Newsletter- Pentecost
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! 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 though within, however much our outward bodies may have changed and aged 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.
Changes to the Mass Schedule and days that the church will be closed this coming Week:
This week I shall be away at the Diocesan Clergy Conference from Tuesday 10th June until Thursday 12th June inclusive. There will be the following changes to our normal weekly services:
Tuesday 10th June – Mass at 9.30 am
Wednesday 11th June – Church closed – No Public Worship
Thursday 12th June – Church closed – No Public Worship
Friday 13th June – Mass as normal at 9.30 am
Please keep in your prayers all the clergy of the Diocese of Nottingham meeting together with Bishop Patrick at the annual diocesan conference.
Reception into the Church and Discerners: We welcome into the Church next Sunday, 15th June, on the great Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Laura Tester, who after a period of catechesis and discernment will be received into Full Communion with us, during our Sunday morning Mass at 9.30 am. It is a great joy for me as parish priest to receive Laura into the Church, she has with her husband and her family come regularly to Mass both at the weekend and in the week and I am delighted that Laura has decided to take this next important step in her faith journey. Please keep her and her family in your prayers during the coming week ahead.
We continue to pray on Pentecost Sunday for all those who are discerning a call to enter into Full Communion with the Catholic Church. We have several people at different stages in their discernment journey here in this parish, which is a great gift to us and to our parish community. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide them as they seek to discern the future and Gods call to them.
First Holy Communion Candidates: Please keep in your prayers our First Holy Communion candidates and their families and our parish catechists. In just two weeks’ time our young people will receive Holy Communion for the first time at a special Mass celebrated in the parish on Saturday 21st June at 11 am.
With my prayers for you and for your families during my time away at the Clergy Conference,
Your parish priest and friend,
Fr Jonathan
2025 8th June – Newsletter – Download