All posts by 3 churches

Lux Perpetua

newsletter

The clocks go back this weekend, a sure sign that we are heading towards winter. The mornings and evenings darken, the weather often likewise. To cap it all, standing just at the entrance of November is Hallowe’en, which also seems to have been captured by darkness, in however light-hearted a way – or not – it is observed.

Yet Hallowe’en is the Eve of All Hallows, or in modern English, All Saints, and that is certainly not a dark feast! The day celebrates those who, in the words of the Mass for the Feast are at “the banquet of our heavenly homeland” (Prayer after Communion). The light of Easter shines throughout the year, yes even in Lent and November! So let us begin the month on Tuesday by gathering for Mass together to “celebrate the festival of your city, the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother, where the great array of our brothers and sisters already gives you eternal praise” (Preface)

The next day we pray that the faithful departed “may pass over to a dwelling place of light and peace” (Prayer after Communion). This is All Souls, properly called “The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed”. As at all funerals we pray for lux perpetua – perpetual light – to shine upon them all.

We bring these prayers closer to home with our Mass of Memories, at 10am this coming Saturday at St Brigid’s. Each year more come to remember, to seek mercy, to pray for peace… and for light, both for our loved ones and for ourselves. Names of those who have died since our last Mass of Memories are read out, and we have the chance to light a candle for them.

Equally personal are the November Memorial Books which will be available in all 3 Churches, and in which we can write the names of our loved ones. th
By the end of November we will have honoured Christ Our King – and Our Light – on the 20 , and then a week later we will begin our Advent journey to Bethlehem, guided, like the Wise Men and Shepherds by Lux Perpetua – God’s Everlasting Light. In the depths of winter darkness we will find that Light burning with love for us, in a manger at Bethlehem.

Fr Matthew

Six of the best

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Tuesday marks the Feast of the Six Martyrs of Wales and their Companions. These are six Welshmen among the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales – two from the Tudor era, one from the reign of James I, and three from the so-called Popish Plot later in the seventeenth century.

St Richard Gwyn was from Montgomeryshire. A layman and school-teacher, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Wrexham on 17 October 1584.
St John Jones, from Clynnog Fawr, Gwynned, was hanged, drawn, and quartered in London after two years imprisonment and torture on 12 July 1589.

St John Roberts, born in Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, was executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1610.
St John Lloyd and St Philip Evans from Breconshire and Monmouth respectively. They were both executed at Cardiff in connection with the fake Popish Plot on 22 July 1679.
St David Lewis, from Abergavenny, was the last Welsh Martyr, executed at Usk on 27 August 1679.

There are also among the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Blessed John Paul II in 1987

Blessed William Davies from Denbighshire; hanged drawn and quartered at Beaumaris Castle 27 July 1593. In addition, Blessed Charles Mahoney was Irish but was executed in Wales – his last words were: “Now Almighty God is pleased I should suffer this martyrdom. His Holy Name be praised since I die for my religion.”

England and Wales celebrate the 40 and the 85 together on 4 May – Feast Day for all the Catholic Martyrs of the English Reformation in England and Wales. However in Wales we also celebrate our own martyrs on a separate Feast Day on 25th October. That was the original date of the canonization of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI in 1970, and previously the Feast of the 40 Martyrs throughout England & Wales.

Fr Matthew

Mind the gap

prayers

Mind the gap – because the prayer is in the gap!

I’m talking about the Bidding Prayer / Intercessions / Prayer of the Faithful in Mass. And by the way, those are three names for the same thing. After hearing the World of God and responding with the Psalm and Alleluia, we confirm in the Creed that we believe in the God who has just spoken to us. Then, having sealed our relationship with the Father, we use that faith by bringing to God our prayers, for the Church, the world and the community. To pray for the world and God’s people is one of the duties flowing from our Baptism. This is the part of the Mass set aside for that specific purpose.
After an introduction by the priest, each prayer usually has two parts doesn’t it – the intention and then the invitation and response, such as “Lord, hear us – Lord, graciously hear us”. Wrong! Each prayer has three parts not two, because between the intention and the invitation is a pause, and what is that pause for? It is, in fact the most important part of the Prayers, because it is the prayer. The intention tells us what we are praying for, then we actually do the praying in that pause, so that the “Lord hear us” is asking God to hear the very prayers we have just offered. How can you have time to say something to God in half a second?
Readers – When it says “Pause” in the reader’s copy at the lectern, it means Pause – not half a second, or one or two seconds. Often the writer will have put “Five seconds” and that is about right. Do not be afraid of silence. I know it might feel awkward at first, but I do ask you to leave a genuine pause – count to five if you wish – to allow us all to really pray.
Writers – Please make sure that the first part, the invitation, is exactly that. It should not be a prayer itself, addressed to God, but an invitation to us to address ourselves to God. A good format is “Let us pray for x that y may happen”. We are invited to pray for needs and situation, then let us really do that, before bringing it together with “Lord in your mercy” or similar.

The prayer is in the gap – so mind the gap!