Weekly Bulletin 31st July 2022

Today is the Eighteenth Sunday of the Year: Jesus puts it bluntly in today’s Gospel: “A person’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when they have more than they need” (Luke 12:15). The old man who wrote the first reading that we hear at today’s Mass states “What have we gained for all the toil and strain that we have undergone under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 2:22). “I used to think, when I was child,” wrote Dom Helder Camara,(1909-1999) the Brazilian archbishop who devoted his life to seeking justice for the poor, “that Christ might have been exaggerating when he warned about the dangers of wealth. Today I know better. I know how very hard it is to be rich and still keep the milk of human kindness. Money has a dangerous way of putting scales on one’s eyes, a dangerous way of freezing people’s hands, eyes, lips and hearts!” (Revolution through Peace – Harper and Row 1971). Of course we all need money to go for messages. Money can be a useful means to certain desirable ends – but it cannot function as a substitute for those ends. There is a little fable told by Tolstoy. Once upon a time a man was allowed to own as much land as he could walk around in a single day for the price of one thousand rubies provided that he returns to the starting point before the sun falls. So, shelling out his money, the man paces off the distance he had envisioned for his first turn; then for making his quota for the second side, he notices a well-watered hollow he simple MUST include!!  Finally starting to tire, he goes only two miles on his third leg, when as the sun begins to sink he makes a run for it lest, he loses everything.  Huffing and puffing back just in time, he collapses at the chief’s feet, – dead – probably from a heart attack! The answer to the fable’s question: How much land does a man need? The answer is straightforward enough: “Enough to bury him!” The psalm today [Psalm 89] prays “ Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart”  The opposite of greed is generosity. Greed dehumanises us. As we become pre-occupied with evaluating all things, ourselves included, in terms of monetary value and worth, we lose the ability to see things for what they really are. Beauty, friendship, love and life experience are assigned an economic value. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today of the man who built bigger barns and “failed to make himself rich in the sight of God” (Luke 12:22). This pernicious illusion of possession has become an obsession in our culture. Possessiveness is, without doubt, the greatest destroyer of relationships. One sure way of losing friendship of any kind is to try to hang on too tightly. Friendship can be enjoyed only as it is constantly received as gift which is ever new.  Only a poor person can appreciate a gift and only one who loves can see through the gift to the giver.  If you see all as gift then two virtues that will characterise our lives will be GRATITUDE and GENEROSITY.  These are the very opposite of greed and avarice and by definition they are reckless, uncalculating, joyous and life-giving. “Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was; he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Feasts of the Week: Monday: St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696 -1787) Founder of the Redemptorist Congregation. Thursday: St. John Vianney (1786-1859) Better known as the parish priest of the small French village of Ars. Patron saint of priests. Spent long hours in the confessional helping people draw closer to Jesus.  Saturday: The Transfiguration of the Lord. The Preface of the Mass today prays: “He revealed his glory to the disciples to strengthen them for the scandal of the cross”

Thank you for the collection last week. It came to £1410.  During these difficult and financially stringent times we appreciate you generosity and support of our mission here in the Graan. Thanks to our Readers, choir, ministers of the Eucharist and ushers and all who contribute to making our weekend liturgies nourishing and life-giving. 

Our Shop is open:  Monday to Friday from 9.30am -7pm and Sunday from 9.30 -5pm

We have a range religious items, statues, pictures, medals, candles, rosary beads, etc.

Guild Mass Cards:  Deceased, Mass Bouquets, Get Well, Wedding, Christening, Graduation, New Born etc.

Confessions & Duty: Sun & Mon – No Duty. Mass Mon ((1^st Aug) @ 7pm: Arthur. Monday to Friday Mass @ 7pm.  Duty: Tues 2pm – 5pm  –Charles.   Wed –  Victor.  Thurs – Brian.    Fri –  Charles.   Sat 5 – 6pm. Sat –  Arthur.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament continues each Friday from 10am – 2pm.

August Church Cleaning Group will meet on Wednesday next 3^rd Aug @ 7.30pm. New members are always welcome.