Sunday reflections, prayers and other stuff from the clergy at St Joseph's Catholic Church, New Malden
Archive for May 2009
Our Lady (Saturday – Monday): Vocations to the Priesthood & Diaconate
Sacred Heart: Deacon John Sampson
St Joseph: John-Simon Lawson
St John Fisher: Archbishop Kevin
St Thomas More: Politicians
Find out about our Votive Lamps at the Shrines programme.
The Ascension strengthens and nourishes our hope of attaining heaven. It invites us always to lift up our heart (as the preface of the Mass says) and seek the things that are above. Our hope is very great because Christ Himself has gone to prepare a dwelling place for us (John 14: 2).
Forty days after His Resurrection Jesus ascended to Heaven with His glorified Body, marked with the signs of His redemptive sacrifice – the marks of His Passion which Thomas could see and touch (Rev 5: 6) which bring about our salvation. In the Ascension of Jesus into heaven our lowly human nature is raised up above the hosts of heaven to the throne of God the Father.
The Apostles themselves, though on many occasions they had been strengthened by our Lord’s miracles and instructed by His words, still panicked at the atrociousness of His suffering and death, and only after some hesitation accepted the truth of His Resurrection. But His Ascension wrought such a change in them that whatever before had been a source of fear now became a source of joy for them. The evidence of their eyes no longer held back their mental vision from contemplating this truth – that the Son descended from His Father without leaving Him, and then Ascended from His Disciples without parting from them.
For the Son of man was revealed more perfectly and more solemnly once He had returned to the glory of His Father’s majesty, and in a mysterious way He began to be more present to them in His godhead once He had become more distant in His humanity. For though the glorified Body remained a body, the faith of believers was being drawn to touch, not with the hand of the flesh, but with the understanding of the spirit, the only-begotten Son, the equal of His Father.
From a Commentary on a Holy of Pope St Leo the Great, on the Ascension
Our Lady (Saturday – Monday): Maria Tinker; Michael & Christine Barnes
The Sacred Heart: Peace
St Joseph: Tina & Reggie’s intentions
St John Fisher: Bishops of England and Wales
St Thomas More: Deacon-to-be John-Simon Lawson Continue reading ‘Votive Lamps at the Shrines’ »
Our parishioner, John-Simon Lawson, will soon be making his ‘Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity’, at all Sunday Masses, in preparation for his Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate. This is in accordance with a decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states:
The faithful who are called to exercise an office in the name of the Church are required to make the Profession of Faith according to the formula approved by the Apostolic See.
This formula includes the recitation of the Nicene Creed, to which is added:
With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God’s word, written of handed down in tradition and proposed by the Church – whether in solemn judgement or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium – as divinely revealed and called for faith.
I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is propsed by that same Church definitively with regard to teaching and concerning faith or morals.
What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff of the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.
Having made this Profession of Faith, the candidate goes on to take an Oath of Fidelity, promising that:
With Christian obedience I shall associate myself with what is expressed by the holy shepherds as authentic doctors and teachers of the faith or established by them as the Church’s rulers. And I shall faithfully assist diocesan bishops so that apostolic activity, to be exercised by the mandate and in the name of the Church, is carried out in the communion of the same Church.
As a parish we pray for John-Simon as he takes this important step, and we pray for all those sworn to uphold the true faith and teaching of the Catholic Church – especially our bishops and all who share in the ordained ministry – that they may, after the example of Our Lord, be Good Shepherds of the flock entrusted to them.
Welcome to St Joseph’s Parish Blog.
The Reflections go back to the beginning of Lent (when we released our new website), just click on the “continue reading” button to read the rest of what is missing.
Some of them will also link to an article, also available through the Articles Index on the website.
Like food and water, light is an essential component of life, and of happiness. Christ describes Himself as ‘the Light of the World’ (John 8:12), and the Church frequently makes use of light in her liturgy, notably at the Easter Vigil, with the blessing of the great Paschal candle, and in the liturgy of baptism.
Most Catholics will be familiar with votive lights – small candles lighted in church in front of the images of Christ, Our Lady and the Saints. These candles are a small offering to the holy people we wish to honour. When we have left the church they will carry on burning – a silent continuation of our prayer.
Read more in Sacramentals by Fr Richard Whinder, published by the CTS, £1.95 in the bookshop.
The first ‘Joseph’ in the Bible is the son of Jacob in the Book of Genesis. Famously he was sold into slavery in Egypt, only to rise to a position of great authority, and saved the land from famine. During this terrible famine, all the people of Egypt were told “Go to Joseph!”, for he had the means to help them in all their troubles (see Genesis 41: 55).
More famously still is the St Joseph of the New Testament: St Joseph the carpenter, the husband of Mary, foster-father of Jesus, and patron of the Universal Church – as well as being in a special way our own parish patron too.
Of this St Joseph too it could well be said to those in need: ‘Go to Joseph!’, for he too, like his famous namesake, has achieved a position of great authority within the plans of God – he too is in a position to help us in all our needs.
We begin this month of May with the celebration of the feast of St Joseph the Worker (May 1st). Originally this feast was instituted by Pope Pius XII as a counterpoint to the Communist marches and activities which took place on the same day. Whereas the Communists wished to drive a gulf between the Church and the working person, the Pope saw the role of St Joseph as evidence that God’s grace and human work are supremely compatible – the honesty, diligence and skill St Joseph brought to his work as a carpenter were also the gifts which made him a perfect guardian for Jesus.
René Voillaume, of the Little Brothers of Jesus, took this lesson from the example of St Joseph: “the evangelical holiness proper to a child of God is possible in the ordinary circumstances of someone who is poor and obliged to work for his living“. As we celebrate this ‘Vocations Sunday’, and remember that we are all, in whatever walk of life, called to be holy, we too ‘Go to Joseph’ to be inspired by his great example and encouraged by his prayers.
