Our Lady of Lourdes & St Swithun Parish
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OUR LADY OF LOURDES & ST SWITHUN PARISH in Southsea 8TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 26TH February 2017 ENGLAND AND WALES CONSECRATED TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY Cardinal Vincent Nichols has crowned a statue of Our Lady of Fátima in the centenary year of Her appearance, and re-consecrated England and Wales to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At a packed Westminster Cathedral Cardinal Nichols led the prayer of consecration, which includes the sentence: “To you and your Immaculate Heart, in this centenary year of the apparitions of Fátima, we re-consecrate ourselves in union not only with the Church, the Mystical Body of your Son, but also with the entire world.” The cardinal was renewing a consecration made by his predecessor as Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Bernard Griffin, in 1948. The National Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, and Relics of Blessed Jacinta and Francisco will be travelling around the country visiting various Cathedrals, including St John's from 26-27 August. MONDAY 27TH February - THE ASCENT GROUP will meet in the Hall again from 2-15pm on Monday the 27th of February! The Guest Speaker will be Andrew Negus who will give his 3rd talk on the History of Portsmouth and that ‘guest attendees’ will be most welcome. THE BEACON PROJECT Our next session will take place tomorrow, Monday 27 February when Sister Hyacinthe of the Dominican Sisters will be joining us to share on the New Evangelisation. The Beacon Project is for anyone aged 16+ who wants to come and spend some time in prayer, hear some great teaching and meet other Catholics from around the Pastoral Area. @ St Swithun’s 1930-2100. For more information please contact Paul Vacher on [email protected] --- from 7.00PM to 9.00PM MARRIAGE PREPARATION COURSE in Polish (part 2), led by Fr Marcin. The course is dedicated for Polish couples or for Mix Couples - Polish part & other nationality part. TUESDAY 28TH February - - Know your Faith. You can give your email to St Marie-Elise, Fr Marcin or send it to [email protected] - *** ‘HEAR GOD’S VOICE’- from 7.40 PM to 9.00 PM in the church hall we have a special form of the Scripture Meetings opened for the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Everyone is welcome - no register, no checking the list (the next ones this year 2017: 7th, 14th, 21st March). ASH WEDNESDAY 1st MARCH 2017 day of fasting and abstinence: 10.00 am – Holy Mass at St Swithun’s church with whole St Swithun’s Catholic Primary School (with distributing the ashes). 7.00 pm – Holy Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes church (with distributing the ashes); 8.15 pm – Holy Mass at St Swithun’s church in Polish (with distributing the ashes); (next days of the week on page 4 of the Newsletter) The Holy Father's Prayer Intentions for March 2017 Support for Persecuted Christians - That persecuted Christians may be supported by the prayers and material help of the whole Church. The Month of March is dedicated to St. Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus - We don't know much about him except what is mentioned in the Gospels. Joseph was the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster-father of Jesus. Holy Scripture proclaims him as a "just man," and the Church has turned to Joseph for his patronage and protection. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Dear Friends the spiritual. The body is not a thing, but it is part of our Today, a few day before we’ll start LENT let’s prepare humanity. It was sin that made Adam and Eve begin to feel ourselves for the special time with this meditation. shame. They then lost the original harmony, they lost purity of The liturgical year is not like a stage. The language of gaze free of the desire of appropriation of another person. The the characters shows the truth about God and man. Lent tells body is a source of pleasure, and so is God's plan, but the desire us that our life is a struggle. We are not alone. Christ carrying for pleasure is excessive. The search for pleasure cannot decide the cross goes with us. To confront evil together with Christ - on our choices and attitudes. The body is also a source of is the essence of Lent! suffering, and fear of pain is so crippling that it deprives the The concept of "spiritual warfare" is a classic human capacity of difficult goodness, of sacrifice. The ability to of Christian spirituality. It is also our daily bread. Each of us control the body of a man obtained by asceticism, mortification, fights against the evil around us, in itself. It ends a long year's fasting, determination of fair borders for pleasure. In all this, it is important that the body is always treated as an integral part of carnival. Before us Lent, a time of penance, that is spiritual man, created in the image of God, not to treat carnality warfare. But the fight against whom? About what? And how? (sexuality) as 'pure' biology, which must carry out its instincts. A spiritual war takes place on several fronts. In general, The man does not have to sin. Meditation of the Way of the Cross in classic ascetical literature there are four areas of struggle: - looking into the faith of the tortured body of the Saviour - is a 1. The fight against sin; 2. The fight against Satan; 3. The fight spiritual therapy after injuries caused by improper treatment of against the body; 4 The fight against the world. Today, a few our or another’s body. words on each of these fronts. 4. FIGHT WITH THE WORLD --- And again we have to 1. FIGHT AGAINST SIN ---- The thing seems clear. The author remember not to make the mistake of thinking of the world as of the Letter to the Hebrews notes: "In your struggle against our enemy. There is often a lot of confusion here. The world sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your was created by God as good. But the value of a man is bigger blood" [Hebrew 12, 4]. Until the bloodshed. And what is than the value of the world. Because of man's sin the world happening today? We are witnessing the slight of sin, any push has been contaminated, damaged. The world has become an of the boundaries between good and evil, often in the name of area of remaining 'in the service of Satan'. St. John in the wrongly understood autonomy of conscience. We fail to sense uses the word 'world'. He points to the conflict between recognize our own faults. We justify so many things by the the 'world' and Christ: 'If the world hates you, know that it circumstances, by the load of past injury. Instead of a solid has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the examination of conscience and repentance, we are looking for world would love its own; but you are not of the world, but I excuses and mitigating circumstances. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you." [J a converted soldier, was one of the strategists of spiritual 15: 18-19] warfare. In his spiritual exercises he recommends meditation to Today it is stressed that the poisoning of the ask God for "a great and deep sorrow of the soul and of tears environment is the result of human selfishness, lust for money, because of the sins.” And then he asks us to look straight to irresponsibility, stupidity. Fair enough, but there is a similar, God, against whom we have sinned, to scream “a cry full of much more dangerous environmental contamination of surprise and great love.” With such a prayer flows the strength culture, philosophy, science, politics, media, and all areas of to continue to fight against sin. life. John Paul II spoke of the 'culture of death'. So many 2. FIGHT AGAINST SATAN ---- "Be sober, be watchful. Your wreaking havoc e.g., pornography. The fight with the world adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking therefore requires a critical look at the whole of reality. We someone to devour” [1 Peter 5.8]. Today, we see two wrong need to recognize and call evil by its name. And it is not at all approaches: disbelief in the existence of the Devil or an 'condemning or judging everything around', as they say unhealthy, excessive interest in him. The devil influences a man proponents of the naive 'dialogue with the world.' It's all in different ways. He plays his diabolically tuned instruments about discernment. A word of importance but often that are within us, which we ourselves provide (disordered misunderstood. Discernment is looking at the world in the affection, excitement, weaknesses of character, bad habits, light of faith: know the difference between evil and good, in etc.). The scale of the impact of evil in a man may vary from order to denounce evil and choose the good. Discernment is simple temptations by Satan's bondage (addiction, obsession not about the acceptability of any attitudes and choices, for with evil), to possession. In the case of possession exorcism is example due to the so-called - complex situation. required; that is the official prayer of the Church for the Discernment must be used to identify what is the will of God, release conducted by a priest exorcist.