Homily 18Nov07

Extract from Fr Bryan's Homily

18 November 2007

Fr Bryan started by saying he wanted to reflect on some ‘big’ themes, and to share these with the parish.

Mass on Sunday

“The Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist”. It is essential – the ‘base line’ – that we are all at Mass every Sunday. We are all members of the Body of Christ and so absence from Sunday Mass damages the entire Catholic Church (as well as ourselves). Fr Bryan challenged everyone to think about this as the new church year approached. Advent commences on 2nd December.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

“Perhaps the best gift we can give at Christmas is the gift of a penitent heart to the Lord. And without doubt the best gift we can receive is God’s gift of forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation (‘confession’)”. With these words, Fr Bryan invited the parish to come to confession on Saturday 1st December, at ANY time between 10am and 5pm, and to tick a five minute slot on the list in the porch. “You may not have been to confession for many years; you may have never been since your first confession; you may have just drifted away from this wonderful means of God’s grace. Whatever your situation, you can be assured of a warm welcome.” “There is more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who need no repentance.” Just five minutes – for God.

Journey in Faith

Fr Bryan mentioned that, during his first year here, many non-Catholics had enquired about the Catholic Faith, and that now the moment had come to begin an enquirers course – “Journey in Faith”. This will be an introduction to the teaching of the Catholic Church, without any obligation, and will take place at the Presbytery (281A Crescent Drive) on Mondays (8-9.30pm), starting 26th November. Any non-Catholic who is 18+ is most welcome, including Catholic partners.

Communication

Our website is now up and running (!) and Fr Bryan wanted to express his tremendous gratitude to Ged Equi, who built the site, and to Roger Wright who will maintain it. It will be a very valuable aid in parish communication.

However, the web cannot do everything! One problem is that we are three fairly large congregations (at our three weekend Masses). How can we get to know each other better, and what kinds of activities could bring us together as one community, the Body of Christ in this place? There are no easy answers, but it has been suggested that perhaps a summer fair (or similar event) might help. Fr Bryan appealed for ideas, and made the point (theologically) that we should ALL be united each Sunday in ONE Eucharist, but that numbers made this impossible. We are working on a parish directory which will be available in church.

Youth

Fr Bryan thanked all those who work so hard with the youth activities – both the uniformed groups and also the Junior Youth Group (highly successful) and the Senior Youth Group which is still being planned. This is a crucial area of our church life, and Fr Bryan appealed for more leaders to come forward. We should aim to provide committed and high-quality faith formation for our youth and this is an exacting – but also very satisfying – activity.

2008

Fr Bryan concluded by announcing the performance of Bach’s St John Passion in St James’ on the evening of Palm Sunday (16th March 2008), with singers drawn from ALL the Petts Wood churches. This will be an ambitious project. It will be a profoundly spiritual experience as we sing the greatest story ever told to some of the greatest music ever written. Music is something that can unite the churches at a profound level. Publicity will be out soon.