June: the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square this Sunday. In his remarks to the gathered faithful, the Holy Father reflected on the mercy of Our Lord, which is the focus of the Church's prayerful attention during the month of June, traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Below, please find Vatican Radio's English translation of the Holy Father's remarks ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion.

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Dear brothers and sisters!

The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the highest human expression of divine love. Just this past Friday, in fact, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: the feast that sets the tone for the whole month. Popular piety highly prizes symbols, and the Heart of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of God's mercy – but it is not an imaginary symbol, it is a real symbol, which represents the center, the source from which salvation for all humanity gushed forth.

In the Gospels we find several references to the Heart of Jesus, for example, in the passage where Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. (Mt 11:28-29)” Then there is the key story of the death of Christ according to John. This evangelist in fact testifies to what he saw on Calvary: that a soldier, when Jesus was already dead, pierced his side with a spear, and from the wound flowed blood and water (cf. Jn 19.33-34). John recognized in that – apparently random – sign, the fulfillment of prophecies: from the heart of Jesus, the Lamb slain on the cross, flow forgiveness and life for all men.

But the mercy of Jesus is not just sentiment: indeed it is a force that gives life, that raises man up! [This Sunday]’s Gospel tells us this as well, in the episode of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus, with his disciples, is just arrived in Nain, a village in Galilee, at the very moment in which a funeral is taking place. a boy is buried, the only son of a widow. Jesus’ gaze immediately fixes itself on the weeping mother. The evangelist Luke says: “Seeing her, the Lord was moved with great compassion for her (v. 13).” This “compassion” is the love of God for man, it is mercy, i.e. the attitude of God in contact with human misery, with our poverty, our suffering, our anguish. The biblical term “compassion” recalls the maternal viscera: a mother, in fact, experiences a reaction all her own, to the pain of her children. In this way does God love us, the Scripture says.

And what is the fruit of this love? It is life! Jesus said to the widow of Nain, “Do not weep,” and then called the dead boy and awoke him as from a sleep (cf. vv. 13-15). The mercy of God gives life to man, it raises him from the dead. The Lord is always watching us with mercy, [always] awaits us with mercy. Let us be not afraid to approach him! He has a merciful heart! If we show our inner wounds, our sins, He always forgives us. He is pure mercy! Let us never forget this: He is pure mercy! Let us go to Jesus!

Let us turn to the Virgin Mary: her im

maculate heart – a mother’s heart – has shared the “compassion” of God to the full, especially at the hour of the passion and death of Jesus. May Mary help us to be meek, humble and compassionate with our brethren.



Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/06/09/pope_francis:_sunday_angelus_(full_text)/en1-699870 
of the Vatican Radio website 

Please remember in your prayers, Brother Joseph Brandão R.I.P.

Brother Joseph Brandão, whom many of our readers will remember from his time in England some years ago, has passed away having received all the sacraments on Tuesday 28 May. 

A little Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham has been buried with him. May he rest in peace Amen.

Please remember him in your prayers.

Annual Outdoor Procession in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes

Dear Friends

 

I hope you had a wonderful Pentecost Sunday!

Next Sunday, though, is going to be even better, because we are going to have our Annual Outdoor Procession in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes on the Feast of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

I am sure that the blessings of the Holy Trinity, and of Mary, will fall on all those who are going to be present.

Hope to see you there. Do not miss those blessings. The weather, by the way, is going to be just perfect.

Deacon Arthur

Heralds of the Gospel

Annual Outdoor Procession in Hampton Wick

            

        Month of May

              Month of Mary

                   Year of Faith 2013

Dear Friends

The HERALDS OF THE GOSPEL, in collaboration with the Sons of Divine Providence, the Knights of St Columba & Parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish, cordially invite you and your family to participate in:

The annual procession in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Sunday, 26th May 2013

Procession starts 5:00 pm from

At Don Orione House on Station Rd, between Lower Teddington Rd and Seymour Rd

Hampton Wick KT14EU.

Followed by Mass 6:00 pm at

Sacred Heart Church, 262 Kingston Road, Teddington, TW119JQ

Followed by refreshments and light meal at the parish hall.

On this Year of Faith we look forward to seeing you on this special occasion

in honour of Our Blessed Mother.

For information contact Deacon Arthur or Br Michael at 02089434159

What are you doing for Pentecost?

From: http://www.osv.com/OSV4MeNav/ChurchSeasons/PentecostTheHolySpirit/tabid/8386/Default.aspx

By Lorene Hanley Duquin

It’s a question that you probably don’t hear much. People get excited and plan ahead for most holidays, but Pentecost isn’t usually one of them. In fact, many people don’t really understand what Pentecost is or why it is so important in the Church calendar.

The Story of Pentecost

Pentecost commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. After Jesus rose on Easter, he appeared to the apostles over the next 40 days, teaching them the significance of what had happened to Him. They listened, but didn’t really understand, so Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would enlighten them and give them everything they would need to carry the Good News to people all over the world.

They gathered in an upper room with the mother of Jesus to pray. Ten days later they heard a loud noise, and the Holy Spirit descended upon them in tongues of fire. When that happened, they received spiritual gifts that transformed their lives and gave them the power to touch the lives of other people.

They ran into the streets and began to tell people about Jesus. Each person in the crowd understood the apostles in his or her own language. Thousands became believers that day.

Today we celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the Church.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, or the eternal Spirit of God. Some people try to explain the Holy Spirit as the power of love and truth that emanates from the Father and the Son. Whenever you feel as if you are being called by God or inspired to do something, it is usually a movement of the Holy Spirit.

One of the most important lessons a parent can teach a child is how to listen to the Holy Spirit. Begin by asking your children after Mass what message they heard in the readings, in the music, in the homily or in their prayers after Communion that seemed to speak to their souls. Then help them to recognize that this is how the Holy Spirit works in their lives.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The spiritual gifts that the Spirit brings are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, good judgment, courage, reverence and awe (Isaiah 11:2).

Suggestions to Celebrate Pentecost

• Let your children help make a birthday cake and celebrate by singing Happy Birthday to the Church!

• Read the Pentecost account with your family from the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-47). Then, go out in the backyard and make a bonfire together. Talk about the power of the symbol of fire and how the Holy Spirit came to the apostles through fire.

• Write the gifts of the Holy Spirit on pieces of paper. Let each family member take a gift. Then talk about how they can use their gift throughout the year.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit, come into our hearts.  Bring the brightness of your light, the warmth of your love, and the fullness of your truth so that our lives may be pleasing to you in every way. Amen.

May 13 - the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=485

Tomorrow, May 13, is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917.  She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.

The story of Fatima begins in 1916, when, against the backdrop of the First World War which had introduced Europe to the most horrific and powerful forms of warfare yet seen, and a year before the Communist revolution would plunge Russia and later Eastern Europe into six decades of oppression under militant atheistic governments, a resplendent figure appeared to the three children who were in the field tending the family sheep. “I am the Angel of Peace,” said the figure, who appeared to them two more times that year exhorting them to accept the sufferings that the Lord allowed them to undergo as an act of reparation for the sins which offend Him, and to pray constantly for the conversion of sinners.

Then, on the 13th day of the month of Our Lady, May 1917, an apparition of ‘a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun’ presented itself to the three children saying “Please don’t be afraid of me, I’m not going to harm you.” Lucia asked her where she came from and she responded,  “I come from Heaven.”  The woman wore a white mantle edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand. The woman asked them to pray and devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to “say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.”

She also revealed that the children would suffer, especially from the unbelief of their friends and families, and that the two younger children, Francisco and Jacinta would be taken to Heaven very soon but Lucia would live longer in order to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate Heart.

In the last apparition the woman revealed her name in response to Lucia’s question:   “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”

That same day, 70,000 people had turned out to witness the apparition, following a promise by the woman that she would show the people that the apparitions were true. They saw the sun make three circles and move around the sky in an incredible zigzag movement in a manner which left no doubt in their minds about the veracity of the apparitions.  By 1930 the Bishop had approved of the apparitions and they have been approved by the Church as authentic.

The messages Our Lady imparted during the apparitions to the children concerned the violent trials that would afflict the world by means of war, starvation, and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father in the twentieth century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She exhorted the Church to pray and offer sacrifices to God in order that peace may come upon the world, and that the trials may be averted.

Our Lady of Fatima revealed three prophetic “secrets,” the first two of which were revealed earlier and refer to the vision of hell and the souls languishing there, the request for an ardent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prediction of the Second World War, and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism.  The third “secret” was not revealed until the year 2000, and referred to the persecutions that humanity would undergo in the last century: “The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated'”.  The suffering of the popes of the 20th century has been interpreted to include the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, which took place on May 13, the 64th anniversary of the apparitions. The Holy Father attributed his escape from certain death to the intervention of Our Lady: “... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death.”

What is the central meaning of the message of Fatima? Nothing different from what the Church has always taught: it is, as Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict the XVI,  has put it, “the exhortation to prayer as the path of “salvation for souls” and, likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.”

Perhaps the most well known utterance of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima was her confident decalaration that  “My Immaculate Heart will triumph”. Cardinal Ratzinger has interpreted this utterance as follows: “The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.

First Ordinariate seminarian receives ministries

On Wednesday, May 01, 2013 Mgr Keith Newton bestowed the ministry of Lector and Acolyte on Andrew Harding at St John's Seminary, Wonersh, on the feast of Saint Mark.

Andrew is the first seminarian of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, having begun studies for the Anglican ministry at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, before being received into the Catholic Church in 2011. 

Please pray for him and for other seminarians, studying in Oxford.