This blog is for the use of the whole parish; please let me know if you'd like to contribute.

Chris (email link at the bottom of each page)

Lockdown

19-03-2020, 06:41hope, recovery, renewalPermalink

Lockdown

Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is panic buying.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

But,

They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise

You can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet

The sky is no longer thick with fumes

But blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi

People are singing to each other

across the empty squares,

keeping their windows open

so that those who are alone

may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland

Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know

is busy spreading fliers with her number

through the neighbourhood

So that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples

are preparing to welcome

and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting

All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way

All over the world people are waking up to a new reality

To how big we really are.

To how little control we really have.

To what really matters.

To Love.

So we pray and we remember that

Yes there is fear.

But there does not have to be hate.

Yes there is isolation.

But there does not have to be loneliness.

Yes there is panic buying.

But there does not have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness.

But there does not have to be disease of the soul

Yes there is even death.

But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.

Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic

The birds are singing again

The sky is clearing,

Spring is coming,

And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul

And though you may not be able

to touch across the empty square,

Sing.

-from Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard) in Ireland

March 13th 2020

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Jesus Talks to a Woman at the Well

15-03-2020, 07:18faith, life, peace, waterPermalink

John 4:5–42

In this encounter with the woman at the well (a Samaritan), Jesus is described in very human terms, sitting at the well, exhausted from his journey. The woman too is very human. Her appearance at the well at about noon, long after the other village women would have replenished their water supply, may indicate her isolated position in society.

She was shunned for her many sins. Yet it is she who becomes a missionary to her people.

Jewish/Samaritan relations were historically condition. About 722 BC the Assyrian army descended on Northern Israel, took its population into exile and colonised its land with foreigners. These people partially adopted Israel’s religion over the centuries but were always viewed by the Jews as hated, semi-pagan invaders.

The woman was therefore very surprised when Jesus spoke to her, and even more astonished when he asked her for a drink, since Jews did not share food or drink with Samaritans for fear of ritual defilement.

Water becomes the sign by which both baptism and faith are epxlained to us. Water is the means, but the Holy Spirit flowing into us is the reality. There is a vital connection between the flowing of water and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The “living water” of which Jesus speaks brings not only awareness of her sin to the woman but forgiveness – hope in the presence of Jesus as the Messiah and faith in his words.

The water that Jesus offers is not something that human effort can obtain. It is a pure gift from God, water which, when drunk, becomes within a spring of life. Jesus is referring in the first place to his own words of salvation, words that are spirit and life, because whoever listens to them and lives by them will continue to share in God’s life.

The water has a deeper meaning as a symbol of the Holy Spirit (John 7:38–39). The Spirit enables us to understand the words of Jesus and to respond to them with a willing heart.

The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realise it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him. (CCC 2560)

Chris

from Bible Alive

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Peace and Joy, by St Paul

15-03-2020, 06:57joy, peacePermalink

Romans 5:1–8

The first five verses of Chapter 5 of St Paul’s Letter to the Romans introduce a section that contains difficult concepts. To understand the following four chapters, it helps to keep in mind the two-sided reality of the Christian life.

On the one hand we are complete in Christ (our acceptance with him is secure). On the other hand we are growing in Christ (we are becoming more and more like him). At the one and the same time we have status of kings and the duties of slaves.

We feel both the presence of Christ and the pressure of sin. We enjoy the peace that comes from being made right with God, but we still face daily problems that help us to grow.

If we remember these two sides of the Christian life, we will not be discouraged as we face temptations and problems. Instead we will learn to depend on the power available to us from Christ, who lives in us by the Holy Spirit.

Chris

(from the footnotes in my Life Application Bible)

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Bishops' Guidance on the Coronavirus

14-03-2020, 08:20health, ParishPermalink

There is guidance on dealing with the Coronavirus on the website of the Diocese of Northamoton:

https://northamptondiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/COVID19-Guidelines-4-120320-1635.pdf

Bishop Peter has moved parishes of the Diocese to Stage 2 of the advice.

Chris

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

The Prodigal Son

14-03-2020, 07:21forgiveness, grace, mercyPermalink

Luke 15:1–3, 11–32

The parable of the Prodigal Son is unique to St Luke’s Gospel. The parable could equally be called the parable of the Father’s Heart, or of The Elder Brother.

Most people perhaps identify with the younger son – his destitution, his failure, his sinfulness, his wastrel nature . . . Perhaps also we fully understand why his father’s heart went out to him.

But most likely we are more like the elder brother, indignant, self-righteous, looking down on such a sinner. Note also that the father does not rebuke him harshly, but rather affirms his love for him as well.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and there are none so lost as those who do not understand that they are lost and walking in darkness.

We are all lost in some way, morally weak and confused; but God is a God of grace, mercy and forgiveness. Every human being is love by God – no matter who they are, what they have done and how far beyond redemption they may seem.

Lord, preserve and protect me from having a heart like the elder brother. Teach me to recognise profoundly that I am the worst of sinners, that I was once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.

Chris

from Bible Alive

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Greatness, by Jesus

11-03-2020, 06:53greatness, humble, serve, servicePermalink

Matthew 20:17–28

Martin Luther King Jr commented on greatness, the way of Jesus:

"And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important – wonderful. If you want to be recognized – wonderful. If you want to be great – wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness.
“. . . by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
"You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant."
Come, Holy Spirit, teach me about true greatness in your kingdom. Give me a heart and a disposition that seek to serve and not to be served, to love more than to be loved, and to give rather than to receive."

Chris

from Bible Alive

Picture of Therese of Lisieux with quote

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Repentance

04-03-2020, 07:25healing, Nineveh, sin, SolomonPermalink

Jonah 3:1–10, Luke 11:29–32

Lent is a time to be healed, restored and lifted up. Repentance was for the people of Nineveh the gateway to life, and so it is for us.

We follow One who is greater than Jonah and Solomon; we follow Christ, the Son of the Living God. The Holy Spirit leads us to salvation along the well-trodden path of repentance.

The Queen of Sheba was moved by the teaching of Solomon. The Nineties felt compelled to repent by the teaching of the reluctanct evangelist Jonah.

How much more, then, should we be moved and compelled to repent by the teaching of the One who is greater than Jonah Moses and all the prophets, Jesus Christ our Saviour?

Chris

from Bible Alive

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Our Father

03-03-2020, 08:10evil, Jesus, obedience, prayer, temptationPermalink

Matthew 6:7–15

We address God as ‘Father’ – as ‘Abba’ in Aramaic. This was unthinkable, even abhorrent, for a faithful Jew in Jesus’s day.

Only Jesus could cross the threshold of divne holiness, for by his cross and resurrection he made purification for our sins and brought us into the Father’s presence.

How comforting and consoling are these words from the writer of the Hebrews, in which Christ says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me” (2:13).

The Holy Spirit works to stretch and expand our hearts and minds so that they can grasp the amazing truth that we are children of the Father, sons and daughters of the Living God.

We who call God ‘Our Father’ because he is Our Father in heaven. We don’t approach him lightly or nonchalantly or irreverently but in profound wonder that we are privileged to know God, the Creator, as a father who loves and cares for us.

”Our awareness of our status as slaves would make us sink into the ground and our earthly condition would dissolve into dust, if the authority of our Father himself and the Spirit of his Son had not impelled us to this cry, “Abba Father!"

‘When would a mortal dare call God “Father” if our innermost being were not animated by power from on high?’ (St Peter Chrysologus)

Chris

from Bible Alive

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Lent

26-02-2020, 07:28alms, charity, fasting, giving, penance, prayerPermalink

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18

In order that we may better love the Lord our God, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we practise self-denial and acts of penance, and strive to reform our lives under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In the Bible the heart is understood as the apex or very essence of our being, and it is the heart that needs renewing.

As St Benedict Joseph Labre once said, “To love god you need three hearts: a heart of fire for him, a warm heart towards our neighbour and a heart of bronze towards ourselves."

It is always springtime in the heart that loves God. (St John Vianney).

Chris

from Bible Alive

St Peter's Parish, Biggleswade

Comments

Bishop's Pastoral Letter

22-02-2020, 10:34apostolic, bishop, diocesePermalink

PASTORAL LETTER IN PREPARATION FOR THE SEASON OF LENT

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the readings for the 7^th Sunday of the year, [found in your mass sheet, please take it home with your newsletter] God is calling us “to be holy”, reminding us that “we are his temple,” that “we belong to Christ,” and that “our hearts must be set on God’s kingdom and his righteousness.” Why? Because our life is born of the love of God our Father whose desire is that we may have life to the full, and that we may be people of joy and hope.

That is the framework for our Catholic life. It is so different from the framework of so many people who think that their life is their own to do with as they will. Our framework is based on our faith in the Good News that Jesus has died and is risen, that he has overcome sin and death, and that through him we receive forgiveness for our sins and the promise of eternal life.

To refresh and renew this faith, we have the time of Lent beginning this coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting and abstinence. In his Lenten message, Pope Francis invites us to “keep our eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of Christ crucified and to let ourselves be saved over and over again. And when we confess our sins, to believe firmly in his mercy which frees us from our guilt. Jesus’ death and resurrection is not a past event; through the power of the Holy Spirit it is ever present. It enables us to see and touch with faith the flesh of Christ in those who suffer.”

So, may this Lent be a favourable time to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus on the cross. How? Give time to prayer, to opening your heart to Jesus, and letting his love overcome our hardness of heart and sinfulness. May this Lent be a favourable time for repentance, for allowing Jesus to lift the burden of our sins in our acts of penance and in the sacrament of Confession. May this Lent be a favourable time for our almsgiving to the poor, and a time for showing in small ways our care for creation, and addressing the unequal distribution of the earth’s goods.

Together, can you and I really let the love of the crucified Christ draw us into a good Lent of prayer, penance and almsgiving. Then we will be able, with renewed hearts to celebrate the great mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus at Eastertime.

I want to sign off my last Pastoral Letter to you with huge thanks for the unusual kindness and support you have given to me as your Bishop for the last fourteen and a half years. Dear brother priests and people in our parishes and schools, fellow deacons and religious, thank you for the example of your faith, prayer and commitment which has been a great grace on my own journey of faith.

With you I remain a member of the local Church in the Diocese of Northampton, and with you I look forward to welcoming our new Bishop, David, on 19 March.

Have a grace-filled and fruitful Lent!

With much affection and every blessing,