As indicated previously the Gift course is aimed at building our faith and developing a life in the Holy Spirit....
In this session David Payne - director of CaFE - considered and introduced the Father's loving plan, and how great it is to know we are loved so dearly by God the Father. We learned amongst other things that our faith can be summed up in two words.....  not to be reveal here. We also learnt that St Catherine of Siena - a doctor of the Catholic Church - reveled after spending three years in solatory pray that "God is intoxicated with love for us"....  If His love's so great for us then we should have no dificulty basking in that great love. We learned that St Terese of Lisiex - another great Doctor of the Church - revelaed that we don't need to climb the mountain of perfection we can burst in to the Father's presence right now and jump on his knee and embrace His great love for us or at any time and love Him.
We reflected upon how the Holy Spirit of Christ is with us and how He reveals that great love of God the Father. We considered how knowing more of Gods's love can help us in our every day life. WE finished the session in prayer for ourselves and those who need our help at this time.
All who attened really enjoyed this session and went home with five daily reflections to consider are looking forward to next Wednedsay when we consider "The Joy of the Gospel",

The Gift 

A six-week course entitled "The Gift" is commencing on Wednesday 18th Jan – 7.30-9:30 pm and is taking place at St Peter's Church meeting room.

Pope Francis’s challenge to us as practicing Catholics is to be ‘spirit filled evangelisers’.

Catholics are called to unpack and explore the greatest gift we have been given – the gift of our faith. The six session Gift course has been produced to help us to do just that.

It has been developed as a response to Pope Francis’s exhortation ‘The Joy of the Gospel’.

If you’d like to know more check out the introductory video below and if you're interested in attending a future session call 07751 625942:

 
The Gift: A Life in the Spirit Course - A New Resource From CaFE from CaFE on Vimeo.

Father Richard's Anniversary Mass went wonderfully, helped in no small part by Bishop Peter's presence to bless the proceedings and to tell us a bit about our Parish Priest :-)

Here are a few photos from the event. Let me know if you want the image file for any other use.

Chris

In Bible Alive today, after discussing to day's gospel reading (Mark 10:1-12) in which Jesus rebuts the Pharisees' views of marriage, the following passage from Tertullian is quoted; I think it rather beautiful . . .

Chris

"How beautiful the marriage of two Christians, two who are one in hope, one in desire, one in the way of life they follow, one in the religion they practise. They are as brother and sister, both servants of the same Master. Nothing divides them, either in the flesh or the spirit. They pray together, they worship together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another. Side by side they visit God’s church and partake of God’s banquet; side by side they face difficulties and persecution, share their consolations. They have no secrets from one another; they never shun each other’s company; they never bring sorrow to each other’s hearts. Unembarrassed they visit the sick and assist the needy. They give alms without anxiety; they attend the Sacrifice without hindrance. They need not be furtive about making the sign of the cross, nor timorous in greeting the brethren, nor silent in asking a blessing of God. Psalms and hymns they sing to one another…Hearing and seeing this, Christ rejoices. To such as these he gives his peace. Where there are two together, there he is present; and where he is, evil is not."

Bishop Peter Doyle presided over the induction of our Father Richard as Parish Priest at St Peter's on Tuesday 25 February. It was well-attended mass and the social gathering afterwards, fuelled by small eats that all had brought, was a great Parish occasion. Congratulations to Father Richard, and thank you for being our priest.

Here are some photos of the occasion, by Carolyn and Peter.

Chris

I've put up the new Minister lists. Let me know if you have any difficulty reading or accessing the document.

Chris

Churches Together in Biggleswade held a meeting on Tuesday 23rd April.

Forthcoming events and requests for volunteers are below.

* Monthly prayer meetings (regular church meetings to which members of other Churches in Biggleswade are especially invited).
        - 22nd May, 7:30 pm, Pentecostal Church.
        - June, New Life Church (details tba).
        - 6th July, 10am, St. Andrew's.

* Christian Aid Week, 12th-18th May 2013.
        - Joint Service, Sunday 12th May, 6pm, St. Andrew's.
        - Street collections - if anyone is interested in helping out, please contact Neil Spencer at neilhspencer@gmail.com or 07910 211824.
        - Collecting outside Asda, Saturday 18th May - St. Peter's is responsible for covering the 12pm to 1:30pm time slot. If you can help, please contact Neil Spencer at neilhspencer@gmail.com or 07910 211824.

* Biggleswade Carnival, Saturday 22nd June 2013. Churches Together in Biggleswade will be having a float and an organising commitee will meet on Thursday 2nd May, 7:30pm at Biggleswade Baptist Church. If anyone would like to represent St. Peter's at this meeting or future meetings arranging the float, please contact Neil Spencer at neilhspencer@gmail.com or 07910 211824.

From Neil Spencer, the latest newsletter from Churches Together.

Churches Together News 13 Mar 13

St.Peter’s Catholic Church Biggleswade.
Last Sunday’s gospel Mark 12:28-34 tells us about a scribe who puts this question to Jesus “What is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied in two parts the first part that one must love the Lord our God with all your heart and strength, the second part to love thy neighbour as yourself. This is a well known commandment that we all believe in and practise every day to the best of our ability. When writing this each week I look at what scriptures have written over the past 2000 years together with homilies written by modern day people to try to arrive at a meaning for that week’s gospel. Sometimes the actual meaning is so profound it goes straight over my head! And is only fully appreciated by the very educated catechists amongst us. Today we have a connection between the gospel and the Year of Faith (Oct 2012 to Nov 2013). This gospel reminds us that faith has to be put into action. It is difficult, but by dedicating time to learn more about our faith, loving God through the prayer and the sacraments we can then put this into practise by loving our neighbour as ourselves; this is a part of what the Year of Faith is about.

November 11th Sunday-Remembrance Day, please note Mass will start at 9.45 am and not 10am. This is to enable Fr.Richard to reach the Cenotaph in the Market Square for 11am.

November 14th Wednedsday 7.30 pm Social Club meeting, All welcome.


November 17th Saturday 10.30-11.30 Coffee Morning to meet new Parish priest Fr. Richard Moroney and chat with friends

I have restored the pages for Readers and Eucharistic Ministers. Sue Laing, the Parish Secretary has taken over organising the lists after the sad death of Jenny Frodsham.

I hope that Sue has not taken on too much . . .

Chris