| Immaculate Conception & St Joseph's Christchurch |
Holy Redeemer Highcliffe |
Our Lady Queen of Peace Southbourne |
St Thomas Moore Boscombe East |
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Read about our CAFOD group on the Portsmouth CAFOD blog
1st August Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time(C)
8th August Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time(C)
15th August Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
1st August: In this part of the world we have a little cat-like animal, the skunk. Its main defense against intruders and enemies is the ejection of a most terrible smell which lingers for days. We have porcupines whose defense is the ejection of very sharp needle-like quills that stick deeply into nosey dogs and persons who get too close. Persons and most nations have defenses.
As we prepare for the Divine Intruder this week, we might pray with the various stinks and prickers with which we can keep others at a safe distance. We can pray as well with how we keep God and the calls of Jesus far from our doors marked “Private, Keep Out”. The great thing which is a comfort is that God is patient and waits for us to get tired of defensive spirituality.
L Gillick SJ
To every Parishioner and friend who uses the Internet.
Dear Co-worker
This is a great opportunity to raise funds for The Poitiers Project at absolutely no cost to you.
Major retailers and hundreds more suppliers of goods and services are willing to make us large donations.
Every time you make a purchase or do a search using the Internet commission will be paid directly to the Poitiers Project.
Shops such as John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, P.C.World and many hundreds of others are involved in this scheme.
All you have to do is to log on to http://www.easysearch.org.uk and register your interest in Montfort Missionary Society - Poitiers Project then set as your home page. Next, click on Easyfundraising (this is the bit that really brings in the pennies) and register.
Once you are up and running you will see your accumulated commission on screen and it is amazing how quickly it grows.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and may Our Lord bless you for your continued support for our lovely Poitiers families.
If you have friends who are supporters of this beautiful charity please ask them if they would consider helping in the same way.
Thank you so much
Jenny Clemas
The Man Born Blind (The Gospel from the 4th Sunday of Lent)
This is the re-telling of the Gospel by John Shea that Fr Danny read out during the homily on the 4th Sunday of Lent.
Another time Jesus smeared God like mud on the eyes of a man born blind and pushed him toward the pool of Siloam. The blind man splashed his eyes and stared in to the rippling reflection of the face he had only felt. First he did a handstand, then a cartwheel, and rounded off his joy with a series of summersaults.
He ran to his neighbors, singing the news. They said, "You look like the blind beggar but we cannot be sure." The problem was never that he was blind and could not look out but that they could see and did not look in. "I am the one, the seeing blind!"
They seized him in mid cartwheel and dragged him to the authorities. "What do you think of the man who made the mud?" But the man born blind was staring at a green vase. His mouth was open slightly as if he was being fed by its color. "He is a sinner," said a priest who knew what pleased God's eyes. "Can one who lights candles in the eyes of night not have the fire of God in his hands?" said the man fondling the green vase. The priests murmured and sent for his parents who looked their son straight in his new eyes and said, "Looks like our son. But he is old enough to speak for himself." Off the hook they hurried home. "All I know," said the man with the green vase tucked under his robe, "is that I was blind and now I see." But with his new eyes came a turbulence in his soul as if the man who calmed one sea turned another to storm. So before those who locked knowledge in a small room and kept the key on a string around their neck he launched into a theology of sin and salvation. It was then that the full horror of the miracle visited the priests. "You, steeped in sin, lecture us!" They tore him from the podium and threw him into the street where a man was rubbing mud from his hands. "How did it go?" "I talked back." The man with new eyes took in every laughing line on the face of the Son who was as happy as a free man dancing on the far side of the Red Sea.
Pope Benecit's Encyclical
Here is a link to Pope Benedict's encyclical letter that Fr Des recommended to us all at Mass
“SPE SALVI facti sumus” — in hope we were saved
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 30 November, the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, in the year 2007, the third of Pope Benedict's Pontificate.
On 4th November 2007 we were visited by a speaker from the Aid to the Church in Neeed pastoral charity.
Their website has lots of information and inspiring reports from various countries.
Aid to the Church in Need
Early in November 2006 we were visited by Fr Thomas O'Reilly of the Columban Missionaries. Have a look at the Columban Missionaries website to find out more about their calling.
The Columbans are priests, sisters and laity called by the Church to proclaim and witness to the Good News in Jesus Christ of full Christian liberation and reconciliation of all peoples through the sharing of life and service with peoples of other cultures and faith traditions.
As Catholics we have a duty to share and spread our faith through word and action.
But how can we do it?
Have a look at the CASE website.