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30 January 2010

The new translation of the Missal

You may be aware that the Church throughout the English speaking world will be using a new translation of the Mass before long. We don't know the date yet, but it will be within the next couple of years. Some of us went to a day to begin to learn a bit more about it today. As you will see from the picture, we worked very hard!
There will be much more about this over the coming months.
You can read the new text here.

27 January 2010

More on the Pope and the Internet.

A few days ago I quoted what Pope Benedict said to young Catholics last year 'to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world'. The message for World Communications Day 2010 was issued recently and challenges priest to be involved in this world of digital communications:
...priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different "voices" provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.
Who better than a priest, as a man of God, can develop and put into practice, by his competence in current digital technology, a pastoral outreach capable of making God concretely present in today's world and presenting the religious wisdom of the past as a treasure which can inspire our efforts to live in the present with dignity while building a better future?

26 January 2010

Leaks....

I am hoping we shall get the leaks in the roof sorted out soon. Looking at this picture, it seems that Father Balfe had more problems fifty years ago! Were you there that day? If you click on the picture you can see a larger version. The picture has Les Geary's name on the back, and came to light when Marie died. May they both rest in peace. Amen.

22 January 2010

Facebook Groups

We now have a Parish Facebook Group, and a Faith Friends Facebook Group. The first is open to all who are associated with our parish in any way. The second is for all members of the Faith Friends group at St. Wilfrid's who help younger children of the parish through the sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion.
Many thanks to those young people who set up these groups. It seems to me that they are responding to what the Holy Father asked a year ago in his message for World Communications Day 2009:
I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church, the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world. Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this “digital continent”. Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the “Good News” of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds! The Pope accompanies you with his prayers and his blessing. 
Full text here.

20 January 2010

New link - pray with the readings

A kind parishioner has pointed out this link. It gives good material for praying with the readings we have at Mass, and more! I will add it to the permanent links on the right of the site.

06 January 2010

The ways deep and the weather sharp


It was good to be at the lovely Epiphany liturgy at St Clare's School this morning. As I looked at the crib in the snow, I thought of T S Eliot's poem, 'Journey of the Magi'. It's challenging reading, but well worth reflecting on. You can read it here.

02 January 2010

Pope's Message

For more than forty years, successive Popes have designated New Year's Day as a 'World Day of Peace'. This year, Pope Benedict's message for this day is entitled If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation. 
Here is part of the message:
The Church has a responsibility towards creation, and she considers it her duty to exercise that responsibility in public life, in order to protect earth, water and air as gifts of God the Creator meant for everyone, and above all to save mankind from the danger of self-destruction. The degradation of nature is closely linked to the cultural models shaping human coexistence: consequently, “when ‘human ecology’ is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits”. Young people cannot be asked to respect the environment if they are not helped, within families and society as a whole, to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible; it includes not only the environment but also individual, family and social ethics. Our duties towards the environment flow from our duties towards the person, considered both individually and in relation to others.
Hence I readily encourage efforts to promote a greater sense of ecological responsibility which, as I indicated in my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, would safeguard an authentic “human ecology” and thus forcefully reaffirm the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one is trained in love of neighbour and respect for nature. There is a need to safeguard the human patrimony of society. This patrimony of values originates in and is part of the natural moral law, which is the foundation of respect for the human person and creation.
The complete text of the message can be found here.