Newsletter-1st Week of Eastertide – Easter Week
Dear Parishioners
Our Lenten journey and pilgrimage are over. Our fasting is complete; now we can feast and celebrate, Easter has come! We have travelled with Jesus from the harshness of the desert to the new life coming from the empty tomb. Having walked with Jesus on the Way of the Cross, we now share in and experience the joy and power of his Resurrection.
Belief in the Resurrection is the bedrock of Christianity. It is the heart of the Easter message. In the risen Christ death has lost its hold on humanity. Death is not for us as Christians the end of the story. It is the beginning of a new chapter. At Easter we are reminded that there is life after death. A life of immortality lived in the loving presence of God. The whole purpose of our present life is to prepare us for that. But Easter is not only concerned with life after death. It has much to say about the life each of us lives out in the here and now, our life on earth. At Easter we are reminded that all life matters. Human life is both of the body and of the spirit; in our present state each depends upon the other. At the heart of all Life is the precious gift of love. Life gives love its real meaning, and its whole purpose and love lies at the heart of the Easter message.
Through the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we see with the eyes of faith, that where there was despair, God brings us hope. Where there was darkness, God has brought light. Where there was death, God brings us not just life, but new and everlasting life. These are the gifts that God offers to each of us through the Resurrection of Jesus.
Fr Jonathan Easter Break: – I shall be taking a few days holiday away from the parish this coming week. I shall be back to celebrate the weekend Masses on 2nd Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy Sunday (11th/12th April). The church will be closed during the period that I am away outside of the following times of Mass this coming week:
Wednesday 8th April – Mass at 9.30 am
Friday 10th April – Mass at 9.30 am
I would like to take this opportunity to wish each of you a very Happy Easter. My sincere thanks for your generous gifts to me and for the lovely cards and messages which I have received. I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to all our visitors joining us at Mass this weekend.
Let us pray, during this coming Easter week, that Christ’s constant, faithful love will raise us up to fresh encouragement and greater hope, so that we may bear witness to his resurrection in our daily lives. We are called through our faith to be people who are filled with the new life, love and hope of the resurrected Jesus. The Lord is risen, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Happy Easter!
With my warmest best wishes to you and to your families,
Your parish priest and friend,
Father Jonathan
2026 5th April – Newsletter – Download