Weekly Bulletin 9th May 2021

Today is the Sixth Sunday of Easter: This Sunday’s readings are probably the heart of Jesus’ teaching and some of the most quoted. Yet such familiarity can sometimes make them hard to hear, and harder still to understand. This is Jesus sermon on the one commandment: “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). It sounds impossible! Yet Jesus goes on to say: “There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). We are to love as Jesus loves. Yet in today’s first reading (Acts 10:25-48) it is the Spirit that helps Peter to love and accept the first non-Jew called Cornelius and his family into the community of the early Christian Church. It is the Spirit of God that helps us to love. The Gospel today is the second part of last Sunday’s Gospel where Jesus spoke of being the Vine and we being the branches of that Vine. Jesus tells us to remain in His love. We are called to stay connected to his life-giving power through prayer, receptions of the sacraments, and listening to his Word in Scripture. Our lives are called to be laid open to all that the Spirit is trying to tell us. Wherever there are words of encouragement, of forgiveness and reconciliation, of mercy and peace, of hope and truth, the Spirit is there. Jesus does not draw up for his disciples (for us) an elaborate code of laws; He had no wish to place a heavy burden on them. He desires to set them free, not to bind them. All that he commands is “Love one another”. We hear that “love “described succinctly in today’s second reading (1 John 4:7-10). We need to take time to pray, to stop and allow God’s power of love to touch us.  Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan priest said that prayer is like being in empty silence with no words and consenting to God’s actions within yourself: Here are his words “What’s happening in this prayer is that you’re presenting yourself for the ultimate gaze, the ultimate mirroring, the gaze of God…You gradually allow yourself to be seen to be known in every nook and cranny; nothing hidden, nothing denied, nothing disguised. And the wonderful thing is, after a while you feel so safe and you know you don’t have to pretend anymore. You recognise your need of mercy, your own utter inadequacy and littleness, that the best things you’ve ever done have been done for mixed and false motives. And the worst things you have ever done were done because you were unconscious (unaware) “Someone is giving their self to me! Someone is sustaining me!” That is what you feel like shouting”  (Daily Meditation 24 February 2014)

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Thank you for your excellent contributions to our collection last Sunday. Thanks also to those generous people who are donating money to us through the website by using the DONATE button. Thanks also to the good people who give of their time and energy in helping in our Church Services, namely our Eucharistic Ministers and our wonderful Ushers. Thank you for following their instructions and wearing a mask

Feasts of the Week: Thursday Our Lady of Fatima: The apparitions to three children took place beginning on the 13 May 1917. The final apparition took place on the 13 October. Our Lady called for prayer and conversion. Friday: St. Matthias – Apostle He took the place of Judas and he was called because he was a “witness of Christ’s resurrection”

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Our Shop: Monday to Saturday: 9:30am – 7:00pm Sunday 9:30am- 4:00pm.  When you ring the doorbell you will be invited into the shop singularly to prevent overcrowding and the possible transmission of the coronavirus. 

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Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: Each Friday from 10:00 – 2:00 pm. 

May Rosary will be held here at the Graan Lourdes Grotto each evening at 6:00 pm. All are welcome to attend.

Confessions: Mon (No confessions).  (10^th May) – Mass @ 7pm –  Anthony. Confessions 2 – 5pm: Tues: Anthony.     Wed: Arthur. Thurs – Charles. Fri – Anthony & Sat –5pm  to 6pm – Charles.

Weekly Bulletin: If you request an anniversary for inclusion in our bulletin please submit it no later than Wednesday evening. Thank you.