MIDSUMMER MAGIC

And finally, I look forward to Friday evening’s Midsummer Magic, which will have already taken place by the time you read this. Again, I can only pay tribute to the team who organised the wonderful Christmas event in the monastery grounds, which raised £5,600 for the Whitechapel Centre. I am certain this event will be equally as successful and, by all accounts, the weather is due to be kind to us.

The proceeds from this event will go to the Marie Curie Hospice in Woolton, which I feel privileged to be able to serve as a chaplain. I know that the management and staff there will be immensely grateful. So once again thank you to the team who have taken the initiative and all of you who have responded to their invitation.

A WEEK RICH IN BLESSINGS:

Amidst the sadness of a number of funerals, I have also had the joy of two wonderfully blessed occasions during the past week. Firstly, there was the Confirmation ceremony at St Mary’s on Wednesday evening. Bishop Tom Neylon stressed the importance of the sign of the Spirit of God descending upon the candidates in the “laying on of hands”: the symbol which in some form is present in all the sacraments. Clearly, it is at the heart of the Confirmation ceremony (which, of course, is the completion of the Baptismal Rite and would always be administered with Baptism in the case of adults).

The silence as Bishop Thomas and the clergy went to each candidate in turn was truly impressive. Then the Bishop took time to speak with the candidates and their families as they came forward to be anointed with the Oil of Chrism and we quietly sang the refrain: ‘Veni, Sancte Spiritus’ to the music composed for the visit of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1982, when he Confirmed a group of young people on Pentecost Sunday at Coventry Airport. In fact, Michael Bennett, who was playing the organ, assured me that we sang the refrain 67 times! My thanks to everyone who helped to make it such a memorable evening.

And then, the following morning I was able to join the First Holy Communion classes at Bishop Eton School for a special assembly and breakfast party. This was the brainchild of our Head Teacher, Mr Paul Loughran. The children were resplendent in their First Communion outfits and many parents and grandparents were able to enjoy the occasion. It is very rewarding to see such initiatives in the community, cementing the school-parish relationship and highlighting the importance of these momentous occasions in our lives.

My thanks to Mr Loughran and our wonderfully committed staff at the school.

THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR:

On Thursday we will celebrate this important Feast in the Redemptorist calendar. Although we have had no special build-up this year, let’s celebrate the Feast in style. There will be the usual Novena Devotions the night before at 7.30pm in Bishop Eton and as well as the usual midday Mass at St Mary’s, there will also be Masses at Bishop Eton at noon, beginning with a spiritual reading followed by the Angelus at 11.45am and a 7.00pm Mass to celebrate the Feast.

ANOTHER BUSY WEEK AHEAD:

This weekend we will have our last two First Communion Masses at  St Mary’s: please pray for the 26 children and their families.

Likewise, please pray for the 30 young people who will be Confirmed at St Mary’s on Wednesday evening. We will welcome Bishop Tom Neylon who will administer the Sacrament and some of the local clergy. As well as our own parishioners, there will also be those from one or two other parishes, including our near neighbour, St John Vianney. I am sure it will be a very blessed occasion.

I hope to be able to get back to London for the funeral of Fr George Webster at lunchtime on Monday. After a number of years working in the Province, Fr George spent most of his life having a wonderfully fruitful ministry in Zimbabwe. He had reached 90 years of age last January and had been cared for at  St Peter’s, the Little Sisters Home in South London, for the past few years. He will be greatly missed by the sisters and the residents.

ADMINISTRATION:

By the time you are reading this I sincerely hope that we will have been able to appoint a new member of our administration team to work with Ann O’Neill at St Mary’s.

Looking back over my thirteen years as parish priest, I regard one of the great blessings to have been the remarkable support I and you, the parishioners, have been given by all those who have staffed the offices. The dedication and efficiency of Ann O’Neill, Kris Reeds and Hayley Metcalfe have been outstanding, and they have been ably supported by others who have taken on part-time posts as well as those of you who have offered and continue to offer tremendous support in a voluntary capacity.

Coming to Liverpool after six years with Redemptorist Publications, I was acutely aware of how important loyal and professional administrators are to ensure the smooth running of any business. While our Catholic parishes are not businesses as such, the nature of these communities in our increasingly complex technological world requires professional people to ensure that not only do we respond efficiently to the daily demands, but also legally within the charity sector.

It is something that I have and will continue to give priority and I renew my thanks to them all on your behalf.

FIRST COMMUNIONS:

This weekend and next weekend we will have four celebrations for the children of St Mary’s Parish and on Sunday, 16 June, the Bishop Eton First Communicants are invited to share their joy with the wider community at the 10.00am Mass. That provides me with a special challenge as the 11.00am that day is the last of the First Communion Masses at St Mary’s. However, hopefully, with a little careful planning, we will be able to manage it all with a calm reverence.

And, once again, I ask you to join me in a prayer that the children and their families will see these celebrations as springboards to lifelong commitments to our parish communities and to the Eucharist which binds us together in the Lord.

D-DAY AND REMEMBRANCE:

In my recorded message for this weekend, I recalled a very personal link with D-Day: namely visiting Normandy with Fr Gerry Costello, CSsR, way back in 1980 to mark his Golden Jubilee as a Redemptorist. During the war he had volunteered as a chaplain and served with the Navy and the Royal Marines, landing with the 48 Commandos on Juno Beach on that fateful day in 1944. It was clearly a profoundly emotional experience for him to retrace his steps across northern France, Belgium and Holland until the end of the war. It also made a lasting impression on me and deepened my sense of gratitude to all those courageous people who fought for the freedom I have enjoyed throughout my life.

The whole country has been caught up in a great act of remembrance during these past few days. I hope it leads us all to renew our commitment to be peacemakers and never to grow weary of praying for peace in our troubled world.

CORPUS CHRISTI

This great feast provides us with an opportunity to celebrate this most precious gift of the Lord himself in a way that we are not able to on Maundy Thursday evening. Then, our minds are also focused on the events which immediately follow the Last Supper, the arrest of Jesus and his crucifixion the next day. This weekend we can focus solely on the wonder of it all: Christ fulfilling his promise to be with us always and literally feeding us with himself. It is also wholly appropriate that we will be celebrating our First Communion Masses at St Mary’s over the next two weekends, having just completed our First Communion Masses for Bishop Eton last weekend. Once again, I want to thank all those in both parishes who spend many months not only helping to prepare our children, but also ensuring that the liturgies are beautiful celebrations, providing them and their families with memories which, hopefully, will help to sustain them for the rest of their lives.

THIRTEEN YEARS ON THE JOB

This Saturday marks the beginning of my fourteenth year as parish priest of Bishop Eton. May I just say that I could not have envisaged, at this time in my life, a more rewarding thirteen years both here and with St Mary’s, where I succeeded Fr Pat O’Brien in early September of that same year. I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ for all your encouragement as well as the loving and prayerful support you continue to give me and the Redemptorist Community. We are privileged to be able to serve you. May the Lord continue to sustain us all.

PRAYERS PLEASE

As well as asking your prayers for the repose of the souls of Brian Yoxall, Eunice Stulberg and Monica Gannon, whose funerals we are celebrating at this time, may I also commend to you James Lyon, who died on Wednesday. He was preparing to be married to Michaela in a simple ceremony at home before his death and we had prepared all the papers, but alas he died before we were able to have the ceremony.