Born in 1221, St Bonaventure was baptized John, but became Bonaventure when he became a Franciscan at the age of twenty-two. While St Francis died about five years after Bonaventure’s birth, he is credited with healing Bonaventure as a boy of a serious illness. Bonaventure’s teaching career came to a halt when he was elected to serve as Minister General. His seventeen years of service were not easy as the Order was often involved in conflicts over the interpretation of poverty. Some friars even ended up in heresy saying that St Francis and his community were inaugurating the era of the Holy Spirit which was to replace Jesus, the Church, and Scripture. But because he was both a man of prayer and a very good administrator, Bonaventure managed to structure the Order through effective legislation. But more importantly, he gave the Friars an organized spirituality based on the vision and insights of St Francis. Always a Franciscan at heart and a mystical writer, Bonaventure managed to unite the pastoral, practical aspects of life with the doctrines of the Church.  Shortly before he ended his service as General Minister, Pope Gregory X created him a Cardinal bishop of Albano. But a little over a year later, while taking part in the Second Council of Lyon, Saint Bonaventure died suddenly on July 15, 1274. There is a theory that he was poisoned.

This is one of Jesus’ more famous parables, commonly called “The Parable of the Sower” or “The Parable of the Seed.” It briefly describes a scenario that makes sense to most listeners. Of course, seeds sown on a path, on rocky ground, and among thorns wouldn’t produce much, if any, harvest. And, of course, seed sown in fertile soil should produce a very good harvest. Anyone who knows anything about seeds and plants would understand this, so what is the point Jesus is trying to make? Knowing Jesus, the disciples immediately realise that a seemingly straightforward parable has a deeper meaning than what we under stand on the surface. They also recognise that not everyone will read a more profound message into a simple parable, so they ask Jesus why he teaches like this.  This Gospel passage comes after Jesus has just clashed with the scribes and Pharisees, the ones who think they know-it-all when it comes to God and religion. He had been healing people and casting out demons, and many people in the crowds received him with humility and gratitude. The scribes and the Pharisees, on the other hand, wouldn’t accept the good work he was doing at face value, and they accused him of working for Satan. Jesus points out to his disciples that those religious leaders are just like their ancestors who refused to listen to the prophets of old. As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink.” The Pharisees and scribes could see the good and miraculous things Jesus was doing, but they wilfully closed their ears and eyes to how God was acting in and through Jesus. At the same time, many people in the crowd were proving to be “good soil,” hearing and seeing how God was acting in the world. Questions of the week  Share about a time when you have witnessed someone open to experience God’s amazing or miraculous growth.  At this point in your life, what kind of soil would you say you are?

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . Another busy week here at The Presbytery as Fr D got together materials for several meetings that he was involved in through the week . . . . At all of our Masses last weekend there was an appeal for the HCPT Lourdes Pilgrimage Group that Fr D travels with each year after Easter. The leader of the Group was able to talk a little about the origins of the Children’s Pilgrimage and give a little taste of what the children do during their week each year. Several parishioners took the opportunity to talk to the two Group representatives after each Mass and at coffee after the 11.00 Mass. Early on Monday morning Fr D was up and about to give access to the electrical engineers who made a start on ‘Phase Two’ of the reworking of the church lighting system. This involved altering the round spotlights throughout the building from halogen units (240w) to LED units (50w) and ensuring each was reinforced where necessary to take bulbs that are four times the weight of the old ones! Just to be certain each unit is now held with a short length of aircraft grade wire to ensure that there will be no accidents! The smaller amount of power that the new units use will make a considerable dent in the lighting electricity bills in the future (as well as lasting much longer before replacement becomes necessary)! After celebrating Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday, Fr D took off down to Crawley in the car to continue work on two cases he will soon call to judgement, as well as answering an increasing number of canonical queries that seem to come in to the Tribunal office. After Morning Prayer and Mass on Wednesday Fr D had a meeting with the Clergy Welfare Officer for Surrey. This involves a chat during which the officer checks that Fr D is looking after himself (eating properly etc.), taking his day off each week, and being in reasonable contact with other clergy locally. She also reminded him that he really ought to avail himself of the diocesan ’health check’ at some point (when there’s time).  Following Morning Prayer and Mass on Thursday Fr D did not go down to Crawley for his second day of Tribunal work as he had a Teams Meeting of the Trustees of the Bosco Catholic Education Trust. Fr D joined via teams because the meeting was taking place in Hastings and he had other things that he needed to do which precluded travelling for that long (and the heat was not the best thing to be driving in) . . . . . .

St Benedict was born into a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome, and early in life was drawn to monasticism. First he became a hermit, leaving a depressing world - pagan armies on the march, the Church torn by schism, people suffering from war, morality at a low ebb. He soon realised that he could not live a hidden life in a small town any better than in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high up in the mountains for three years. Some monks chose Benedict as their leader for a while, but found his strictness not to their taste. Still the shift from hermit to community life had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various families of monks into one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity, fraternity, and permanent worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was to become one of the most famous monasteries in the world - Monte Cassino. The Rule that gradually developed prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study, manual labour, and living together under an abbot. In the course of the Middle Ages, all monasticism in the West was gradually brought under the Rule of Saint Benedict.  Today the Benedictines exist in two branches: the Benedictine Federation; and the Cistercians, men and women of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.

For the past several weeks, Jesus gave instructions and warnings about how challenging it is to follow him. Yet today’s reading gives the opposite impression: “come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus’ listeners were familiar with the image of a yoke because they were used to harnessing animals to do work in the field or to pull humans in carriages or cargo on wagons. In Judaism, the yoke was also a metaphor for the religious laws spelled out in the Old Testament. Over time, religious leaders (mostly the Pharisees) added to the 613 official written laws, creating an oppressive burden for an ordinary Jewish citizen. Several times in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus, lashed out at the Pharisees for making it almost impossible (especially for poor people, who were the majority of the population) to live by all the rules, and for not lifting a finger to help them.  In contrast, Jesus simplifies all of his religion’s laws into two: love God and love your neighbour as yourself. For people struggling to keep track of hundreds of rules about how to wash your cups and utensils perfectly, what foods can and can’t be on a plate together, what kinds of clothing fibre you could or couldn’t wear, or what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath, having only those two laws to follow was easy and light in comparison. Instead of having to worry about whether they were breaking any rules, Jesus’ disciples could judge any decision with the measure of whether an action expressed love for God, self, and neighbour. That was the yoke Jesus was inviting them to carry - not the yoke of the Pharisees who cared more about the letter of the law than the spirit of the law. Questions of the week . . .  What religious rules or laws feel unnecessarily burdensome to you?  Does the idea of judging all of your actions and decisions by the yoke of Jesus bring you relief?

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . A few breathing spaces this week around The Presbytery as some of the independent schools start their summer holidays and others begin to enter their final weeks . . . . Our First Eucharist and our Confirmation sacramental programmes for the year came to a conclusion last weekend with Certificates given out at our Sunday morning Masses, we also celebrated the Rite of Welcome for a child who will be Baptised in the middle of July. The new applications for Infant Baptism and First Reconciliation/Eucharist for next year are now both available (instructions elsewhere in this newsletter); Confirmation applications will be available once Fr D gets a date from the diocese/Bishop as to the date of the celebration so he can sort dates for the programme. Following on from Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday morning Fr D was off in the car down to the diocesan offices to wear his ‘other hat’ in the Tribunal. He was also very grateful that the temperatures had come down to a more manageable level! Wednesday, after Morning Prayer and Mass, Fr D was able to have a ‘catch-up’ session with Sarah in the Parish Office to help make sure the ‘decks are clear’ before the summer holidays start. He was able to chase up a few minor projects that are coming to fruition and start thinking about new phases for other ongoing projects. He also made a start on his parts of the newsletter for the week - all before sitting in front of the television for the ‘BIG MATCH!’  Once again, after Morning Prayer and Mass on Thursday, Fr D went off in the car to Crawley. As he’d parked up and ‘plugged-in’ the car and entered the building he was asked if he had heard ‘the news?’ Slightly confused Fr D asked “What news?” to be told that whilst he was driving down to Crawley the Holy Father had appointed Fr Stephen Wang, the Rector of the English College in Rome as the sixth Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. At the present time his ordination will be taking place in October at Arundel Cathedral. Whilst he was at the Tribunal, workmen were dealing with a blocked drain at the back of the Parish Centre. When they got into it they found that new plastic pipework (not in a pea shingle bed, as is normally the case), put in when the Parish Centre was constructed had broken underground and roots (and frogs!) had grown in, along, and up a down pipe! Fr D asked the workmen to retrofit pea shingle around the repaired pipework that had been exposed to do the works . . . .

St Thomas Garnet (born 9th November 1575 – died 23rd June 1608) was a Jesuit priest who was executed in London. He is the protomartyr (i.e., the first martyr associated with a place) of Saint Omer and of Stonyhurst College. A nephew of the Jesuit Henry Garnet, he was born in Southwark, England, and studied for the priesthood St Omer in France, and at Valladolid, Spain. Initially ordained as a secular priest, he joined the Jesuits in 1604 and worked to advance the Catholic cause in Warwick until his arrest in 1606.  He was exiled after months of torture but returned again in 1607 and was very quickly arrested once more. This time was executed at Tyburn, London. Beatified in 1929, he was canonized in 1970 and is included among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . A very, very busy week in and round The Presbytery as the First Eucharist programme came to it’s fruition last Sunday . . . . On Saturday morning last weekend Fr D spent time in the church with our First Eucharist families rehearsing what was going to take place at the 11.00 Mass on Sunday morning. The children were able to walk through slowly and ask questions where necessary concerning the ‘Big Day.’ They were also able to practice receiving Holy Communion with un-consecrated hosts and wine. Fr D explained to them that they should receive from the chalice on their First Eucharist and then they could choose if they wanted to do so in the future (not surprisingly none of the children liked the taste of the wine and parents laughed when Fr D said ‘long may it be so!’). At the 11.00 Mass the day after the children were wonderfully turned out (Fr D has a thing about the girls looking like meringues and boys dressed as sailors). Our newly confirmed were also present at the Mass - the boys acting as ‘ecclesiastical traffic cops’ to make sure that the families were not inundated whilst the children received communion for the first time. At the end of the Mass the children lined up outside to shake hands with everyone as they left the church, then they joined Fr D in a photo-call for the paparazzi by the hedge outside the Presbytery. Having celebrated Moring Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday morning Fr D was off down to the diocesan offices in Crawley to continue work on another couple of cases that he is moving closer to a judgement session. At present the Tribunal has had more applications than they had in the whole of last year (and we’re not even half way through the year!). When he got back home in the late afternoon Fr D had a ‘Teams’ meeting with the ‘Standards and Ethos’ committee of the Bosco Catholic Education Trust. By the time it came to supper he was really ready to eat and stop ‘doing things.’  On Wednesday Fr D celebrated the funeral of a parishioner before the committal at Randalls Park. He then just about had time to come home, and change his shirt before heading off for his monthly lunch with Fr Ruslan (Walton-on-Thames) at a local hostelry. In the latter part of the afternoon he was preparing his parts of the newsletter before having a sandwich and settling down to watch the England match . . . . .

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