Saturday 21 June 2014

Thoughts from our Chaplain - The Mass is not ended!

This weekend we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi. My thoughts go back to a week ago, when we had the lovely celebration of the First Communions and how well the children had been prepared for it.

Over the centuries different aspects of the Eucharist have been emphasized: personal thanksgiving, adoration, the sacrifice of Jesus, sharing a meal, etc.

I like the way St Paul writes about it to the Corinthians. He told them off for eating their own food in a hurry and as a consequence some went hungry, whilst others got drunk! He tells them what he taught them, i.e. “that on the same night that Jesus was betrayed he took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it  and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me’.” (1 Cor. 11: 23-25). Paul tells them: Jesus didn’t eat his own meal. Instead he took bread, broke it and gave it away.

Actually he gave himself away, because he said, “This is my body for you”. The message is: Let us break the bread in order to give it to others. To me that means that at the end of the Eucharistic celebration the Mass is not ended, but that we bring what we have received, i.e. Jesus and his values, to others. That would be a very worthy celebration of Corpus Christi.             

Fr Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm.




Thursday 19 June 2014

Novena for the Feast of the Sacred Heart: 19 - 27 June 2014

Pope Francis reminded us this month that we are invited to pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Statue of the Sacred Heart, National Shrine of Saint Jude
At the end of his General Audience last week, the Holy Father urged the thousands gathered in a hot St. Peter's Square to turn to Jesus' heart, explaining that this devotion teaches the young to love intensely; the sick to be strong and to carry the cross of their suffering with patience; and the newly married to build their family on the foundations of the faithfulness and love of God.

The following novena from the National Shrine of Saint Jude is for the nine days leading up to the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which falls on 27 June. You may pray the novena in private, with your friends or family, or in a group:

Merciful God,
we rejoice in the gifts of love
we have received from the
heart of Jesus your Son.
Open our hearts to share his life
and continue to bless us with his love.

We ask this through
our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Make your special request now

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be...