JUNE IS THE MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART.
Corpus Christi and the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time.
Dear parishioners,
The Eucharistic Heart of our Church
The Church has a heart: it is the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. We are a Eucharistic community, who come together as one to the source of grace every Sunday when we kneel before the Body of Christ at the Altar. At the Mass, by being present at the Holy Sacrifice and receiving the Body of Christ in Holy Communion, we find the fullest and most perfect expression of who and what we are as the Church, which is Christ’s Body on earth with Christ our head. A Catholic who does not come to mass, if he or she is able, is not what we call 'a practising catholic'. By not coming to mass, you become separate from the body, which ‘although many members, is one body’. We have to physically come to church in body to receive the body of Christ and to be the body of Christ. Our religion is ‘incarnational’ which means our worship demands the matter of bread and our physical presence to receive it after it has become for us the Body of Christ. Coming to mass on Sunday defines who we are, and for those who are not able, they are united in intention and by visits of the priest and faithful to their homes.
Jesus said at the Last Supper that the bread he took, broke and shared, and the wine poured and drank was his body and blood. Our celebration of the mass is one with the body and blood of Jesus, sacrificed on the cross for us. ‘The sacrifice of Christ and the Sacrifice of the Mass are a single sacrifice: the victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner is different. In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an un-bloody manner’
The mass is also our sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of the Church. We are the body of Christ and so participate in the offering of Christ our Head. With Him, we, the church offer ourselves whole and entire and unite ourselves with Christ in his offering on the Cross to God the Father. At the mass, the sacrifice of Christ is also the sacrifice of us, members of his body. ‘the lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire new value. Christ’s sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering’
We come to the mass to offer God thanks and praise for his blessings to us, but we also bring Him our losses, our sadness and our sin, which we offer with the sacrifice of Jesus. We join our loss and sorrow with his sacrifice on the Cross to the Father for forgiveness of our sins and healing to our souls. This offering also unites us one with another in communion but also with the Church in Heaven, with Mary and the Saints. At the mass, we are ‘as it were at the foot of the Cross with Mary’.
This feast of Corpus Christi, let us bring our sins and the sins of the world to the Holy Sacrifice and ask God for his forgiveness, healing and peace and thank him for the gift of His Body that feeds our yearning souls. And let us re-direct ourselves to Our Lord Jesus Christ, and make his Most Sacred and Eucharistic Heart the centre of our worship and lives and place all our trust in Him. He gave us the Eucharist, his body and blood and no matter what frightening things are happening in the world today, when we come to mass, we return to the source of Grace for our lives which flows from our Lord’s Sacred Heart at the Altar.
(Quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church)
Solemnity of Corpus Christi. There will be a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the church grounds following 11 o’clock mass on Sunday 11th June concluding with Benediction.
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Mass at 10.00 a.m. on Friday 16th June and Parish Devotions to the Sacred Heart with Sung Litany, Act of Consecration and Benediction on Sunday 18th June at 4.00 p.m.
First Communion thanksgiving Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. Sunday 25th June, 3.00 p.m.
High Mass for the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ at 11.00 a.m. on Saturday 1st July.
Devotions to the Most Precious Blood: with Sung Litany and Benediction, Sunday 30th July, 4.00 p.m.
God bless,
Fr Jonathon
Notices
PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES in October. Please contact the parish office if you are interested in joining us.
FOOD BANK. The Bexley Food Bank currently particularly requests:
CARRIER BAGS/ TINNED TOMATOES / RICE / NOODLES / JAM / CUSTARD /TOOTPASTE / SHOWER GEl/ DEODORANT/ TOOTHPASTE/ SUGAR / WASHING PODS.
Please follow the link below to view the food donations page of the Bexley food bank website. https://bexley.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/
BAR STAFF NEEDED a few hours a month for the parish social club bar. Please contact Mr Tony Brook 07833 707016
Enjoy an evening out
St Thomas More
Parish Club
Presents
A social evening for all the family, everybody welcome
Music by Duck Soup
Friday 7th July 2023
8.00pm to 11pm
Admission - Adults £3 at the door
St Thomas More Hall Long Lane DA7 5JW
For more information call
Jenny 07710 527692 Mary 07369 252072
‘SUMMERTIME 2023’: Altar servers and young people’s summer break, Tuesday 1st August – Friday 4th August at the Oratory School, Reading, cost £169. . A few days to meet up in a holiday atmosphere with activities including talks, discussions, prayer, daily mass, sport, a visit to Thorpe Park and swimming. For more details, contact Fr Stephen Boyle dartford@rcaos.org.uk . ‘Summertime’ is open to any teenagers up to 17years old who are attending mass every Sunday.
Notice from Marriage and Family Life South East
Planning a catholic marriage? Marriage preparation courses are available by emailing mflse@rcaos.org.uk.
CHILDREN’S CHURCH for infants: makes a welcome return this Sunday in the Church Hall at 9.00 a.m.
THURSDAY LUNCH CLUB: There is no lunch club on Thursday 15th June at 12.30 p.m. See you on the 21st.
FIRST HOLY COMMUNIONS. Following First Holy Communions next Saturday/ Sunday, on Sunday 25th at 3.00 p.m., there will be a special service of thanksgiving for you all to come together with your families, with Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction followed by Presentations of Certificates and Communion Cake in the Hall.
CONFIRMATION 2023. Next meeting: Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with Adoration and Benediction. Sunday 18th June, 4.00 p.m.
GIFT AID: Please contact the parish office if you still donate by cash and have not picked up your gift aid boxes yet.
If you would like to join the Gift Aid Scheme by donating with cash or through a bankers order/standing order, please email bostallpark@rcaos.org.uk.
Deaths
Mass times and intentions
June Prayer
JUNE PRAYER: ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS by Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart (1863-1899) whose letter to Pope Leo XIII was the impetus for the consecration of the world to the Divine Heart.
My most loving Jesus, I consecrate myself today anew and without reserve to your divine Heart. I consecrate to you my body with all its senses, my soul with all its faculties: my whole being. I consecrate to you all my thoughts, words and actions; all my sufferings and labours; all my hopes, consolations and joys; and, above all, I consecrate to you my poor heart, that it may love only you and be consumed as a victim in the fire of your love. Accept, O Jesus, my most loving spouse, the desire that I have to console your divine Heart and to be yours forever. Possess me in such a manner that henceforward I may have no other liberty than that of loving you, no other life than that of suffering and dying for you.
I place in you unlimited trust and I hope, from your infinite mercy, for the pardon of my sins. I place in your hands all my cares, especially that of my eternal salvation. I promise to love and honour you to the last moment of my life, and to propagate, with the help of your divine grace and as far as I am able, devotion to your Sacred Heart. Dispose of me, O divine Heart of Jesus, according to your pleasure; I desire no other recompense than your greater glory and your holy love.
Grant me the grace to find my dwelling place in your Sacred Heart where I desire to pass every day of my life and where I wish to breathe my last breath. Make my heart your abode, the place of your repose, so that we may remain intimately united until, finally, I may praise, love, and possess you for all eternity, singing forever the infinite mercy of your Sacred Heart.
Amen.