Newsletter- 4th Week of Eastertide
Dear Parishioners
It was with great joy that we heard the announcement from Vatican City last Thursday 8th May that Cardinal Robert Prevost has become our new Holy Father. He is the first American Pope in the history of the Church and takes the name of POPE LEO XIV. We keep him in our prayers as he begins his new Pontificate. In the parish we will offer Mass for our new Holy Father this week on Thursday 15th May at 11 am.
This Sunday is known as Good Shepherd Sunday because, in each year of the liturgical cycle, on the 4th Sunday of Easter, the Gospel is always taken from the tenth chapter of John where Jesus speaks of himself as the “Good Shepherd.” Today at Mass we contemplate Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
Deep within each one of us is the great capacity to love and be loved, a well of real compassion. We are made for love, for generosity, and for kindness. Jesus is the one who can teach us how to really love. When we are living closely to Christ, so we learn more fully how to receive love graciously, give generously, forgive compassionately and care especially for the most needy and vulnerable in our midst. Such radical kindness is of the Kingdom of God. It is the very heart of the sheepfold into which Jesus the Good Shepherd gathers each of us. Such love and compassion help to make us feel safe and secure gives us new life.
This theme is closely linked with the second theme for this Sunday: World Day of Prayer for Vocations (Vocations Sunday). We pray this weekend that the Church may be provided with good and compassionate leaders needed to do her work of spreading the Gospel. We know that at the present time there is a critical shortage of such leaders, at least in the traditional sense – ordained ministers (priests and deacons) and religious. The purpose of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations is to publicly fulfil the Lord’s instruction to: “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest” (Mt 9:38; Lk 10:2). As a climax to a prayer that is continually offered throughout the Church, it affirms the primacy of faith and grace in all that concerns vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and to the consecrated life. While appreciating all vocations, the Church concentrates its attention on this Sunday towards specifically praying for vocations to the ordained ministries (priesthood and diaconate), consecrated life in all its forms (male and female religious, societies of apostolic life, consecrated virginity), secular institutes in their diversity of services and membership, and to the missionary life.
As Pilgrims of Hope in this Jubilee year, we pray too that we will be liberated from all that holds us back from following Christ, rejoicing in the knowledge that we already belong to God whose love for all people is abundant. May Christ continue to strengthen each of us in the pathway of constant kindness and restore in us a deep sense of our own vocation to be with him, to live in him and to work through him every day of our lives.
Second Collection this weekend for the Clergy Formation Fund. Please do give as generously as you feel able to.
With prayer and best wishes for you and your families this coming week,
Your parish priest and friend,
Father Jonathan
2025 11th May – Newsletter – Download