OUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE
Serving the Church communities of St Peter, Shoreham ; Christ the King, Steyning ; The Towers Convent, Upper Beeding
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Bishop Richard Moth
ButtonBishop of Arundel and Brighton
PASTORAL LETTER for the 1st Sunday of Advent 1st December 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today marks the beginning of the Church’s Year. The Season of Advent is a time of joyful anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ. We reflect not only on His Birth and on His coming at the end of time; but we must take time also to reflect on the way He comes to us each and every day and the life He calls us to live.
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PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO ABORTION LAW: PLEASE ACT NOW Four proposed amendments to abortion law will probably be considered and decided by MPs this Wednesday, 15th May. There will be a prolife rally outside Parliament on the day, starting 11am. Please join us if you can. Also, if you have not yet done so, please contact your MP and ask him to support NC15 (lowering the time limit) and NC41 (increasing protection for Downs babies) and oppose NC1 and NC40 (effectively permitting abortion to birth). For further information and facilities to do this really quickly: For NC1, NC15 and NC40, click the “take action” buttons here: https://righttolife.org.uk/news/press-release-parliament-to-vote-on-lowering-abortion-time-limit-on-15-may For NC41 see: https://dontscreenusout.org/timeforchange/ Then please keep this in your prayers. Thank you.
(To be recited every day of the novena, from Friday 10th May until Pentecost) On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, body and soul to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, "Speak Lord for Your servant is listening." Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, “You did not choose me; I chose you.” These words of the Lord in this Sunday’s Gospel are for each and every one of us. The Lord chooses me; He chooses you. This choice of the Lord begins at the very first moment of our existence. At the moment of conception, we are loved by God, we are His creation. At baptism, we are called to live our lives in the love that exists eternally in the Blessed Trinity. While our parents may bring us to be baptised, it is the Holy Spirit who prompts. The Sacrament of Baptism is God’s action. It is the grace of God that takes away the effect of Original Sin, fills us with His love, brings us into the Church, the Body of Christ. For the adult coming to faith, the Holy Spirit is active, calling the person to faith, to this same action of God Himself in the sacrament. Perhaps we often feel unworthy of God’s love. “Why would God choose me?” we might ask. Very often, we find ourselves called to have confidence in God’s love for us: to trust in Him. It is worth giving a moment to reflect that, in His love for us, in His call to us in baptism – and in the many other ways that He calls us – God is placing His confidence in us: in me, in you. How often in the Gospels do we find Jesus saying: “Do not be afraid”? There is no need for fear. The way ahead may be a daunting one, the path rough at times, the road steep and narrow, but there is no need to fear, for, chosen by God, we walk in His love. God, in the person of His Only Son, gives new life and we are guided by the Holy Spirit, strengthened through the sacraments. Each and every one of us has "some definite purpose," as St John Henry Newman reminds us. We are chosen and loved by God. With every blessing + Richard
May is the Month of Mary. Today we crown her statue and honour her as the Mother of God and our Mother. Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
The journey from Eastertide to Ascension and Pentecost calls us to mission. This year, in the light of Bishop Richard’s new Pastoral Plan , the whole Diocese is invited to come together for four weeks of prayer to the Holy Spirit for the raising up of new vocations in the Church. Let us spend some time each day this week reading about the spirit of truth (Jn 14:15-21) and praying for all young people to have the gift of discernment in a changing world. You can download our Month of Prayer for Vocations leaflet. To find out more about vocations, visit our website . (Leaflets also available in the porch.)
Jesus is very clear about the call to His disciples to bear fruit, something that is simply impossible unless we remain close to Him, part of the vine. Given the current worldview - with conflict, famine, challenges to our climate, economic hardship, and an ever -present devaluing of the dignity of human life before our eyes in the news at almost every moment - the Lord’s call to each of us to bear fruit, to be His disciples, is a call to action to each and every one of us. This action grows out of prayer, our experience of the Eucharist, and our encounter with the Lord as we see Him present in others. St John in his first letter expresses it another way: our love is not to be just words or mere talk but something real and active. This is the measure of our discipleship, the proof that we are children of the truth, coheirs with Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. At the beginning of Lent, we heard the words of St Paul: "now is the favourable time, this is the day of salvation." This same sense of urgency is with us each and every day as we seek to do the Lord's work and is most pressing in these present times. May our experience of faith, a lived relationship with the person of Jesus, find expression in our care for our brothers and sisters wherever they may be. With every blessing, + Richard
Dear brothers and sisters, This Sunday’s Gospel Reading, taken from Luke’s text, follows on from the Emmaus encounter with the Lord and begins with the two disciples recounting their experience. As we read the Gospels describing the post-Resurrection appearances of the Lord, we might wonder why Jesus’ followers were so slow to catch on! Mary of Magdala, Peter, John, Thomas, the disciples on the road to Emmaus – the number of experiences grows as we read the Gospels. Yet still, the Lord needs to offer proof that He is truly risen. He questions their doubts and eats in their presence – further proof that He is truly alive, risen from the dead. Luke then writes that Jesus "opened their minds to understand the scriptures." Through our baptism, we belong to Him. We are called to live our lives in the love that exists in God. We receive the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit that came upon the Apostles at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit who is the gift of the Risen Christ. Our minds, too, can be open to understand the scriptures; minds free from any doubt that the Lord has truly risen. This conviction is the gift that is the foundation for our mission as the Body of Christ – the mission to proclaim His life and love to a world in need – a mission we must carry out with total conviction and with every gift that God, in His mercy, has given to us. In this mission lies our joy and fulfilment. With every blessing, + Richard
There are still opportunities to make your confession before Easter: Sunday 24th March, 3.00pm: St Michael’s, High Salvington Tuesday 26th March, 7.00pm: St Catherine’s, Littlehampton Wednesday 27th March, 10.30am: St Joseph, Rustington Father Graham will also hear confessions at CTK after mass on Tuesday morning (approx. 10.30am) and at St Peter’s after mass on Maundy Thursday evening (approx. 8.30pm), and after the solemn Liturgy on Good Friday (approx. 4.15pm).
Dear brothers and sisters, “Hosanna to the Son of David” – our welcome to the Lord as He enters Jerusalem is a welcome to the One Who brings hope to a very broken world. With conflict raging in so many places across our world, the Lord comes to suffer, die and rise from the dead that we might know His peace – the peace that only He can bring. As we follow Him into our churches this Palm Sunday – and as we walk with Him in the events of His life-giving passion, death and resurrection – may we walk with our suffering sisters and brothers, wherever they may be. Let us accompany them in their suffering as we accompany the Lord in His suffering. Today, we shall listen to the Passion account given us by St Mark. Do not, as it were, leave this text at the church door when you leave. Take it with you in mind and heart. Read it again over the coming days. Allow the inspired words that are an account of our salvation to find a home in you. The more we dwell in the Gospel, the more we dwell in Christ, in the One who suffered, died and rose again for us. The more we dwell in Christ, the more open we shall be to His gift of peace – a gift that is for the whole world. With every blessing, + Richard
Dear brothers and sisters, The Fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday. We mark this day with rose coloured vestments at Mass. The word Laetare is taken from the Entrance Antiphon for Mass: "Rejoice, Jerusalem". Perhaps we do not see Lent as a time for rejoicing – it is the penitential season of our year – yet there must be always an element of rejoicing in the life of the Christian. In this Sunday’s first reading, from the Book of Chronicles, the writer tells of the coming of Cyrus, King of Persia, who allows the people of Israel to return home after some seventy years of exile in Babylon. The yearning of the people for their homeland, expressed in the Responsorial Psalm, comes to an end and Cyrus, in response to his own experience of God’s call to him, also allows the people to rebuild their temple. The Chosen People of Israel find their unity once again, their dignity is restored. They can be at home once more. They rejoice. St Paul, writing to the Ephesians, speaks of a different separation. This is the separation that comes through sin. The conscious turning away from God that is sin brings exile. We find ourselves living in the darkness that is separation from God’s love. The greater our turning away, the greater the separation – the more distant the exile. Yet, as St Paul celebrates in his letter, God’s mercy is generous and in Christ we see the richness of His love, His grace. Through the saving work of Jesus, we can recognise once more that we are truly works of art, created by and for the love of God. We can be at home once more – brought home through Jesus' Passion, Death and Resurrection. We rejoice. Jesus, in his conversation with Nicodemus, describes His own saving work: “God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through Him the world might be saved.” This is the reason for our rejoicing. We must lament our sins, a necessary part of our Lenten journey, but we do this knowing that God’s love and mercy – in the saving work of Jesus – overcomes even the darkest moments, the darkest places of our lives. Christ Jesus calls us home to live His life. This is the only way we can be truly at home. In Him we rejoice. With every blessing, + Richard
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