APRIL IS THE MONTH OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST.
The Second Week of Easter
Dear parishioners,
The Eucharist & The Resurrection.
‘For all our brothers and sisters who ate the Body of Christ, the bread of Life, that they may be raised up on the Last Day’ This prayer is taken from the intercessions of the funeral mass and we use it every week in the newsletter to pray for the recently departed listed below.
It follows well from last week’s Holy Week newsletter, which was about the Sacrifice of the Lord on the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass being one- and- the -same sacrifice.
This funeral prayer connects the Body of Christ given to us at the mass with the hope of our Resurrection given to us by the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Day.
Within that prayer is implicitly a condition for our resurrection from the dead. This is made explicit and categorically stated by the Lord in St John’s Gospel (6: 53,54) ‘In truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and blood is real drink’.
This life is but a very small journey to the next, and the Lord has promised us he will be with us through it and feed us with his very self. The Catechism tells us:
‘Jesus links faith in the Resurrection to his own person: ‘I am the Resurrection and life’. It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood’. (CCC 994)
If we go to Calvary with our Lord, by attending mass and receiving Holy Communion, He will be with us in life and through death to lead us to share in his Resurrection. With the help of God’s mercy given to us in the Sacrament of Penance, we can make it to Heaven because Jesus has given us himself as food for this journey.
Good Friday and Easter Sunday are celebrated once a year, but the Death and Resurrection of the Lord are lived and remembered in The Church every day in proclamation of the word, the sacraments and our good works. We ask God to give us our daily bread, the real food of the soul to feed us on this life’s journey to the next. This daily bread is Jesus, the Bread of Life received in the Eucharist and not the offerings of false religions, worldly morality and man-made ‘spirituality’ which seek to distract us away from our goal of Heaven. The gate to the way of the Lord and Heaven is a narrow one. It is only through Him, with Him and in Him. It is by denying the self not self-identifying that we may know spiritual freedom; it is by being last and serving others, not by self-assertiveness, that we go first to Heaven; it is by listening to the words of Jesus in the Gospels, not by absorbing ‘positive thinking’ from a Californian guru that we will find right direction in our lives. And it is by eating the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, not taking up the most on-trend- well-being diet, that we will draw true nourishment for the soul.
We can thank God for our full and even overflowing church this Holy Week and Easter and for the many parishioners that sought and found God’s mercy again through the Sacrament of Penance. Nevertheless, we also remember that Jesus is our daily bread, that we need to fulfil our obligation to God and come to mass every Sunday, kneel at the foot of the Cross and participate in the Sacrifice of the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ Our Lord. At this sacrifice, he gives us himself, the Bread of Life, as real food for true life with him so that we will be ready to share in his Resurrection when our time comes.
See you at Mass, and if you need an hour of peace with the Eucharistic Heart of our Lord, we have Silent Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament this Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock, concluding with Benediction.
God bless,
Fr Jonathon
UPCOMING EVENTS
PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES in October.
Please contact the parish office if you are interested in joining us.
SOUTHWARK DIOCESAN PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES 18th-25th August 2023
Message from Bishop Paul:
‘After the restrictions of the past few years, I’m delighted that we are now once more able to include support for pilgrims who need assistance for medical or mobility reasons. In Lourdes, those who are often marginalised are placed at the centre, and we who travel with them are blessed by their presence. I warmly invite you to join us’.
For details, please see
https://www.tangney-tours.com/pilgrimages/lourdes/southwark-ca
THURSDAY LUNCH CLUB
Following an Easter break, the next lunch club will be on Thursday 20th April.
PARISH NOTICES
PARISH YOUTH NOTICES
DEATHS
MASSES AND INTENTIONS FOR THE SECOND WEEK OF EASTER
APRIL PRAYER