During a January 2008 General Audience, the Holy Father explored what St Augustine of Hippo meant when he said, God is “more intimately present to me than my inmost being” (De vera religione):

Saint Augustine taught that by belonging to the Church, we are so closely united to Christ that we ‘become’ Christ, the head whose members we are. As our head, Christ prays in us, yet he also prays for us as our priest, and we pray to him as our God. If we ask what particular message Saint Augustine has for the men and women of today, it is perhaps his emphasis on our need for truth. Listen to the way he describes his own search for God’s truth: ‘You were within me and I sought you outside, in the beautiful things that you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. You called me, you cried out and broke open my deafness. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you.’ Let us pray that we too may discover the joy of knowing God’s truth.

Thursday 16th to Saturday 19th September 2010

Pope Benedict’s presence in Britain this September is a unique opportunity for Catholics to evangelise and explain our Faith.

The Catholic Truth Society (CTS) has specially published a new range of books, booklets and leaflets for children and adults, explaining the papacy, introducing the Catholic Faith, and telling of Cardinal Newman (whom the Pope will Beatify during his visit).

You can pick up a FREE red brochure listing a wide range of literature, and there are displays in the Bookshop and at the back of Church which will explain and vary over the next few weeks.

Prepare for the coming visit with good Catholic books so that you have answers for questions you’ll be asked, so that you can help family, friends and colleagues to get involved, so that you can be excited, informed and renewed in Faith when the Successor of St Peter comes among us.

It’s not enough to just watch him on TV (as if he were anywhere in the world) when the Pope will be right here in our midst. We want to welcome him! We want to be where he is! We want to be inspired by his life and his words!

Remember to keep an eye on the official Papal Visit website, www.thepapalvisit.org, to be up to date with what is happening.

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, this Friday 11th June, is the close of the Year for Priests. Pope Benedict inaugurated this Year for Priests from the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart in 2009 until the same occasion in 2010 to support Priests and pray for them in their sacred ministry of the Priesthood.

Your priests are profoundly grateful for your prayers and the support which you show us in ways which touch our hearts and sustain our lives. Please do not cease to pray for us, and for those in formation for the Priesthood, and for Vocations to the Priestly Ministry. It is especially encouraging to see an increase in our own diocese and beyond, of those offering themselves for this life of sacrifice and joy.

Please pray especially for Alan Burgess (at the Beda College, Rome), and for Philip Andrews (beginning in September at the Venerable English College, Rome).

Lent lasts for forty days, but Eastertide lasts for fifty – which reminds us that, while penance has its proper and inescapable place in the Christian dispensation, the hallmark of our faith is joy – joy in the Resurrection and in the Redemption won for us by Jesus. His death on the Cross is not a defeat but rather a victory – the sacrificial love which Jesus shows on Good Friday is rewarded by the triumph of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, a triumph in which we share through our faith, and through the Sacrament of Baptism.

Easter is marked, among other things, by the resumption of the joyful chant of ‘Alleluia’, the Gloria, flowers, the wearing of white vestments, and the placing of the great Paschal Candle besides the ambo, where it illumines the Scriptures we read at Mass – a reminder that the whole Bible can only be understood in the light of the Resurrection, the final revelation of God’s abiding love which we especially celebrate in this holy season – the 50 days of Eastertide.

The principal Hebrew word for the ‘mercy’ of God (hesed) is the same word used to express the duties of mutual assistance in a natural community of from a contractual bond or covenant. But we speak only of the ‘hesed’ or mercy of God because He is the only One who is faithful to His side of the covenant.

When the people of the Old Testament sinned (were unfaithful to the covenant), they noticed that God nevertheless always remained faithful to them. The mercy of God thus includes His compassion, patience and forgiveness, and became the principal aspect of God who longs to be the Saviour, and who consequently stoops down to the weak, to sinners, and grants them His grace.

Bishop Kevin’s Pastoral Letter for the Feast of Corpus Christi is now available on our Articles Download page.

Regaining Equilibrium in Lent and Liturgy

Lent is the time par excellence to redress the balance of our lives, to restore the equilibrium to the pendulum which too readily swings to the extremes.

Read more about reforming our liturgy on a special Season of Lent – Time to Reform article.