Category: Latest News

The coming Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. The readings for this Sunday are about God’s mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith, and our need for the forgiveness of our sins. On the 30th of April 2000, at 10:00 AM, on the Second Sunday of Easter His Holiness Pope St. John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square and proceeded to the canonization of Blessed Sister Faustina. Saint Faustina invites us by the witness of her life to keep our Faith and Hope fixed on God the Father, rich in mercy, who saved us by the precious Blood of His Son.  During her short life, Saint Faustina invites us by the witness of her life to keep our Faith and Hope fixed on God the Father. During her life, the Lord assigned to St. Faustina three basic tasks: 1. to pray for souls, entrusting them to God’s incomprehensible Mercy; 2. to tell the world about God’s generous Mercy; 3. to start a new movement in the Church focusing on God’s Mercy.

So, let us all have the courage of our Christian convictions to share our Faith with others.  We are not to keep the gift of Faith locked in our hearts, but to share it with our children, our families, our friends and our neighbours. Let us always remember the words of Pope St. John XXIII: “Every believer in this world must become a spark of Christ’s light.” That is the light we see in the new Easter candle lit last Saturday evening for the first time and at every mass during Eastertide.

Parliament in your Parish

Engaging A&B MPs to plan a better post-COVID world

Thursday 15th April, 7.30pm to 8.30pm

The eyes are on the UK as we host both the G7 and COP26 summits this year. It is as important as ever that we hold our politicians accountable after the pandemic to rebuild in a way that addresses the world’s most pressing ecological and social issues. Arundel & Brighton’s Journey to 2030 and CAFOD invite you to an evening of online discussion on how we can engage with our MP on these issues, using CAFOD’s Reclaim our Common Home campaign as a means to encourage our MPs to take action through a “Parliament in your Parish”. You will learn about how to engage with the campaign, including how to set up meetings with your MP, as well as have the chance to connect with others in the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton and your own constituency to maximise our message. Please email: [email protected] with your name, parish and MP constituency to register your place and receive the Zoom link.

The Diocese of Arundel & Brighton is a Fairtrade Diocese – 50% of our churches are certificated as meeting the Fairtrade Foundation’s criteria for Fairtrade churches and agree to use products with the FAIRTRADE mark.  The A&B Fairtrade Group ensures that goals continue to be met and aims to raise awareness about Fairtrade labelled products – including those sold by Traidcraft – which support fair terms of trade, decent working conditions and local sustainability for farmers and producers in the developing world.  The Group needs more members from across the Diocese and would welcome enquiries from interested people. The Group meets three times a year. Please contact Sue Joy, Convenor. email: [email protected]  01342 835190.  Thank you.

Easter is the greatest and the most important feast in the Church for three reasons: 1) The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Faith.  It is the greatest of the miracles, for it proves that Jesus is God.  That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain”. It is important to note that the founder of no other religion has an empty tomb as Jesus has.  2) Easter is the guarantee of our own resurrection.  Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he dies”. 3) Easter is a feast which gives us hope and encouragement in this sorry world of ours. There is so much pain, sorrow and tears around us.  This feast reminds us that life is worth living.  It is our belief in the Real Presence of the Risen Jesus in our souls, in His Church, in the Blessed Sacrament, and in Heaven that gives meaning to our personal as well as our communal prayer. It gives us the strength to fight against temptations, and freedom from unnecessary worries and fears.

According to an ancient Russian Orthodox tradition, the day before Easter was devoted to telling jokes. Priests would join the people in telling their best jokes to one another. The reason was to reflect the joke God pulled on the devil in the Resurrection. Satan thought he had won on Friday, but God had the last laugh on Easter Sunday.)

May the Risen Lord be a living experience to you, pervading every area of your life,  blessing you, strengthening you, inspiring you, guiding you and supporting you in all you do. I wish you all a happy and holy Easter.

Holy Week Masses:  If you have booked a Mass at St George’s and St Wilfrid’s over the Holy Week and not had confirmation of a place.  Please contact Margaret for St George’s on 870990 and Jackie for St Wilfrid’s on 841504.  Thank you.

St Wilfrid’s Church still has a few remaining places available for the Saturday Easter Vigil.  If you would like to attend this service please ring 841504 or email [email protected]

A reminder – The Easter Offerings are for our Parish Priest.  Please contribute through the church accounts in the normal way, so the Parish can benefit from Gift Aid.  Direct payments to him cannot accrue this benefit.

Dorothy Blake RIP. The Requiem Mass for Dorothy will be offered on Tuesday 13 April at 12 noon, preceded by the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 11.45. If you would like to attend please contact Jean 842824 or Bob 847014, as only 30 people can be present.  Burial afterwards at Hailsham Cemetery.

The following is adapted from an article by Greg Kendra who is a Deacon in the States.

This Sunday is Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday and is a day in which we need to remember. Remember that the crowd that cheered Jesus also condemned him. Remember that the voices praising him also called for his death. Remember that those who loved him and promised loyalty also abandoned him, denied him, and betrayed him.

Christ’s Passion goes on today. Our betrayal of him continues, in ways large and small. How often do we praise God on Sunday…and cast Him aside on Monday? How often do we shrug Him off when things become too difficult or the rules too hard or the demands of the Christian life too taxing? How often do we treat love as just a sentiment for greeting cards, and not a command for living? How often do we see suffering in the faces of those in need, and simply turn away?

Christ continues to bleed and weep and cry out, “Why have you abandoned me?” He cries out today to us. Whatever you do to the least of these, he said, you do to me.

What do we do? We encounter him on the pavement, and go out of our way to avoid him. We ignore so many people who need us.

Remember: He is everywhere there is someone who is small, or neglected, or disrespected, or discarded. He is with the unwanted and unloved, the bullied and abused.

Remember: We have said, “Give us Barabbas.” 

Remember: We have said, in effect, “Crucify him.”

The palms today have a two fold purpose: First, they remind us that we are called to be heralds of Christ – to celebrate him the way they did that day in Jerusalem. Secondly, and importantly they challenge us to keep crying “Hosanna,” to keep proclaiming the Good News – even when the world tempts us to do otherwise, even when it seems like it would be easier to go with the crowd and simply choose Barabbas. The palms challenge us to not turn our back and walk away.  They challenge us not only to remember what we have done to him, but what he has done for us.

That is what Holy week is about.

Please be a friend to unborn babies and their mothers.  In March 2020 the government used temporary Covid-19 rules to permit home abortion.  Both doses of abortion pills can now be taken at home without medical supervision.  This is very dangerous and traumatic for the mother.  The number of unborn babies killed under the DIY abortion scheme has risen.  Please support our campaign to ask the Prime Minister to stop home abortion in our country by filling in your White Flower postcard.  Thank you.