From Bishop Richard - 2nd June
Webmaster • June 1, 2024
We gather for our celebration of Corpus Christi at a significant time in the life of our Diocese when the Pastoral Plan – The Word Who is Life – is being implemented. While this is a time of change, all we do grows from our encounter with the True Vine - the person of Jesus Christ – who gives Himself to us in the Eucharist. Our continuing conformity to Him, our remaining part of the Vine, is the only way for us to ensure that we are faithful to the Mission to which He has called us. Our celebration today, elevated by the wonderful carpet of flowers, celebrates the gift of the Eucharist, and impresses upon us all the centrality of the Lord’s
Eucharistic presence in our lives.
The wonder of the Eucharist calls for our utmost thanksgiving - it is the greatest gift for our journey. We speak of Viaticum - food for the journey - as the last Communion before death, but the Eucharist is the food for our journey of life. The Lord gives us His very self as the supreme sustenance for our lives. The
Lord’s Passover - His life death and resurrection - is made present by none other than the Lord himself, acting through his Priest. Just as Jesus gave Himself to the Apostles in the Upper Room, under the appearance of bread and wine, so He gives Himself to us. He is the Bread of Life. Like the disciples at
Emmaus, we recognise Him in the breaking of bread and our hearts burn within us as He speaks to us on the road of our own pilgrimage and feeds us with his very self.
Every aspect of our life as His people should flow from the Eucharist and we bring ourselves and all our life's
experience to the foot of the cross and to the empty tomb as we gather to listen to Him, welcome Him, praise Him and receive Him. As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews explains: through His death on the cross, Jesus, Who is the new covenant, makes it possible for us to render service to the Living God.
The Eucharist is beyond our understanding. We see and receive Jesus, Who humbled Himself to share in our humanity and Who, in this action of the Mass, calls us to share in His life, in His divinity. This wonderful mystery, through which we become conformed to Christ, demands our lifelong reflection, prayer, participation and thanksgiving.
Our Eucharistic procession is a significant and powerful extension of this celebration. Pope St. Paul VI, whose feast we celebrated only yesterday, wrote of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as “a proof of gratitude, an expression of love and a duty of adoration towards Christ our Lord”. Expressing our gratitude, love and adoration in a public way is a witness to our faith in Jesus’ Real Presence. The procession is an act of witness and, together with the celebration of the Eucharist itself, is a moment of evangelization. This public
witness to the Eucharistic Presence of the Lord proclaims Him to the world. The Eucharist is at the heart of our mission as the Church, for it is here that we encounter Christ, deepen our unity with Him and with one another. It is this encounter, this closeness to the Lord, which we proclaim.
Across the Diocese, Eucharistic Adoration provides opportunities for prayer to underpin the work of the Pastoral Plan. These times are a vital element in the life of the Diocese as we look to the future and the continuing renewal of our mission.
Many will remember the Adoremus gathering in Liverpool a few years ago, part of the celebration of Eucharistic Congresses across the whole world. Indeed, our flower carpet team laid a carpet in Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral for that celebration. This year, Adoremus continues, as it were, with a gathering at
Oscott College in Birmingham on the 14th of September. Each Diocese has been offered 44 places for this event and you can book a place and find out more details on our diocesan website.
Spend time with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, speak to others of his Real Presence, share frequently in the celebration of the Eucharist for it is participation in Him that brings about, in a way not possible in any other context, our conformity to Him, and the growth in holiness that will enable us to proclaim Him to the world.
With every blessing,
+ Richard
The annual blessing of the graves will take place this Sunday, 2nd November (see diary in ’Events & Notices’ for details) and throughout November, we will have the Books of Remembrance in the church. Please come and write in names of loved ones who have died in the past year (no need to rewrite names from previous years). On 22nd November, please join us for a special Memorial Mass to pray in particular for loved ones who have died this year, and all those who are bereaved. All are welcome.
For five consecutive first Saturdays of the month, with the intention of making reparation for the offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we are asked to: 1 – Go to Confession (may be 8 days before or after, if you are in a state of grace) 2 – Receive Holy Communion (can be received at a Saturday evening anticipatory Mass) 3 – Pray five decades of the Rosary 4 – Keep Our Lady company for 15 minutes while meditating on one or more of the mysteries of the Rosary. The Promise Our Lady promised to assist all those who will practice the devotion of the first Saturday on five consecutive months with the graces necessary for salvation at the hour of their death
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, This Sunday we celebrate the beautiful feast of All Saints. This day reflects the full wonder of the family of the Church. Throughout the year, we celebrate the feasts of those who, through canonization, are set before us as examples, teachers and guides – those who through their martyrdom, their teaching, the witness of their lives inspire us on our pilgrim journey. We seek their intercession in our need. Today we remember the countless numbers of people - “a huge number, impossible to count, from every nation, race tribe and language” as St John described them in today’s first reading, who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. They are our family members, our friends, fellow parishioners, people we have known and loved, people we have never known. They too, like the canonized saints, pray for us. They have attained the destiny that the Lord won for us through His passion, death and resurrection – that live in the love of God in its completeness for all eternity. In the second reading, the same John who wrote the Apocalypse – this time in his first letter – offers us this wonderful hope: “What we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he really is.” To know God in his fullness, to be LIKE Him – this is the hope of a love beyond anything we could possibly know in this life, for it is completeness, wholeness, peace and utter joy. St John also reminds us in the letter that we must, in this life, prepare ourselves for this destiny-beyond-description. The beatitudes of today’s Gospel provide a sure guide for our pilgrim journey. Reflect on these words of Jesus: poverty of spirit, gentleness, acceptance of sadness, desire for all that is right, mercy, purity, striving for peace, acceptance of persecution and difficulty on account of our following of Him. This the way we are called to follow. Let us rejoice, then, in all those who share the wonder of heaven and, enriched by the gift of hope, follow the way that leads to life. Let us become a community of saints. With every blessing, + Richard
Please consider supporting our Christmas campaign, providing care parcels to local families in need. We will be collecting toiletries during November. Please donate soap, shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, baby products, sanitary products etc. If you would prefer to make a financial contribution, you can donate via our card machines. More details next week.
Forms are available from Father Graham. Please return by Monday 3rd November, thank you. The first meeting for parents and children is on Tuesday 25th November, 7.30pm. Further dates to follow soon. The First Holy Communion masses will be in June 2026.
Tickets are on sale for our Winter Afternoon Tea on Saturday 15th November, from 2.30 to 4.30pm in the Parish Room at St Peter’s. Tickets £15. Enjoy a selection of savoury and sweet treats, including homemade scones with jam and cream. A lovely chance to spend time with fellow parishioners and friends. All are welcome Please book by Sunday 9th November. Telephone Ann on 07743 093765.
Arundel Cathedral is hosting the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and relics of Saints Jacinta and Francisco. The day includes the celebration of Mass, a procession and enthronement of the statue and opportunities to venerate the saints’ relics, with the rosary and a number of talks. For a timetable of the day, visit the A&B website and WAF https://abdiocese.churchsuite.com/events/udvkxhjw If anyone is able to offer lifts to other parishioners, please contact the office: adurvalley@abdiocese.org.uk
Some say "happy" and some say "blessed". These are the different words used to translate the words of Jesus in the Beatitudes. Our new lectionary uses the probably more accurate term "blessed". The beatitude describes the state of those who seek and desire the kingdom of God - heaven. Heaven is to be with God. It is there where "we shall see God as He is". We will see His face. Through this life we are constantly seeking His face because we know that in finding God we will be blessed and at peace. The saints are with God, all of them. The known and unknown. More than we can count. On this feast of All saints we receive the merits of ALL the saints and we have so many intercessors praying for us. Get to know them. Learn about some of their lives and how they can help us in particular situations. In this present time, before we see God's face we long for their company. Saint Bernard also voices our yearning when he says, "that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory." There is no reason why we cannot join them and share in heaven. Christ, Himself, appears to us as He appeared to them: the same sacraments, the same prayer, the same faith, the same Holy Spirit and the same Church. Their merits spur us on to finish the race and persevere through all trials to the glory that awaits the blessed. Then we will be truly happy. With my prayer for you all and our deceased parishioners. God bless you. Fr Graham
(from Catholic Answers www.catholic.com) What are the requirements for first Saturday devotions? The Five First Saturdays Devotion is a request made by Our Lady of Fatima. The Blessed Mother promised to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all who, as an act of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the first five Saturdays of consecutive months: • Go to confession • Receive Holy Communion • Say five decades of the rosary • Keep Mary company for fifteen minutes meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary The sacramental confession can be received within twenty days either before or after the reception of Communion, as the Holy See’s Apostolic Penitentiary has decreed, provided the communicant is in a state of grace for Communion. Reception of Holy Communion must take place within twenty-four hours of the first Saturday. The reception of Communion need not be part of participating in a Mass. The fifteen minutes of meditation are in addition to the recitation of the Rosary.
Saint John Henry Newman (Feast on Thursday) prayed… All who follow the truth are on the side of the truth, and the truth will prevail. Few in number, but strong in spirit, despised by the world, the twelve apostles made their way, and while they suffered, they overwhelmed the power of darkness and built the Christian church. The Vatican has announced that the proclamation of St John Henry Newman (1801-1890) as a Doctor of the Church will take place on 1 November, the Solemnity of All Saints, in St Peter's Square, during celebrations for the Jubilee of the World of Education. St John Henry Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and canonised in 2019 by Pope Francis, who explained that St John Henry had chosen as his motto "Cor ad cor loquitur"—“Heart speaks to heart” because the Lord saves us by speaking from His heart to ours: “This realisation", Pope Francis said, "led him, the distinguished intellectual, to recognise that his deepest encounter with himself and with the Lord came not from his reading or reflection, but from his prayerful dialogue, heart to heart, with Christ, alive and present. It was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace.” St John Henry Newman will become only the second British Doctor of the Church, after St Bede the Venerable (672-735).