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Due to the pandemic, and not being able to attend church, many people have found themselves not being able to access streamed masses on the internet.  The Knights of St Columba have arranged for anyone to use a telephone to hear mass, at only the cost of a local call.  The number to call is – 01642 130 120.

On Saturday , February 13th, we are inviting the children to join us for  a Seasonal Workshop. This will be held online from 2.30pm for approximately an hour.

There will be games, prayers, activities and friendship. Come and join us as we celebrate the start of Lent.

Children and their families will need to sign up for the session in order to receive the log in details. We will also need an address so we can deliver a pack of helpful materials for the session.  Please register your interest by contacting Sandra on 07791627368, email [email protected] or Teresa on 07951082592 , email [email protected]  

The readings this weekend challenge us to avoid Job’s pessimistic and desperate view of life. He was really low in spirit when he regarded life as all pain and suffering. We must try to accept life with hope and optimism as a precious gift from God, be cheerful, use our lives to do good for others and spend our time, talents and lives for others as Jesus did and as St. Paul did.  The second reading describes Paul to us as a true follower of Jesus, moved as Jesus was by concern for the lost which led him to preach the Gospel without cost to the people, and to serve them with Jesus’ love and fidelity. 

The Gospel teaches us that true discipleship means giving selfless, loving service to others. Mark shows Jesus teaching with authority, exorcising a demon, healing Simon’s mother-in-law and, after sunset curing “many who were sick with various diseases, and [driving] out many demons” The following day Jesus rises early and goes off “to a deserted place” to pray, in order to think about what he has been doing  and to recharge his spiritual batteries.

The message for us is quite simple:  Bringing healing and wholeness is Jesus’ ministry even today. We all need healing for our minds, our memories, and our broken relationships.  Nowadays Jesus is also using counsellors, doctors, friends, or even strangers to carry out his healing ministry. Let us ask for the ordinary healing we need in our own lives. When we are healed, do not forget to thank Jesus for his goodness, mercy, and compassion by turning to serve others in our turn.  Our own healing is fulfilled only when we are ready to help others in their needs and to focus on things outside ourselves.  Jesus found time for prayer, time for healing, and time for reconciliation so we, too, can take up this challenge by sharing love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness with others. 

“O that today you would listen to His voice, harden not your hearts”.

This was the response to last Sundays psalm “O that today you would listen to His voice, harden not your hearts”.

Having said this over and over,  I hope this truly registered with me.  What a dreadful year it has been and right now there is no let up.  We had the Deanery Meeting of the priests and deacons, and I could not get over how stressed they were.  It really is a stressful time.

To begin with the message “Listen to His voice, yes to His voice”, and then to the messages coming from health and safety.  From the beginning of the pandemic, because it is malign and evil, the most potent emotion is fear.  Because of this the importance of the message of Jesus. “By their fruits you shall know them, good trees bare good fruit”.

Now that we have passed “La le Bride” St Brigid’s Day, spring is on its way.  The days are a cock step longer.  Real progress is being made with the vaccinations and please God, before we know it we will be on our way again.  This is a most important opportunity and let us treat it as a fresh start, with the hope of living, learning and celebrating again.

Okay, the message still remains – keep safe, “Festina Lente”, hurry up, but slowly, and this week I am once again expecting Fr Kieran to give me a break, but most important is the message of Pope Francis for 2021:-

“To be happy is to let live the creature that lives in each of us free, joyful and simple.  It is to have maturity to be able to say: “I made mistakes”.  It is to have the courage to say “I am sorry”.  It is to have the sensitivity to say, “I need you”.  It is to have the ability to say “I love you”.  May your life become a garden of opportunity for happiness….. That in spring may it be a lover of joy.  In winter a lover of wisdom.  And when you make a mistake, start all over again.  For only then will you be in love with life.

You will find that to be happy is not to have a perfect life.  But use the tears to irrigate tolerance.  Use your losses to train patience.  Use your mistakes to sculptor  serenity.  Use pain to plaster pleasure.  Use obstacles to open windows of intelligence.  Never give up …… Never give up on people who love you.  Never give up on happiness, for life is an incredible show”.

Heaven’s Road Catholic Online Radio www.heavensroadfm.com is an online radio broadcasting features like prayers, interviews and music to appeal to a Catholic audience – they also have many podcasts and broadcast over 40 daily live Masses from 15 churches in England and Ireland from their website www.heavensroadfm.com.

There will still be many at St George’s who remember with great fondness Fr Jimmy from Esker Redemptorist Community in Galway. He used to come over to us every summer for several weeks. I found him on line this weekend celebrating Mass at Esker Monastery and wanted to share it with all those who remember him with great fondness. He still has a fabulous singing voice, good and strong! If you want to go on line you can find him if you google Esker Monastery. That will bring you to their website and you can see Mass live or recorded. He doesn’t say every Mass but take a look at the recording for Sunday 24th January and you will see him there. Mass goes out live at 10.55 am.  I have emailed him at Esker to let him know his friends at Polegate will be looking out for him!   He will next stream Mass on 13th and 14th February.

The Diocesan Formation Team is hosting a mission for you this Lent. It will be the first of five seasons of mission, helping you to explore God’s Invitation to live your life with him.

What is a mission? An opportunity for everyone in the parish to sit back and reflect on the content provided. Season one is a series of programmes that help us to understand exactly how much we are loved by God, and features guest speakers such as David Wells, Eleanor Oliver and David Beresford. You will then be able to join a virtual conversation to meet like minded people and discuss what you have learnt. Visit www.abdiocese.org.uk/invited to find out more.   You, are Invited.

I invite you this week to imagine you are on a boat, perhaps a canoe, a sailing boat, a ferry or a great liner. Whichever you choose, think of yourself as on a long journey across the sea in the present time to an unknown destination called eternity. Throughout our lives we will all have a huge variety of experiences. Some of these may well be storms, some emotional and some physical, as well as spiritual storms. We will come face to face with sorrow of some kind – the loss of a loved one, a friend, a teacher, a pet – and we will turn to Jesus for help and peace of mind. He will always be there to accompany us in such times. We will have doubts that we are doing the right thing, worry about what the future will bring, temptations, worries. Give some time this week to imagine that you have overcome all the obstacles put in your way by circumstances that have arisen in your life and arrived at eternity, your ultimate destiny. What do you imagine it will be like? Will you meet your family who have gone before you? Your friends, teachers, companions? Those you have quarrelled with or just disliked? Will your surroundings be different? Will you be able to see your favourite places or perhaps the places you have longed to visit but been unable to do so. Will there be books to read? 

I included a pet since there was a story this week about a little dog who followed the ambulance to the hospital where its master was being taken but was not allowed in. This dog went home each day, but returned every day for a week and remained outside during the day. It was wonderful to see both the dog’s joy when his master came out of hospital and that of its master.

This week may be a good time to give thanks to all who have helped you at various times, throughout your lives. It is definitely a good time to give thanks to the Lord who has always been there to bring peace to our minds, whatever the problem. He will calm tempers and bring peace to all who seek him, dispel worries and help us find peace in troubled times. 

Last Sunday’s Psalm could be taken into our hearts and minds and acted upon at any time: “Lord, make me know your ways. Lord teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me; for you are my God, my saviour.”

You can get a similar message from this coming Sunday’s Psalm which starts: “O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts.” And continues with “Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks, with songs let us hail the Lord.”   With my love and prayers.

There is a little phrase in Latin “Festina Lente” which expresses “hurry up, but slowly”.  This I think and hope echoes our present situation.  Now with a number of people having received the vaccine it is becoming more real, but at the same time because of the amount of people catching and dying from the virus the situation remains very difficult.  Even though the number of new incidents remains high, the need to return to normal life, especially for schools and indeed elderly people is becoming critical on account of the mental stress that is involved.

Safety remains a great concern.  To safely return to a normal healthier life is also now important.  So caution, adhering to wearing masks and social distancing is essential, and to avail of this as an important opportunity to live and learn, and please God, to gain a better quality of life in the future.  This is much to be desired for our catholic Christian community.  I have heard quite regularly of silver linings in the great dark cloud that is Covid 19.  Silver linings may give us opportunities as we return to family and parish life and a good constructive challenge to our future. 

I am taking a break this weekend, with Fr Kieran covering Masses for me.   We will have plenty of time to recover and especially with the season of Lent approaching we can share and strive to live our faith together with confidence and trust.  Then continuing on from last week, the message from Pope Francis, for the next couple of weeks can give us food for thought:-

“Being happy is not a fatality of destiny, but an achievement for those who can travel within themselves.  To be happy is to stop feeling like a victim and become your destiny’s author.  It is to cross deserts, yet to be able to find an oasis in the depths of our soul.  It is to thank God for every morning, for the miracle of life.

Being happy is not being afraid of our own feelings.  It’s to be able to talk about you.  It is having the courage to hear a “no”.  It is confidence in the face of criticism, even when unjustified.

It is to kiss your children, pamper your parents, to live poetic moments with friends, even when they hurt us”.

Donating On-Line Information

For those who wish to donate on-line to the A&B Lourdes Pilgrimage Appeal Collection, the following information shows how this can be done using the A&B Diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage website.

1. Go to the Arundel & Brighton Diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage website using this link: A&B Lourdes Pilgrimage Website or the website address https://www.abdiocese.org.uk/lourdes/home
2. Click on the donate button on the right-hand side of the screen.
3. Please then click on the donate button in the middle of the page and follow the instructions.

If you have any questions, please contact the A&B Lourdes Pilgrimage Office, either by email on [email protected] or call 01403 740110

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Lourdes Office