40 Hours? Year of Faith? Jubilee Year? What's it all about?

There does seem to be a lot happening at the moment; both in our own parish and in our diocese, and even in the Catholic Church as a whole.

I'm sure it might be confusing for some people, and as it's not possible to do more than publicise events in the weekly bulletin I thought I'd make an attempt to 'flesh out' some of the events I refer to in the title of this post.

Firstly, the 40 Hours' Devotion.

As the name suggests this is a period of continuous Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance on the altar for 40 hours.

It is quite an undertaking for a parish the size of ours but we have held the 40 Hours Devotion very successfully not once, but twice in recent years which is very encouraging as it is an indicator of a parish with a healthy spiritual life.

In 2011 we held the 40 Hours Devotion in thanksgiving for the 75th Anniversary of our parish. This year we have planned our 40 Hours Devotion to prepare for the Year of Faith which begins in October 2012. Please see the sidebar of this blog for the dates and times of our 40 Hours Devotion and also the link to the Year of Faith.

I'm delighted that Fr James Bradley has agreed to preside at the opening Mass on Tuesday 4th September.

Fr James is a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. I know some of you will know a little about the Ordinariate and for some it will be a complete 'unknown'. We are looking forward to hearing a little about the Ordinariate when Fr James comes to see us but meanwhile you may like to have a look at their website to get ahead of the game.

Here is a very helpful explanation of the establishment of the Ordinariate taken from the website:

'In November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum Coetibus' stating, "In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually and corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favourably to such petitions. Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realisation."

Thus on 15th January 2011 The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was erected by decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the then Fr Keith Newton was appointed as its first Ordinary. Fr Keith Newton has since been elevated to Monsignor Keith Newton.

I hope my brief introduction has whetted your appetite to learn more and you will come along to our opening Mass on Tuesday 4th September at 7.00pm. All are warmly invited. Bring your friends!

I have gone on rather more than I had intended with my introduction to the Ordinariate. I'm afraid I have let my enthusiasm run away with me.

I will give you a very brief summary of The Year of Faith here and hope to come back to the subject soon in more detail.

Do please follow the link and 'read all about it' as newspaper vendors always used to say. Do they still say that, I wonder?

On Sunday 16th October 2011 Pope Benedict announced a 'Year of Faith' to run from 11th October 2012, the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, to 24th November 2013, The Feast of Christ the King.

In his Apostolic Letter, the Holy Father states, 'We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.'

To assist us to achieve these aims there will be talks given by a variety of speakers at parish, deanery and diocesan level, small group meetings and a variety of material in the form of booklets, videos and other materials. Do please keep your eyes on our parish noticeboards, website, Facebook etc. for ways that you can become involved in this exciting Year of Faith .

Finally, just a brief word about the Jubilee Year to avoid confusion. This is to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of our own Diocese of Arundel and Brighton which will actually be in 2015.

Leading up to 2015, we shall be looking at some of the major Documents of the Second Vatican Council, beginning with the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium).

Once again you can learn more about the Jubilee Year by following the link. There will also be small groups, talks and other ways to become involved.

Family Confessions . . .

How wonderful to see families coming to Confession before they begin their school holidays . . .

We have some marvellous parents who are excellent models for their children. It reminds me once again of the importance of instilling good habits. Once children have made their First Confession, if children are brought regularly to Confession by their parents it makes such a difference. A good habit becomes a virtue, and we also know, 'good habits begin young.' I thank God that we have several families in the parish who do this and I would like to try to encourage more to follow suit.

I'm considering allocating one period a month of Saturday morning Confessions especially to hearing the Confessions of our children and families. I'd be interested to know if anyone has experience of something similar, and if they think it would be welcomed.

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus . . .

On today's solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus we celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of the clergy.

In a Letter to Priests from the Vatican given on the Solemnity of the Annunciation this year, Cardinal Piacenza and Archbishop Iruzubieta write, 

" The expression found in Scripture 'This is the will of God: your holiness!' (1Thess. 4:3), though addressed to all Christians, refers to us priests in particular, for we have accepted the invitation to "sanctify ourselves" and to become "ministers of sanctification" for our brothers."

Please join me today in praying for all priests:

O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church:
Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit,
And give power to the words of Priests
so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord.
Lord, give us holy Priests;
You yourself maintain them in holiness.
O Divine and Great High Priest,
may the power of Your mercy
accompany them everywhere and protect them
from the devil's traps and snares
which are continually being set for the soul of Priests.
May the power of Your mercy,
O Lord, shatter and bring to naught
all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests,
for You can do all things.

Amen.

(Sr Faustina Kowalska)

Holy Communions - Week 2 - And a special visitor . . .

We had another beautiful First Holy Communion celebration this Sunday. As you can see our children look wonderful and very happy which is exactly as it should be. Thanks once again to our parents, catechists and school.

We were also delighted to welcome a special visitor to our Mass. His Grace Johanna Peterus Mouchi, Archbishop of the Diocese of Mosul in Iraq, is a cousin of one of our First Holy Communion children. Doesn't he look splendid in his cope and mitre?

As last week, you will find a few more photos of the day on our parish Facebook page.

First Holy Communion - Week One

I'm over the moon!! What a joy and a blessing to celebrate Mass yesterday and to administer Holy Communion to the first group of our First Holy Communion children.

They were a credit to their parents, their catechists and to our parish. Well done to you all!

We were also blessed with a beautiful sunny day too which was an added bonus.

Here is just one of the photos from yesterday. There are more on our Facebook page - do take a look here.

Vatican Widget . . . Keeping up to date . . .

Do you like our new widget?

The Vatican Widget in the side bar will give you instant access to news from the Holy See. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the widget to direct you to videos of the Holy Father's daily Angelus address; General Audiences; the Bulletin and latest news from the Vatican.

This is yet another tool to help us in our understanding of our Catholic faith.

Throughout our lives we are growing and developing as human beings and the same is also true of our Catholic faith. We don't stop reading and learning once we've mastered our first book in the Reception Class; we continue to grow and develop throughout our lives.

In a similar way, we deepen our understanding and knowledge of our faith, from the day of our Baptism, through First Holy Communion and Confirmation and for the rest of our lives. It is an ongoing process. I do encourage you to take every opportunity to learn more about our faith.

We have a regular supply of Catholic newspapers available in the church porch which give excellent coverage of news related to the Catholic Church and Catholic teaching; from parish level, through local, diocesan and national news up to international events.

For those who are fortunate enough to have access to the Internet there is a seemingly endless supply of articles, videos and audio links concerning Catholic teaching.

From time to time I do try to put items on the parish Facebook page that I think are particularly interesting and helpful. I hope you have a look sometimes. There is no need to have a Facebook account yourself to see these items, just click on the link in the sidebar and it will take you straight to the parish page.

Apologies.

We are having 'teething problems' with our new Vatican Widget. It seems to have disappeared all by itself! We are waiting to hear how to remedy this from those that know. Meanwhile we ask for your patience please.

Surrexit Christus, Sicut Dixit, Alleluia !

Holy Saturday is always a very busy day in any parish - and St Ann's is no exception. We started the day with the Office of Readings which is a wonderful prayerful way to begin this day of 'waiting'.

Afterwards, the church is invaded by numerous volunteers who all come together to decorate the church and transform it from its solemn, sombre state to a place of joyful beauty ready to greet our Risen Lord at the Easter Vigil.

Here you can see just a few of our parishioners who were busy both inside and outside St Ann's yesterday.

Here are just a few shots taken after Mass this morning. The church is looking beautiful. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make sure our church looked her best for this great Feast of Easter. Thanks too to everyone who really pulled out all the stops for the Triduum. The list is endless but YOU know who you are and I am very very grateful to you all.

Happy Easter everyone - Christ is risen, Alleluia!