Newsletter- 8th Week of Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners

This Sunday is a time of joyful celebration in the life of the Church, as we mark the Birthday of the Church, with the celebration of the great Solemnity of Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirt upon the early Apostles and the Church. It is I believe a truly splendid feast. One of its greatest attractions for me is that nobody seems to have yet figured out how to commercialise it! As such we can in a very real way reflect upon the inner meaning of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit has often been called the “soul of the Church.” We all I suspect have pictures of our younger selves. As we age and grow older our bodies change in all kinds of ways and we may not look quite as ‘fresh faced’ and nubile as we once did in our youth. I know I most certainly do not at nearly 59! Yet the essence of who we are, our inner being remains the same because our souls provide the continuity between what we may look like now and what we once looked like in our youth. We are still the same person within, however much our outward bodies may have changed over the years. The same is true of the Church as well. Many externals of the Church have changed down the years and will continue to do so in the years to come. But the continuity in the Church that makes her the identical community of Jesus and those early Apostles are preserved by the power of the Holy Spirit. At work in her and within each one of us too.

The Holy Spirit will always continue to guide us and the Church to what is in accord with Christ’s will. Friends will leave us. Allies may abandon us. Scandals may try us. But the Holy Spirit remains with us as our link to Christ and to His Church. Today on Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the fact that Christ is as close to us now as He was to those early Apostles. He is as close to us as the very beating of our own heart. A wonderful comforting thought I think to remember as we journey forward in life and face all the many challenges and difficulties of our daily lives and all that is happening in the world around us just now.

With prayers and best wishes for you as we celebrate with great joy the Birthday of the Church this weekend,

Your parish priest and friend,

Fr Jonathan

2026 24th May – Newsletter – Download