Posts

Showing posts from March, 2011
Image
I thought this was pretty Good stuff and am hopping that people might think about coming to the sacrament of Reconciliation before we celebrate Easter.  Pope calls for caring, faithful confessors  Continuing his cycle of lessons on the Doctors of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI told believers Wednesday that prayer and confession are the best antidotes to our era marked by “signs of loss of conscience and morality”. Outlining the legacy of an 18 th  century Neapolitan Saint, Alphonsus Liguori, during his Wednesday catechesis, the Holy Father spoke of the obvious “lack of esteem” for the sacrament of confession among Catholics today and urged priests to adopt a more “charitable, understanding and gentle attitude” towards penitents while always remaining faithful to Catholic moral teaching. As a young man, the founder of the Redemptorists Order, observed the Pope was “an outstanding eighteenth-century preacher, scholar and Doctor of the Church. Alphonsus left a brilliant career

The Third Sunday of Lent

Image
John presents for us today a great dramatic and theatrical encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. Jesus is tired after his long journey and sits by the well for something to drink. First of all she comes to the well at noon which would have been a long time after some of the other women had come to the well. It presupposes that she had been shunned by the other women of the village because of her great sins and yet it is this sinner who preaches to her community about Jesus. There is also the bad relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans this goes back to the year 722 when the Assyrian army descended on northern Israel and took its population into exile. This is why the Samaritan woman was very surprised when Jesus spoke to her at the well. The symbol of water has become a very important symbol in the Church. It cleanses and also blesses us. When we think of the waters of baptism it washes us clean and gives us new life in the Lord. We remind ourselves of that new

Midweek Thoughts

Image
I thought that I would share with you one of the many Blessed ( those on the way to beatification) This particular one is actually for today. Blessed Clemens August von Galen Bishop of Münster  (1933-1946)         Clemens August von Galen was born on 16 March 1878 in Dinklage Castle, Oldenburg, Germany, the 11th of 13 children born to Count Ferdinand Heribert and Elisabeth von Spee.         His father belonged to the noble family of Westphalia, who since 1660 governed the village of Dinklage. For over two centuries his ancestors carried out the inherited office of camerlengo of the Diocese of Münster.         Clemens August grew up in Dinklage Castle and in other family seats. Due to the struggle between Church and State, he and his brothers were sent to a school run by the Jesuits in Feldkirch, Austria.         He remained there until 1894, when he transferred to the Antonianum in Vechta. After graduation, he studied philosophy and theology in Frebur, Innsbruck and Münster, and was

THe Second Sunday of Lent

Image
When you are sitting down on a Saturday night and watching a reality show like the X Factor or Strictly Come dancing the one thing that they constantly talk about is the idea that they are all on a journey. You may hear something like: “The journey been long and tough for you” or “You have come a long way since the first show.” On the X factor they go one step further and talk about what I call the “weep spot” at the end of the show where they drag a story forward of a person’s struggle or personal tragedy. Lent, for us, is also a journey. It is a journey of self discovery and sometimes this may feel never ending. The difference between our journey and the journey that the contestants of the reality TV show is that although we are also on a journey of self discovery it is also a spiritual journey. It is one that we grow deeper into the reality of God’s love for us through the holy disciplines of fasting, charity and prayer. Often this can be quite a difficult thing to do like Abram i

1st Sunday of Lent

Image
One of the clearest themes in this week’s Readings is that of Temptation. It is one of those things that we all struggle with. So let us look at what happens to us and the process of discernment that must take place when we are making decisions. But the question that I ask myself is: Why do we get tempted? A way of looking at this question is to look at the first reading. We see that the Serpent “the most subtle of all wild beasts” Here we see that there was temptation to eat of the fruit and so therefore disobey God: So therefore putting them greater than God. This is the first way that we get tempted especially into Sin. We see ourselves as greater than God. We put the self first before even God. Therefore making ourselves into little gods. We find that we think that we know best and so ignore what is around us. We ignore the law of God. Temptation also comes in many shapes and sizes. It may come in a size of a chocolate bar at the moment especially if we have given up chocolate

Seventh Sunday of the year A

This is my homily notes for the 7th Sunday of the Year which is missing from here because I lost the Notes on my computer. Kindly Michael from Rose Green keeps all my notes. If I ever become a Saint which I know I won't he is the person to see.  Today we continue through the Sermon on the Mount and we come to what I think is one of the most challenging parts of the Gospel and this is where Jesus tells us to love our enemies. There are two themes that link itself to this and that is revenge and the second is love. Let take each of these in turn. Often when someone wrongs us the first instinct that we have is for revenge. Jesus talks about the law which states an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This sounds a bit barbaric to our ears today. It actually comes from the book of Exodus. Here it states “if further harm is done however you will reward life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stroke for stroke.”
Image
Don’t rub off your ashes, urges bishop By  ANNA ARCO  on Thursday, 3 March 2011 People pray during an Ash Wednesday service at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York (CNS photo/Gregory Shemitz) Catholics should try not to rub their ashes off after Ash Wednesday Mass, an English bishop has said. Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, who heads the department of evangelisation and catechesis, urged Catholics across Britain to wear “the outward sign of our inward sorrow for our sins and for our commitment to Jesus as Our Lord and Saviour”. He said: “The wearing of the ashes provides us with a wonderful opportunity to share with people how important our faith is to us and to point them to the cross of Christ. I invite you where possible to attend a morning or lunchtime Mass. “Please try not to rub off your ashes as soon as you leave church, but take the sign of the cross to all those that you meet – in your school, office, factory, wherever you may be. This might just make people cur

Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow  is the start if Lent. It is our preparation for Easter. I wonder what you are going to do for Lent. I want to give you a few pointers. Do things for the right reason. For example a lot of people give up the same thing for Lent every year. We have to be careful that we are giving up things so that in fact we get closer to God not to loose weight. Try and do something extra: like an act of charity Do not chew of too much. It might be better to something small rather doing too much and not fulfilling what you started. Have a happy and blessed Lent I hope this helps on some way

The Bishops Pastoral Letter

Image
I Thought that I would post the Pastoral Letter this weekend by the Bishop Kieran   Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Many of you will be aware of two things that will have at least some impact on our Catholic community in this country within the next twelve months, and so I wanted to make sure that you knew enough not to feel anxious or just confused. The first is that there is to be a new translation of the Missal in use before the end of this year. Mass will sound different. It will affect the priest most of all, simply because he will be saying the prayers of the Mass with new words; they are the same prayers, but in a new translation. Your prayers and responses will also be slightly different – the Our Father will remain the same, but there will be changes in the Gloria and Creed and other prayers and responses you say. Most noticeable, however, is the change to your response to the priest’s greeting, “The Lord be with you.” In the new translation this will be a faithful r