All posts by 3 churches

Pentecost today

pentecost

This is Pentecost Sunday! It is the end and the climax of the Easter season that began at the beginning of March. We journeyed through Lent, slowly following the last journey of Jesus to the Cross on our Stations of the Cross. We waved our palms, broke our bread, washed our feet and venerated the Cross in Holy Week, before celebrating the great feast of Easter. Then on Ascension Day the Lord left the physical presence he had shared with us, not to abandon us, but to take on a universal presence so that he could be available to us at all times and in all places.

Now, one with the Father, Jesus pours out on us his Holy Spirit. The apostles – and the world – had never experienced anything like it. The nearest they could come to describe it was that it seemed like fire and wind. They were melted in that fire and blown by that wind out into the world to bring Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life to its four corners.

These last years have been astonishing – unlike any others in a long while. Covid and now the war in Ukraine have been something of a car crash. Just as we perhaps thought we in Europe had settled down in our comfortable civilization, sickness tore through our world, and war broke out in our continent of Europe. We have been pulled up short, forced to ask ourselves where we all are and where we are going. The Synod has, in a strange way, come at the right time to show us that this applies to us in the Church too, we are not immune from this false security.

During this period I have been challenged like everyone else, we priests do not have any slick answers to the questions raised by wars and pandemics. What has given me particular strength and sustenance is you, the people of our 3 Churches. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through our little part of the Church. I cannot count the number of times I have been touched by the faith you have proved in all sorts of circumstances, the hope that has kept you going despite the often seemingly insurmountable problems, and then what Pope Francis would call the tenderness of love that you have shown in so many ways.

On this feast of Pentecost, the feast of the Church, thank you to all who have shown to me the meaning of Pentecost, not just in an Upper Room in Jerusalem, but right here in the suburbs of Cardiff.

Fr Matthew

Come back for Sunday

newsletter

Dear friends and parishioners

At their recent plenary meeting in Cardiff, the Bishops of Wales and England revisited the question of Sunday obligation, and decided to return to the normal situation from next Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost.

You can read their full statement at – www.cbcew.org.uk/spring-plenary-2022-resolution-returning-to-mass-at-pentecost but meanwhile here is a relevant extract…

“Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, until the present time, we have shared with you our judgement that the situation of the last two years has meant that the Sunday Obligation has been impeded and has needed to be fulfilled in other ways. We thank God that this situation has now changed. The pressing challenges of the pandemic have lessened significantly. Most people have resumed the wide range of normal activities, no longer restricted by the previous Covid measures. We therefore believe that the reasons which have prevented Catholics from attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation no longer apply.”

Fr Matthew

Back to normal

newsletter

So here we are – back to our “normal” format for our 3 Churches newsletter. Another sign that things are getting back to normal. There’s that word again – “normal”. Will anything ever be normal? What was normal anyway? And in any case do we want to go back to where we were before? Friends, these are all questions raised by the extraordinary times we have been living through these last few years. But our newsletter has endured – hooray!

The word ‘communication’ comes from the Latin for ‘one with’. It’s related to ‘communion’ and ‘community’. Through good communication we help create good community, leading hopefully to good communion with each other.

So good communication is important in the Church, and this came out strongly in our recent Synod consultation. There are many ways we can all help improve our communications. For example, if you submit something for this newsletter, remember to specify if it is for one of our churches or for all of them – it can be confusing otherwise. Don’t write too much, as people’s attention span isn’t very long – and Luke the editor might give you the chop!

As we go along we’ll be looking at different aspects of communication to build up the community of faith.

Fr Matthew