14th Sunday Ordinary Time 6th July 2025

The Labourers are Few

St John Vianney once said that the priesthood is ‘Cordis Iesu Amor’ The love of the heart of Jesus. He said this, because the ministerial priesthood is a gift from the heart of Christ to his Church, which ensures that the nearness of God in the sacraments is always present. For a young man to consider the question “Is God calling me to the priesthood?’ is marvellous. It represents a willingness to receive God’s good gifts and to make a gift of oneself to God and neighbour. I encourage all young, Catholic, unmarried men to consider that question carefully, because the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.  Below are some common questions and objections  that Vocations directors hear frequently, along with some answers which might help young men discerning a vocation to the priesthood:

• “But I want to get married and start a family, I couldn’t be a priest!”  Not true. The priest is a spouse and a father. He is a spouse to the Church to whom he gives his life and a Father to those entrusted to his care. A strong desire to be a husband and Father is required to be a good priest. 

 

• “But I’m not worthy.” Join the club. None of us are. God calls us not because we are good, but because he is. Further, although we have done nothing to earn so great a gift as redemption, God sees great worth in every human person. The Cross is proof of this. 

 

• “I don’t want to make a commitment I’m not ready for.” While there is great wisdom in discerning your readiness to enter the seminary with the help of the vocations director and a spiritual director, its helpful to remember that the seminary is not a commitment to the priesthood. It’s a means of discerning more deeply the question ‘Is God calling me to be a priest?’

 

• Do you have to be academically gifted to be a priest? No. There is academic study involved with seminary formation. But you don’t need to be an academic to thrive as a priest.

 

• How do I further investigate the question of becoming a priest: Talk to your Diocesan Vocations Director. (talk to your parents first if you’re under 18.) Fr Sean Byrnes 60251784 

Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul

“Before his passion the Lord Jesus, as you know, chose those disciples of his whom he called apostles. Among these it was only Peter who almost everywhere was given the privilege of representing the whole Church. It was in the person of the whole Church, which he alone represented, that he was privileged to hear, To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. After all, it is not just one man that received these keys, but the Church in its unity. So this is the reason for Peter’s acknowledged pre-eminence, that he stood for the Church’s universality and unity, when he was told, To you I am entrusting, what has in fact been entrusted to all. To show you that it is the Church which has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, listen to what the Lord says in another place to all his apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit; and immediately afterwards, Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they will be retained. There is one day for the passion of two apostles. But these two also were as one; although they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, Paul followed. We are celebrating a feast day, consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. Let us love their faith, their lives, their labours, their sufferings, their confession of faith, their preaching.”  Excerpt from a sermon by St Augustine.

Corpus Christi Sunday, 22 June 2025

We believe that Mass is the one sacrifice of Christ at Calvary made present again at the altar. In the context of this sacrifice, the priest repeats the words and actions of Christ at the last supper, and in doing so, bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This great gift is known as the sacrament of the Eucharist (a Greek word which means thanksgiving, since only the offering of the Son’s body and blood is a satisfactory thanksgiving to the Father). Lumen Gentium No. 11 identifies the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life. Why is this the case? The Eucharist is the source of our whole sacramental life and the means by which we are nourished to proclaim the Gospel effectively. The Eucharist is the apex of our lives as Christians, as it is an incarnational encounter with the risen Lord for whom we long.

Holy Trinity Sunday

Throughout the centuries there have been numerous problematic and heretical approaches regarding the Trinity, for instance:

• Modalism – which proposes that the trinity is not 3 distinct person but 3 modes of being taken by one person
• Arianism: Proposes that the Son is the Father’s first created being and that the Son is responsible for the rest of creation. In this heresy, the Holy Spirit is seen as the first creation of the Son. 
• Subordinationism: Denies the equality of the three persons.
• Macedonianism: Denies the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is presented as a Divine force, rather than a personal being. 

These are only a few of the heresies which have crept up throughout the life of the Church. What does the Church actually believe? We believe that in the one true God there is one Divine nature shared equally by three Divine Persons. Each person is distinct from the other, yet each person is inextricably united to other persons. This gives a profound meaning to St Johns statement: “God is love” God is love precisely because his very essence is marked by intimacy and communion.

Pentecost Sunday

“This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning.”

St Irenaeus – Ad Versus Haereses (Against the Heresies)

6th Sunday of Easter

The work of redemption is a work of the Trinity

It would be easy to think of the work of redemption as a work of the Son exclusively. After all we talk about Jesus’ sacrifice taking away our sins and his resurrection giving us new life. However, traditional Catholic doctrine tells us that redemption is in fact a work of the whole Trinity. Here we need to be careful not to fall into heresy, It was only the Son who became incarnate. It was Only the Son who died on the cross. It was only the Son who merited the resurrection. However, while the redemption is rightly attributed to the Son, due to his incarnation, death and resurrection, the entire plan of salvation was a work of the One and Triune God. This is evident in today’s Gospel. The Father who sends the Son, will send the Holy Spirit in the name of the Son, to continue the mission of building the kingdom in the world. Thus the mission of spreading the good news, which Jesus began and fulfilled in himself, continues in the Church through the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the driving force of Christ’s mission on earth and he is the driving force of the Church which continues the mission of teaching all nations the good news. 

 

5th Sunday of Easter 

Do not let your hearts be troubled…

Let us trust in God lest we become fearful. Any and every form of trust implies a source of reliance or dependence. Children trust their parents. We only trust a person or institution that bears the hallmark of authentic authority. The greater the voice of authority the more likely one is to trust, listen and obey. Do people trust the Church today? Does the Church still have authority? The historical foundations of the Church cannot be shaken nor moved. The Church today is the Church of the twelve Apostles, founded by Christ, who is its Head, guided by the Holy Spirit, who is its Heart, to praise and give glory to the Father, who is its Origin. Of all the thousands of communities that claim Christ to be their Lord, only one Church can claim to have an unbroken chain that links us to Jesus, the King of kings. The more one studies Church history the more Catholic one becomes. When one probes the trials and tribulations of the Church over the centuries the greater one’s conviction that this Church is not of human origin or design. So learn your history, steep yourself in the past, so as to be convinced of the future and be able to trust in God, and not be afraid.

4th Sunday Easter Good Shepherd Sunday and Mothers Day

 

The family is the foundation for education and development. This development is not only physical, emotional and psychological, but also spiritual. Thus the family is referred to as the domestic church – A microcosmic expression of the Church itself. Within this domestic church there is a hierarchy. A husband and father Father leads the family, not with domination, but with a spirit of loving service and an eye for protection of his family from the dangers associated with living in the world.  A wife and mother has the role of following her husband’s lead, not in subjugation, but in loving support. She has the task of helping her husband discern the virtuous path forward for the family, and when he forgets the purpose for which he and his family are made – ie. the glorification of God and the sanctification of neighbour, she is able to boldly turn his head in the right direction. Together, as husband and wife, they will teach their family what it is to love God and be loved by him. As a mother, a woman has the task of imaging the love of Mary to her family – boldly following God’s word, and allowing that word to transform instinctual tenderness into a divine love which, when experienced by her children will open them up to the possibility of a life dedicated to the glory of God and the service of man. By following Jesus the good shepherd, Families become faithful and bold witnesses of God’s mercy and compassion.

Habemus Papam!

 

 

A brief history of Pope Leo XIV

The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy. 

On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.

On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop. 

Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of September 30 that year and  assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He officially took possession of it on January 28, 2024. 

On the 8th of May 2025, Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected as the 267th successor of St Peter. 

 

Link to Bishop-Elect Peter Murphy’s Episcopal Ordination – 8th May 2025

3rd Sunday of Easter 4th May 2025

In Greek, there are four word for love they are:

Storge – Familial bond

Eros – Love which seeks communion

Philia – Friendship love

Agape – Divine love

When Jesus asks Peter 3 times ‘do you love me’ (to make up for Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus at the crucifixion) he uses two different words for love. The first two times he uses the Greek word agapas. So he is essentially asking Peter, Peter do you love me completely and totally, with a divinely inspired love? The answer Peter gives in English is ‘Yes, Lord you know that I love you’. However, Peter’s response to these first two questions about his love look quite different in Greek. He actually responds “Yes Lord, you know that I philo you”. In other words he responds to Jesus’ questions of love with ‘I’m fond of you.’ The third time Jesus asks Peter ‘Do you love me?’ he does something Peter doesn’t see coming. He meets Peter in his weakness. He asks Peter ‘Are you fond of me?’ He accepts the little that Peter has to offer, but notice this: He loves him too much to leave him in his weakness. At the end of each question the Lord attaches a mission ‘feed and look after my sheep’  And the Lord tells Peter how he will accomplish his mission: “come, follow me.” Right now, Peter has only fondness for the Lord. But in following Jesus, Peter will grow in love, and will one day love Christ with an undivided love, which will cause him to give his life in offering to the Lord. 

Divine Mercy Sunday

27th April 2025

In May 2000 John Paul II established the feast of the Divine Mercy on the Second Sunday of Easter. Devotion to the Divine Mercy constitutes an authentic spiritual movement within the Catholic Church, promoted by St. Faustina, who was canonized in 2000. Sr. Faustina Kowalska died in Krakow on Oct. 5, 1938. While living her hidden, humble life, she began to be favored with mystical experiences: visions, revelations and the stigmata. At the suggestion of her spiritual director, she began to write about these experiences in her diary in 1934. Sister Faustina Kowalska’s life centered on the proclamation of Divine Mercy to every human being. Her spiritual legacy to the Church is devotion to the Divine Mercy, inspired by a vision in which Jesus himself asked that a portrait be painted with the inscription “Jesus I trust in you.” On this feast day we can receive a plenary indulgence, remission of temporal punishment, and forgiveness for all our sins by:
1. Confession – within the week;
2. Holy Communion – on the day;
3. Venerate the image of Divine Mercy;
4. Creed and Our Father for the Pope.
ABC of Mercy:
A = Ask for mercy – honour the image;
B = Be merciful to others;
C = Complete trust in God’s mercy.

 

Contributions / Collections
1st – Priest: Hume BSB 640000  Acc: 111031654

Name: Holy Spirit Presbytery

2nd- Parish: Hume BSB 640000  Acc: 111056699

Name: Holy Spirit Parish