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The day of Pentecost has come, and with it the opportunity for us to really rely on the power of God, to redeem and save, but above all to live lives of faith and faithfulness.  At the beginning of lockdown my mind was focused upon this year’s Feast of Pentecost.  From the beginning of Lent I was becoming more used to the human condition I found myself in and having to adapt by giving greater attention to my prayers and mass.

It was very much a shock to me, (but “shock” is not really the right word);  I was landed in hospital and adapting to the label “acute psychotic state”, called upon to rely upon providence and to re-evaluate my ministry.  Above all to reconsider my journey of faith.  My sister Mary’s well-timed book “A Mother’s Love” gave me important insight; and the realisation of one constant; the gift of faith we had received as children. 

The Second Vatican Council was my “theme song” with the charismatic renewal, marriage encounter, prayer groups, Taizé in France, life in the church appeared to be very promising.  My personal limitations, alongside parish ministry found me more and more at odds between my expectation and realities in the life of the parish.  Ten years on an ecumenical project was maybe a haven, but now I am hoping and praying that the Lord will renew, direct, and support me.  The loss of my driver’s licence will please God, come to an end, and will be helpful to my work and ministry.

The challenge and please God, the opportunity that will be provided “post coronavirus” will truly need all the blessings of a new Pentecost.  From screening masses different expectations have received moments of grace and blessing, much appreciated and may go on to influence our options and choices.  But the central need is for a community of faith, with a real decision to belong.  One of my faults and failings is being poor at remembering names and establishing relationships in the community.

With the help of God this can be addressed.  The new normal is a word that we hear quite frequently from the Media.  Our need in the church to develop a fresh response as opportunities arise is essential.  We are currently waiting for guidance concerning the re-opening of churches, and at this time there are no clear instructions.  Following on from the Governments guidelines, as from Monday 1^st June, I am encouraging visits to our prayer garden in appropriate groups, including families, for prayer (confession/reconciliation) and fellowship.  Unfortunately, I do not have my driver’s licence so I cannot avail of St George’s Memorial Garden.  Please ring me as I will be delighted to hear from you.

Take part in the Friends of Westminster Cathedral Lockdown Online Quiz on Tuesday 2 June at 6.30pm on the Friends of Westminster Cathedral Facebook Page. The quiz is free to enter but we are asking if you might make a £5 per head donation.  All monies raised will help to support Westminster Cathedral. Parish virtual teams are welcome and may communicate using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, What’s App etc.

For more details and to enter email

[email protected]

Please note that the Friends page is private and you will need to join the page in advance to take part in the quiz.

Pentecost Prayer

This weekend let us all say St. John Henry Cardinal Newman’s favourite little prayer, “Come Holy Spirit:”

Come Holy Spirit
Make our ears to hear
Make our eyes to see
Make our mouths to speak
Make our hearts to seek
Make our hands to reach out
And touch the world with your love.  AMEN.

The title for this weekend is Pentecost which literally means 50th and is a feast celebrated on the 50th day after the Passover feast by the Jews and a feast celebrated on the 50th day after the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus by Christians. The Jewish Pentecost was originally a post-harvest thanksgiving feast. Later, the Jews included in it the remembrance of God’s Covenants with Noah after the Deluge and with Moses at Mt. Sinai.

There are four important events that occurred on this Feast day. First The Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary as fiery tongues. Next the frightened apostles were transformed into fiery preachers and evangelisers and were given the gift of tongues by a special anointing of the Holy Spirit. Third the listeners experienced a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit through the apostles’ gift of tongues and they heard the Apostles speaking in their native languages. Fourthly the early Christians became powerful witnesses and brave martyrs for their Faith in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit has many roles in to play in our lives. 1) As an indwelling God, the Holy Spirit makes us His Living Temples (I Cor 3:16). 2) As a strengthening God, He strengthens us in our fight against temptations and in our mission of bearing witness to Christ through our Christian lives. 3) As a sanctifying God, He makes us holy through the Sacraments: a) Through Baptism He makes us children of God and heirs of Heaven. b) Through Confirmation, He makes us temples of God, warriors, and defenders of the Faith. c) Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, He enables us to be reconciled with God by pardoning our sins. d) Through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, He gives us spiritual nourishment by converting bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood. e) Through the Sacraments of the priesthood and matrimony, He makes the Church community holy. 4) As a teaching and guiding God, He constantly reminds us of Christ’s teachings and guides the Church to teach Christ’s teachings correctly. 5) As a listening and speaking God, He listens to our prayers, enables us to pray, and speaks to us, mainly through the Bible. 6) As a Giver of gifts, He gives us His gifts, fruits, and charisms, thus enriching the Church.

Finally, there is this Pentecost story about Chippie from the Internet. It all happened in Galveston, Texas. A woman was cleaning the bottom of the cage of her parrot Chippie with the canister vacuum cleaner. She was not using an attachment on the tube. When the telephone rang, she turned her head to pick it up, continuing to vacuum the cage as she said, “Hello,” into the phone. Then she heard the horrible noise of Chippie being sucked into the vacuum. Immediately she put down the phone, ripped open the vacuum bag, and found Chippie in there, stunned but still alive. Since the bird was covered with dust and dirt, she grabbed it, ran it into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held the bird under the water to clean it off. When she finished that, she saw the hair dryer on the bathroom sink. She turned it on and held the bird in front of the blast of hot air to dry him off. A few weeks later, a reporter from the newspaper that originally published the story went out to the house to ask the woman, “How’s Chippie doing now?” She said, “He just sort of sits and stares. he doesn’t sing any more” Today’s Gospel tells us that it was what happened to the apostles. They all were traumatized by the arrest and crucifixion of their master and bewildered by his post-Resurrection appearances and his command to prepare for the coming of his Holy Spirit. Many of us can identify with Chippie and the apostles. Life has sucked us up, thrown cold water on us, and blown us away. Somewhere in the trauma, we have lost our song. Hence, we, too, need the daily anointing of the Holy Spirit to keep us singing songs of Christian witnessing. (biblestudyresources.com) 

You may decide for yourselves whether the Holy Spirit was assisting the solicitor in the following story: A solicitor was on holiday in a small farming town.  While walking through the streets, he noticed that a car was involved in an accident.  As expected, a large crowd gathered.  The solicitor was eager to get to the injured, but he couldn’t get near the car.  Being a clever person, he started shouting loudly, “Let me through! Let me through!  I am the son of the victim.” The crowd made way for him.  Lying in front of the car was a donkey!

The Feast of the Ascension

There is simply great reward in giving this Feast all the care and attention that is possible for us.  During these troubled times due to the coronavirus implications, it well rewards our great attention and that bit of extra effort.  Visualise what it was like for those disciples, as this takes place.  In prayer we say,

“Let us lift up our hearts.  Let us raise them up to the Lord our God”

As the disciples looked on, their hearts were drawn up towards Heaven.  The seasons of Lent and Easter, especially for me this year, concentrated my attention through the mass, the divine office, the rosary, and the other prayers.  Today the office of readings, a long discourse on the Psalms by St Augustine Bishop is really worthwhile so please give it your care and attention.  I highlighted this because it can be a great foundation for our lives of faith in the church as we move forward, and please God, overcome the virus.  To continue with the words of St Augustine: –

Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the promise of God, because it is in praising Him that we shall rejoice forever in the life of God, and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now.  So, we praise God during our earthly life, and in the same time we make our petitions to him.  Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning.  We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust in Him and are glad, but in so far as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it.  It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what is promised, and yeaning is over; then praise alone will remain.

Lent                                                                                                   Easter

Because there are these two periods of time, in the one that is now, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come.  A life of everlasting serenity and joy, we are given two liturgical seasons.  One before Easter and the other after.  The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter, which we are celebrating at present, signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. 

Both these periods are expressed and demonstrated for us in Christ Our Lord.  The Lord’s passion depicts for us our present life and trial – shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die.  The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.

Now (therefore) brethren, we urge you to praise God.  That is what we are all telling each other, when we sing Alleluia.  You say to your neighbour “Praise the Lord” and he says the same to you.  We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each urges the other to do.  But see that your praise comes from your whole being in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.

We are pleasing God now, assembled as we are her in the church, but when we go on our various ways it seems as if we cease to Praise God.  But provided we do not cease to live a good life; we shall always be praising God.

You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice, and from what is pleasing to God.  If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions will cry aloud, and God will perceive your intentions; for as your ears hear each other’s voices, so God’s ears hear our thoughts.

Deacon John Writes:

This Sunday is World Communications Day and the scriptures remind us of the power of prayer.  Prayer is world communications day in action.  It is the conversation we have with God.

The first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, shows us the importance of prayer in our lives – to sustain and to comfort us through the current difficult period.

The gospel contains the opening section of Christ’s great prayer before he begins his passion and death.  It has been called the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus. .

When the disciples were uncertain about the future after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven they turned to the one thing they knew that could help them – prayer.  Their prayer would not be answered at once – it was nine days before Pentecost arrived and the Holy Spirit would fulfil what Christ had promised.  They persevered and did not stop praying — praying for guidance, for wisdom, for “hope unseen.” The disciples didn’t give up. Neither should we!

The psalm today offers us all the gift of hope. “The Lord is my light and my help; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; before whom shall I shrink?”

The scriptures cry out to us: trust and pray.  Trust in God’s generosity and mercy.  Trust in His plan for our lives. In the midst of our darkness, pray for light.

The important word is pray. The disciples did just this in the community when they turned to others for help and support. So should we. We are the Body of Christ, and that means we are, together, not only his hands and his feet – we are also his voice — to one another, and to the world.  Trust in Him and no matter how deep the darkness, the light we are all looking for will come.

Wait for it………Watch for it………Pray for it.

The disciples in the upper room did and look what they achieved!

We have the opportunity to receive a £1000 donation from the Ecclesiastical Movement for Good awards, but to do so we need your help please!

As you know, £1,000 could make a huge difference to our work, especially now, and your nomination could be the one that wins us £1,000. In total, 500 charities stand to gain £1,000 and we’d love to be one of them.

It’s quick and easy to nominate Lepra – just visit https://www.movementforgood.com/#nominateACharity and enter our details. You’ll be asked to enter a charity number (213251), and then Lepra should auto populate below. Lepra’s charity type is Health. Then you just need to enter your name and email address. The closing date for nominations is 24th May.

“God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called”

2 Corinthians 3 v5

Position Vacant: Administrator / PA. Initially 20 hours. With 20 days annual leave + Bank holidays (pro rata) £10ph (dependent on skills / experience)

Computers for Charities is seeking an Administrator / PA. Duties include assisting day to day running of the Charity & support to Chairman.

Location: Eastbourne. This position offers wide opportunities to aid personal and professional development, whilst also challenging and diverse.

Skills required: Good People & Communication skills, Organisational ability, Compassion & Empathy including aptitude for initiative. UK driving licence essential, Committed Christian with valid passport desirable,

Computers for Charities, Recycling for Charities, Recycling for Charities Trading Ltd are interconnected. Whereas computers are a part of the charities work.

People constitute the focus of the charities support and ethos within its Eastbourne workshop, Locally, Nationally, Worldwide seeking to provide an open door between church and World through varying means.

Our organisations are Christian based, and keen to seek the most suitable candidate for this most crucial position.

Closing date for applications: Friday 19^th June.

For further information.

Please call. Simon Rooksby – Chairman

Tel: 01323 848588 or email: [email protected]

Website: www.computersforcharities.org

Previous applicants are welcome to apply

Joke of the Week

Lord Birkett, the English judge, said “I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking.  But I strongly object when they start shaking them to make certain they are still going.