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I came across this story this week.  I thought you might like it.  It does give one some food for thought!

There was once a little boy who always wanted to meet Jesus. One day he was walking home from Sunday school. As he went through the park, he noticed an old woman sitting on a park bench. She looked lonely and hungry, so he sat down and offered part of the chocolate bar he had been saving. She accepted it with a smile. He gave her more of the candy, and she shared a can of root beer with him. They sat together in a very friendly manner, eating and drinking and smiling at each other. When the boy got up to leave, he reached over the woman and gave her a big hug. He walked home smiling. His mother noticed his big smile and happiness on his face and asked, “What did you do today that made you so happy?” “I had lunch with Jesus. And she has a great smile,” he said. The old woman returned to the small apartment she shared with her sister. She too was smiling. Her sister asked her why she was so happy. “I just had lunch with Jesus. And he is a lot younger than I expected,” she said. (John Pichappilly in The Table of the Word.)

Continued…

Christ has died.  Christ is Risen.  Christ will come again.

Finally He will come in Glory.  In the meantime He commits to us in many ways, especially in the Scriptures, but above all in the Gospels.  The great story at this time is when He joins the disciples on their way to Emmaus.  This was read on Tuesday, very appropriately and powerfully by Deacon John at Dorothy Blake’s Requiem Mass.  “So he went in to stay with them.  Now while He was with them at the table, He took the bread and said the blessing; then He broke it and handed it to them”.  Their eyes were opened and they recognised Him but he had vanished from their sight.  Then they said to each other “did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?”  Luke 24. 28-30.

For us this is a very special time of opportunity.  In our preparations during Lent an obvious point of reference was the Stations of the Cross.  This then provided the appropriate background to our experience with the coronavirus and all of life’s journey with its crosses and trials.  These are common in every age and an unavoidable part of life.  As mentioned before, my grandfather died of the flu which killed millions of people after the first world war.  Another event which dramatically brought home to me the fact that in every generation there are hardships in life, due to episodes such as the virus we are enduring today.  The threat associated with this virus reminds me of the plight of a family who came to Battle Road, Hailsham at the same time as evacuees like Dorothy, who moved to Hailsham from London.  This in turn brought to mind another very difficult illness – tuberculosis.   The mother of this family died of it; my own father suffered from it shortly after the war.  By the time of his illness a treatment – Penicillin – had been discovered which,  as my dad said “for those who were fortunate, this treatment brought them back from the brink of death”.  We are fortunate with the vaccination process going so far, so very good – a big thanks to God.

Please God, we will return to a more normal life with its great challenges.  This coincides with the resurrection and the new life of the early church.  The Stations of the Resurrection which have been recently introduced and particularly encouraged by Peter Robinson, who like many great servants of our community died recently and was a great loss to us, may inspire us with a new lease of life.

We will begin next Sunday with the Stations of the Resurrection.  The first one will be ‘Jesus is Risen’.  We love you Lord Jesus and we trust in you.  For we know you are risen from the dead and live in us.

Thank you for your generous donations to CAFOD’s Family Fast Day during Lent. We featured Marian and her son Svondo in Zimbabwe in Lent 2018. The community vegetable garden that your donations helped provide is growing well and during the pandemic the family has survived on the vegetables. Your support has also helped to provide soap and handwashing stations in the garden and in family homes. This is just one of many long-term development projects that CAFOD has funded with the money from that Fast Day. Thank you for your steadfast support.

Dear Mission Supporters, through our parish’s Red Boxes, and individuals giving to the Red Box directly (e.g. online and direct debits), St. Wilfrid RC Church raised £837.25 in 2020.  Cheques should be made out to MILL HILL and post it to Red Box, 23 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1NU. For online or bank transfer:  missio.org.uk/redbox.  For credit or debit card donations call Missio on 020 7821 9755. Before too long we hope to collect your Red Boxes again.  Many thanks to you all, and keep well. Doris Jung 

St Wilfrid’s Church:  We, the community of St Wilfrid’s, would like to thank you Father for conducting all the lovely Easter Services in our Church. This year has been so difficult with the Covid restrictions, but with the aid of your trusted helpers, the improvisations that we had to put in place worked very well and made the shortened versions very enjoyable. It was great to see our First Holy Communion candidates taking part and really enjoying the ceremonies. Having the children back again was very rewarding for us knowing that our future lies with them. Easter Sunday worked well with some of our congregation participating in our hall with the help of a screen. The actual Mass was relayed at the same time and Fr Rory was able to take Holy Communion to those in the Hall, whilst Lisa attended to the Church congregation. The hall as well as the Church was decorated with a variety of beautiful flowers spilling out into the many pots and containers outside. What a great Easter we all enjoyed, made possible by Father Rory and our wonderful team of helpers. We have had feedback from many of our parishioners and some new to the Parish, who have said that Father is a natural speaker and brilliant when celebrating Mass online. Thank you all.

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.

A grateful thanks to Deacon John for his contribution last week with a message for Easter which left me without a job to do; and for all his contributions during the pandemic. 

He is risen from the dead.  Alleluia.  The great season of Easter is the life of the church.  It echoes with life, with His promise “I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full”.  The stories of the resurrection in the Gospel gives a birds eye view of the event which helps us to understand the scriptures.  The detail, the lack of recognition, the limitations of human nature while on earth, indeed the confusion sometimes contrasting with attention to detail.  Peter’s perception in John’s Gospel is an example.  “Simon Peter who was following up, now came and went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground and also the cloth that had been over His head, this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself”.  Detail provided by a witness on the ground.  Another account, Mary of Magdala, “as she turned round and saw Jesus standing there”.  Jesus said “Woman why are you weeping? Who are you weeping for?”  Supposing him to be the gardener, she said “Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him and I will go and remove him”.  Jesus said “Mary” she knew Him and said in Hebrew “Rabbuni – Master”.

Life this year is full of constraints attached to our response to living with the covid virus.  There is merit in the guidelines, but overall we need to give greater attention to Jesus with His promise “I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full”.   The grace that I have experienced in our celebration of the liturgies contrasts so much.  A great big thank you to the stewards, and cleaners, thank you to all those who helped.  And a final thanks to you and indeed thanks be to God.

So please God, for our future, for the life of our church.  The church has been challenged and found wanting, it is the story of our lives at the moment.  Please God for our lives in the future, a new generation in the life of the church.  Let us plan for it and work for it.  It can only happen with a new generation.  Alongside this are the threats of global warming, great poverty and the need for governments across the world to come together to seriously address these issues.  Humbly, we need to say ‘please God, help us all to work for a new world in the morning’.

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.