PRAYERS FOR POPE FRANCIS AND FOR PEACE:

Pope Francis’ health continues to give cause for concern: we pray that the Lord will comfort, strengthen and heal him as he continues to be a beacon of hope for peace in our troubled world. He has written a quite stunning meditation of what hospital life can teach us. I will arrange for this to be available on our websites.  (Click here to read)

A SUCCESSION OF FEAST DAYS:

For us, as Redemptorists, these few days provide a real Lenten challenge, because we have three major Feast Days in quick succession. Firstly, we are celebrating this weekend (Saturday) the Feast of our second Founder, St Clement Hofbauer. Monday is the Feast of St Patrick, the Patron of Ireland, and Wednesday is Feast of St Joseph. We beg the intercession of them all as we seek to deepen our commitment to Christ during this Lenten Season and as we strive to respond to the invitation of Pope Francis to sanctify this Jubilee Year as Pilgrims of/in Hope.

FUNERAL OF FR FRANCIS DICKINSON, CSsR, RIP MONDAY, 17 MARCH at 10.30AM:

We are immensely grateful to everyone who has made it possible to arrange for  Fr Dickinson’s funeral so that his nephew, Gerard, will be able to attend before flying off to the other side of the world. It was wonderfully providential that they had tea together a few hours before his death. We also wish to thank all of you who have sent messages of condolence, often sharing your appreciation for his loving and sensitive ministry. We hope that many of you will be able to join us on Monday. May he rest in peace.

REDEMPTORIST PROVINCIAL COUNCIL:

There are meetings this week on Tuesday and Wednesday in Clapham, which will take Andrew and me down south.   

FEAST OF ST CLEMENT HOFBAUER CSsR:

The feast of the second founder of the Redemptorists falls next Saturday and we would like to invite you to celebrate the occasion with us by having a public Mass in Bishop Eton at noon.

PRESENTATION OF CATECHUMENS AND CANDIDATES:

This Sunday afternoon I will accompany our catechumen and nine candidates who will be baptised, confirmed and received into the Church at the Easter Vigil, as they are presented to Archbishop Malcolm. Please pray for them and for our wonderful team as they continue to accompany them on the journey of faith.

CONFIRMATION:

Once again, I am keen to have a conversation with any candidates who like to be confirmed this year. The focus is on those who are in Year 8 of Secondary School, but anyone older, who may have missed out in previous years, will be welcome. Please join me with your parents for a half hour session next Saturday15 March.

• St Mary’s (Parish Centre) at 10.00am;
• Bishop Eton: Fisher-More Hall at 11.00am.

FR FRANCIS DICKINSON, CSsR, RIP:

There is only one place to begin my notes for this weekend’s bulletin and that is to mark the death of our beloved confrère, Fr Frank Dickinson. Suffice it to say for now that I have known few people who have been so respected and revered as this wonderful priest. CAFOD has its Live Simply programme and in Fr Dickinson you have the perfect illustration of how to do just that. His quiet and reassuring presence in our Redemptorist Community will be greatly missed, just as so many people across the country will give thanks to God for his gentle and understanding ministry. I have known him since I was 12 years old and he invited me to see inside the Redemptorist monastery in Clapham, having been told by Bro Anselm (the sacristan) that one of the servers might be interested in the priesthood. One gem you might not be aware of was his support of Sunderland AFC. His years in Sunderland endeared him to the football team and he was even more au fait with their fixtures than I am. I will miss sharing the debriefings after the matches, but, hopefully, he will help them back to the Premiership with any new influence he may have!

CHRISTIAN WITNESS: REDEMPTORISTS IN UKRAINE:

Since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago we have kept our Redemptorist confrères in that country in our prayers and, indeed, initially gave them considerable financial support. The arrest of two of our priests, Frs Bohdan and Ivan, in November 2022 was a cause of great concern, but, happily, after over eighteen months in prison, they were released on June 28th last year. Pope Francis described last Monday as “a painful and shameful anniversary for all humanity.”

To mark that third anniversary Fr Bohdan took part in an online meeting with the Vatican and, as in my online message this weekend, I will share with you some of that remarkable testimony. He stressed that the motivation that allowed him to endure the pain was to offer it to “save the enemies: I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be there.” He admitted that “it was very difficult in an environment of brutality for the human person, where you have the constant feeling of being in a place of death.” The memory of the horror of it all and of those who could not cope and took their own lives will remain with him for the rest of his life. But he explained that his guard allowed Ivan and himself to pray for a few minutes at the beginning and end of each day, even though this was not officially permitted. The following statement touched me deeply and I think will move you too: “I thank God for giving me the strength to unite these tortures with Christ, with his suffering, with the path of Christ. It is in this weakness that He gives strength. There I perceived the prayer of the Church, the Church in all its dimensions. I cannot explain it… In reality, this is the answer to the question of what helped me to resist. It is very simple: God.”

If you would like to read the full transcript of the interview with F Bohdan Heleta visit 

https://www.cssr.news/2025/02/ukraine-father-heleta-there-i-perceived-the-prayer-of-the-church/

ASIDE

To read the interview visit https://www.cssr.news/2025/02/ukraine-father-heleta-there-i-perceived-the-prayer-of-the-church/

END OF ASIDE

FR MICHAEL HENESY AT 90!

As a further reminder of just how old we are all getting,  Fr Michael Henesy reaches ninety this Monday (24 February). On your behalf I congratulate him and thank him for the extraordinary contribution he still makes to the life of Redemptorist community and our parishes.