St John the Evangelist, Poulton 15th May 2021 ‘I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he Sixth Saturday of Easter will grant in my name. Fifty-ninth Saturday of Isolation Until now you have not asked for anything Telephone: 01253 893184 in my name. Sign on at: [email protected] Parish Website: www.stjohnspoulton.org.uk Day two of our Novena for the Holy Spirit is attached. Mass during the week: Saturday – 6.00pm St John’s Tuesday - 9.30am St John’s Wednesday - 9.30am St Martin’s Thursday - 9.30am St John’s Friday – 9.30am St John’s Saturday – Pentecost Sunday 6.00pm St John’s (Daily Scripture is available from www.universalis.com) Acts 18:23-28 Paul came down to Antioch, where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers. An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet, though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual earnestness and was accurate in all the details he taught about Jesus, he had only experienced the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak boldly in the synagogue, they took an interest in him and gave him further instruction about the Way. When Apollos thought of crossing over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote asking the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived there he was able by God’s grace to help the believers considerably by the energetic way he refuted the Jews in public and demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. John 16:23-28 Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete. I have been telling you all this in metaphors, the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in metaphors; but tell you about the Father in plain words. When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, because the Father himself loves you for loving me and believing that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I leave the world to go to the Father.’ (What is God saying to you as you hear his Word here?) The next few weekday readings from Acts reveal the complexity of religions in this part of the world at this time. Particularly we see how Judaism is developing, the new cults in the desert outside Jerusalem are making their mark amongst thinking people (Notice the mention of John the Baptist here, and also what we have learned from the communities producing the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’), but also the different ways people are coming to Jesus. We notice that people are attracted to the new Jesus Communities, and some have been involved for some time, but they may not have been Baptised or heard of the Holy Spirit. This does not seem to worry the leaders of the new Christian communities as God has his own way of leading people to his Son! In today’s reading, however something else is involved – which we are not really understanding. We are introduced to Apollos who is a Jew from Egypt (Not Jerusalem) who has been affected by hearing about Jesus. He has been Baptised by John the Baptist and has recognised that this Jesus is the person John was promising. He is very knowledgeable about scripture and how Jesus ‘fits in’ to the promises of God - But he has not been Baptised by ‘the Way’ community. Is he coming from a sort of intellectual or academic understanding of what God is doing through Jesus and wishes to be accepted by ‘the Way’ community? He is certainly very able at speaking to the people. If you notice Paul and Apollos seem to visit the same places – but not at the same time! Are we to understand that these are two BIG people and ‘no town is big enough for the both of them’? We find in Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth that, though there seems to be no criticism of Apollos’ teaching, a group of the local Christian community had understood Apollo differently and were standing against Paul! This causes factions splitting Apollos, Paul and Peter! This is not unusual in the history of the Church, nor in national and local churches – and we see it today, sadly. Paul’s message in his letter to Corinth should be printed on our memories: “What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.” (1Cor 1:12-14) When you wonder at the greatness and beauty of the Vatican pray that we will always remember it is Christ’s Church and remember what he called it forward to do! Anyway the teaching of Apollos is never criticised and he is supported in his experience of being part of the community of the Way. Sometimes our appreciation of the gift of faith we have been given is so high that we can be separated from the reality of the world around us and the weakness of the church community. I expect Apollos received a dose of ‘reality’ and began to work with others in response to Jesus’ teaching – which was very ‘grounded’ and realistic: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) I expect you can think of other passages. It is easy to live in a ‘faith bubble’ which can be filled with weakness and regrets. Just like those early Christians, and Apollos, we need one another to recognise our mission in Christ and to be supported in our weakness of faith – though sometimes we think we can do it on our own. Sadly we don’t hear a great deal further from Apollos hopefully because he found his place in ‘the Way’ community – I wonder when he was Baptised? And we will hear more about the Spirit which, at this point, he seems to know nothing. You can imagine what happens…… (Maybe a combination of being faced with Paul, and discovering his own mission teaching amongst the communities, made him take a new picture of his vocation in the Church?) What does Apollos teach us – You – about being Church? SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2021 “What is born of prayer and not from the presumption of our ego, what is purified by humility, even if it is a hidden and silent act of love, is the greatest miracle that a Christian can perform… This act of love in silent dialogue with Jesus does so much good for the Church.” Pope Francis GENERAL AUDIENCE MAY 5, 2021 PARISH NOTICES: COVID 19 Security - When you come to Mass: Now that we have been allowed to move from private prayer to being able to celebrate Mass together please remember to do so safely. We have been asked to ensure Government and Church rules which might seem intrusive but they are designed to remind us to be careful and, above all, to keep distances. Please help us with this by being careful. ✓ Government guidelines demand that all the congregation (except those with exemption certificates) wear mouth and nose masks in church ✓ Please maintain a 2m distance as you approach and enter church and be guided by the stewards. ✓ Please note there is a ‘one way’ system – entering church by the left hand door. ✓ Please sanitise your hands as you enter church ✓ You will be invited to leave your name and contact detail for ‘Track & Tracing’ in case of need. ✓ If you wish to wear a face mask you may do this – but please bring your own. ✓ To minimise movement in church Stewards will direct you to fill the benches from the front. You will probably not be able to go in your ‘usual’ bench but that will give you a new perspective! ✓ Please remove your mask just before approaching for Holy Communion and then replace afterwards. ✓ You will receive instructions for coming forward for Holy Communion. But please respect distancing (don’t bunch), move for Communion using the one-way system, please stretch out your arms fully as you request Holy Communion, you will not be invited to speak “Amen” before receiving Holy Communion. These will need to be kept in mind at first and we do need to remember they, though not the best liturgy, are about distancing and staying well. ✓ Holy Communion must be received only on the hand. (No gloves, please) ✓ Please sanitise your hands as you leave church by the other door than the one you entered. ✓ As you leave church please move away from the door and remember to distance yourselves if you speak to other people. ✓ There is a basket at the back of church for your offertory donations – thank you.