. John (23), Benedict (16) and Gregory (16)
3. St Peter, the first Pope, reigned for 34 or 37 years. The next longest was Pius IX who reigned for 31 years. Pope John Paul I who died in 1978, reigned for only 33 days, the =10thshortest reign.
4. Pius XII
5. John XXIII
6. Paul VI
7. 80. In the first 500 years of the Catholic Church, 52/55 popes were canonised. In the last 1,000 years there have been just 7 canonisations.
8. 1936 (17thDecember)
9. 2013 (13thMarch)
10. Argentinian.
11. Bergoglio
12. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
13. According to Vatican Radio, it mean “lowly but chosen”, literally in Latin “by having mercy, by choosing him”. It is the motto Pope Francis used as a bishop. It is taken from the homilies of the Venerable Bede on Saint Matthew’s Gospel relating to his vocation: “Jesus saw the tax collector and by having mercy chose himas an apostle saying to him: Follow me”.

Newsletter 10th May 2020

8/5/2020

Sunday 10th Fifth Sunday of Easter
Monday 11th Sts John Houghton, Robert Lawrence, Martyrs of Nottingham
Tuesday 12th Sts Nereus, Achilleus & Pancras
Wednesday 13th Our Lady of Fatima
Thursday 14th St Matthias, Apostle
Friday 15th Easter Feria
Saturday 16th Easter Feria
Sunday 17th Sixth Sunday of Easter

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7 and continues the description of the missionary preaching and missionary activity of Paul and Barnabas. For those who follow the reign of God as inaugurated in Christ, these apostles can promise nothing for sure but trials and hardships. And yet, the paradox of suffering and yet being joyful in the Holy Spirit is here expressed as it was in the ending of the readings from Acts last week.
As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

The second reading is from the first Letter of St. Peter 2:4-9 in which he reminds the new converts to Christianity, that they must be holy, for they are the living stones out of which the new spiritual temple of God is formed. The cornerstone, the base and binding force of this temple, is the risen Christ. Because of him, and through him, they are able to offer sacrifices which are acceptable to God.
Beloved: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in Scripture: Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame. Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall. They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny. You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

The Gospel is from St. John 14:1-12.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
We may well wonder at the slowness of the Apostles in seeing in Christ nothing more than a man - a great man, a man with power from God, yes, but still a mere man. That he was the Messiah, they were convinced, but their idea of the Messiah was wrong. They thought he would free Israel from foreign domination (Lk. 24 21), and set up a new kingdom of God - a prosperous, earthly kingdom with God guaranteeing peace and plenty for all. If, therefore, he allowed his enemies to put him to death, all their hopes would be dashed to the ground. Hence, the mention of his impending death at the Last Supper filled them with dismay and despair.
But we must not judge them too harshly. Christ had indeed often claimed to be God, but his words fell on deaf ears. It was only after his resurrection that they began to understand that he had spoken literally - it was only then they believed he was indeed the Son of God, in human nature.
For us today, the Incarnation is still a mystery, but it is not the "how" that should trouble us, we know that with God all things are possible. It is rather the "why" that should cause us amazement. Why should God go to that length for our sake - mere creatures, and sinful, ungrateful creatures at that? The infinite goodness and the infinite love of God are the answer, but still an answer which is mysterious to us. For we, with our limited capacity for love, can form no idea of infinite love.
God created us "in his own image and likeness" (a very limited likeness, granted) and intended, because of the spiritual faculties he gave us, which enable us to see and enjoy truth and beauty, to give us a share in his eternal life and glory. To do this, the Incarnation of the second Person of the Holy Trinity was God's plan. There must have been other ways of doing this, but God, we can be sure, chose the best way. Even with our limited intelligence, we ourselves can see what a perfect way this was for proving to us the infinite love, goodness and compassion of our Creator.
Sin entered the world of man, as God had foreseen, but notwithstanding this ingratitude on our part, God's Son came in our lowly, human nature and suffered, even though sinless, all the effects of men's sins. He suffered in our name, and because he was God, his sufferings in his human nature made infinite atonement for the sins of all mankind. His Incarnation had made us his brothers and co-heirs to heaven. His death on the cross wiped out, and gave us the means of wiping out, our sins, so that we would be capable of possessing our inheritance. Knowing the story of the Incarnation therefore, we know of the love and kindness of God toward us. We need not ask, with Philip, "show us the Father," we have seen him in his riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! "How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways!" (Rom. 11:33).
"What return can I make to the Lord?" All the mortifications and good works of all the holy men and women that ever lived, or will live, would not be adequate a return to God for the miracle of love he has shown toward us. But he accepts the widow's mite, the little acts of love, the little proofs of gratitude, the willing acceptance of the crosses he sends us, to purify us. In one word, all he asks in return is that we try to live our Christian life day after day, ever thanking him for the gift of Christ and the Christian faith.

St John Houghton
Born around 1487, he was (according to one of his fellow Carthusians) educated at Cambridge, but cannot be identified among surviving records. Similarly, no certain records can be found of his ordination. He joined the London Charterhouse in 1516, progressed to be sacristan in 1523, and procurator in 1528. In 1531, he became Prior of the Beauvale Priory in Nottinghamshire. However, in November of that year, he was elected Prior of the London house, to which he returned. In addition, the following spring he was named Provincial Visitor, at the head of the English Carthusians. In April 1534, two royal agents visited the Charterhouse. Houghton advised them that "it pertained not to his vocation and calling nor to that of his subjects to meddle in or discuss the king's business, neither could they or ought they to do so, and that it did not concern him who the king wished to divorce or marry, so long as he was not asked for any opinion." He asked that he and his community be exempted from the oath required under the new Act of Succession, which resulted in both him and his procurator, Humphrey Middlemore, being arrested and taken to the Tower of London. However, by the end of May, they had been persuaded that the oath was consistent with their Catholicism, with the clause "as far as the law of Christ allows" and they returned to the Charterhouse, where (in the presence of a large armed force) the whole community made the required professions. However, in 1535, the community was called upon to make the new oath as prescribed by the 1534 Act of Supremacy, which recognised Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Again, Houghton, this time accompanied by the heads of the other two English Carthusian houses (Robert Lawrence, Prior of Beauvale, and Augustine Webster, Prior of Axholme), pleaded for an exemption, but this time they were summarily arrested by Thomas Cromwell. They were called before a special commission in April 1535, and sentenced to death, along with Richard Reynolds, O.Ss.S., a monk from Syon Abbey. Houghton, along with the other two Carthusians, Fr. Reynolds, and Fr. John Haile of Isleworth, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535. The three priors were taken to Tyburn in their religious habits and were not previously laicised from the priesthood and religious state as was the custom of the day. From his prison cell in the Tower, Thomas More saw the three Carthusian priors being dragged to Tyburn on hurdles and exclaimed to his daughter: "Look, Meg! These blessed Fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage!" John Houghton was the first to be executed. After he was hanged, he was taken down alive, and the process of quartering him began. Catholic tradition relates that when Houghton was about to be quartered, as the executioner tore open his chest to remove his heart, he prayed, "O Jesus, what wouldst thou do with my heart?" A painting of the Carthusian Protomartyr by the noted painter of religious figures, Francisco Zurbarán, depicts him with his heart in his hand and a noose around his neck. In the Chapter house of St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster, in England, there is a painting depicting the martyrdom of the three priors. After his death, his body was chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London. He was beatified on 9 December 1886 and canonized on 25 October 1970.

St Robert Lawrence:
Born about 1485, Robert Lawrence was a graduate of Cambridge. After joining the Carthusians, in 1531, he succeeded John Houghton as Prior of the Beauvale Priory, Nottinghamshire, when Houghton was appointed Prior of the London Charterhouse.
By February 1535 Parliament declared that everyone had to take the Oath of Supremacy, declaring King Henry VIII to be Supreme Head of the Church of England. Lawrence went with Houghton to see Thomas Cromwell, who had them arrested and placed in the Tower of London. When they refused to sign the Oath of Supremacy, they were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, making them among the first Carthusian martyrs in England. Beatified in 1886, Robert was canonized by Pope Paul VI with thirty-nine other martyrs on 25 October 1970.

Sts Nereus and Achilleus
It was under the persecution of Domitian, during which John the Evangelist was condemned to be burned alive in the cauldron of boiling oil, that Flavia Domitilla was honoured with banishment and death for the sake of our Redeemer, whom she had chosen for her Spouse. She was of the imperial family, being a niece of Flavius Clemens, who adorned the consular dignity by martyrdom. She was one of the Christians belonging to the court of the Emperor Domitian, who show us how rapidly the religion of the poor and humble made its way to the highest classes of Roman life. A few years previous to this, St Paul sent to the Christians of Philippi the greetings of the Christians of Nero's palace. There is still extant, not far from Rome, on the Ardeatine Way, the magnificent subterranean cemetery which Flavia Domitilla ordered to be dug, and in which were buried the two martyrs, Nereus and Achilleus, whom the Church honours today together with the noble virgin who owes her crown to them. Nereus and Achilleus were in Domitilla's service. Hearing them one day speaking of the merit of virginity, she there and then bade farewell to all worldly pleasures, and aspired to the honour of being the Spouse of Christ. She received the veil of consecrated virgins from the hands of Pope St Clement: Nereus and Achilleus had been baptised by St Peter himself.
The bodies of these three Saints reposed, for several centuries, in the Basilica, called the Fasciola, on the Appian Way; and we have a homily which St Gregory the Great preached in this Church on their feast. The holy Pontiff dwelt on the vanity of the earth's goods; he encouraged his audience to despise them by the example of the three martyrs whose relics lay under the very altar around which they were that day assembled. "These Saints," said he, "before whose tomb we are now standing, trampled with contempt of soul on the world and its flowers. Life was then long, health was uninterrupted, riches were abundant, parents were blessed with many children; and yet, though the world was so flourishing in itself, it had long been a withered thing in their hearts."

St Pancras
Pancratius was the descendant of a noble Phrygian family. As a youth of fourteen, he came to Rome while Diocletian and Maximian were in power (about 304). He was baptised by the Pope and given instructions in the Christian religion. Arrested for his action, he steadfastly refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods and was condemned to death. With manly courage, he bared his neck for the sword and received the martyr's crown. During the night his body was removed by the pious matron Octavilla, anointed with sweet smelling balsam and interred on the Via Aurelia. Pancratius is the patron saint of fidelity to oaths. The basilica that Pope Symmachus erected over his remains about the year 500 later became a station church (since 1798 his relics have been lost). On the first Sunday after Easter the saint exhorted the catechumens gathered at his station church to remain loyal to their baptismal vows. The saint warns us to proceed slowly and prudently before taking an oath or vow. But once our word is given we must remain true to our pledge, true unto death itself, whether it concerns baptismal vows, ordination vows, profession vows, or marriage vows.

Our Lady of Fatima:
The famous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the children of Fatima took place during the First World War, in the summer of 1917. The inhabitants of this tiny village in the diocese of Leiria (Portugal) were mostly poor people, many of them small farmers who went out by day to tend their fields and animals. Children traditionally were assigned the task of herding the sheep. The three children who received the apparitions had been brought up in an atmosphere of genuine piety: Lucia dos Santos (ten years old) and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta. Together they tended the sheep and, with Lucy in charge, would often pray the Rosary kneeling in the open. In the summer of 1916 an Angel appeared to them several times and taught them a prayer to the Blessed Trinity.
On Sunday, May 13, 1917, toward noon, a flash of lightning drew the attention of the children, and they saw a brilliant figure appearing over the trees of the Cova da Iria. The "Lady" asked them to pray for the conversion of sinners and an end to the war, and to come back every month, on the 13th. Further apparitions took place on June 13 and July 13. On August 13 the children were prevented by local authorities from going to the Cova da Iria, but they saw the apparition on the 19th. On September 13 the Lady requested recitation of the Rosary for an end to the war. Finally, on October 13, the "Lady" identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary" and again called for prayer and penitence. On that day a celestial phenomenon also took place: the sun seemed to tumble from the sky and crash toward earth. The children had been forewarned of it as early as May 13, the first apparition. The large crowd (estimated at 30,000 by reporters) that had gathered around the children saw the phenomenon and came away astounded. Official recognition of the "visions" which the children had at the Cova da Iria came on October 13, 1930, when the bishop of Leiria - after long inquiry - authorized the cult of Our Lady of the Rosary at the site. The two younger children had died: Francisco (who saw the apparition but did not hear the words) on April 4, 1919, and his sister Jacinta on February 20, 1920. Sister Lucia died on February 13, 2005, at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal, after a long illness.

The Message of Fatima
The public message of Fatima recalls that of Lourdes. Through the children Mary urges prayer for sinners, recitation of the Rosary, and works of penance. On October 13 she said: "I have come to exhort the faithful to change their lives, to avoid grieving Our Lord by sin; to pray the Rosary. I desire in this place a chapel in my honour. If people mend their ways, the war will soon be over." But Mary also confided several "secrets" to the children, some of which Lucy subsequently transmitted. Presumably there was prediction of another war in the near future and a request for special veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The final secret Lucy is thought to have entrusted to Pope John XXIII. As at Lourdes, the "apparitions" of Fatima have brought crowds of visitors. Pilgrimages, which began in the summer of 1917, have experienced growing success, not only among the Portuguese themselves but also among people from other countries, including the United States. The national pilgrimage following ecclesiastical recognition of the apparitions (May 13, 1931) is said to have drawn more than a million participants. Popes have shown exceptional favour toward Fatima; Pius XII, Paul VI, and John Paul II in particular making a visit to the shrine. The papal interest and the basilica built at the site of the apparitions have helped to swell the summer pilgrimages to Fatima. Crowds comparable to, and sometimes larger than, those at Lourdes are not uncommon. In a rustic setting, pilgrims hear the message repeated that Mary spoke to the children: prayer, works of penance and recourse to her Immaculate Heart.

St Matthias:
Mathias was one of the first to follow our Saviour; and he was an eyewitness of all his divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two disciples; but our Lord had not conferred upon him the dignity of an apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke, when he prophesied that another should take the bishopric left vacant by the apostasy of Judas the traitor. In the interval between Jesus' Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostolic college had to complete the mystic number fixed by our Lord himself, so that there might be the twelve on that solemn day, when the Church, filled with the Holy Spirit, was to manifest herself to the Synagogue. The lot fell on Mathias; he shared with his brother-apostles the persecution in Jerusalem, and, when the time came for the ambassadors of Christ to separate, he set out for the countries allotted to him. Tradition tells us that these were Cappadocia and the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea. The virtues, labour, and sufferings of St. Mathias have not been handed down to us: this explains the lack of proper lessons on his life such as we have for the feasts of the rest of the apostles. Clement of Alexandria records in his writings several sayings of our holy apostle. One of these is so very appropriate to the spirit of the present season, that we consider it a duty to quote it. 'It behoves us to combat the flesh, and make use of it, without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.' How profound is the teaching contained in these few words! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator had established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel before things which degrade him, that the only means left to us for the restoration of the image and likeness of God unto which we were created, is the forcible subjection of the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by original sin, and her inclinations were made prone to evil; what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her; and the reward is knowledge.

A Gentle Reminder:As we move into our seventh week of no Sunday Mass in our church can we remind parishioners of the need to continue to put aside their normal weekly contributions. Keep these in a separate jar or something similar, or use the planned giving envelopes if you have them. Those with gift aid envelopes please use them. We do recognise some parishioners may be facing short-term financial difficulties as a result of the Coronavirus so we only ask you to put aside what you can afford. It is in these situations that we are particularly grateful to those parishioners who contribute their collection monies through Bank Standing Orders. If anyone would like to open a Standing Order please contact Paul Carroll on 01509 620889. (Parish Finance Committee)

Mass online:
Several parishioners have used the link on the Home Page of the parish website which allows them to view Mass being celebrated at the Cathedralin Nottingham on each day of the week. (https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)
The schedule is as follows:
On Saturdays and Sundays: Mass at 10.00am
From Monday to Friday: Mass at 1.00pm
Also on the parish website, an additional link has been added to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsinghamwhose new website provides live streaming 24/7 of Masses, Prayers (Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet), Exposition, Spiritual Readings and Talks. This is a rich source of material in these extraordinary times.(https://www.walsingham.org.uk/live-stream/)
Mass celebrated daily by Pope Francis from the Vaticanis also available: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

Masses attended
Parishioners have “attended Mass” as follows:

St Boniface Cathedral, Nottingham

Walsingham
St Joseph’s, Leicester
CAFOD Mass on a Wednesday evening.

Do you have any more to add to this list?

Prayer Intentions:
You will remember that, in the days before lockdown, Mass was said at 7.00pm each Wednesday evening in Barrow. Everyone in the parish was welcome, though inevitably, perhaps, those who attended were mostly Barrow residents. Over the last seven weeks they have tried to maintain the sense of community worship by “coming together” on a Wednesday evening at 7.00pm to pray or “attend Mass” together.
All parishioners are, of course, welcome to join in this communal worship and you are all encouraged to suggest intentions for which everyone might pray.
Rosemary McKee has asked that we remember her father whose anniversary is on May 7th. This Sunday’s Mass would have been celebrated for the repose of his soul.
If you have any other intentions, please feed them to me and I shall pass them on to the wider parish group.

Let us all pray a hymn together:
If we all were to read (or sing) the parish “favourite of the week” what a great way it would be of reminding us of the community to which we belong. Some parishioners will remember the Rosary Crusade of Fr Patrick Peyton in the 1950s. He popularised the saying: “A family that prays together stays together”. We could easily adapt this to read: “A parish that prays together stays together”. Let’s give it a try.
“I watch the sunrise”(requested by Mark Boland)
I watch the sunrise lighting the sky,
Casting its shadows near.
And on this morning bright though it be,
I feel those shadows near me.

But you are always close to me
Following all my ways.
May I be always close to you
Following all your ways, Lord.

I watch the sunlight shine through the clouds,
Warming the earth below.
And at the mid-day, life seems to say:
I feel your brightness near me.

For you are always close to me ...

I watch the sunset fading away,
Lighting the clouds with sleep.
And as the evening closes its eyes,
I feel your presence near me.

For you are always …

I watch the moonlight guarding the night,
Waiting till morning comes.
The air is silent, earth is at rest
Only your peace is near me.

Yes you are always …

What is your favourite hymn?Let us know and we shall publish it in the next newsletter.

Sick List: Please continue to pray for the following members of our parish: Bernard Moyers, Patrick Hodgson, Tod Smith, Angela Doyle, Ida De Melo, Maurice Nixon, Eva Shirreffs, Stefania Stasior, Irene Pallot.

Anniversaries: Let us remember in our prayers those whose anniversaries occur in the coming week:
9th May: Peter Newby (2018)
10th May: Maurice Hughes (2015)
14th May: Richard Ford (2002)

Belated birthday wishes to Monica Hearn

A DAILY PRAYER
Please say this prayer every day, together with the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Glory be. It is adapted from a prayer written by the Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, archbishop of Brisbane.
Almighty and all-merciful God, lover of the human race, healer of all our wounds in whom there is no shadow of death, save us in this time of crisis, comfort the sick and the dying, the isolated and the afraid; be with us in our need. Grant wisdom and courage to our leaders and all who are responsible for the common good. Watch over everyone who is working in our National Health Service as they tend the sick, all who are supporting the vulnerable, and those who are working for a cure. Stir in us a sense of solidarity beyond all isolation; if our doors are closed, let our hearts be open. By the power of your love, destroy the virus of fear, that hope may never die, and grant that the light of Easter, the triumph of life, may shine upon us and the whole world; may we, like the Paschal Candle, marked with the sign of the Cross, give of ourselves and burn yet more brightly, for love conquers everything, light transforms darkness. By welcoming Christ into our hearts each and every day, may we always spread your love far and wide by valuing in all in the name of Jesus the Christ and being the people you have made us to be. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Our Lady Immaculate, Our Lady of Walsingham, Our Lady Health of the Sick, pray for us.
St Joseph, guardian of Jesus, guardian of us all, pray for us.
St Hugh of Lincoln, Patron of the Diocese of Nottingham, pray for us

QUIZ
(Answers at the end – no cheating!)

Bible quotes: who said …?
1. "In this short time do you think you will make me a Christian?" (Acts 26:28)
a. King Herod
b. King Agrippa
c. Saul
d. Pontius Pilate
2. "How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years."(Luke 1:18)
a. Zacharias
b. Joseph
c. Peter
d. Mark
3. "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire(Matthew 3:11)
a. James
b. Matthew
c. John the Baptist
d. Peter
4. "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3)
a. a Pharisee
b. Satan
c. a Sadducee
d. a Samaritan
5. "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19)
a. Peter
b. Jesus
c. Satan
d. John the Baptist
6. "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18:18)
a. Simon Peter
b. a publican
c. a Sadducee
d. a rich ruler
7. "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?”(Luke 23:40)
a. Lazarus
b. Martha
c. a Samaritan
d. one of the thieves that was crucified with Jesus
8. "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:15)
a. Mary Magdalene
b. the good Samaritan
c. Andrew
d. the Samaritan woman at the well
9. "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Matthew 14:28)
a. Simon Peter
b. Timothy
c. Matthew
d. James
10. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37)
a. Jesus
b. Peter
c. Paul
d. King Herod

Answers:
1. b 2. a 3. c 4. b 5. b 6. d 7. d 8. d 9. a 10. a

Chairman PPC: Peter Fryer, Tel 01509 416193
Safeguarding Rep: Lisa Heggs
Newsletter Editor:peterafryer@me.com
Parish Website: www.saintgregorysileby.org

Newsletter 3rd May 2020

2/5/2020

In this week’s newsletter, you will find the text of the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter with a short commentary. These are particularly, though not exclusively, included for those who do not have access to the internet. This is also designated as “Good Shepherd Sunday” when we are asked especially to pray for vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. You will note a plethora of “Feria” this week – there is a brief explanation of the origin of this term. There is a quiz at the end to test your knowledge of the New Testament. This will be the seventh Sunday without Mass in our little church. The picture on the left shows us what we are missing. We pray that it will not be too long before we are able to gather there once again. Please do continue to keep in touch with each other by phone – without doubt the sound of a familiar voice can do wonders for morale – or by email.

Sunday 3rd Fourth Sunday of Easter
Monday 4th English Martyrs
Tuesday 5th Easter Feria
Wednesday 6th Easter Feria
Thursday 7th Easter Feria
Friday 8th Easter Feria
Saturday 9th Easter Feria
Sunday 10th Fifth Sunday of Easter

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 36-41 and if taken together with that of the next few Sundays provides insight into the preaching of the early Church in the persons of Paul and Barnabas. The mission first to the Jews is now to be placed second to the mission to the Gentiles, a theme which the reading for next Sunday also explores with the warning by the preachers that those who follow the Lord will necessarily have to endure trial and sufferings.
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.

The second reading is from the first Letter of Peter 2:20-25. In these verses today, St. Peter is giving advice to Christians who were slaves. He tells them to be submissive to their masters with all respect.
Beloved: If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

The Responsorial Psalm is the famous Psalm 22:1-6
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want;
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again,
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E’en for his own name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill;
For thou art with me, and thy rod
And staff my comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished me
In presence of my foes;
My head thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me;
And in God’s house forevermore,
My dwelling place shall be.

The Gospel is from St. John 10:1-10. One of the oldest paintings of Christ, in the Roman catacombs, represents Christ as carrying the injured, straying sheep gently on his shoulders back to the sheepfold. This is an image of Christ which has always appealed to Christians. We have Christ as our shepherd - he tells us so himself in today's gospel - and we do not resent being called sheep in this context. There is something guileless about a sheep, and at the same time a lot of foolishness! But with Christ as our shepherd and the "good shepherd" who is sincerely interested in the true welfare of his flock we have reason to rejoice.
“Amen, amen, I say to you,whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gatebut climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.When he has driven out all his own,he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,because they recognize his voice.But they will not follow a stranger;they will run away from him,because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”Although Jesus used this figure of speech,the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,I am the gate for the sheep.All who came before me are thieves and robbers,but the sheep did not listen to them.I am the gate.Whoever enters through me will be saved,and will come in and go out and find pasture.A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
The leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were false shepherds who tried to prevent the people from following Jesus, but they failed. They then killed the shepherd but in vain. He rose from the dead and his flock increased by the thousands and will keep increasing until time ends. We surely are fortunate to belong to the sheepfold of Christ - his Church. We surely are blessed to have the Son of God as our Shepherd, who came among us in order to lead us to heaven. Do we fully appreciate our privileged position? Do we always live up to our heavenly vocation? We know his voice, we know what he asks of us, but do we always listen to that voice, do we always do what he asks of us? There are many among us today who foolishly think they need no shepherd. They think they know all the facts of life while they are in total ignorance of the most basic fact of all, namely, the very purpose of life. Not that the thought of it does not arise disturbingly before their minds time and time again. But they try to smother that thought and ease their consciences by immersing themselves deeper and deeper in the affairs and the passing pleasures of this temporary life. Alas for them, a day of reckoning lies ahead, a day that is much nearer than they would like to believe. What will be their fate when they meet Christ the Judge, whom they had refused to follow and acknowledge during their days on earth? This is a misfortune that could happen to any one of us, unless we think often of our purpose and our end in life. We have a few short years, but short though they be, we can earn for ourselves an eternity of happiness during this life. Let the straying sheep boast of their false freedom and of the passing joys they may get in this life - this freedom and these joys are mixed with much sorrow, and will end very soon. We know that if we follow the shepherd of our souls, we are on the way to the true life, the perfect life, the unending life which will have no mixture of sorrow, regret or pain. Where Christ is, there perfect happiness is, and there with God's grace we hope and trust to be.

WHAT IS A FERIA DAY?
(Feria is the Latin for "free day).
A day on which the people, especially the slaves, were not obliged to work, and on which there were no court sessions. In ancient Roman times the feriae publicae, legal holidays, were either stativae, recurring regularly (e.g. the Saturnalia), conceptivae, i.e. movable, or imperativae, i.e. appointed for special occasions.
When Christianity spread, the feriae were ordered for religious rest, to celebrate the feasts instituted for worship by the Church. The faithful were obliged on those days to attend Mass in their parish church; such assemblies gradually led to mercantile enterprise, partly from necessity and partly for the sake of convenience. This custom in time introduced those market gatherings which the Germans call Messen, and the English call fairs. They were fixed on saints' days (e.g. St. Barr's fair, St. Germanus's fair, St. Wenn's fair, etc.)
Today the term feria is used to denote the days of the week with the exception of Sunday. Various reasons are given for this terminology. The Roman Breviary, in the sixth lesson for 31 Dec., says that Pope St. Silvester ordered the continuance of the already existing custom "that the clergy, daily abstaining from earthly cares, would be free to serve God alone". Others believe that the Church simply Christianized a Jewish practice. The Jews frequently counted the days from their Sabbath, and so we find in the Gospels such expressions as una Sabbati and prima Sabbati, the first from the Sabbath. The early Christians reckoned the days after Easter in this fashion, but, since all the days of Easter week were holy days, they called Easter Monday, not the first day after Easter, but the second feria or feast day; and since every Sunday is the dies Dominica, a lesser Easter day, the custom prevailed to call each Monday a feria secunda, and so on for the rest of the week.
The ecclesiastical style of naming the weekdays was adopted by no nation except the Portuguese who are alone today in using the terms segunda feira for Monday, terça fiera for Tuesday, quarta feira for Wednesday etc..
The old use of the word feria, for feast day, is lost, except in the derivative feriatio, which is equivalent to our of obligation. Today those days are called ferial upon which no feast is celebrated. Feriae are either major or minor. The major, which must have at least a commemoration, even on the highest feasts, are the feriae of Advent and Lent, the Ember days, and the Monday of Rogation week; the others are called minor. Of the major feriae Ash Wednesday and the days of Holy Week are privileged so that their office must be taken, no matter what feast may occur.

A Gentle Reminder:As we move into our seventh week of no Sunday Mass in our church can we remind parishioners of the need to continue to put aside their normal weekly contributions. Keep these in a separate jar or something similar, or use the planned giving envelopes if you have them. Those with gift aid envelopes please use them. We do recognise some parishioners may be facing short-term financial difficulties as a result of the Coronavirus so we only ask you to put aside what you can afford. It is in these situations that we are particularly grateful to those parishioners who contribute their collection monies through Bank Standing Orders. If anyone would like to open a Standing Order please contact Paul Carroll on 01509 620889. (Parish Finance Committee)

Justice & Peace Group: You will recall that the 2019 Advent Charity chosen and organised by the Youth Group was Loughborough Town of Sanctuary so we thought you may welcome an update on their work in these most difficult times.
The Home Office has relaxed some of the regulations, such as the requirement of asylum seekers to report at Loughborough Reporting Centre at the beginning of the lockdown. This has helped the asylum seekers with regard to travel. However, this pause in reporting means there will be no face-to-face asylum interviews which will inevitably lead to delays in initial decision making and asylum appeals taking place. This can only increase the anxiety felt by many of them. The work of the LTOS volunteers has had to be suspended but there is now a greater need for asylum seekers to be supported in their locality. Many of them are at great risk of contracting Covid 19 as they are living in shared accommodation with no space for social distancing and they cannot attend the regular support groups and activities in our main cities. As LTOS is not incurring costs during the suspension, donations have been made to Leicester City of Sanctuary, Derby Red Cross and Nottingham Refugee Forum. The Home Office has also announced that for the next three months, people will not be asked to leave their asylum accommodation. This applies to both people whose asylum cases are refused and those who are granted status. Hopefully this will stop the evictions we hear about from time to time. There is little more practical action that we as parishioners can do at the moment but please keep all asylum seekers in the East Midlands in your prayers.

Mass online: Several parishioners have used the link on the Home Page of the parish website which allows them to view Mass being celebrated at the Cathedralin Nottingham on each day of the week. (https://www.churchservices.tv/nottinghamcathedral)
The schedule is as follows:
On Saturdays and Sundays: Mass at 10.00am
From Monday to Friday: Mass at 1.00pm
Also on the parish website, an additional link has been added to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsinghamwhose new website provides live streaming 24/7 of Masses, Prayers (Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet), Exposition, Spiritual Readings and Talks. This is a rich source of material in these extraordinary times.(https://www.walsingham.org.uk/live-stream/)
Mass celebrated daily by Pope Francis from the Vaticanis also available: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

Let us all pray a hymn together:
If we all were to read (or sing) the parish “favourite of the week” what a great way it would be of reminding us of the community to which we belong. Some parishioners will remember the Rosary Crusade of Fr Patrick Peyton in the 1950s. He popularised the saying: “A family that prays together stays together”. We could easily adapt this to read: “A parish that prays together stays together”. Let’s give it a try.
What is your favourite hymn?Let us know and we shall publish it in the next newsletter.
Follow me(chosen by Marie-Hélène)
Follow me, follow me,
Leave your home and family,
Leave your fishing nets and boats upon the shore.
Leave the seed that you have sown,
Leave the crops that you’ve grown,
Leave the people that you’ve known
And follow me.

The foxes have their holes
And the swallows have their nests,
But the Son of Man has no place to lie down.
I do not offer comfort,
I do not offer wealth,
But in me will all happiness be found.

If you would follow me,
You must leave old ways behind,
You must take my cross and follow on my path.
You may be far from loved ones,
You may be far from home,
But my Father will welcome you at last.

Although I go away,
You will never be alone,
For the Spirit will be there to comfort you.
Though all of you may scatter,
Each follow his own path,
Still the Spirit of love will lead you home.

Sick List: Please continue to pray for the following members of our parish: Bernard Moyers, Patrick Hodgson, Tod Smith, Angela Doyle, Ida De Melo, Maurice Nixon, Eva Shirreffs, Stefania Stasior, Irene Pallot.

A DAILY PRAYER
Please say this prayer every day, together with the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Glory be. It is adapted from a prayer written by the Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, archbishop of Brisbane.
Almighty and all-merciful God, lover of the human race, healer of all our wounds in whom there is no shadow of death, save us in this time of crisis, comfort the sick and the dying, the isolated and the afraid; be with us in our need. Grant wisdom and courage to our leaders and all who are responsible for the common good. Watch over everyone who is working in our National Health Service as they tend the sick, all who are supporting the vulnerable, and those who are working for a cure. Stir in us a sense of solidarity beyond all isolation; if our doors are closed, let our hearts be open. By the power of your love, destroy the virus of fear, that hope may never die, and grant that the light of Easter, the triumph of life, may shine upon us and the whole world; may we, like the Paschal Candle, marked with the sign of the Cross, give of ourselves and burn yet more brightly, for love conquers everything, light transforms darkness. By welcoming Christ into our hearts each and every day, may we always spread your love far and wide by valuing in all in the name of Jesus the Christ and being the people you have made us to be. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Our Lady Immaculate, Our Lady of Walsingham, Our Lady Health of the Sick, pray for us.
St Joseph, guardian of Jesus, guardian of us all, pray for us.
St Hugh of Lincoln, Patron of the Diocese of Nottingham, pray for us

The new school term: Even if schools have not reopened for most pupils, let us remember in our prayers all parents who are supervising home schooling, teachers who are providing a wealth of material via online lessons and, of course, the young people themselves who are having to deal with this difficult period in their young lives.
Birthdays: Belated birthday wishes to Tricia Walker, Fr Anthony and Brian Ratcliffe.

Happy 58th Wedding Anniversary to Brian and Shirley Ratcliffe who celebrated this landmark on 28thApril which just happens to be Brian’s birthday. There’s no way he can forget his anniversary, is there?

QUIZ
(Answers at the end – no cheating!)
1.) How many books are there in the New Testament?
a. 66
b. 39
c. 27
d. 12
2.) What is the common name given to the first four books of the New Testament?
a. the Gospels
b. the Revelations
c. the Acts
d. the Synopsis
3.) Which of the following are NOT one of the first four books of the New Testament?
a. Matthew
b. Mark
c. Luke
d. James
4.) Who wrote most of the books in the New Testament?
a. James
b. John
c. Peter
d. Paul
5.) Which of these are NOT books in the New Testament?
a. 3 John
b. 1 Corinthian
c. 3 Peter
d. 2 Thessalonians
6.) Who wrote the Acts of the Apostles?
a. Matthew
b. Paul
c. Peter
d. Luke
7.) Which of these women is mentioned in the New Testament?
a. Rebekah
b. Sarah
c. Martha
d. Hannah
8.) Which of these books comes first in the New Testament (relative to the others)?
a. Romans
b. Ephesians
c. Hebrews
d. Revelation
9.) Which of these books comes last in the New Testament
a. Revelation
b. Colossians
c. Galatians
d. The Acts
10.) Which of the following correctly describes the first four books of the New Testament?
a. the first gives the details of Christ's birth; the second, of his childhood; the third, of his ministry; the fourth, of the last week of his life
b. they are excerpts from the journals of four of Christ's disciples
c. they are narratives about the life and ministry of Christ, written by four different authors
d. the first includes the most important commandments, the second contains the second-most important commandments, and so on.

Answers:
1.c 2.a 3.d 4.d 5.c 6.d 7.c 8.a 9.a 10.c

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