Newsletter- 18th Week of Ordinary Time
Dear Parishioners
There is more to life than wealth and riches – Today’s readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C – are about material things and our attitude towards them. The texts also suggest that what we are is much more important than what we have.
Qoheleth, ‘the Preacher’, who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes 300 years before Christ, gives a pessimistic view of the world. He asks the question of whether it is worth working hard and worrying about our wealth, since we must leave it to others after our death. He declares: ‘All is vanity!’ (First Reading). The Gospel develops the same theme. The main problem with wealth is that it risks taking centre stage in our life, becoming a preoccupation, and displacing God from his rightful position. What really matters is making ourselves rich in the sight of God by allowing him to mould and shape our attitudes in life. St Paul, in the Second Reading, develops similar ideas. As Christians, he suggests, we should put aside our former preoccupations – in particular greed – and turn our thoughts to ‘heavenly things’, for Christ is ‘in everything’. As the Psalm encourages us, we ought to praise and thank the Lord in word and song and be joyful for the little things of life rather than grumble and worry about what we may not have or feel we deserve. We should listen to his (Gods) voice today.
This week, we might want to make some time each day to listen to what the Lord is telling us about ourselves, and about our relationship with God, with one another and our relationship too with money and material things.
During the next few weeks, many within our parish will be taking a well-deserved rest, a time away for holidays and to visit friends and family at home and abroad, many of our regular volunteers at the weekend Masses and in the parish, office too will be doing the same, this means at times our Sunday Liturgies will be a little simpler than normal and from next weekend the Bulletin will cover two weeks.
I hope and pray that each of you will enjoy some well-earned rest and relaxation during August….and if you are going on holiday that you will return rested and refreshed! We warmly welcome all who may be visiting our parish during the summer. Please do make yourself known to me at the door after Mass. It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our parish, and I hope you will enjoy your stay in the locality.
With my prayers for you and for your families during the holiday period,
Your parish priest and friend,
Fr Jonathan
2025 3rd August – Newsletter – Download