Community Community, Abba John teaches, calls us to the kind of relationships that walk us through minefields of personal selfishness, that confront us with moments of personal responsibility, that raise us to the level of personal heroics, & lead us to the rigor of personal compassion day after day. It is when we see in the needs of others what we are meant to give away that we become truly empty of ourselves. It is in the challenges of the times that we come to speak the Spirit. It is when we find ourselves dealing with the downright intransigence of the other that we understand our own sin. It is when we recognise in the world around us the call of God to us that our response to the human race becomes the measuring stick of the quality of our souls. When anger rages in us unabated & unresolved, we obliterate the other in our hearts. When months go by & we never even speak to our neighbours, never seek them out, never stir ourselves out of our hermitages to admit their existence, we deny creation. When advice is something we resist & questions are something we avoid in life, God has no voice by which to call us. “Illuminated Life” by Sr Joan Chittister OSB.
Our initial invitation meeting for the proposed Dementia Hub last Monday was well supported by 18 who came to find out more & to offer their active involvement as the initiative goes forward. Further details will follow once the steering group meet. Please keep the sufferers & their carers in your prayers. The Pancake Lunch on Shrove Tuesday attracted strong support from the Village & locality, resulting in a generous sum raised for the local work of the SVP as well as in support of its Charity in India. Lizzie Walsh will speak at the end of Mass this Sunday to explain her forthcoming journey to Zambia to work in 3 different schools during the Easter holidays. She will be leading children in sport, empowerment & HIV/AIDS awareness & she is hoping to raise £1500 which goes direct to the umbrella organisation, The Perfect Day Foundation. Donations online please to https://www.justgiving.com/fundrasing/elizabeth-zara-sia Our Parish Forum will be held next Sunday 25th Feb at 11.15am in the Parish Hall. If you have any questions or comments relating to the life & spirituality of the Parish which you would like addressing at the Forum, please send them to me either by email or letter before next weekend. Please do try to come to learn more about our Parish, & to offer your advice on a number of important issues. On Ash Wednesday the following announcement was made to our staff at the Abbey & College “Fr Gabriel Everitt has become Acting Superior of the Community, with Fr George Corrie as Sub-prior. Fr Kevin Hayden has become Head of Hospitality.” Please keep them, & indeed the rest of our Community, in your prayers, & in particular Fr Terence Richardson who has held responsibility with profound steadiness as Acting Superior for the last 18 months in Fr Abbot’s continuing absence. With love & prayers, Fr Bede.