5 th Sunday of Easter

Transcription

1 PARISH BULLETIN Catholic Church of St Kieran in Campbeltown and Islay Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain May 14 th th Sunday of Easter St. Kieran s Saturday No Vigil Mass 6th Sunday of Easter: May Devotions and Holy Mass am Sacrament of Reconciliation: on request on Sunday. Saturday: Memorial of Saint Bernadine of Siena Islay Sunday 21 May May Devotions and Holy Mass, 4pm Sunday 4 June Holy Mass and Sacrament of Confirmation, 3:45pm Psalm response May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you. Gospel acclamation Alleluia, alleluia! Jesus said: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Alleluia! Communion Antiphon I am the true vine and you are the branches, says the Lord. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, bears fruit in plenty, alleluia.

2 MONDAY, MAY 15 Familiarity breeds love Saint Augustine says the Lord loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love. God s love for each of us is as real and tangible as the love of a mother for her child and the love of a lover who gives all for his beloved. God made us for love to know Him personally and to grow in the knowledge of His great love for us. How can we know and be assured of the love of God? The Holy Spirit helps us to grow in the knowledge of God and His great love. The Holy Spirit also opens our ears to hear and understand the word of God. Do you listen attentively to God's Word and believe it? Only by knowing Him will we love him. Ask the Holy Spirit to inflame your heart with love for His Word in the Holy Scriptures. TODAY S READINGS: Acts 14:5-18; John 14: He brought them up into his house and provided a meal. TUESDAY, MAY 16 Work for justice peacefully Jesus promised peace to those who love him. But there has not been a single generation of worldwide peace in recorded history. Why is peace so elusive? Pope Paul VI noted that we are missing the necessary precondition: Peace is more than the absence of war, he wrote. If you want peace, work for justice. The worldview of justice is that people get what they deserve, an that means others get punished for their wrong-doing and I am rewarded for the good I do. But this is human logic. God s ways are not our ways. He is the final arbiter of justice. We are arrogant to believe there can be human justice without involving God. Or, even worse, claiming we know God s justice and will implement it. The evidence speaks for itself... where is there peace? Jesus offers us His peace, the peace that comes from accepting Him and the Father s will for ourselves. TODAY S READINGS: Acts 14:19-28; John 14:27-31a. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. WEDNESDAY, MAY 17 Time for some personal pruning Gardeners know the importance of pruning. By cutting away some of a plant, you help it to direct its energy into flowering and fruitful growth. It s the same when it comes to the spirit. Trim from your life what is sapping your connection to the true vine, Jesus Christ. We all have aspects of our personality and character that need to change and develop. Is it a bad habit, a destructive situation, a negative attitude? What s separating you from God and neighbour? Cut it away. Making a clean break and strengthening your soul will let the good and healthy parts of your spirit bear much fruit.

3 TODAY S READINGS: Acts 15:1-6; John 15:1-8. Every branch that bears fruit my Father prunes to make it bear more fruit. THURSDAY, MAY 18 Follow the joy Do you know the love that produces immeasurable joy? Jesus speaks of the love which the Father and He have for those who belong to Him. We can never outgive God in love, because He has loved us without measure. Our love for Him is a response to knowing Him and His exceeding mercy and kindness towards us. Paul the Apostle tells us that we can abound in joy and hope because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Romans 5:5). In God's love we find the fulness of grace, life, peace, and joy. Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment a new way of love... TODAY S READINGS: Acts 15:7-21; John 15:9-11. I have said these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. FRIDAY, MAY 19 Can you get that call? There s a lot of holiness in the church, and it s not only leaders or the women and men in consecrated life but all of us. Too often we think that the chosen of God are the ones who are in vowed religious life or ministry positions. Yet the gospel truth is that God calls each of us. Every one of us is invited to respond to God in faith and love and to serve God in the gifts He has given us. Ask yourself how God has been calling you. In what ways have you responded? How might the Spirit be encouraging you to recognise that the characteristics you have are gifts to be used for good? TODAY S READINGS: Acts 15:22-31; John 15: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you. SATURDAY, MAY 20 MEMORIAL OF SAINT BERNADINE OF SIENA Cultivate saintly smarts No wonder Bernardine ( ) is a patron saint of public relations professionals who use a positive spin to persuade people. Though he embraced the poverty and humility of Saint Francis of Assisi, he was sensitive to the demands of secular life, and tried to negotiate between Christian ethics and a conflicting code of honour that stressed retaining face in a public world, says a biographer. A persuasive preacher, he got Italy s warring families to replace their coats of arms with tablets bearing I.H.M., the Holy Name of Jesus. When a painter of playing cards went bankrupt because Bernardine turned people off gambling, Bernardine made him wealthy by persuading him to paint I.H.M. tablets. Can we be as savvy, bringing Jesus way to worldly ways? TODAY S READINGS: Acts 16:1-10; John 15: You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

4 Praying And so, maybe the Rosary?... our bodies cannot cope with this modern demand... we need to reflect on what we do and to where we are aimed. In one word: we need prayer. It may seem a banal statement to say that humanity is a part of nature, yet the consequences of this fact are not insignificant. The time we have in this life is limited: it lasts from conception to death. During each year we are affected by the changing cycle of seasons. During each day we are subject to the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, e.g. ultradian rhythms which change with a frequency of about 90 minutes causing periods of increased or decreased activity even during sleep. The need for prayer The neglect to acknowledge these ultradian rhythms in modern life has turned out to be very fateful. Instead of giving in to the natural need to slow down, we try by every means possible to remain active, but our bodies cannot cope with this modern demand. So we lengthen the day, and use stimulants to keep up the pace. Research has shown that with most cases of disorders linked to stress it is enough to restore the proper rhythm of the day to return to a mental balance. What s more, work is more effective, if there is time for quiet. So much for research for centuries the rhythm of the day has been preserved in the monasteries, where work is interwoven with prayer. Some companies have started using this naturally changing activity in the worker, providing opportunities for a break for meditation, yoga, etc., sometimes led by a coach. He trains the employee making them in the end more effective. And so a person stands before a choice: either minimise their nature and complain about stress, or seek solutions to their problems among the current trends of spirituality foreign to Christianity, which as experience has shown may actually pose a threat to mental health. You may in the end exclaim with the psalmist: Make me to know thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Discover the Rosary And so a person stands before a choice The Lord does not leave those who plead without aid. He knows well that we need moments of peace, to reach into the silence within us. He also understands that we need to reflect on what we do and to where we are aimed. In one word: we need prayer. And here we have much choice. We can decide what prayer we respond to the

5 most. Depending on what we are experiencing, the most applicable maybe verbal prayer, another time the need to explore the word of God may be felt, or simply to persevere in the presence of God. There are, however, prayers that are themselves very versatile, proven by the great saints and mystics. Such a prayer for Western Christians is the Rosary. Its characteristic feature is rhythmicity, the measured repetition of the Hail Mary. The very systematic recitation of the Rosary teaches the one who prays to deepen their prayer. Rhythmicity meets human physiology and facilitates quietening, and in the quiet the voice of the Holy Spirit can be heard. The Rosary can be verbal prayer, meditative and initiate contemplation. Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be... The structure of the Rosary begins and ends with the crucified Christ, illuminating the road for us. It reminds, that God has called us with His great love, calls us to return, and Jesus is the beginning and the end. Repeatedly asking of God the Father (the Lord s Prayer) highlights that the centre of our lives in God and only Him. The first three Hail Marys helps us realise that to encounter God we can only do so through faith, which gives rise to hope. When we believe that God is present all the time and wants our happiness, then we can only reply with the prayer of praise (Glory be) on the model of Mary s Magnificat, when Elizabeth spoke of Mary and God s grace. Repeating the ten Hail Marys we contemplate the events of Jesus life, which are the backbone of our knowledge of the word of God. You may also wonder about the meaning of the words of the Hail Mary, which takes its beginning from the dialogue of Mary with the Archangel Gabriel, where one yes of Mary had huge significance for our salvation history. We too can make a great change, saying to the Creator yes. This in turn means that we see His imprint in others, accept ourselves, stop being stuck in the past and we don t set God tasks, expecting Him to realise our plans. In the second part of the prayer we recognise our fragility, both spiritually and in body, which everyone, when with courage they face the truth about themselves, sooner or later will see. That s why we ask Mary for help at that moment, and especially at the moment of death, where those on whom we count will no longer be able to accompany us: allowing that at the time of prayer that our hearts be filled with wisdom the word of the Lord just as Mary did, pondering in her heart His every word. With the help of Mary Padre Pio, John Paul II and other great faithful people have pointed to the Rosary, which teaches us to listen to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Modelling prayer on

6 Mary, who was the greatest mystic, because she always lived in the presence of God. Praying on the Rosary can apply our lives, like tracing paper, to her life and check if her and our lives are similar. If we are sure that we are directed by Mary in this direction, then we are on the right road. The fact that Mary is human, makes it easier to ask her directly for help. In human understanding God is so great and ineffable, that a person can have a sense of fear before Him, who is almighty. Yet, Mary is different from us, in that God preserved her from all sin even before Jesus accomplished the work of salvation. In this way she is for us humans an archetype, a model, fully benefiting from the gift of redemption. Mary cannot be neglected on the road, on which light becomes the ultimate goal. To understand this better let s take a comparison in the realm of physics: in order to describe a phenomenon taking place on Earth we use specific patterns, laws. However, these same patterns cannot be applied to similar phenomena we have later found occurring in the cosmos. There, different theories apply. At some point one theory of patterns supersedes the other (i.e. crosses the threshold). This is a sort of meeting of the cosmos and earth. Just as Mary stands between God and people. What is great in human eyes is not necessarily great in the eyes of God, and vice versa. It teaches us also how we are to ask God. She did not dictate what Jesus had to do, but pointed to the problem, just as at Cana in Galilee. And she teaches how to trust God. With this sort of confidence we are prepared to fulfill our obligations, which after such prayerful focus will be marked by joy and naturally will be a continuation of prayer. When we give ourselves to quietness, we can do it with confidence that even in our sleep He blesses us. Readings for the 5 th Sunday of Easter Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7 Deacons are appointed to serve, while the apostles continue to preach. Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, (22) God s kindness is sufficient to fill the earth with justice and right.

7 1 Peter 2:4-9 We are vital stones being built into a spiritual house founded on Christ. John 14:1-12 The destination may be fuzzy, but the way is clear: Jesus our Lord. The Holy Father s prayer intention for May That Christians in Africa, in imitation of the Merciful Jesus, may give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace. Prayers Please pray for all those who are in need or have asked for our prayers: James Hawkins (Stoke-on Trent), Canon Donald MacKay (Daliburgh), Shirley Finn, Mrs. Isa Durnan, Irene O Neil, Margaret Wilson. Please remember in your prayers all those, whose anniversaries occur at his time, Doreen Clark, Mary Meenan, Dolores O. Francisca. News and Event Candidates for Comfirmation: please pray for our candidates John, Alice and Kacper (Islay), who will be confirmed on 4 th June. Christian Aid week. There will an ecumenical Service and talk on the work of Christian Aid in St. Kiaran s Episcopal Church on Sunday 14 th May at 7pm. All are welcome. There will also be a collection at the Coop during next Saturday. Donations can also be made via the Chapel House in a labelled envelope. Film Night: The next film night will be the recent film (2009) The 13 th Day A Story of Hope. A dramatisation of the appearances of Our Lady based on the journal of Lúcia Santos, the eldest seer who died in Tuesday 23 rd May at 6.30pm. Fr. Tony is away from Monday to Saturday this week in Poland. In the event of an urgent need for a priest, call Fr. David Connor,

8 Vacancy Diocesan Treasurer Post: Diocesan Treasurer Hours of Work: Part-time approximately 1.5 days per week (with flexibility) Location: Oban Salary: 18 per hour The RC Diocese of Argyll and the Isles is seeking to recruit a part-time Diocesan Treasurer, based in the Diocese Offices in Oban. This is an important new post, carrying significant responsibility to offer financial direction across the Diocese, overseeing the day-to-day management of all financial functions. In line with the Church s Code of Canon Law (Canon 494), the Diocesan Treasurer will be regarded as the Diocesan Financial Administrator and will be appointed for 5 years, after which the appointment may be renewed. The Treasurer will work closely with the Vicar General and Diocese staff to be responsible for the financial strategic plan, accounts, budgets, audits and fund-raising, ensuring robust and compliant monitoring and reporting mechanisms. The successful candidate will be a qualified Accountant (ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA), be able to think strategically, with excellent organisational skills and a proven ability to work outside of the job description on occasions. All applicants must be willing to work within a Christian framework and be sensitive to its ethos. An Application Form and Job Description / Person Specification can be obtained by ing the Vicar General at FrRoddyJohnston@aol.com. Completed application forms should be returned by post to: Rev. Roderick Johnston VG, Our Holy Redeemer Church, 71 Kenneth Street, Stornoway. HS1 2DS.The closing date for applications is at 5pm on Friday 2 June A Parish of the R.C. Diocese of Argyll and the Isles; Charitable Trust, a registered Scottish Charity, SC Parish Priest: Fr. A. Wood, St. Kieran s, Campbeltown; Tel , anthonywood5@icloud.com, website: stkieransrc.org