Category: Saint George’s latest news

Deacon John Writes:

In the Gospel for this Sunday Jesus makes it clear that He is God, when He says “To have seen me is to have seen the Father” and then “whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself.” God became man, one of us to show us a real person leading a life of caring for others, a life of healing, forgiving, a life of love.

We are called not just to be followers of Christ but to be Christ to the world around us. It is through our being Christ that He may live and act in the world today and every day. That is easy to say but from where do we get the strength to be Christ to the world? The answer to this surely lies in the Sacraments, especially from receiving the Eucharist. When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, Christ is in us, giving us the power to be like Him.

One of the key actions we can take is to Listen. In the Gospel Jesus first listens to the disciples, listens to Thomas, listens to Philip and then comforts them, eases their fears, teaches them. We can do the same: listen to what people are saying to us by giving them our time and undivided attention. 

Secondly, we hear time and again how Christ healed the people he came in contact with. We all have the power to heal, not physically perhaps, but through our words, gestures and actions such as showing acts of kindness. It is by doing these things that we show that we care and allow Jesus to live his life through us.

One of the key signs Jesus made was that of forgiveness not just in words but in actions too. We should always be asking ourselves some questions such as: How forgiving am I? Do I pray daily for the grace to forgive others? Do I show this forgiveness through what I do – a phone call, (a handshake or a hug in normal circumstances). 

When we come forward to receive Christ’s Body and Blood and confirm that with our “Amen” we should all remember that what we are really saying is “Lord, live in me today so that I may give life, heal and forgive as you did.” Remember there is nothing casual about that “Amen” – it is the most important word we say in that Mass.

Now the weather has changed and you are clearing out your cupboards and drawers once again. Please remember to put aside any suitable donations for St Wilfrid’s sales table, which will be running as soon as things are back to ‘normal’.”

Our Website

Please don’t forget to explore our Church website to watch live Masses from across England, Ireland and Scotland, including Masses and Sermons from our very own Pope. 

We also are showing photos of the activities our community have been doing whilst we are confined at home.  If you would like to share any photos on our website, please send them into us using the church email, with a note saying that you consent to any photos that you have sent to us being displayed on the church website.  Many thanks and stay safe.

Fr Rory Writes:  

Last year my sister Mary Harrington had her book ‘A Mother’s Love’ published.  I believe her book brings us great re-assurance, hope and comfort that God personally knows us and turns all things to our good.  He is the divine author of life, so we can truly place our trust in Him.  As her book reveals, it was from a place of great anguish, because of our mother’s death, that she received a great grace.

As she expressed it, one month after Mam’s death I was feeling pretty low.  I had begun to come away to my own room for a quiet time to pray, now including praying to my guardian angel with more care and conviction.  Then I would breathe in slowly and peacefully asking for heavens help in dealing with my grief.  On one such evening feeling rather bereft, I expressed a great desire to communicate with my guardian angel.  What took place next was quite extraordinary, a really great grace.  I had hoped that Mary would come and speak for herself, but the Coronavirus has prevented that.  Please God, her visit will happen sooner rather than later.  For all of us a great focus for all our prayer during this time of confinement, must be for a vaccine that will overcome this virus.

I often recall our family home where the Catholic faith was very much part of life and the daily Rosary and Sunday Mass were an essential part of this.  This was also reflected in daily life.   A visitor on entering the house with the words “God Bless the House” and with the response “God save all here” were normal greetings in life.  Another particular expression coming with my maiden Auntie Mai coming with sad news ended “no cross, no crown”, if she turned up with good new “wasn’t that providence, Maura”.

As a result of her experience with her angel guardian, Mary developed a prayer group on a Thursday evening through the Autumn, Winter and Spring of each year.  I shared in the prayer group many times, and it was a deep well of faith and trust, that prayers were answered.   Before having her book published, she produced a daily diary of prayer, which she has documented.  She presents it as a prayer journal “Love Speaks”.

Speak, Lord, your servant listens.  Samuel 3.9, I add – food for the journey when the cross is heavy.

One example for the day:

 April 4th

To behold My cross anew each day, with love and affection, is to reciprocate My love, return My embrace.  All who acknowledge My cross by Me before the Father.  Within the cross is contained the Mystery of Redemption, the power of love, the power of forgiveness.

‘For he surrendered Himself to death, and was even counted among the wicked, bearing the sins of the multitude, and interceding for sinners.’ Isaiah 53:12

With the help of God, as we continue with the daily rhythm of life.  Our Catholic faith while deprived of what we greatly appreciate, our Sunday Mass through screening and more attentive to our journey of faith through this coming year.  Next stop, the Great Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, may provide us with great blessings and strength.  In the meantime, pray for our website, that it will develop and respond to all our needs in this time of isolation and or social distancing.

Deacon John Writes:

If you travel around in Jordan you will see shepherds  everywhere. They are part of the landscape. The Bedouins who tend the sheep sleep on hillsides under tents; they stand watch in large empty fields while the sheep graze on weeds and dust and sand. Your vehicle is sure to come to a halt in the middle of the road while a shepherd leads his flock across the road. One shepherd is Mohammed. He is in his early 20s, shy. He was asked how long he’d been a shepherd.

“Four years,” he said and added: “its alright, but it’s boring.” It’s not that exciting for the sheep, either. They aren’t pure lambs with “fleece as white as snow.” They all look as white as mud—hardly the image one gets from the nursery rhyme. Mr Google on the Internet, informed me about a shepherd in Italy named Fabrizio Innocenzi who oversees about 60 sheep in the hills of Roviano, 40 miles east of Rome. He said that sheep actually need a shepherd, because they have no natural hierarchy, no leader of the flock. “The sheep learn to trust the shepherd”, Innocenzi said, “as they hear and understand the voice, the smell, the behaviour of the person who is looking after them every day”. He said “a shepherd needs to be someone who is in tune with nature, decisive and willing to bear the long hours, inclement weather, hard work and sacrifice—and do it out of devotion to his flock.  A good shepherd should not be afraid of anything.” Doesn’t that describe Christ? 

In the gospel for this Sunday Jesus says to us “I am the good shepherd, a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” This Easter season, with the fragrance of Easter flowers still in the air and multiple alleluias we cannot forget the hard wood of Calvary. We cannot forget how this good shepherd laid down his life for us. He didn’t do it because we have “fleece as white as snow.” Far from it. We are as muddy and as ordinary and as unclean as those sheep in Jordan. We aren’t always beautiful.

But the Good Shepherd, who is Christ, loves us anyway. He calls us to love one another as the shepherd does his sheep. This is our challenge. If we are to be imitators of Christ, we must be willing to be more than sheep. We must also be shepherds—good shepherds to each other and good shepherds of our faith. We must be unafraid, devoted, steadfast. We need to support those who are frail…nurture those who are weak…lead back those who are lost…comfort those who are afraid…love those who are covered with dust from the journey.

This is what a good shepherd does.

This is what Christ has done for us.

This is what we must do for each other. 

Special Moments From The World of Isolation

It would help our website greatly, if you have any special memories and other comments that can help us to share this special time, when we find ourselves isolated and cut off from our everyday life.   If you have any photos that you would like to share on our website, please send them in the format of  jpg or png to [email protected]  When you send your photos to us, please can you write a message stating that you are happy for the photos that you have provided us with, to be displayed on our Church website.  Thank you.

Deacon John Writes:

The Scripture readings for this Sunday have one common, encouraging theme: No matter what happens in our lives, the risen Jesus is always with us. God is always near to those who seek Him and who want to live in His presence, doing His will. 

Dr. J. Wallace Hamilton, in his book Horns and Halos in Human Nature, tells of one of the weirdest auctions in history. It was held in the city of Washington, D.C. It was an auction of designs, actually patent models of old inventions that did not make it in the world at large. These 150,000 old inventions were declared obsolete and put up for auction. Prospective buyers and on-lookers chuckled as item after item was put up for bid, such as a bed-bug buster or an illuminated cat that was designed to scare away mice. Then there was a device to prevent snoring. It consisted of a trumpet that reached from the mouth to the ear and was designed to awaken the snorer and not the neighbours. One person designed a tube to reach from his mouth to his feet so that his breath would keep his feet warm as he slept. There was an adjustable pulpit which could be raised or lowered. You could hit a button and make the pulpit descend or ascend to illustrate a point dramatically. Obviously, at one time somebody had high hopes for each of those designs which did not make it. Some died in poverty, having spent all of their money trying to sell their dream. They represented a mountain of disappointments. One hundred fifty thousand broken dreams! Is there anything sadder? Today’s Gospel describes the shattered dreams of two of Jesus’ disciples at the tragic and unexpected death of their Master whom they trusted as their promised Messiah. 

As Jesus met them on the road to Emmaus so he meets us on our Emmaus Road, both in the ordinary experiences of our lives, and in the places to which we retreat when life is too much for us.  We, too, have hopes and dreams about better health, healing, financial security and better family relationships.  These often shatter.  The story promises us, however, that Jesus will come to us in unfamiliar ways to support and strengthen us when we least expect the risen Lord.  Emmaus moments come to us when we meet the risen Christ on our life’s journey through rough times like the present lockdown due to the virus.

Fr Rory Writes:                                                   

Screening the Masses: Thanks be to God

Fr Michael Jackson at the Sacred Heart Church in Hove has provided many moments of grace and strength, through this screening of the Mass.

From the early days in the life of the church, beginning with St Anthony in the desert. spirituality has provided inspiration, life and hope to encourage and inspire faith through the ages.  After the eucharist; the divine office has a special importance, as it evolved through the early ages of the church.  The vast majority of the people were illiterate, and the monasteries and religious houses, were the centres of learning.  The hymns, psalm and prayers provided a distilled focus to express in a clear way, special moments of truth at the heart of faith.  For me this Hymn from Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal is a good example:

Eternal Father, Loving God, Who made us from the dust of earth,Transform us by the Spirits Grace, Give value to our little worth

Prepare us for the day of days, When Christ from heaven will come with might, To call us out of dust again, Our bodies glorified in light.

O God head, here untouched, unseen, All things created bear your trace, The seed of glory sown in man, Will flower when we see your face.

The fact that there is no congregation at this time of screening, in a way is in keeping with the church, when for centuries the Mass was celebrated in Latin.  There were moments of interjection with responses, but most were happy to participate in silence.  When I was growing up and indeed before, the majority wanted to be at the back of the church.  Indeed, some preferred to stay in the porch or just outside.

To help us in our thinking, there is always two sides to a coin.  In life there is often a reflection to this, both in religion and politics.  This may be termed, right wing or left wing.  Pope Frances has been confronted by this, to an extreme degree, but tries to avoid responding, as he strives to progress the church through synods and dialogue.

When I entered the seminary at the end of the sixties, just after the end of the 2nd Vatican Council, this was in full swing.  I would have been considered part of the left wing trendies and would live with the label.  In my life time, I consider the two most outstanding popes to be, John 23rd and Pope Francis – in fact outstanding persons.  After a very fruitful, inspired time in the seminary, much influenced by Fr Seamus Ryan, my ordination was a special moment of grace.  For my first Mass, I was very privileged, as it also involved the celebration of the marriage of my brother John and his wife Helen.  From the words of the priest over from England, it had a great sense of life and youth, and please God, after this time of testing – The Lord will renew our youth and strengthen our faith .  To be continued……….

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Phyllis Diller, the American actress, said: Cleaning your house while the kids are still growing, is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing.

Deacon John Writes:

This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday and the readings for this Sunday are about God’s Divine Mercy given to us through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, our need for trusting faith, and our need for the forgiveness of our sins. The opening prayer for today’s Mass addresses the Father as “God of everlasting Mercy.” 

There is a short story in Reader’s Digest told by Jim Williams of Montana, who wrote: “I was driving too fast late one night when I saw the flashing lights of a police car in my rear-view mirror. As I pulled over and rolled down my window of my station wagon, I tried to dream up an excuse for my haste. But when the patrolman reached the car, he said nothing. Instead, he merely shined his flashlight in my face, then on my seven-month-old in his car seat, then on our three other children, who were asleep, and lastly on the two dogs in the very back of the car. Returning the beam of light to my face, he then uttered the only words of the encounter. ‘Son,’ he said, ‘you can’t afford a ticket. Slow down.’ And with that, he returned to his car and drove away.” Sometimes mercy triumphs over law. So it is for sinners who call out to Jesus.”