All posts by 3 churches

The sacred heart

newsletter,

The devotion to the Sacred Heart can sometimes get a little lost in sentimentality. Yet it points to a truth which Pope Francis is reminding us is at the very centre of our Faith – the mercy of God. Sometimes it is the language of prayers etc which can put us off, so here are three traditional prayers in modern English. The first was written by St Margaret Mary Alacoque, the visionary of the Sacred Heart in Paraty-le-Monial in Burgundy.

O Heart of love,
 I place all my trust in you.
 I fear all things from my own weakness,
 but I hope for all things from your goodness.

Secondly, from St Claude la Colombiere SJ her spiritual director:

Jesus I feel within me
 a great desire to please you but, at the same time,
 I feel totally incapable of doing this
 without your special light and help, 
which I can expect only from you. 
Accomplish your will within me, 
even in spite of me.

And lastly a prayer from Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

Make us worthy, Lord,
 to serve our fellow human beings throughout the world
 who live and die in poverty and hunger.
 Give them through our hands this day
 their daily bread,
 and by our understanding love
 Give peace and joy.

Fr Matthew

The Northern Arc

3 churches

As Catholics we know we are part of the universal Church, and also part of the local Church – our diocese, gathered around our Archbishop, George Stack. More locally we are part of Cardiff deanery, and therefore in our planning we must take into account all these “bonds”. Over recent years several parts of the city have begun to do pastoral planning in local groups of parishes.

In one sense we here in the 3 Churches blazed the trail here in this joint planning, but we too are part of these different levels, we too have neighbours. A few months ago the Archbishop asked me to start working more closely with Fr Gareth Leyshon of St Philip Evans and Fr William Isaac of St Teilo’s and Our Lady of Lourdes. He referred to us as the “Northern Arc”! We have met three or four times since and have begun work on three fronts, with a few others lined up behind them.

Baptism preparation

We are aiming to set up a joint Baptism Preparation course to run every month instead of our current every few months. All baptism catechists and those interested are invited to come to a shared meeting at St Brigid’s Hall on Monday 22nd June at 7.30pm. If you would like to come along, please let me know.

Marriage preparation

We are collating resources for the preparation of couples getting married, with a view to sharing good practice and perhaps cooperating in the preparation too.

General issues of cooperation including weekend Masses

We are convening a joint meeting of two parishioners of each of the six churches plus we three priests on Wednesday 24th June, again at St Brigid’s Hall. We will discuss the principles of cooperation in the mission of the Church. Our own current experience here in the 3 Churches shows how close we are to being unable to sustain the current pattern of weekend Masses. St Philip Evans have their own issues also. In the absence of Fr Tomy, we came very, very close to having to reduce the number of Saturday evening and Sunday Masses for the month of June. This reveals that the current pattern of 13 Masses within the cluster and several involving our priest elsewhere, sustained by 4 priests in our six churches is under severe pressure when one is on holiday or sick etc. I must emphasise that this is an exploratory meeting, a gathering to seek a vision of how to proceed, while understanding that we really cannot remain as we are. Our Parish Councils are advising me on who to represent our 3 Churches.

Please remember this initiative in your prayers. We live in times of challenge for the Church, challenges both from the world in which we live and challenges from within the Church too. Yet with the Lord’s promise to be with us always, the principles of the Second Vatican Council, the leadership of Pope Francis and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are more than up to those challenges.

Fr Matthew

Amazing Grace Here

newsletter

This Thursday and Friday we welcome to our 3 Churches Archbishop George Stack, the bishop of our diocese here in Cardiff. He comes to confirm young people from our families, and they have been preparing for this great day over some time. This included a Retreat Day at St David’s College a few Saturdays ago, a day I was glad to share with them.

I have to say I was very impressed with them. Although it ended up a large group, as we were joined by Confirmation candidates from St Joseph’s parish, I don’t think we had any behaviour problems. In fact, speaking as one of those asked this year to give input during the day, I found them very receptive, very attentive. They maintained a very deep silence as part of an initial session on the Calling of St Peter. During the Mass, where we incorporated other moments of St Peter’s life into the liturgy, they were all “tuned in”. During a 40 minute experience of the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus in the afternoon, some were so into it that they wanted to stay in the chapel afterwards.

God the Father now wants to fill them with His Spirit so that they can be ever more like Jesus, his Son. The Sacraments are events that God “does” through his people, the Church. They are literally “acts of God” – amazing! And that is the kind of Catholic young people that God wants – amazing ones. Amazing in faith, amazing in their way of life, amazing in their loving and caring, amazing builders of a better world…

So we welcome Archbishop Stack. As a bishop he is the successor of the Apostles, the very people who first received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we commemorated last week at Pentecost. We invite all parishioners to gather around our young people on Thursday and Friday, to support them and show them that real – and amazing – faith, hope and love that are God’s dream for them.

Fr Matthew