The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Another quite hectic week around The Presbytery . . . . At our 11.00 Mass last Sunday we celebrated the ‘Rite of Welcome’ for an infant whose parents and godparents are presently taking part in our Baptism Preparation Programme - this should result in the child being baptised in July. Monday Fr D was hosting the members of his Ministry to Priest’s Support Group for their monthly meeting. This was the last meeting before another member retired from his Parish to live in a bungalow on the south coast from now on. This means that next time the group will be meeting by the seaside (which they have not done since Fr D came to Cobham!). The group spent an hour before the Blessed Sacrament in the church before celebrating Midday Prayer in Fr D’s study.  After this they retired to a local hostelry for lunch before returning to Fr D’s study to engage in a review of life over the past month. In the evening they went off to their respective homes after celebrating Evening Prayer. On Tuesday there was no Morning Prayer or Exposition as we celebrated a Requiem Mass for a long-time parishioner. In the late afternoon Fr D attended a Safeguarding training session for his work with the Bosco Catholic Education Trust vis teams on the computer. After Mass on Wednesday Fr D went off to join the rest of the clergy of the diocese at an inservice meeting concerning the New Lectionary that will be in use in all the parishes of England and Wales from the First Sunday of Advent this year. Fr D didn’t stay overnight because the venue was practically in the Parish, preferring to sleep in his own bed. Early Thursday morning Fr D rejoined the clergy at the in-service event, coming back home after it finished at 13.00. This meant that he was unavailable to celebrate Mass in the morning. On Friday morning Fr D again set off in the car to get to a funeral of a friend’s husband; this again meant that he was unable to celebrate Mass in the Parish. After the funeral he went into the Tribunal Office in Crawley as he had not yet been in this week and there was one case that he needed to write a defence for before it was going to be given to the Bishop for a decision. On Saturday morning Fr D met with our First Eucharist families in the church for a rehearsal of First Eucharist Day. Fr D was able to walk them through the whole service, allowing them to taste un-consecrated hosts . . . . . .

Both the first reading from Ezekiel and the Gospel reading point to God’s power to turn small and seemingly insignificant things into works of great beauty, strength, and abundance. Ezekiel imagines this as God planting a tender shoot which becomes a majestic cedar tree. Jesus uses the image of the tiny mustard seed growing into a large plant that provides a haven for birds. We don’t have to be farmers or gardeners to experience how the Kingdom of God is slowly revealed. Parents have this experience when they conceive a child and are stunned by the miracle of their new baby at birth. Teachers (hopefully!) witness patience, compassion, and maturity gradually taking root throughout 180 school days in a year. Doctors and therapists have the privilege of seeing patients healing in expected and unexpected ways. Relatives and friends experience the satisfaction of watching a loved one find new life and passion in a courageous move to a second career. As with seeds and plants, all growth takes time. The Kingdom of God doesn’t appear instantaneously. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and economic inequalities still cause great pain and suffering. Because God respects human free will, He doesn’t intervene and fix everything for us in a split second.  What God does do is surprise us by helping the smallest of seeds to grow and flourish in time. Our task is to plant those seeds and nurture them while we watch, wait, pray, and trust that God will grow them into people, communities, organizations, and locales of beauty and strength. Questions of the week  In what area of your life are you privileged to see God’s work in progress?  How or where are you asked to plant the seeds

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Yet another very full week around The Presbytery as various things come to fulfilment in the life of the Parish . . . . Last Sunday was the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, when the Church throughout the world celebrates that the Lord in his great love for us gave us the sacrament of his Body and Blood to feed and strengthen our faith. To mark the day fittingly we had a period of extended Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from the end of our 11.00 Sunday Mass through to a celebration of Evening Prayer and Benediction at 15.00. Having celebrated Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition, on Tuesday morning Fr D went off down to the diocesan offices in Crawley to continue his work in the Tribunal. He is now halfway through preparing his judgement about one case and ready to begin the same with another so that he can call the other two judges to a judgement session. In the evening Fr D met with the parents of this years First Eucharist candidates to talk about the Communion Rite at Mass and First Eucharist Day. On Saturday, the parents will relay this information to their children at the ‘Family Session.’ Following Morning Prayer and Mass on Wednesday morning Fr D did not have to get down to Crawley because he has swopped Wednesday with Tuesday to facilitate the Safeguarding department who wanted Wednesdays as their ‘office day.’ This meant that he was able to think about First Eucharist Day (16th) and get ready for meeting with those youngsters from the Parish who have just celebrated their Confirmation (4th May) in the evening. The meeting with the recently Confirmed was a reflection on the ‘big day’ and a looking forward to how they continue their life of faith as they continue to grow. They also will be helping at the First Eucharist celebration.  On Thursday, after Morning Prayer and Mass Fr D finished his parts of the newsletter before handing them to Sarah in the Parish Office to complete the newsletter. He was then off to lunch with another priest nearer to Brighton before joining in at a Diamond Jubilee of Priesthood Mass in Brighton in the evening. One of the Parish Priests that Fr D worked with before becoming a Parish Priest himself, earlier in May, had asked him to preach at the Jubilee Mass; Fr D does not normally like preaching in front of other priests (much less bishops!) but he has very fond memories of his time with said priest . .

All three readings today speak to the reality of our imperfect world. The first reading contains the Jewish answer to the question of why we aren’t living in a perfect Garden of Eden. The second reading from St. Paul is a reflection on the reality of discouragement, physical deterioration, and afflictions in this lifetime as we hope for something better. Mark’s Gospel reading gives us a glimpse into the sometimes chaotic scenes involving Jesus, especially when people (his family, even!) don’t understand him. Mark tells us bluntly that Jesus’ relatives tried to reign him in because they thought “He is out of his mind.” “Why would they have thought that?” we might wonder. Because besides healing people, feeding thousands, casting out demons, and teaching, Jesus also riled up the religious leaders and accused them of abusing their positions of authority. He threatened the Roman rule by attracting crowds who identified him, not Caesar, as the Son of God. He was even dissuading tax collectors from collecting tax money that the Jews owed to the Romans (Mk 2:13-14)! His speeches were creating general unrest and disturbance on many levels of society. Jesus’ family would have realized that speaking the truth to power could get him killed. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Oscar Romero are well-known examples of such a danger.  Would you be able to stand by and watch if your relative was doing and saying things in public that endangered him? Wouldn’t you want to stop him too? Questions of the week  What is your reaction to this scene when Jesus’ family arrives to confront him?  What challenges might Jesus raise to people in positions of leadership and authority today that could be dangerous to his life

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Another full week at The Presbytery again . . . . Fr D had a quiet Bank Holiday, managing to spend some time in the garden reading one of his marriage cases before he starts to work on a judgement. Having celebrated Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday Fr D was making the first preparations for this year’s First Eucharist celebration at our 11.00 Mass on Sunday June 16 th . This year we have six younger children who have been preparing with their families since last September for this important milestone in their faith journey. From September to the end of November the families were working to their child’s First Reconciliation before changing in January to look at First Eucharist. There are twelve segments involved and for each of these there is a parents’ meeting where the topic is presented to them and they learn from Fr D what they are going to be teaching their child on the following Saturday morning. Once into the First Eucharist section there is also a celebration at one of our weekend Masses which includes a little ‘rite’ to mark the completion of the topic. This form of preparation is known as ‘family led catechesis’ and is the method favoured by the diocese for some years now. Fr D has been very impressed with the way in which parents have taken part over the last three years and the children have definitely appreciated the ‘one to one’ time that this has involved with mum or dad! On Thursday, whilst down at the diocesan offices in Crawley, Fr D took possession of another marriage case which is now ready for his judgement. With two cases he will call a judgement session (once he’s ready) where the other two judges in the case will join him in Crawley for a judgement session, after which he will ‘write-up’ the sentence giving the decision. When he got back in the evening Fr D parked the car in front of the garage to plug it in to be recharged over night (23.30 - 05.30).  Friday morning, before Morning Prayer & Mass, Fr D was putting the finishing touches to his parts of this week’s newsletter. And sorting out notices and Prayers of Intercession for the weekend. This weekend, of course, is that point in the year where, as a Parish community, we have an extended period of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from after our 11.00 morning Mass until Evening Prayer and Benediction at 15.00 . . . . . . . . .

The church celebrates the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ today with three readings about blood, sacrifices, and covenants. The First Reading retells the story of Moses using the blood of young bulls to symbolically seal the covenant between the Israelites and God after God gave them the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai. The Letter to the Hebrews declares that Jesus’ sacrifice is more effective than the blood of goats and bulls in sanctifying us. Finally, Jesus’ words at the Last Supper reveal a new understanding - that Jesus will take the place of animals in Jewish worship by offering himself up to death for us. Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover supper. It took place on the day that Jews traditionally sacrificed and ate a lamb in remembrance of the night when God “passed over” the houses of the Israelites. On that night in Egypt, following Moses’ instructions, each Israelite family sacrificed a lamb and used its blood to mark their door posts. That same night, the firstborn of all the Egyptians were killed, but death passed over the Israelites, and they followed Moses to freedom through the parted waters of the Red Sea. The Passover supper included a ritual of breaking and sharing unleavened bread (which is why the bread we use for Communion is unleavened) and sharing wine together. When Jesus and the disciples shared their Passover meal they were following all of the Jewish traditions. What made that particular Passover meal different was that Jesus declared that the bread they were eating was his body and the wine they drank was his blood, the “blood of the covenant.” From then on, the Passover supper became a remembrance both of how God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and how Jesus saves us by showing us how to live and die. Questions of the Week  Have you ever been to a Passover or Seder meal? What was your experience of it? What did you learn about our Jewish history?  What does the Eucharist mean to you? How does it feed you spiritually?

One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa. He protected his fellow pages, aged thirteen to thirty, from the sexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler’s demands. Charles first learned of Christ’s teachings from two retainers in the court of Chief Mawulugungu. While a catechumen, Charles entered the royal household as assistant to Joseph Mukaso, head of the court pages. On the night of Mukaso’s martyrdom for encouraging the African youths to resist Mwanga, Charles requested and received baptism. Imprisoned with his friends, Charles’ courage and belief in God inspired them to remain chaste and faithful. For his own unwillingness to submit to the immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886, by Mwanga’s order.  When Pope Paul VI canonized these 22 martyrs on October 18, 1964, he also made reference to the Anglican pages martyred for the same reason.

Sunday 2nd June is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, a day when the Church encourages us to remember and celebrate our fidelity to the Blessed Sacrament with an extended period of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. In the Sacred Heart the Blessed Sacrament will, as usual, be exposed upon the altar from after our 11.00 Mass until 15.00 when there will be a celebration of Evening Prayer and Benediction. At the back of the church there is a ‘sign-up’ list for parishioners to indicate a period of twenty minutes when they undertake to be present before the Blessed Sacrament. Please have a look and ‘sign-up’ accordingly

Children’s Liturgy is a structured time during Mass at which children (typically aged 4-7), are invited to gather separately from our main congregation to hear and reflect upon the weekly scripture readings at a language and comprehension level that is suitable for their age group. In order to consider restarting this in the Parish we are seeking to establish a team of at least 8 (preferably more) parishioners who would be interested in serving the children in our Parish, and who would be able to commit to leading/helping in a team of two/three, after training, during school term time, on a rota basis, during the first part of our 11.00 Sunday Mass.  All leaders/helpers will need to have/obtain an enhanced DBS certificate that we can arrange through the Diocese. Please contact the Parish Office if you could assist in joining this venture for our children.