Question: What did Jesus spend most of his time doing during his three years of public ministry? Answer: preaching the Word and healing. Over the next few weeks we have chances to share in the Church’s ongoing ministry of the Word and the Signs.

Next weekend we welcome Fr Pat Collins to our 3 Churches.
On Saturday 10th he is a main speaker at our diocesan “Proclaim” meeting at St David’s College, that we have been advertising (for details see inside the newsletter).
Before that, on Friday evening he will lead a Healing Service in St Brigid’s Church at 7.00pm at which all are welcome. Then on Sunday evening he will speak on ‘Listening to the Voice of God’ at our regular “Sunday Praise” gathering in St Brigid’s at 7.30pm, at which, again, all are very welcome. Following this the Healing Cafe opens for business at St Brigid’s hall on Fridays 16th and 23rd October 7-8pm. (also see details inside).
Fr Pat Collins is one of the most gifted and experienced speakers that I have heard. He was born in Dublin in 1945. He joined the Vincentians and was ordained in 1971. He taught in Northern Ireland where he got involved in the Charismatic Renewal and the Ecumenical Movement. Next he trained as a counsellor and spiritual director, and spent several years preaching in parishes around Ireland. To date he has spoken in 26 countries in four continents.
In the early 90’s he joined the staff in All Hallows College, Dublin, gaining an M.A. in spirituality and also taught the subject. In 1991, he had his first two books published, and in recent years has published many more books, written hundreds of articles, recorded many tapes and CDs/DVDs, and participated in numerous radio and T.V. programmes in various countries. More recently he gained a degree in the New Evangelisation in Detroit, graduating in 2008. Since then he has been trying to devote as much time as possible to the New Evangelization. Find out more at www.patcollinscm.webs.com

A message from the Bishops of England & Wales

We invite every member of the Catholic community in England and Wales to pray for, participate in and support the work of evangelisation – our task of deepening, sharing and proclaiming our faith, sensitively and confidently, wherever we may be.
In July a national conference took place in Birmingham at which representatives of every Diocese looked at this task of spreading the Gospel message. At Proclaim ’15 many practical ideas were explored and exchanged. These are now available for your consideration. Our hope is that every parish will look at these suggestions and take up one or two of them, chosen according to your own circumstances. Our initiative has this theme: building missionary parishes. This is so important as the challenges to faith today are many and deep-rooted.

Pope Francis shows us that the true heart of faith is hugely attractive. He shows us how to let our faith be seen. He does this by making clear the great mercy of God, the mercy that he has received and that he shows to all. The mercy of God is God’s love in action, reaching out to every person, to each one of us in our weakness… As we understand this… then we are freed to offer the same mercy to those around us. In doing so, we show forth the best of our faith. Our response to Pope Francis is to make the task of proclaiming God’s mercy the priority in our own efforts. This we will strive to do most especially during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, established by Pope Francis, beginning this December… So we ask your help. Together let us Proclaim God’s Mercy.

The key, then, to showing our faith in the way we live is to be ready to live constantly in the presence of God, knowing that God never takes his eyes off us, not to catch us out, but because he loves us so much. When we are constantly aware of that loving gaze which is upon us, and of the mercy and encouragement that flows our way, then we are enabled to look on others in the same way.

These are the foundations of evangelisation. On them, other steps can be built: the opportunity to speak about our faith; the expression of that love in programmes of action towards those most in need; a loving care for those who have been hurt by life and hurt within the Church, for whom any return to the practice of their faith is particularly difficult. In this effort for evangelisation we seek out ways of accompanying others, through friendship, through prayer, through conversation, so that they sense in us the welcome that God most certainly extends to them. Our efforts need not be complicated or heroic. As Our Blessed Lady reminds us, through our humble efforts the Lord can do great things!

We celebrate the Feast of St. Matthew this week on September 21. Happy feast to all Matthews especially to our Parish Priest! St. Matthew was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles and also one of the four Evangelists, according to the Bible. Prior to preaching the word of God, he worked as a tax collector in Capernaum and called Levi.

One of the things that St. Matthew is most famous for is his call by Jesus. Once he was called by Jesus, Matthew left everything and followed Him, not even stopped to close the till or shut down the computer. Matthew was transformed by his encounter with Jesus. He wanted to think, talk, and act like Jesus. Of course he was not always perfect in thinking, talking and acting like Jesus, but he really did his best.

When Jesus dined at Matthew’s house later that day, Jesus was happy to sit and eat with other tax collectors and “sinners”. Jesus welcomed them as well; something he does throughout the gospels. To see a deeper understanding of the great celebration Matthew held at his house, we must realise that he not only gave a banquet for the Lord at his earthly residence, but far more pleasing was the banquet set in his own heart which he provided through faith and love.

What about us? Have we allowed our encounter with Jesus to transform our lives or simply doing merely the external duties of living the Christian life? What do we have to leave behind to truly follow Jesus? Pride? Anger? Hurt? Resentment? May be there are people in our families whom we are embarrassed by because of the way they live their lives. Do we just ignore them, or do we invite them to meet Jesus, to experience His mercy?

Fr Tomy