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

This year the service has been prepared by an ecumenical group of Christian women from Palestine, reflecting on the theme, “I beg you, bear with one another in love.”. Please come and join us in praying for this very troubled area of our world. • 10.30am: Shoreham Baptist Church, Western Road • 2.00pm: The Hub, Church Lane, Upper Beeding Light refreshments afterwards. All are welcome.

Dear brothers and sisters... Difficulties and challenges come to us in ways we do not always expect. At this present time, the world is riven with conflict and war, bringing fear, destruction and death to so many across the world. This is a deeply worrying time for many of us, a time of distress. Abraham found himself in a place of distress – called to sacrifice his only son. He trusted. Isaac was, as it were, plucked from the jaws of death and Abraham’s succession assured. There was new life. Isaac foreshadows Jesus, in a sense. Jesus is the only Son of the Father. Jesus IS put to death – but there is new life. Abraham is provided with a sheep for the sacrifice. Jesus, the Lamb of God dies for us; dies that we might have life. Today’s Gospel is deeply significant. In the Transfiguration, the Apostles are given a glimpse of what is to come. Jesus will be put to death and He will rise again (as He tells them on the way down the mountain). This experience of the Transfiguration strengthens the Apostles for what is to come – it takes them beyond – to the hope that is Jesus’ gift to us. Sometimes our lives can seem like mountains – an uphill struggle in a place in which we may feel uncomfortable. Yet Jesus is with us. What is more, He shows us the way we must follow and the promise and hope that he gave to Peter, James and John, He gives to you and to me. Life is ours – it is Jesus’ gift to us. In this great Season of Lent, let us be open to the love that He gives freely – that love that is forgiveness, the gift of prayer, the wonder of the Eucharist, the life of the Church that He calls us to share with the whole world. With every blessing, + Richard

Dear brothers and sisters... Our Lenten journey has begun. Ash Wednesday initiated this wonderful season in the Church’s year. This season of 40 days mirrors the time of the flood, about which we hear in this Sunday’s First Reading. Our 40 days mirrors the 40 years that the people of the Exodus spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land. Our 40 days are spent with the Lord Himself, as He is in the desert before the start of His public ministry. There are times in the lives of each one of us when we find ourselves in the desert. Indeed, as we begin Lent at a time when so many parts of the world are torn apart by war and conflict, resulting in a great deal of concern for the whole world, we are in the very particular desert that this brings. Lent this year must surely be a time of prayer for peace. Both the flood and the Exodus were times of conversion – a renewed awareness of God’s presence and place in the lives of His chosen people. The experience called them to new promises that God would make with them. The New Covenant in Christ is sealed in His Death and Resurrection. This season, then, is the great time for us to turn to face the Lord, to gaze upon the instruments of the Passion and to recognise, in the very depth of our hearts, all that Jesus did for us in His Death and Rising. There can be only one response to His action – renewed commitment to Him. Our Lenten fasting, prayer and charity – all intrinsic aspects of this season – are necessary pointers to our reliance on the Lord. This is their value. We deny ourselves so that we can see more clearly our reliance on Him. This year, our prayer for peace reminds us that we cannot find peace on our own. Let us offer our fasting for the intention of peace. May our Lenten almsgiving help us to re -focus on the Lord of Life, rather than the self-interest of consumerism. In the Upper Room, after the Resurrection, Jesus gave the Apostles the gift of peace – may we all be open to that gift this Lent, this coming Easter and, indeed, every day.