Newsletter- 10th Week of Ordinary Time
Dear Parishioners
This weekend we keep the great Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). At both the Saturday evening Vigil Mass, at 6 pm and the Sunday morning Mass at 9.30 am, I will invite our Parish Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to stand in their places to renew their commitment. This will take place after Holy Communion and before the Post Communion Collect. In addition, at the Sunday morning Mass in place of the Final Blessing, after the Post Communion Collect the sacred Host will be enthroned in a Monstrance and carried in procession from the church along the Barrowby Road and down my driveway and back into church. Parishioners who can are encouraged to follow in procession. Benediction will then take place.
The great Solemnity of Corpus Christi is a feast that is over eight centuries old and a feast which is supremely Catholic. Today we reflect upon the heart of Catholic life, the Eucharist, the Mass, and the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus’ gift to the Church on the night before He died was the gift of His very self, body and blood, soul, and divinity. When we come to receive Holy Communion, we experience a closer contact with Jesus than was possible to anybody during His earthly life. In the Holy Eucharist, the actual distance between ourselves and Christ vanishes.
Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a place of unity to draw each of us as His followers to Him and to one another. It is important to remember that receiving Holy communion is not simply a personal gesture but a public proclamation that we are in communion with Christ and with His Church.
On this great feast day, we can examine ourselves regarding the Eucharist in many ways. Some helpful questions to ask ourselves might be: Do I try to make the words and sacrifice of the Mass my words and my sacrifice? Do I seek out Mass when I am on holiday or away from my local parish? Do I make my Sunday obligation a priority? If the Eucharist is the centre of the Church’s’ life, is it mine as well? Do I live a Eucharistic life?
This Sunday as we join once more in the great celebration of Corpus Christi let us remind ourselves of the importance of the Mass and let us refresh our reverence for Christ truly present in His Body and Blood and let us remind ourselves too of the full significance of receiving Holy Communion, and let each of us renew our commitment to give greater priority in our lives to times of prayer before the Lord, through Adoration and moments spent alone in the Lords presence in church, quietly contemplating Christ within the Tabernacle. When we do this, we can listen more acutely to the still small voice of God, the voice that summons each of us to become more fully the people God is calling us to be in him, then we will be able more fully to turn outwards away from self and allow Gods Love to shape and change our lives, then we become more able to offer loving service to God and to one another, through all the different situations we find ourselves in within our daily lives.
This Sunday I ask for your prayers for myself and Mgr. Hadley in our vocation and ministry as diocesan priests, and for Andrew in his vocation as a permanent deacon, for all our eucharistic ministers in their ministry to the sick and to the housebound, and for our two parish aspirants Callum and Ben as they continue to explore more fully a call from God to the diocesan priesthood, and James as he explores more fully a call to serve the Church within the permanent diaconate. We pray too for all our young people preparing to make their First Holy Communion on 20th June, and for their families and all our parish catechists.
Next weekend we shall welcome Canon Eddie Jarosz, VG, who will representant the bishop, for a Visitation to our parish over the weekend of 13th/14thJune. Canon Eddie will preside and preach at all our parish Masses next weekend, and I know is looking forward to visiting our parish community and meeting members of our congregation. We keep him in our prayers as he prepares for his visit to us in Grantham.
With my warmest best wishes to you and to your families,
Your parish priest and friend,
Fr Jonathan
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