Second Sunday of Advent

Download Bulletin 5th December 2021

Fr Hugh’s Homily for Second Sunday of Advent

My Nana’s house always had a front room ready for visitors.  Unused and generally tidy, though the ironing did slip into it sometimes.  If a special guest came it would be into that room they would be taken.  The rest of us were in the back room by the gas fire.  For me, if someone comes, I have to do a quick rush round and pick up the papers on the floor, put the cushions back on the couch, shift a few books.  For bigger events people often spend quite a time getting the house ready.  Christmas lunch often means shifting a table or tables about and rearranging the furniture.  Advent is a time when we are awaiting a special guest, obviously Jesus.  We prepare to celebrate his first coming and look at our lives to see if we are living as we would like to, he would want us to, in expectation of his second arrival….

Complete Homily for Second Sunday of Advent

Readings for 2nd Sunday Advent

Daily Prayers Advent 2

 

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First Sunday of Advent

Download Bulletin 28th November 2021

 

Bishop’s Pastoral Letter for Advent…..

My dear people,
Many worthy matters will be competing for your attention in these days, matters ranging from the personal to the global. I address you as my flock, and ask for your attention as we move into the shortest days of what has been for many another difficult year. On this first Sunday of Advent there are matters of Faith that claim a priority on our time not only so that we celebrate Christmas as we ought, but also if we are to be found ready when the Lord comes.  We are moving into the darkest time of the year, but Christ is our unfailing Light. We look back over the many events of 2021 and see that Christ has been our constant companion. We plan as best and as wisely as we can for the year ahead, knowing that Christ’s plan is there for us. At times, our plans, even our best plans, must give way to His which is so much better. He will be our way, our guide and our loyal companion….

Complete Pastoral Letter for Advent

Readings for 1st Sunday of Advent

Daily Prayers Advent 1

Christ the King

Download Bulletin 21st November 2021

 

Fr Hugh’s Homily for Christ the King

Pope Francis was talking to young climate activists just before the recent climate change conference, telling them they are “making the future today”.  He was praising them for their vision and for challenging the “adult world”.  He told the youth activists that he encouraged them “to develop your work for the good of humanity”.  “It is said that you are the future, but in these matters, you are the present, you are those who are making the future today, in the present.”  Today is the feast of Christ the King and Youth Sunday….

Complete Homily for Christ the King

Readings for Christ the King

Daily Prayers Christ the King

 

Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Download Bulletin 14th November 2021

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 33rd Sunday

Sometimes the horror of something, the grief, or our fear and distress, are so great that we cannot speak about it in ordinary language.  We have to find an image to try and express what we want to say.  Or possibly the only way to explain it to others is through small pictures that sum up what we are feeling.  Isaac Rosenberg, who was killed on 1st April 1918 in the trenches, in one of his poems he tries to express his horror by putting a rat and a poppy side by side.  For most of us the idea of living with rats is horrible, the poppy however is an image of wild beauty, but it is not so clear as that……

Complete Homily for 33rd Sunday

Readings for 33rd Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 33

 

Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Download Bulletin 7th November 2021

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 32nd Sunday

A commentator on today’s gospel tells this story to illustrate what he thinks Jesus is on about here.  It is set in Chicago, perhaps a while ago.  “A man dies leaving a widow and a young son.  The son goes to a Catholic school.  One day the priest stops the son and days to him, “Unless you have a Mass said for your father he will not see the face of God.  It is $5.”  So the son goes home and says: “The priest says that unless we have a Mass said for Dad he will not see the face of God.’  So the widow gives her son $5 for the Mass.  A while later the priest stops the son again (pushing his luck I would say), “Unless you have a Mass said for your father he will not see the face of God.’  So the son goes home to his mother and explains again, “Unless we have another Mass said the priest says Dad will not see the face of God, I need another $5.”  “Dad can look at God’s bottom,” says the widow.  No $5.  Just like the story, Jesus is clearly making a statement about the hypocrisy in much of the religion of his time, as the story is of how it can be in our time.  Like many an observational comedian today he is merely watching how society works and trying to open people’s eyes as to what is going on around them…..

Complete Homily for 32nd Sunday

Readings for 32nd Sunday 

Daily Prayers Week 32

St Peregrine Novena

 

All Saints

Download Bulletin for 24th & 31st October

 

Fr Hugh’s ALL SAINTS HOMILY 

Wladimiro Costa Pereira, Renato Anglao,
Inspector Manzoor, Wayne Lotter, Berta
Caceres, Sr. Dorothy Stang. These are just a
few, a representative group of names, of
those who have been killed in recent years while defending people’s land, the land itself, endangered animals, the homes of indigenous people. I know you might be saying to yourself, ‘He is off on his Faith and Justice hobby horse again,’ and I have to admit that I am unashamedly doing so on this feast day of All Saints. There are many ways in which we can celebrate the saints, the great ones as Mary, to ourselves who St. Paul calls saints, but as the Climate Change
Conference opens, with many doubts as to its success, I want to celebrate those who give their lives for creation in different ways. Pope Francis, in Laudato Si said, “Here I want to recognize, encourage and thank all those striving in countless ways to guarantee the protection of the
home which we share.” That again is many of us, but some have gone further than most of us…

Complete ALL SAINTS HOMILY 2021

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Download Bulletin for 24th & 31st November

Fr Hugh’s Homily for 30th Sunday

Compassion and discipleship come together in this gospel.  This story completes the chapters on discipleship and as soon as it ends the Passion begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem.  In our story today we have Jesus’ compassion for Bartimaeus and that compassion turns him and others into disciples.  Whenever Mark says someone follows Jesus he is talking about the path to becoming a disciple; joining in Jesus’ mission.  Pope Francis picks these themes up when he says today: ‘There is an urgent need for the mission of compassion…for the building of a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources.’  But within this story, which is very short, there is so much going on.  Let’s look at the characters….

Complete Homily for 30th Sunday

Readings for 30th Sunday

Daily Prayers Week 30