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Sunday 20 March 2016

18 Mar

PALM SUNDAY

The kaleidoscope of life, with its ups and downs, its moments of love, elation and joy countered by rejection, failure and disappointment, of friends and foes, of affirmation and then back-stabbing, are all present in today’s Palm Sunday liturgy or, more accurately, in today’s “Account of Jesus Fulfilling God’s Plan of Salvation” which culminated in his Passion and Death. The only Hosannas that really count are those that come after Jesus’ death. The green palm leaves and brightly coloured cloaks will soon become the wood of the cross and the funeral shroud. And the leitmotif? Obedience! Constant, challenging, obedience! Obedience to the will of God: to love, to love, to love! To love in good times as in bad. Unconditional loving. Are you up to that?

Jesus said, ‘If anyone wishes to be my disciple, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.’ (Matt. 16:24) Let us be genuine, authentic disciples of Jesus, taking up our crosses and following him, loving … But loving to a rare and exquisite degree * … loving unconditionally.

(* c.f. A. Rosmini, Common Rules, Chp 3, On the Love of God, para. 9: ‘The soul’s perfection consists in the love of God raised to a rare and exquisite degree’)

Fr Philip Sainter

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BISHOP VISITS ST MARY’S

22 Jan

Tuesday, 8 December 2015 was a special day for St Mary’s Catholic community in Loughborough when the Bishop of Nottingham, Right Reverend Patrick McKinney, came to celebrate Mass in honour of the 90^th anniversary of the extension to the church.

St Mary’s was originally built in 1838, and subsequently extended in 1925, to cater for the needs of the growing Catholic community in the town. Mass was concelebrated by St Mary’s priests, local priests from Sacred Heart, Grace Dieu, Ratcliffe and Rugby, alongside former parish priests, Fathers Ted Mullen and Philip Scanlan who were greeted warmly by parishioners. Also present was Squire De Lisle whose long association with St Mary’s and the Rosminian Order goes back to 1825 when Ambrose March Phillipps of Garendon Hall brought Father Luigi Gentili from the Italian Rosminian Order, the Institute of Charity, to Leicestershire. Many people were converted to Catholicism, leading to the building of churches at both Whitwick and Shepshed. After Mass the celebration continued in the parish hall.

The date of 8 December is important in the Catholic calendar as it is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, to whom the church is dedicated. It is also the date designated by Pope Francis as the start of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, a special year focusing particularly on God’s mercy and forgiveness. As the Bishop recalled in his homily, mercy was the springboard for the construction of St Mary’s; a mother in search of a Catholic church where her baby could be baptised discovered that there was no church in the town.

The Pope wishes there to be events and activities not only at the Vatican but in local churches around the world to celebrate this important Jubilee Year of Mercy. St Mary’s will be organising pilgrimages to St Barnabas’ Cathedral, Holy Cross Priory, Mt St Bernard’s and The Briars, Crich, where ‘Holy Doors’ will welcome the faithful. Responding to Pope Francis who said, “Let us not forget that God forgives and God forgives always, let us never tire of asking for forgiveness”, St Mary’s, in preparation for Christmas, is offering a Service of Reconciliation on Friday 18^th December with confessions Saturday morning 9.45am – 1200 noon and from 5.30 – 6.00pm and 10.30 – 11.00am Sundays.

Photo shows, from left to right: Fr Paul Gillham (Assistant Parish Priest) Right Reverend Patrick McKinney, Bishop of Nottingham, Fr Philip Sainter (Parish Priest), Fr Andrew Cole (Bishop’s Secretary), Fr Philip Scanlan (Former Parish Priest)