Vision for Mission - The Word who is Life . . .

Have you seen Bishop Richard's video on Vision for Mission?

Bring flowers of the rarest . . .

May is traditionally the month dedicated to Our Lady, and today being the first Sunday in May, after Mass we crowned not one statue . . .

But two!

And of course we sang  . . .

Also, there will be May Devotions at 4pm every Sunday during May with Holy Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar, concluding with Benediction. All welcome!

A busy Good Shepherd Sunday . . .

It has been another busy Sunday in the parish.  At the end of the 10am Mass we had the May crowning of  the statue of Our Lady.  This necessitates the use of a ladder and ascending the same in priestly vestments but all was accomplished successfully and safely.

Although we didn't sing this particular hymn today for the Crowning, you might like to hear it anyway . . .

Immediately after Mass we moved straight into the Opening and Blessing of our new Annexe. You'll find a few photos of that on our Annexe blog.

Habemus Papam . . . !

White smoke!

I'm sure I'm not the only one in the parish who has been glued to the TV over recent days.  What an exciting time for us all.

And then fairly quickly, after just the fifth ballot, we saw the white smoke.  Such excitement!

After what seemed an interminable wait, we had our first glimpse of our new Holy Father, Pope Francis.

There are many 'firsts' with our new Pope; the first Jesuit Pope; the first to take the name Francis, after St Francis of Assisi; the first from South America.

Pope Francis giving his blessing from the balcony, after first having asked the crowd to pray and ask for God's blessing on him:

We will be singing this at Mass tomorrow:

God bless our Pope!

The Alleged Conflict between Faith and Reason . . .

Fr Andrew Pinsent has sent me a link to a presentation he made recently in Ireland entitled 'The Alleged Conflict between Science and Faith'.

Some of you may remember Fr Andrew Pinsent from the time he came to talk to us here at St Ann's about Evangelium, a multi-media catechetical course co-authored by Fr Pinsent and Fr Marcus Holden.

I hope you enjoy the presentation.

How to Become Pope . . .

Thanks to Laurence England for posting this great video on his blog.

Told in an amusing way but nonetheless a very accurate summary!

Liturgical Dance . . .

This video interview with Cardinal Arinze seems to be 'doing the rounds' on social media at the moment.

For those of you who have not have seen it, you might like to hear what Cardinal Arinze, former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has to say about the place (or otherwise) of Liturgical Dance in the Holy Mass.

He is very clear and leaves no room for misunderstanding.

All is ready . . .

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Blessed Christmas!

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A Week in the Life of a Priest . . .

I saw this interesting video on the Our Sunday Visitor blog.

I don't think I need to add anything else, the video says it all.

Corpus Christi Procession of the Blessed Sacrament - What is all about . . . ?

For any keen parish blog watchers who might have logged in to see photos taken at our own Procession of the Blessed Sacrament this morning, I thought you might like to see this video whilst you're waiting.

There are many videos of Corpus Christi processions but this one has a good explanation by the parish priest. He helps us to understand why we process with the Blessed Sacrament.

It's also encouraging to hear some of his parishioners explain their understanding of why we have such processions.

The Catholicism Project . . .

Look what was in my email inbox today. Encouraging times ahead!

The 'Feminisation of the Church . . ."

I saw this video on the Internet recently. The speaker, Michael Voris, makes some very interesting comments about the 'Feminisation of the Church'.

Looking at our regular Sunday Mass attendance, I don't think anyone would disagree with the suggestion that there are far more women than men in church, not just 'in the pews' but also amongst the Ministers of the Word, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, sacristans, musicians etc.

I wonder if, as suggested, this does have an effect on the men in our congregation and on Catholic men in the Church in general. I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

Update.

Regarding the blog on Feminization of the Church by Michael Voris, parishioners might be interested to know that they can receive daily broadcasts by Michael Voris by clicking onto RealCatholicTV.com Although they are free, you can make donations or, if you can afford it, you can sunscribe £10 per month for a much fuller coverage of all things Catholic. (Thanks to a parishioner for this information)

A Blessed Christmas to all . . .

Wishing you all a very Happy, Holy and Blessed Christmas.

And another version here for all Irish-speaking readers of this blog:

Go mbeannaithe Dia dhiobh uile.

Prayer . . .

Lord Jesus, teach us how to pray

A very brief but beautiful video from stpaulstube.com

Verbum Domini . . .

Pope Benedict XVI's latest Apostolic Exhortation, 'Verbum Domini' was published by the Vatican on Thursday, 11th November 2010. In this document, the Holy Father highlights the importance of the Word of God in living our personal vocations. Pope Benedict says that the word of God 'calls each one of us personally, revealing that life itself is a vocation from God.'

He also quotes from Saint Jerome when he says,

"We are reading the sacred Scriptures. For me, the Gospel is the Body of Christ; for me, the holy Scriptures are his teaching. And when he says: whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood (Jn 6:53) even though these words can also be understood of the (Eucharistic) Mystery, Christ's body and blood are really the word of Scripture, God's teaching."

If you would like to study this latest Apostolic Exhortation in detail, you will find the full text here.

No time for mediocrity . . .

No time for mediocrity! How true!

I saw this excellent video and thought how very appropriate for our 'Come and See' initiative.

There is no need to write much about it, the video speaks for itself.

Hooray for Doug - we need more like him!

The Beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman . . .

Just in case you missed it . . .

Blessed John Henry Newman,

Pray for us.

Tu es Petrus . . .

Hip, Hip, Hooray, he's here!

Welcome Holy Father . . .

Welcome Holy Father!

Benvenuto Santo Padre!

Willkommen Heiliger Vater!

"I'm very much looking forward to my visit . . . "

The Holy Father has been speaking about his forthcoming visit to the United Kingdom. He says that he is very much looking forward to the visit and thanks the British Government; the Scottish Bishops; those of England and Wales and all who are involved in organising the visit for the vast amount of work they have put in to make the visit possible.