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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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Jubilee Week

5/31/2022

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See the gallery for the start of Jubilee Week
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News & Musings 15th May 2022

5/16/2022

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Coffee Mornings
Tues 17th May Coffee Morning from 10.00am - all are welcome. Watch this space for a special Jubilee coffee morning being served up very soon.
Services
Thursday 19th May 9.30am Mission Area Morning Prayer at St Thomas's Worsbrough Dale.
Sunday 22nd May 9.30am Parish Mass.

Sermon from Easter 5
Jesus Said “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’”
   At this time of year, late in Eastertide and close to the Ascension, the scripture readings take us back to what are known as the “farewell discourses” of Jesus.  In the events that took place before the crucifixion, Jesus is preparing to take leave of his disciples.  Of course, he wants to leave them with something to remember.  Jesus came into the world for a reason, and he called his disciples for a special purpose.  He was not just about to leave them without any thoughts to guide them in the time ahead. 
   Today’s Gospel reading is no exception. It is the last supper, Judas has already departed and we are told that Jesus is contemplating the Cross and what lies before him. The apostles cannot follow him yet, but he gives them a new commandment by which the world will know that they are His follows – his disciples.
  If we were approaching the end of our life in this world, what would we want to say to the people who had shared our lives?  I suppose most of us find it too hard to contemplate putting these things into words.  Even so, we would want to feel reassured that we had been able to pass something on that was worthwhile – something that could be remembered.  I guess the most important thing is not our academic achievements, our wealth or success, but rather who loved us and who we loved.
   When Jesus talks about commandments we need to know that he did not leave behind a set of rules that we have to live out with only our own human strength to rely on.  There was really only one commandment:
       “Love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” 
   It is a very easy commandment to remember, but can be a difficult one to live by, with lots of false starts and good intentions that run into the sand.  But it is not a commandment that we are expected to keep just in our own strength.  It comes first of all as a pure gift from God: a gift of grace.  It is love that enables us to become instruments of God’s grace in the world. Our love, if it is genuine, becomes the channel through which people can experience something of the love of God.
   There is a wonderful story of an American Journalist who was watching Saint Mother Teresa caring for a man with gangrene. The journalist remarked “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars, to which Mother Teresa replied “Even I wouldn’t do it for that amount. However, I do it out of Love for God.”
  Like Saint Mother Teresa, we Christians live out the story of Jesus in our own particular lives in all sorts of different ways.  We can live it more fruitfully when God makes his home in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. 
   As we approach Pentecost let us pray that the gift of the Spirit may be renewed in our own lives and that we might be open to receive what God is longing to give.  It is only through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we are able to see the love of God in our lives and find the strength to love other people as Jesus loves us. 
  We might not always live out that commandment perfectly, but the love of God is all that we need to see us through.  Those who seek true love rather than revenge or hatred open themselves to the possibilities of greater happiness. As one commentator put it; “while faith makes all things possible, love makes all things easy. Love heals everyone – both those who receive it and those who give it.”
True love which is of God brings out the best in those who dare to do so… people are at their best when they love.
  For as another scripture reminds us
“God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.”
  And as I say to wedding couples
“Love and be loved… forgive and be forgiven.
Amen.
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Easter Message

4/19/2022

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  Today the whole Church proclaims: “Christ is Risen!”  The traditional reply to this is: “He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!”
   But let’s go back a moment to the gospel reading from John.  At the centre of this story is a Jesus-shaped hole.  All that the disciples first knew is that he was not there: there was no sign of his body and the stone had been rolled away from the tomb.  There was an empty space except for the linen cloths which lay on the ground.
   Despite all this emptiness and absence, we are told that the disciple who first went into the tomb “saw and he believed.”  Something about that scene must have triggered his memory, otherwise all he would have seen would have been that empty space. 
   How we see things often depends on our state of mind.  In the darkness and emptiness of a tomb, the disciple saw the beginning of a story of faith brought to its fulfilment.  It might seem to us a strange way to announce that Jesus was alive.  Perhaps we might think that if we had been Jesus, one of our first actions might have been to creep up on the chief priest and frighten him out of his wits.  Or maybe we might go up to the disciples who deserted him and say: “I told you so!”
   This is not the way Jesus chose.  His disciples begin to see him once again, but in the least expected ways.  “Seeing” is a word that rings through all the resurrection stories.  But ever since then we have been asked to believe without the evidence of our own eyes.  Believing in these distant events can be difficult.  Believing in the difference it has made can be hard too, whether we look at the world, or the church, or at our own lives.
   Where there should be faith, there can sometimes be an empty space, rather like the scene that confronted those first disciples.  On Good Friday, I was listening to a meditation on the radio, where a priest was describing the experience of her son taking his own life.  She spoke of the emptiness, the “gone-ness” that she felt when she saw his familiar possessions in the house.  He was not there and there would always be a space.  But she also spoke about how she had been able to connect with some of his friends and to offer them something of the care and support that she could no longer give to her son.  Nothing could replace him and the scars would remain, but there was life once again.
   In every word of forgiveness, in every good action that is done in someone’s memory, we see a sign that points us towards the resurrection.  Good Friday is still a reality, but Easter did not happen despite Good Friday – it happens because of it.  Through the Cross comes life.  As Christians, our faith calls us to do what St Paul encourages us to do in the letter to the Colossians: to seek the things that are above, even as we live our lives in this world.
   As we look at our world we can see plenty of empty spaces and absences.  We see the terrible losses people are still suffering in Ukraine.  Perhaps we are reminded of our own losses too.  There is no easy way to explain these things away.  But in the darkness and emptiness, people of faith and of goodwill are reminding us that Christ is risen.  They do this not by just saying the words, but by living lives of forgiveness, of compassion and of hope.
   As we look at the empty spaces in our own lives, we have a choice.  We either focus on the loss and on the ending, or we see the signs of a new beginning.  Sadness and loss will always be a part of human life, but what we see makes all the difference.  The hope that arises in our hearts is the fruit of the Resurrection of Our Lord.  Jesus is inviting us to choose life.  When that light of Christ enters our lives then the world looks different and we ourselves are changed.
   Christ is risen because love is stronger than death.  The powers of darkness have done their worst, but the love of God has overcome them all.  In the risen life of Jesus, we too are raised to life.  We can look to the time when all tears shall be wiped away and when everything that is good and beautiful in the lives we live shall be brought to perfection.  Jesus lives, and we live in him, now and for ever.

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Holy Week

4/13/2022

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We begin Holy Week on a note of celebration with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  Despite being acclaimed as a king, Jesus makes sure that he doesn’t play up to the people’s expectations of power.  He enters the city on a donkey to fulfil the words of the prophets, but also to make a mockery of earthly power.
   We see how the celebrations begin to turn darker as we hear the words of the Passion according to St Luke.  The crowds become fickle and the cheers turn to jeers.  The religious authorities become determined to do away with him because he is prepared to speak truth to power.  In the end the Roman authorities, fearing a rebellion, send him to be crucified.
   Throughout this week we witness how the one who is Lord and God is subjected to the worst that the world can throw at him.  Yet, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, we also see how he met that rejection and abuse with gentleness and refused to play the same game.  He trusted only in God.
   On Maundy Thursday we come to see how Jesus gave the example of sacrificial love and of servanthood.  We also see how he came to be denied and rejected by those who were closest to him.  Then on Good Friday we journey with him to the Cross and to his words of mercy: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
   There is a time of waiting and of preparation, before we commemorate that first Easter, when the disciples first became aware that the life that seemed to have been destroyed was still with them.  Hope would rise again and love would triumph.
   We live in a world where there is much violence and where the voices of good people often seem to be drowned out by hatred.  We live in a fickle world, where commitment is often laid aside for convenience or for personal gain.  Holy Week reminds us that despite the worst of our human nature, God’s love will overcome that darkness within us and around us.
   We are invited to walk the way of the cross with Jesus – the path that leads to eternal life.  In the meantime, let’s learn how to serve our King.  In the words of St Andrew of Crete, we are invited to lay ourselves, instead of palms, at the feet of Jesus.  In serving him we love both God and one another - and love is stronger than death
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Lent 5 News and Musings

4/3/2022

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​Forthcoming Events
Services
​Thursday 7th April 9.30am, Stations of the Cross followed by Said Mass at 10.00am.
Sunday 10th April Palm Sunday will be a joint Benefice service at St Peters commencing at 10.30am.

Coffee Morning

As usual from 10.00am on Tuesday, every-one welcome.

Sermon for Lent 5 
  Two women were brought in to stand before a young king.  They were prostitutes and they shared a house. Both had given birth and the son of one of them had died.  Now they were both trying to claim the living son as their own.  This was in the days before DNA testing, so there was no conclusive proof as to who was really the mother.  It was one person’s word against the other’s, but the king had to make a judgement on this. 
   Bring a sword, he said, and cut the boy in two.  Each woman could have half of him.  The immediate reaction of the two women told him the truth.  One of them agreed with the verdict whilst the other begged that the boy might live, even if the other woman was allowed to keep him.  There was no doubt as to who was the true mother.
   You may well by now have realised that the king was Solomon.  The story is told in the first book of the Kings.  This was just one example of the ways by which King Solomon earned a reputation for wisdom. Those who first heard the account of the woman caught in adultery may well have been reminded of this passage about Solomon.  Although the circumstances were different, Jesus, like Solomon, found himself on the horns of a dilemma and it wasn’t immediately obvious how he would resolve it.
   The Jewish religious leaders tried hard to catch Jesus out and here they were trying to set him up once again.  Having caught a woman out in an adulterous affair, they wanted to know whether Jesus would uphold the law of Moses.  These men were unlikely to stone the woman because the Jews were forbidden under Roman law from applying the death penalty.  Only the Roman authorities could do that, which was why the Te mple authorities would have to appeal to Rome to put Jesus himself to death.  It seemed that Jesus had to choose either to condemn the woman and to fall foul of Roman law, or otherwise to declare her forgiven and to be seen not to observe the Mosaic law.  Either way he would be trapped.
   So Jesus takes a different approach.  If the woman had been caught out in adultery, it seems fair to say that the men who brought her in had been caught in the act of hypocrisy.  The challenge that Jesus gives them seems to cut through their judgemental and self-righteous attitudes: “If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  One by one, beginning with the eldest, they walk away.
   We see a striking contrast between the condemnation offered by the religious elite and the compassion and mercy of Jesus: “Has no one condemned you?  Neither do I condemn you – go away and don’t sin any more.”  Jesus knows that sin is real and that it can have destructive effects in our lives.  He does not condone sin or try to minimise it, but he meets the sinner with God’s redeeming love.  The woman is set free from her accusers and from the burden of guilt and is able to go away and begin a new life.
   The words of Jesus hold up a mirror to us too.  This is not a message of condemnation for the ways in which we have stumbled or lost our way.  It is a reminder that when we point a finger at other people, we have three fingers pointing back at us.  It is so much more tempting to project our own darkness onto other people than it is to recognise it in ourselves and to bring it before God so that he can shine his light and warmth into it.  Pride is the obstacle that prevents us from seeing ourselves as less than perfect and in need of forgiveness.  Let’s remind ourselves that our attitudes and our words as well as our actions have consequences for ourselves and for others.  We don’t have to pick up stones to throw, because our words can be damaging enough.
   Jesus shows us a better way, in which we leave behind our human judgements and instead look to Jesus as the source of forgiveness and new life.  The woman in the gospel expected to be condemned but instead of this she encounters forgiveness and grace.  Lent, especially Passiontide, is a wonderful opportunity to seek these gifts for ourselves in the sacrament of reconciliation.  It is never easy facing up to our own sinfulness, but the freedom that lies on the other side of this is far greater than our own wounded pride.  No one has the right to judge another person when they themselves are in need of forgiveness.  God gives us the channels of grace in which we find freedom from the tendency to judge and to be condemned ourselves.  How wonderful to hear those words of Jesus echoing through our own lives:
“Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more.”

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Newsletter 27th February 2022

3/1/2022

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Forthcoming Events
Services:

2nd March Ash Wednesday Mass at 9.30am.
​3rd March N.B. No service. 
4th March World Day of Prayer at the Salvation Army Church at Hoyland Common.
6th March Sunday Mass 9.30am
13th March A joint benefice mass at St Peters 10.00am followed by a Lights for Christ meeting until around 12.30pm.
17th March to 7th April - Lent course.
Coffee Mornings:
Every Tuesday from 10.m - all are welcome.

Sermon from the Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time
As we get older our eyesight tends not to be as good as it used to be, as I have discovered for myself.  Even so, having a plank in your eye seems about as serious an impediment to sight as you could imagine, even if it is one that can be remedied.  Perhaps it is not surprising that Jesus uses imagery here that could relate to his previous walk of life as a carpenter.  Splinters might have been an occupational hazard, although it is to be hoped that contact between splinters and eyes would have been avoided.  As for the plank, this would doubtless have been used for effect as a comical image that makes a point.  If it were possible to have a plank in your eye it would be impossible to see anything at all, not even the plank itself.
   This imagery was mainly aimed at the Pharisees, whose own spiritual blindness could lead others into the same ditch as they were inclined to end up in themselves.  Jesus tells his listeners that a disciple is not superior to his teacher.  In other words, if people look to the spiritually blind for guidance, then they would go wrong in much the same way.  Pharisees would only produce more Pharisees.  Clear vision is one of the qualities needed for those who are to be able to lead others.  The disciples of Jesus were drawn to him because he could clearly see the way ahead.  He himself is the Light of the World and by his light people no longer needed to walk in the darkness of ignorance, pride and sinfulness.  They too would see salvation.
   We seem to be going through a time when there is so much darkness in the world.  We don’t have to look hard for examples of leaders whose own inner darkness is projected into the world around them.  We know them by their fruits, to take the image that Jesus uses towards the end of this gospel passage.  Those who nurse grudges, bitterness and envy in their hearts will betray this in their speech and in the end, also in their actions. 
   ​Jesus also points to those who believe so strongly in their own innate wisdom and goodness that they feel able to judge others.  Again he uses the word “hypocrite” when speaking of the Pharisees.  In the Greek-speaking world, “hypocrite” was used to refer to actors who would cultivate a stage persona quite different from their own character.  Actors of course pretend to be someone different from themselves.  This is fine on a stage, but not so good for religious teachers or political leaders.  That lack of authenticity and integrity might fool people for a time, but sooner or later those people are found out.  We have seen the damage that has been done by leaders in the secular world and sadly, in the church too, who have not lived up to their own teaching.
   For that matter, it is a trap that many of us can fall into when we notice the speck in someone else’s eye but fail to see the plank in our own.  Other people’s failings can seem so much bigger than our own, at least until we are able to see ourselves from their perspective.  Everyone has their particular faults and when we recognise this it keeps us humble and reminds us for our need for God.  It also reminds us to be kind to others, to be patient and ready to forgive.  After all, is this not how we would wish other people to deal with us?  Those who refuse to see their own failings and who constantly judge others are unwittingly inviting other people to judge them in turn.
   In a world darkened by violence – especially at this time in Ukraine – we need more than ever to see by the light that Jesus brings into our world.  If our vision is clouded by a false image of ourselves then we cannot see clearly, let alone show others the way.  /if we want our lives to produce something wholesome that will bring goodness into the world around us, then like a healthy tree, we need to nourish ourselves with something good and wholesome.  The teachings of Jesus are the best place to start, as we learn from him and build ourselves up in prayer and in the sacramental life of the Church.
   Next week we enter into Lent, a time when we are reminded of how Jesus looked into his own heart and stood in obedience before the Father of us all.  Only when we look into our hearts, when we listen to God, when we cease to lecture other people – only then can we see clearly and find that the Holy Spirit purifies us from within.  In this way the intentions of our hearts are made clean and in the words of St Paul, our mortal nature puts on immortality.
   Let us pray:
Lord, you teach us to look into our hearts and to see our need for your transforming grace.  Let us never allow pride to blind us to our true nature.  Enable us to see our need for you and to follow humbly in your footsteps.


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Newsletter 13th February 2022

2/17/2022

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Forthcoming Events
​Parish Mass: Sunday 20th Feb at 9.30am
​Lent Course: Thursdays after Mass (at approx 10.30am) from 10th March ubtil 7th April.
Living in Love and Faith: Every Thursday in March from 7.30pm to 10.00pm via zoom.
Lights for Christ follow up: St Peters 7.30pm Tuesday 22nd Feb with Hannah Sandoval.
Coffee mornings: every Tuesday from 10.00am, everyone welcome.

Sermon from the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
​   One slogan we have heard quite a lot about over the past year or two is “Levelling Up”.  This two-word slogan holds a lot of promise for regions of the country that are feeling left behind.  Our own region is one of them.  Politicians choose slogans like this because they sound attractive and easy to remember.  Of course it all depends whether “Levelling Up” delivers what it promises and I suppose it is a bit early to judge at this stage.  I’m sure that “Levelling Up” was chosen to sound more attractive than “Levelling Down”: so it is not a case of everywhere else being brought down to the same level.  Maybe places that have struggled will come to enjoy more of the good things that more prosperous ones have had, without those places losing their prosperity.  At least that is the vision.
   Whereas St Matthew’s teachings take place on a mountain, the teachings of Jesus today from St Luke’s gospel are given on a piece of level ground.  Whether or not this was intentional I’m not sure.  Somehow it does seem as though Jesus is sending out a message that he is among the people.  He is not staying up on a moral high ground but is sharing with everyday people in their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, their experiences of new life and of loss.  It is as if Jesus is either levelling down to be with us or levelling us up so that we can be with God.
   In these teachings, which we call the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us how we can experience blessings and joy.  To balance this, we also hear Jesus speak about the things that can rob us of that joy and blessing.  It is not what we would expect.  I doubt that anyone would hope to be poor or to go through times of sadness or loss.  But Jesus tells us that we can find treasure when we have been left with very little, that through times of hunger we can find fulfilment and that through our tears we can laugh once more.  It seems to turn our understanding upside down.
   The pandemic has taken things away from many people and some have faced the greatest losses of all.  In various ways, probably most of us have felt loss and sorrow of one kind or another.  It would be wrong to tell any of these people that there is anything good in suffering, illness, loss of livelihood or bereavement.   Material loss is hard, but what Jesus is showing us is that there is something that none of these losses, however grievous, can ever take away.  Jesus could say this, because he didn’t just teach it: he lived it.  In him the Word was made flesh.  He suffered as we do, experiencing desertion, loss and betrayal.  But through all these things, the love of God prevailed.
   On the theme of levelling up – or down – the teachings of Jesus in Luke’s gospel seem to echo the praises of Mary when she visited her kinswoman Elizabeth.  In what we call the Magnificat, earlier on in Luke’s gospel, she proclaimed that the powerful and the proud would be humbled, but that the lowly would be lifted up and the hungry fed.  It is often in our losses and when we doubt our own strength and capability that we are most aware of our need for God.  Then we find our consolation and strength.
   The flipside of that is that when we are too proud of ourselves, when we put other people down and use our power to intimidate them, when we are too sure of our own knowledge, we then push God out and lose our consolation, peace and joy.  The effects of this are all too clear.  The prophet Jeremiah counsels against relying too much on material goods or human strength.  There is nothing wrong with having plenty or with being beautiful, or successful or clever.   But if this is all we cling to and aspire to, then this will leave us barren like dry scrub in the wasteland. When we turn to God we find that we have a constant source of nourishment that sustains us through thick and thin.  In the same way, St Paul realised that nothing we can do without God can gain for us that everlasting treasure.  It comes only through the death and Resurrection of Jesus.
   So through our losses we can experience new life; out of sadness, lasting happiness can come.  It only makes sense when we live by that understanding.  If we want to know what it looks like in practice, then look no further than Jesus.  How ever we come to Mass today - happy or sad - we come to that level ground where we receive not only the teachings, but also the Body of Christ.  We are not levelled out into a kind of flat uniformity, but in all our differences we find common ground, where we are loved unconditionally and where lasting joy is ours.
 

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Week Commencing 30th January 2022

1/31/2022

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Forthcoming Events
Services:
Wednesday 2nd February 10.00am The presentation of the Lord.
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Thursday 3rd February 10.00am Feria Mass
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Sunday 6th February 9.30am Parish Mass
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​Coffee mornings:
​Take place every Tuesday from 10.00am in the Narthex, all are welcome to drop in for a cuppa and a natter.
Sermon 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
  We are used to the word “Marmite” being used to describe something that divides people into those who love it and those who hate it.  There doesn’t seem to be an in-between.
  Perhaps in a way, Jesus may seem like Marmite in the gospels.  I say “in the gospels”, because the idea our society can have about Jesus is that he is nice man – someone who was kind to people, who always said the right thing, who taught some good stuff.  This is a man who you may admire and yet feel no compulsion to follow him or belong to his Church.
  When we read the gospels, things seem very different to that.  People seemed to divide up fairly quickly into those who followed him and hung on his every word and those who turned away or reacted with outright hostility.  It surprises us, because our culture has made Jesus into someone very unlike Marmite – a man who doesn’t tend to provoke such strong reactions.
   The gospel passage today picks up where last week’s ended.  Jesus, after reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, says: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.”  The effect was electrifying.  Jesus is the one who would bring good news to the poor and sight to the blind.  He would enable the lame to walk and would heal those disfigured by leprosy.  It should have been good news indeed.  So why hustle Jesus out of the town and try to push him off a cliff?
   People were astonished by his words, but questioned his authority to speak that way.  He was a local boy and they knew his family.  Why did he think he could make these claims and what proof could he give?  Jesus knew that they were wanting him to prove himself and to convince them with miracles.  He saw their hardness of heart and their lack of faith and told them that he could not work among them in the way he had worked among people elsewhere whose minds were more open.  He drew the comparison with Elijah, who found faith only among people who lived away from his home country and with Elisha who healed a Syrian rather than people in Israel.  In the same way, it was hardness of heart and closed minds that prevented God from working among his chosen people.
  Sometimes, in the same way, we can close our eyes, our ears and our minds rather than hear what we do not want to hear.  Perhaps we want God to make his presence more obvious by granting us what we expect and telling us what we want to hear.  We prefer to be told that we are fine as we are.  Often we do need that reassurance and God has a way of bringing peace to our hearts and stilling our anxious minds.  At the same time, God’s message is something challenging and not always cosy.  Sometimes we need to hear uncomfortable truths, sometimes we need to change and to grow into the people God is calling us to be.  But as with Marmite, we can either find joy in this or we can turn away and close our minds.
  We are God’s chosen people and his good news is meant for us, but not for us alone.  Those beyond the boundary of Israel were to hear that same gospel and to be invited in.  In the same way, the message of life and of healing and hope is also for people beyond the walls of the Church.  Not all will listen and not all will respond.  Some may even be hostile, but like the prophet Jeremiah we are God’s instruments for showing his truth and his love to the world around us.
  Jesus is not a soft touch.  As his disciples discovered and as anyone who follows him today will find, the gospel is not always comfortable.  In its message we find an uncompromising truth, but also discover the true nature of love.  St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians paints a beautiful picture of this love of God that we see so clearly in Jesus.  Love is not just about our own feelings or about romance.  It is about patience and kindness, about lack of envy and refusal to delight in the misfortunes of others, even the people we don’t like.  Love is not an easy path to walk, but it is the way that leads to God.  Our Lord accompanies us along that path and gives us the strength to live as he has shown us.
  So Jesus lives by the truth and he shows us the true nature of love.  We find in the gospel that this is a bit like Marmite, because for much of the time it is so much easier to live by the values of this world.  When we choose love then we see with the eyes of Jesus and are citizens of God’s kingdom. Let us pray:
  Father, may your Holy Spirit inspire and strengthen us to listen to your Son and to follow in his ways.  As we walk his path of love, may we be brought to its fulfilment in heaven.  Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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Week Commencing 16th January 2022

1/19/2022

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Picture
Forthcoming

​EventsTwo of our readings today include Weddings.
In our first reading we talk about a wedding between Israel and God.
As Israel returns from exile in Babylon, God forgives and forgets the past and calls Israel his bride “for the lord takes delight in you and your land will have its wedding. The relationship between God and Israel has been changed.
And in our Gospel reading from John, we talk of the wedding at Cana in Galilee
This is a wedding that both Jesus and his mother have been invited along with Jesus’s disciples.
The main story though, is on Jesus and his Changing of water into wine. Not just a few bottles but six large stone water jars, each holding about 30 gallons, in my reckoning that’s equivalent to about 900 bottles of wine. (What a party! ).
Of course the real reason that this wedding at canna makes it into John’s gospel is not for the wine and the party, but because it was the first miracle performed by Jesus, he performs his first of many more miracles to come, and his disciples had witnessed it. He had revealed his glory, this event would Change how they saw Jesus, and he would now begin his campaign a campaign that would eventually take him to the cross..  And we know now just how much this has changed the world we live in.
Both the Weddings in the readings are about change, they are about new beginnings.
Change is usually for the best, but it is not always easy. Ask any parent when their first child is born whether change is easy, their lives are turned upside down with sleepless nights, feeding, continuous nappies to change, and all the other situations that happen when a new baby enters into their lives. But ask them if they would change what they now have for what they had before and I am sure that most if not all of them would say no.
The marriage of two people is perhaps the most intimate of personal relationships we can have, these two people are changed a change that will mature, as time goes by, ever deepening and more fulfilling.  This change is mentioned in Genesis “Therefore a Man leaves his Father and Mother and clings to his wife and they become one flesh” (G2:24). Two joined together in wedlock becoming one flesh. Two become one (I am sure there is a song dying to come out here) ,Even the relationship between mother and child cannot equal it.
And so if we can see such positivity in change why is their always a temptation to try and resist it?
Some years ago Aldi supermarkets ran an advert campaign (other supermarkets are available) they showed you a leading brand and then an Aldi cheaper equivalent and the caption would be “I like this one but I also like this one, I like change” showing that the cheaper one was just as good as the leading brand was. ( I think the most memorable of the is set of adverts was the old lady holding up a branded box and non-branded box of teabags and saying my Husband likes these and he also likes these but I don’t like tea, I like Gin.)
Now I am a bit of a stickler when it comes to food brands I like my cornflakes with the rooster on the packet, my rice crispies need snap, crackle and pop,and my cans of beens need to be endorsed by a million housewives every day. I was not keen on the Aldi equivalents and the same went for soup, butter, bread etc.etc.
My children a lot younger then, were quick to pick up on this and they would start picking up various brands whilst in the supermarkets, and would find it hilarious to try and mimic me by saying” I like this one but I don’t like this one, I don’t like change” this is still a standing joke in our house to this day.
All a bit of fun, but actually I suppose like many I was to a degree opposed to change, I liked things the way they were.
 And we can see this in society today all the time. And I don’t just mean the old man that must have his breakfast at 7:30 every morning, or the neighbour who gets upset that the local post office is closing at 5:30 instead of 6:00pm. I would imagine you all know people that are set in their ways and resist even these minor changes.
But these are not the sort of changes we should be concerned about.
We resist changes being made in our own interests, like the changes we are asked to make in order to try and slow down the spread of corona virus.
 We watch on as our planet faces one of the biggest environmental crises in its history. But we refuse to see or accept any need for change foolishly believing it will sort itself out.
Even as global warming becomes blatantly obvious we continue to turn a blind eye.  “there’s no need to change, nature has a way of sorting things”
We fail to see the need for change as thousands of animal species face extinction or have their habitats destroyed to provide for our ever demanding consumption.
We are not prepared to share our wealth and way of life in order that others may be brought out of hunger and poverty.
Governments continuously need to change, countries continuously need to change, we continuously need to change and our attitudes to these ongoing topics need to change
It is the rule of life, the cells in our bodies are constantly changing and renewing, the seasons must change
Change is not all bad, change can be good, Change is good. Like a good marriage there will be ups and downs. As we make these changes not everything will always run smoothly,
 Change is by no means easy and we could be in for rough times but eventually it is usually for the best. Maybe our generation will not live to see the benefits, but future generations, our Grandchildren, possibly even our own children will.
 Since the beginning of time we have been changing and adapting. The Bible repeatedly tells of change,
 just a couple of weeks ago we celebrated an event that changed our very relationship with God; we welcomed God in human form as a fragile baby. The word became flesh.
Today as we celebrate Mass, Bread and wine will be transformed (changed) into the most precious body and blood of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. And we eagerly and reverently approach his alter of  to consume that precious body and drink that precious blood as we strive to be “changed” to become more like Jesus, to become better Christians.
In a few more weeks we will enter into lent when we will prepare ourselves throughout the Lenten period, yet again preparing  for a life changing event, and we shall live out this event as we enter into holy week. That small helpless babe we welcomed into the world is now going to once again, change our futures, he will go to the cross totally innocent and without sin of his own, but he will take with him all the sins of humankind and he will pay (for us)  the ultimate price.
 But we as Christians know that his death was not the end, conquering death he will arise again victorious changing deaths grip over us forever, death will no longer have any claim on those of us who have believed in Jesus.
My dear Brothers and Sisters,
However hard it may be to embrace the changes we will need to make over the coming years, we must all think of the future generations, and we must remember the changes made for us by God the Father, Son and spirit.
And most of all we must continue to trust God and his mercy and know that his love for us will be the one thing we can rely on that will never change.


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