15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)
Ss Peter and Paul
The Body of Christ
Trinity Sunday 2020
Pentecost Sunday 2020
7th Sunday of Easter Year A – 24th May
6th Sunday of Easter Year A – 17th May
5th Sunday of Easter Year A – 10th May
Here are some resources for celebrating the Liturgy of the Word with children which can be used by catechists with their groups in the parishes. While groups cannot meet in the parishes during the suspension of the Sunday Mass, we encourage parents and children to take part in the Masses streamlined at various churches throughout the diocese and use the activities to pray and reflect on the readings of the day. Perhaps this is an ideal opportunity to answer questions and develop their understanding in dialogue with our children- not always easy in church surroundings.
We could also send our Guardian Angel to be at Mass for us until we can return again to celebrate Mass together.
O HOLY ANGEL at my side,
Go to Church for me,
Kneel in my place, at Holy Mass,
Where I desire to be.
At Offertory, in my stead,
Take all I am and own,
And place it as a sacrifice
Upon the Altar Throne.
At Holy Consecration’s bell,
Adore with Seraph’s love,
My Jesus hidden in the Host,
Come down from Heaven above.
And when the priest Communion takes,
Oh, bring my Lord to me,
That His sweet Heart may rest on mine,
And I His temple be.
4th Sunday of Easter Year A – 3rd May 2020
“I am the Good Shepherd”
“I call you by your name, you are mine”
Today is sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday. That is because, in the Gospel today, St John describes to us in a beautiful way, in a parable, the attitude of the sheep to their shepherd – they listen to his voice, they trust him, knowing that he will keep them safe and so they follow him.
In the time of Jesus, the job of a shepherd was hard and lonely. The place where Jesus lived was hot and dry with little water and grass. The shepherd would take the sheep to the pastures in the daytime to find food to eat and water to drink protect his sheep from thieves and wild animals and gather up the sheep who had wandered off – no sheep dogs in the time of Jesus. At night the shepherds would bring their sheep to a sheepfold – an enclosed area with a gate. One shepherd would then lie down across the entrance- the gate – to sleep, to protect the flock from thieves and wild animals that might do them harm. The next morning the shepherds would lead their own sheep out of the sheepfold by calling them and away to feed in the pastures. The shepherd would call them by name, each sheep knew the voice of their shepherd and would follow him. The sheep will not follow a stranger.
Listen carefully to today’s Gospel.
Thoughts after today’s Gospel
- Like the sheep we can hear and recognise God’s voice by listening to the readings at Mass. Jesus really wants us to live full and happy lives. We listen to the priest, our parents and teachers as they lead us to understand the meaning of God’s Word in our lives
- Christian leadership- what are the qualities of a good Christian leader? Faithfulness to Jesus, considers others first before themselves, does acts of kindness for others, provides a good listening ear in time of need and uses their time and talents for the good of others.
And finally, today is a good opportunity to ask God to give grace and perseverance to all our priests and those training to be priests. In these times it must be very strange for them to be celebrating Mass without us in the churches.
3rd Sunday of Easter Year A 26th April 2020
We are still celebrating Easter- in fact Easter lasts 50 days not 1.
In today’s Gospel written by St Luke, Jesus appears again to some of the disciples, only 2 this time. They did not recognise Jesus was walking beside them, they even spoke to him and still did not seem to know who he was!
Again, we discover that the risen Jesus is not always recognised. That happened in last week’s Gospel too, in fact, Thomas would not believe the others when they told him that Jesus had appeared to them.
It is only later that the two friends of Jesus discover that the stranger walking with them is Jesus. How did they eventually recognise him?
Yes, in the breaking of bread, just as we meet Jesus at Mass and when we receive Holy Communion.
Think about how sad those two friends of Jesus would have been. Their friend had died. They had heard that the tomb where Jesus had been laid, was now empty but the angels had told the women that Jesus was alive! They were trying to make sense of it all. The “stranger” listens to the disciples telling of what had happened to their friend Jesus. Jesus then tells the two disciples trying to help them by explain the ancient scriptures
We do this at Mass too. We listen to the readings and try to think how they can help us to come closer to God and do what God would like us to do.
In the next part of the Gospel, the disciples ask the “stranger” to stay with them. They were very interested in what he had to say and it was the end of the day too. So they had a meal together- Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke the bread and gave it to them. Then they recognised Jesus.
After that, the disciples set out for Jerusalem, they found the eleven apostles together with some more friends, and told them who they had met along the road and how they recognised who it was.
At the end of Mass, we are asked to go out and share the Good News with others.
Second Sunday of Easter (A)
Easter Sunday 2020 (A)
Palm Sunday (A)