Download Bulletin 9th March 2025
STATIONS OF THE CROSS IN CHURCH EVERY FRIDAY AT 11.15AM
Bishop’s Pastoral Letter First Sunday of Lent 2025.
My dear people,
With the placing of the blessed ash on our foreheads we have begun once more the Holy Season of Lent, remembering that we are dust, and into dust we will one day return. We may be familiar with Lent, with its penances, its call to more heartfelt prayer and its call to share more generously with the poor, but this is a new Lent for us all. We are asked not merely to repeat what we have done before, but to go deeper into the life of Christ. The world has changed over these past twelve months, not all for the better, and we too have all grown older.
Let us take a moment to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, as he continues to struggle with poor health and the frailty of his years. He still leads us. His example is a rich lesson in Christian discipleship….
Bishop’s Pastoral Letter Lent 2025
Daily Prayers Lent 1
I have called you by your name… you are mine!
Some years ago now, the Church changed today’s feast from a Feast of Mary, the Purification, to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Since Simeon called Jesus the Light of the Nations, this feast is also the day that candles are blessed and for that reason is sometimes called Candlemas. In the Eastern Church, today’s feast is called the Feast of the Encounter; the first encounter of the Old Testament, represented by Simeon, Anna and the Temple, with the New Testament represented by the Lord. Jesus is presented in the Temple following the ancient Jewish Laws. In the New Law of the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ own body will become the New Temple. For us any encounter with the Lord is a step into the spiritual; a step into New Life. The material things we have now will be lost at the end of our lives, but Christ and His love and the way we love Him in others, that is the new life that is forever. On this Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we ask God to transform us from people tied to the material to those whose encounters with Christ leads us to live for the new, for the spiritual.
Peter and Andrew, James and John heard the Lord’s call, dropped everything and followed Him. They weren’t the sort of people anyone would suspect of being religious; they were simple fishermen. They weren’t the sort of people anyone would suspect could convince others to change their lives nor were they the sort of people that anyone would suspect could take the position of leadership in the conversion of the world – but they were! They responded to a call and God worked His wonders through them. They, and their companions, weren’t an easy bunch to train in the Lord’s way. They wanted Jesus to call down fire and brimstone on the Samaritans. They fought over who would have the greatest authority in the Kingdom of heaven. They ran in fear when Jesus was arrested. There must have been times when Mary just rolled her eyes! But they did learn and as a result we are here, members of the Church. The disciples had a secret teacher, a mystical teacher; they had the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit they were able to transform their lives and convey the joy of serving Christ to their companions… …and so can we!
First Holy Communion Children
Today’s Gospel follows the Baptism of Jesus; John tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Saint Paul points out that Jesus came that we might be holy, for Paul being holy is being set aside for God. Jesus suffered death and rose again to give us His life, setting us aside for God: He died so we can be holy. Holiness is not something that we do; it is something that Jesus has done for us. He made us holy. We all want to have wonderful, full lives; how can we live life to its fullest? How, basically, by committing ourselves to God and abandoning ourselves to His Truth. This is how we respond to the call to be holy. Behold, the Lamb of God, who accepted the way that would lead to the cross. He is calling us to join Him and sacrifice ourselves for others. John said that he saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus. The Spirit has descended upon us too, calling us by name to trust in God; calling us to be lights in the world, lights guiding others to Jesus.
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Jesus saw John baptizing. He saw people there with John, sincere people, responding to John’s call to plunge into a new way of living. Jesus went down into the water and was baptized. And the voice from heaven rang out, “This is my Beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased.” Take the plunge! All of us have to seize the day to take advantage of the moments that God gives us to allow us to change our lives and His world. We seize the day to prepare for tomorrow. There are many graced moments in our lives. There are many times that we can allow God to draw us closer to Him. Some of these times are obvious, like confirmation, marriage, the celebration of the critical moments in the faith life of our children and grandchildren. There are other times that might not seem so obvious, ordinary times when we are called to make the ordinary extraordinary by seizing the day, respond to God’s call and plunge into the river. We are called to seize the day and be One with all who are seeking the Kingdom of God. May Jesus, baptized by John, give us the courage to join Him in the Jordan River.
Holy Trinity and St George 