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News Items 20/06/22

6/20/2022

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Forthcoming Events
Services at St Andrews
Thursday 23rd June 10.00am Combined T2 Mission Area Service
Sunday 26th June 9.30am Parish Mass
Summer Fayre
Saturday 2nd July 10.00 - 12.000  St Andrews Community Centre
​Coffee Morning
This Tuesday and every Tuesday from 10.00am all are welcome
Corpus Christi
Jesus looks to us for solutions.  It’s easy to think that it should be the other way round.  After all, he is God incarnate – the Word made flesh.  When his disciples are ready to disperse the hungry crowd which had come to hear the teachings of Jesus, he says to them: “Give them something to eat yourselves.”  I can imagine a pregnant pause as the disciples look at each other, wondering what on earth to do.  It is a surprising and perhaps annoying response for them to hear.  They are acutely aware that they do not have the resources to meet the needs of all these people sitting or standing around them.  “We have no more than five loaves and two fish,” they reply rather feebly, “unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for these people.”  It didn’t look at all promising.
 
Then we see Jesus taking charge of the situation.  He doesn’t leave his disciples to struggle all by themselves.  He shows that their faith in the Son of God is not misplaced.  With God all things are possible.  Human strength has its limits, but by faith in God those limits no longer have to determine what can be done.  Somehow, those meagre resources of five loaves and two fish become enough to enable the feeding of this multitude of people.  We don’t really know what happened there, but we do know that God was at work in that situation, among those people.  But still those words remain in the minds of the disciples and also in the gospel for us all to hear: “Give them something to eat yourselves.”  Jesus meant us to hear this for a reason.
 
As the Church we are called to continue what we see and hear in the gospel.  First of all, our calling as God’s faithful people is to deepen our faith through prayer, through pondering the message of Jesus and through our reception of the Eucharist.  But we are also called to go out into the world.  We are constantly reminded of just how much need there is in the  world.  We live in a world of need and in a country of need.  People hunger and thirst.  There is longing for peace, for release from oppression and for relief from material poverty. We all need food and all the other things that keep us healthy and enable us to live in dignity.  We also hunger and thirst for what can bring us inner peace and connection with each other.  Most of all, whether we are aware of it or not, I believe that we all hunger and thirst for God.
 
As we meet together here, our purpose is to do what we hear in St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  We hear the words of Jesus as he takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it and shares it.  This is the Eucharistic action and every time we meet before the altar, we eat this bread and drink this cup, proclaiming the saving death of Our Lord.  By his death, Jesus has left us a lasting memorial, not just so that we can remember the past, but so that his presence can become the centre of what we do here and now.  What we prepare to receive is not just a bit of bread or a sip of wine, but the Body and Blood of Christ.
 
As we reverence these holy gifts, let’s also hear for ourselves those words that Jesus said to his disciples: “Give them something to eat yourselves.”  Jesus gave the gift of his presence to the people around him and he is present among us now.  What we are called to do is not something we do alone or merely in our own strength.  Just like the disciples we offer our own ordinary lives and our own limited gifts.  Christians can make a huge difference through the part they play.  This may be in material ways through foodbanks at a time when so many people are struggling.  It can also happen though being in touch with the people who need a listening ear.  We can encourage one another with our faith, so that people do not go away hungry and empty.  We can offer the little that we have.  Like Melchizedech in the book of Genesis, our offering can find favour with God and can become a blessing for ourselves and for others.
 
In this time of pandemic, our gathering at the Eucharist has been severely disrupted.  There have been months where we have been unable to gather.  Some people who were with us physically before are no longer able to return.  During the pandemic people have also become more used to engaging digitally and have become unused to taking a full part in the Eucharist.  There is no doubt though that the Eucharist is our identity.  Jesus meant us to do this in memory of him.  He intended us to receive the sacrament of his Body and Blood, so that we could continue his work in the power of the Holy Spirit.
 
As we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, today’s feast reminds us that in the Eucharist there is no separation, no lockdown, no self-isolation.  This is the sacrament that unites all people, wherever they may be.  It feeds us so that we may reach out to others who need to be fed, either physically or by the comfort of sharing our faith.  Let us give thanks for so great a gift and pray that we may receive it in the spirit in which it is given to us.

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Newsletter week commencing 5th June 2022

6/6/2022

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Forthcoming Events
Services:
Feria Thursday 9th June 2022 10.00am
Parish Mass 12th June 2022 9.30am
 
​Coffee Mornings
Tuesdays from 10.00am everyone welcome

​Pentecost Message
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
and lighten with celestial fire
Thou the anointing Spirit art
Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
 
You may recognise this opening verse of a beautiful, ancient hymn which may be sung at Pentecost or at any occasion when the Holy Spirit is especially invoked.  These might include Confirmation and Ordination, but also the Coronation of kings and queens.  A couple of days ago I watched some footage of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, from 1953, more than a decade before I was born.  It was a moving service, especially at the point of the anointing, when that hymn was sung, originally known by its Latin title Veni, Creator Spiritus.  It continues:
 
Thy blessed unction from above
Is comfort, light and fire of love
Enable with perpetual light
The dullness of our blinded sight.
 
The hymn was sung as our Queen prepared herself for her anointing, and all those present prayed for the gift of the Holy Spirit:
 
Anoint and cheer our soilèd face
With the abundance of Thy grace
Keep far our foes, give peace at home
Where Thou art guide no ill can come.
 
I saw how the anointing took place away from the cameras, as a golden canopy was placed over the monarch’s head.  It was a deeply personal moment and an encounter with the Holy Spirit, without whose aid there would be nothing except limited human strength.
 
I imagine that Queen Elizabeth has never forgotten that moment all those years ago.  It is likely to have served as a source of strength for all the events she has lived through and all the times - good and bad - that have affected our nation over those many years.  There are certain special moments that can inspire us for a lifetime.  It is deeply personal, but the grace that is given is not just for us alone.  It is given so that we might make a difference in the world, just as our Queen has touched so many people’s lives over those 70 years.
 
As a priest, I have never forgotten the laying-on of hands and anointing, nor have I forgotten the sense of smallness that contrasted with the weight of the calling.  I’m sure it is the same for any other priest.  If that is how that moment of anointing felt for me, then how much more so for our Queen.  After all, there are far more priests than there are kings and queens.  It is a lonely vocation indeed and that moment of anointing with the Holy Spirit would be a reminder that there is a far greater power at work here – one that sustains and inspires and strengthens – a strength that could only come from God.
 
I wonder how those first apostles must have felt when they were in one room on that first Pentecost.  There they heard what sounded like a mighty wind from heaven and become aware of a warmth and light like tongues of flame resting upon each of them.  They could really only describe this experience of the Holy Spirit in terms of its effects.  These apparently ordinary men were making themselves understood to complete strangers of different languages.  The devout men were amazed, not least because they couldn’t get their heads around how these country bumpkins from Galilee were able to do the things that they themselves had never achieved.  They thought they were under the influence of alcohol, but it was in fact a different kind of spirit that was empowering them.  Anyone who has felt themselves unequal to their calling can look to this as a reminder that you do not have to be born special.  It is the Holy Spirit that enables ordinary people to do the extraordinary.
 
Before Jesus was crucified, he spoke of the promise of the Paraclete – the one who is sent to be alongside us.  The word “Paraclete” is often translated as “Advocate”, as we see in our gospel passage from St John.  An advocate is someone who speaks up for us, or who pleads on our behalf.  It is also connected with courts of law, where a lawyer – an advocate – speaks on behalf of someone else.  I have seen the advice given to people who decide to represent themselves in a court of law: “Don’t do it!”  There are people who know what to say and how to say it – to speak the words that we cannot find ourselves.
 
Jesus told his disciples that they would be witnesses in his name.  They were not to be afraid about what to say when the time came.  In St Luke’s gospel, Chapter 12, verse 12, Jesus says to them: “… the Holy Spirit will teach you at the hour what you ought to say.”  They went on to amaze themselves by going out into the world and proclaiming the word of life, bringing a welcome message of forgiveness and opening up spaces in people’s lives where the Creator Spirit might flood in.  Jesus had promised them that when he was no longer physically there to tell them what to do and how to do it, he would be with them in a new way.  They would perform even greater works in the power of the Spirit.  They were not disappointed.
 
You don’t have to be a king or queen or a priest to be anointed with Holy Chrism and with the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Most of us are too young to remember our baptism, but perhaps we can remember Confirmation.  Maybe we can cast our minds back to that awesome moment when we are told: “God has called you by name and made you his own.  Confirm, O Lord, your servant with your Holy Spirit.”
 
Jesus has told his disciples, and he tells us, that the Holy Spirit would remind us of all that he has taught us.  The Holy Spirit overcomes our fear, removes the divisions that keep us apart and puts a new heart within us.  We are still limited by our own weakness and we each have our own particular gifts and calling.  But through all of this, the Holy Spirit that we celebrate at Pentecost is our inspiration, our strength and our guiding light.  Through that gift we become witnesses and apostles to reflect to the world the presence of Christ among us.  We and others then begin to glimpse possibilities for our humanity and for our world that we would never have dreamed possible.
 
Queen Elizabeth makes no secret of her trust in God and of the faith that continues to inspire her after all these years.  The anointing and the invocation of the Holy Spirit at her Coronation continue to give the strength and endurance to live out this singular vocation.  Whatever our own particular gifts and calling may be, today is a day on which we thank and praise God for giving us the gift of his Holy Spirit, to dwell with us and to show us the way.  In the final verse of that wonderful hymn:
 
Teach us to know the Father, Son
And Thee of both to be but one,
That through the ages all along,
This may be our endless song:
Praise to Thy eternal merit,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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