Monthly Archives: March 2018

He is Risen! He is Truly Risen!

On behalf of Fr Simon, Deacon David and myself, I wish you all a very happy and holy Easter.

This is the greatest feast of the Church’s year, when Mary Magdalene and the Apostles find the empty tomb on that first Easter Sunday. From this moment on, nothing is ever the same again and we cannot live as if it is. The course of history has been changed forever. Christ, after His most terrible Passion and Death on the Cross has burst forth from the tomb and conquered death, sin and Satan. He is the first of a new humanity, and His Resurrection guarantees our future resurrection, since when we were baptised, we were baptised into His Death and Resurrection (Rom 6:3).

There can be no doubt the Resurrection really took place. The witnesses to it were very reliable ones, among them even Roman soldiers. Neither was the JESUS the disciples saw a ghost. He ate and drank with them to prove that he had really risen and was true flesh and blood, and the Gospels describe numerous appearances of JESUS after His Resurrection. Had He appeared only once or twice, we might conclude they were perhaps hallucinating. But He showed Himself many times, and on one occasion to more than five hundred people (1 Cor 15:6). Many of Our Lord’s former opponents converted and became believers. Furthermore, almost all of the Apostles were martyred for preaching the Resurrection. Had they been trying to deceive people, they would never have given their lives for something they knew to be fake. Indeed, it was the fact of the Resurrection that gave them the strength to testify to JESUS and His Divinity.

On this greatest of feasts, let us thank Our Lord for the great victory of the Resurrection and for His giving us a share in it. Each of us can now truly cry out in the words of today’s psalm; “I shall not die, I shall live!”

Fr Paul Gillham IC

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The Ceremonies of Holy Week

Today, Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, when we remember and make present Our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem which will ultimately result in His Passion and Death. As you walk in the procession today, imagine you are a member of the crowd and praise Him as you walk with your palm. And perhaps this evening, try and imagine Our Lord contemplating what He knew lay ahead of Him in the coming week.

Lent ends when the Triduum (three days) begins on Maundy Thursday and we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This was the very first Mass during which Our Lord changed the bread and wine into His own Body and Blood and when He ordained the Apostles His first priests. The washing of the feet reminds us that the priesthood is always in service of others. Because of the gravity of these days, the bells are rung at the Gloria and then remain silent until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil. At the Consecration a ratchet or noise maker is used instead of the bells to indicate the Church has now entered a period of mourning. Then follows the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose where we are invited to keep watch. We are reminded of Our Lord’s words, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with Me” (Mt. 26:28). The altars in the church are then stripped since Mass is not celebrated on Good Friday.

Good Friday, the day of the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord is a day of mourning. All is desolation in the church. The altar is bare, the tabernacle is empty and all ornament is removed. It is a day of prayer, fasting and abstinence.  During the Sacred Liturgy we venerate and kiss the Cross to honour Christ’s sacrifice for our sake. If you receive Holy Communion, recall that the word “host” comes from the Latin “hostia” meaning victim. All depart in silence.

The Easter Vigil is the climax of Holy Week and begins with the solemn blessing of the Easter Fire and the Procession of the Paschal Candle into the dark church. JESUS is the light in the darkness. We listen to the prophecies foretelling all these events, and then suddenly at the Gloria the bells are rung, the organ played, announcing Christ’s glorious Resurrection from the dead and His victory over sin, death and Satan.

All these events are made present to us in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. They are not a mere commemoration of past events. I urge you to do your best to be present for this holiest of weeks in the life of the Church.       

Fr Paul Gillham IC

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Last week a smile and flowers,
this week serious and purple all around!!

A sombre atmosphere descends at Mass this weekend as we hear Jesus tell His disciples that He has come to die – that’s the reason He came.  He uses a lovely picture of a grain of wheat that must die in the earth so as to bring new life. This is more than a loved one or a parent doing without for the sake of the next generation, or the sacrifice of one’s self, that another may live. This is the Creator of all life, freely giving His life in the cruellest of ways, that all humanity, of every race and time, and all creation, may be saved, reborn, forgiven, healed, renewed with eternal life!

WOW! Cosmic! Earth shattering! Apocalyptic!

Jesus faces this great task with gentleness and love, describing it as ‘Glory’, ‘His hour’.   He speaks prophetically about the fate that He that knew awaited Him.  From death comes life; from dying comes rising; from losing our lives in Him comes finding our lives for Him.  As we make the sign of the cross at beginning of Mass today, look up at the crucifix above the altar during the Mass today and receive the blessing of the cross at the end of Mass today, and let’s ponder its meaning, this sign of our belonging, this image recounting our forgiveness and healing, this great sign of God’s love being poured out into our souls and lives for life and life eternal, and all by Grace. God’s gracious love for us and all His creation.

Go out at the end of Mass with a smile, proudly bearing the cross of Christ deep within you and let the love which held Christ to that cross, which we have received in His Blessed Sacrament, be seen and heard in all you do and say this week.

Deacon David OLW

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Something to put a smile on our faces  
Laetare – Rejoice!

Lent is often thought of as a mournful season – but it can be a season of Joy too.  Today’s Readings make clear why.  It is about reflecting more and more deeply on God’s infinite love, directed at our salvation, at our living the life of God in its fullness. Now that’s a cause for joy! Yes, it is a season of penance but that’s about our disciplining our lives so that our souls may come closer to God by putting some of our self-centredness aside and our confessed sins behind us. For in Lent we do not try to win God’s favour, or persuade God that we deserve His love, because we never can. This is the season when we do penance, not to win God’s favour but to appreciate more fully His infinite love. That’s what the crucifix above the altar shows us, the sacrifice of the Mass reveals to us and today’s Gospel declares:

‘Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave His Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’

Now that’s something to truly put a smile on our faces and a sense of rejoicing in our souls, that God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, loves you and me so much that He is prepared to go to such great lengths to give us life and life eternal!!

Deacon David OLW       

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Third Sunday of Lent

Jesus is busy with a whip and indignation in our Gospel this Sunday, clearing out and cleansing. Clearing out is a very good theme for us to contemplate during this Holy Season of Lent. Those of you who over the years have had to clear out a relative’s home, or have yourselves moved house, will understand what a task that can be. We all seem to keep so much and the longer we are in one place the more that seems to accumulate! As I well know after spending nearly 20 years abroad. But clearing out and sorting out is good for us both practically and spiritually for it challenges our priorities: – what is really necessary and what is important?

The Temple in Jerusalem was to be the supreme place for the Hebrew people to encounter the presence of God. A place of Holiness, peace and prayer but as Jesus discovered it had gradually become a noisy cacophony of animal sales and market traders, and He reacted with passion!

At our baptism we Christians receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to dwell in our souls, the ‘Light of Christ’ to be nurtured and shine out in us as we grow as disciples of Jesus. St Paul reminded the Christians in Corinth (1 Cor 6:19) that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, He who lives in us by Grace. Lent is our time to do a bit of cleansing, clearing out of that temple within, getting rid of the clutter of old habits, past sins, neglected virtues. It’s a reminder that the ‘work’ of conversion, our conversion, is always a work in progress and contrition. But examining our lives is often something we run from, put off, leave for another day or time, a bit like sorting out the attic, the spare room or our wardrobe. Examining our lives is never easy: it requires courage to reflect on our behaviour. This is the great beauty which the ‘Health check’ that coming to confession gives us. Forgiveness and Reconciliation is the ‘medicine’ we all need, as in the secrecy of the confessional we admit our faults and failings, clear out the temple of the Holy Spirit within us of it clutter: harsh words, bad deeds and thoughts, failures etc which prevent the Light of Christ to shine from us and there to receive the healing of Christ in the words of absolution.

Cleansed, Renewed, Restored, ‘Temples of God’s love’
Let’s get the ‘brushes’ out and the ‘black bags’ and have a good clear out of our souls, praying that the Holy Spirit will bless us with passion in our task.                                                                Shine brighter for Christ.

Deacon David OLW

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