Newsletter – 12th Week Of Ordinary Time
This Sunday 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, the sacred Host will be enthroned in a Monstrance and carried in procession around the church. Following which there will be a short period of silent prayer and Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, concluding with Benediction.
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 in regard to the Eucharist in many different 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 us to be the men and women He is calling us to be in him, then we too become more fully able 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 Canon Michael Bell in our vocation and ministry as Priests, and for Andrew training for the permanent diaconate, for all our Eucharistic Ministers in their ministry to the sick and to the housebound, and for all our young people preparing to make their First Holy Communion in July, their families and all our Parish Catechists.
Little Church – We are still looking for a couple more volunteers to assist with Little Church which I hope can resume again in September. My sincere thanks to those who have already kindly come forward to offer to help, we need though now just a couple more volunteers to ensure that Little Church can begin after the summer. Please do make contact directly with me.
With my prayers for you and for your families during the coming week,
Your friend and parish priest,
Fr Jonathan
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IMPORTANT Newsletters – Our Parish Newsletters are available to be viewed and downloaded from our Parish website.
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The Sunday Message and Newsletter will be available to download but this will be password protected – the password can be obtained from the Parish.
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2022 19th June – Newsletter – Download
2022 19th June – Pastoral Letter From Bishop Patrick – Download
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