Category: Fr Rory Writes

Fr Rory’s Birthday celebrations and CAFOD Harvest Appeal:

Come and join us in celebrating Fr Rory’s special birthday next Sunday, September 29th. We all give thanks that he has chosen not to retire, just yet! 

We are encouraging all parishioners to sponsor Father Rory as he walks between our two parish churches, departing from St Georges, Polegate at 3pm. Or, if you are able to join him along the walk, please collect your own sponsor forms and cheer him along. Sponsor forms are available at the back of the church. Following the walk, we will celebrate with a birthday tea and musical entertainment in St Wilfrid’s hall from 4pm. If you are joining us for the walk or coming along to the birthday celebrations, don’t forget to add your name to the list at the back of church. This will help us to cater for everyone’s needs. 

CAFOD Harvest Appeal:  CAFOD’s Harvest Family Fast Day is on Friday 4th October, a day we can pray, give, and eat simply in solidarity with our global family. Thank you for your support of previous Fast Days and thank you for your generosity and prayers for our sisters and brothers in this Harvest Appeal. This year’s appeal is focusing on supporting people like Daniel, a young man in Democratic Republic of Congo.  Daniel’s family didn’t always have enough to eat, despite both of his parents working. There was no money to send him to school. Now Daniel is carving a better future for his family with carpentry skills he learned in a CAFOD-funded training centre. Give to CAFOD today and you’ll fund training, tools, equipment and safe spaces so more people like Daniel can learn new skills and fulfil their God-given potential.
 
 Please share the link with your family and friends and help us to reach our target of £500 for the CAFOD Harvest Appeal

“Another Outing”

Last week I shared our experience of a visit to see Elizabeth Robinson, which was a great moment of grace amidst all the adversities of life.  She was a blessing and a joy to visit.  Reminiscing on moments from the past, and the special contributions of Peter and Sophie from confirmation preparation, plus treasured memories from our past.

This week I am about to set out on a much longer venture, when we will visit Fr Jerry Twomey in York.  He was ordained with me at Thurles in June, fifty years ago.  We joined the seminary together, six years earlier.  I look forward to sharing with him treasured moments from that time.  We were very blessed with aspects of our experiences, and one of the professors was a true treasure that can never be taken away.   Other aspects were fit for purpose, and we looked forward to a rewarding time of ministry in the church.

I am afraid that was not sadly how it turned out and continues to be echoed in the times we are living.  The seminaries are closed (a sign of not fit for purpose) some will not be pleased by the reminder.  Fr Jerry’s health has let him down, so he has made the decision to retire.  I am really looking forward to our time of sharing.  I am hoping and praying that this visit will be equally rewarding as the one with Elizabeth.  In fact I am sure it will be a great help and I am looking forward to it.  Please God, it will help to open my eyes to see the beam in my own eyes before attempting to take out the splinters in other peoples eyes.  Also, help me as I look forward to our future following on the moderated plans in Fr Kevins letter, laying out the focus for our future.  Please continue to give the letter the care and attention that it requires.

So important that we continue on our pilgrim way on life’s journey.

At times like this, easier said than done.  Thanks be to God for a very special moment of grace, last week had a blast from the past.  Myself, Joan and Granddaughter Sophie visited Elizabeth Robinson.  She is very blessed because her nursing home near the seafront in Bexhill is looking after her very well and she is very happy there.  Sophie and Elizabeth’s husband Peter, did a lot of work together for our parish and we cherished good times together.

So needless to say I continue to pray for our future.  Words are always selective and we choose what we like to hear from “Letter to all parishioners of the Deanery – July 2024”.  We won’t be about “closing down” but building up what we already have, sharing all our good resources.

Wishing you all the joy and renewed energy that this holiday season may be reviving and beneficial to you. 

Many, especially those who were involved in education were in real need of this.

The two remarkable Great Feasts of August.  We have just celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration and this week on Thursday we will celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady into Heaven.  When I was growing up this was very well celebrated and was a part of a great event.  The importance of the celebrations is their focus upon the splendour of Our Divine Majesty, The Infinite Goodness of God.  One day His glory will be revealed  and our work will be done. 

Grace and peace.

“It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

Not my brother, not my sister.  But it’s me, O Lord,

Standing in the need of prayer.

Many years ago in the earlier days of my ministry, we were invited by the diocese to embark on a journey, the focus for the journey being “renew”.  For the Jubilee Celebration Mass at St Wilfrid’s, just before the commencement of mass, an old photograph of my mum and dad was followed by a photograph of an oak tree with me standing under it.  When the renew programme was introduced I had not long been at the parish, but I had planted potatoes which     produced a very good crop that was quickly taken up by customers.  Not so fortunate for the renew process.  Some parishioners embraced it, and some put in a large amount of work to produce fruit for the harvest, and I have not seen any oak tress in the diocese like the one at St Pauls.

We are now on a new journey, very important to our lives and our communities.  Fr Kevin has given us a very       important introduction to attach to our newsletter this week, which has a most important bearing on our future.  We must give it our very best effort.  Here at St George’s and St Wilfrid’s a lot of preliminary work has taken place.  At St George’s, Martin Falkner, over the Sundays of August will present us with early offshoots and I will follow them at St Wilfrid’s, which we pray will develop and grow.  The welcome introduction prepared by Stephen is a very tangible, purposeful development that will, with the help of God, bear fruit; fruit that will last.

Most important that we become communities of faith. 

After the great celebrations for the Jubilee and all the goodness, help and support, I had to come back down to earth with a bang.  So the focus has to come back on what is truly important to the life of our future.  The meeting at Our Lady of Ransom, the attendance was very good, the only big question surrounded the age profile of those present.

Fr Kevin’s presentation for our future was well prepared and laid out as the guiding principles for this.  It did not lend much opportunity for discussion and how we might work together to bring it to fruition.  I am sure all of this is to be tackled in the coming times.  The age profile of those in attendance, particularly what they would say to the children who are now raising children, and seldom attend church was most on their agenda.  So they did not find it very     helpful.

We will be able to download the material and it is vital to give this great care and attention.  The fact is we have been doing some very good work.   I brought our “Welcome Card” to the meetings attention.  It is excellent but now we must express the same welcome to the catholic communities of St George and St Wilfrid.  The focus is spot on and ready for purpose.  Clarifying the role of our children’s liturgy and welcome to new members needs to be done.  The foundations are ready to be put in place.  Speaking for a moment to Bob Waters has been very helpful.  His focus was on Pope Francis as he renewed the call for a Synodal approach in the decisions that are facing the church in our time.  Returning to our very successful celebrations for my Jubilee in the music and verse, this supports us on our  journey of faith:-

“We come to share our story,

We come to break the bread, The divine bread that has come down from heaven.

We came to know our rising from the dead”.

When God’s glory is revealed, our joy will be full.

“Superb” was my immediate response on the day.  I was overwhelmed and more conscious as the day was going on, my failure to give sufficient recognition and thanks to those who were contributing to the day.  The music was a blast from the past, the Irish dancing from early days and a new contribution from the Indian community.

One name stands out among many, Sandra, but a great big thank you to so many to make it such a great day.  Please God, it will provide inspiration for the challenges ahead, and I think a good return to the music; without a colossal amount of work would be nice to see on the horizon.

Grace and Peace

A heart felt thank you for all your care and kindness over the years

Father, Son and Holy Spirit                                                      Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

I deeply appreciate all the care and kindness over all the years that I have been here, and these celebrations are the icing on the cake. 

Please God, over the years to come, this will provide us with a source of strength and the grace to persevere through the trials of life.

No Cross No Crown, so may we all continue to persevere until we enter Our Fathers house. Our true home kept for us in heaven.

“On the horizon a Golden Jubilee”

When God’s glory is revealed, then our joy will be full. 

On my journey of life this has always had a fixed and most important focus for my faith.   A focus when many times the hard reality of trials and tribulations left be living with all my weaknesses, faults and failures as a parish priest.  Triumph by the power of Him who loves us. 

For many, this is much more embodied in the words “pie in the sky when we die”.  When I reflect upon this response I can understand those who would more honestly continue to reflect this as being more authentic.  It is not what they find in the world of religion we bring to them.  It is a real challenge.  Our call to be disciples was fundamental to the message we received from Fr Seamus Ryan, with other very important contributions from professors while we were at the seminary.   Leaving us with an anchor that is important.  Confronted with the present situation, so far from our hopes and aspirations the challenge remains.  This has received powerful expressions for me in the music and verse:-

“We come to share our story,

  We come to break the bread, The divine bread that has come down from heaven.

  We came to know our rising from the dead”.

Truthfully and sincerely this is what I find in our parish community.  I am privileged to be here and look forward to working together.   Let us continue.

As we continue to live to listen to hope and to pray.

Our deanery meetings as we knew them have come to an end.  At the last meeting of the priests, a presentation on the new order was unfolded in preparation for the year to come.  An amount of work went into its preparation and in the same way that our own parish council has been very diligent, we must be prepared to do what is necessary for our churches to survive.  This story is taking place all over our diocese and was well reflected at our celebration for the jubilarians in our diocese.  When this situation was beginning, this statement came to my attention; a plan is useless,   planning is all important.  For our two communities this is being really, really well recognised and planning is in  progress.  Real efforts are taking place and I see this so well reflected in the hard work that is being undertaken to  celebrate my Golden Jubilee.  I am extremely grateful.

Pope Francis began the process, as he expressed the need for a Synod to update and structure which was initiated by the Second Vatican Council.  This updated the liturgy and other aspects of the life of the church.  Over the last couple of years we have responded to this and so we are ready to progress.  As this happens initially, saplings in their early stages are fragile.

Last Sunday we returned to one of the original initiatives “Name Sunday”.  The buzz was good, and the response was better.   A sign of willingness to engage.   Suggested initiatives by the parish council are excellent and the focus of    developing different ministries begin to emerge.  An early example will be the ministry of welcome and the ministry of the eucharist.  Keeping a focus upon the R.C.I.A. is truly a guiding light waiting to be discovered and developed after all these years.  We were beginning to work with this many years ago, but a plan renew was introduced.