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Pope Francis has given an invitation to join with him on Friday 25th March, the Feast of the Annunciation, to pray for peace in Ukraine.
The Act of Consecration prayer below will be prayed at 4.00 pm on Friday in our church, followed by the Rosary, as we unite with the Holy Father in prayer. Hopefully, many of you will be free to come along for this. If you are not able, you might want to say the prayer for peace at home. Printed copies of the prayer are also available in the church porch. Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Basilica of Saint Peter 25 March 2022 O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord! Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love. We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid. That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help! Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer. Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war. Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation. Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world. Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness. Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons. Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love. Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity. Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world. O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside. Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty. Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world. Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.
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Archdiocesan Covid Update from Canon Gargaro
Face Coverings As you know the Government has extended the requirement to wear face coverings in church for at least another couple of weeks. They still expect that some time early in April the requirement will become a recommendation. Until that is confirmed, we are all still required to wear face coverings unless exempt. Other Measures The Government have now revoked the other measures which were still applicable in churches and halls. This means that we can now fully undertake all the activities that previously occurred in parishes, but we need to do so mindful of the need to help people feel safe and to let those with higher risks feel comfortable in our parishes. This is not just going back to the way things were done before, but finding the ways to do them safely in our new circumstances. Everything can be done that we would have done before, just not always in the same ways. There are no special legal requirements that we need to comply with (except masks) but we always have the legal, and moral, duty to run our parish activities in a healthy and safe way. The Bishops have asked us to keep observing the following principles in all that we do:
The Bishops would like to “thank all parishes, priests, deacons and volunteers for all their efforts during the past 2 years and encourage all Catholics to return with confidence to our celebration of Holy Mass and the Sacraments, the source and summit of our faith.” We are delighted that the Piety Stall will reopen the weekend of Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th March ! We have lots of lovely new stock, including cards, books and gifts for Easter and First Communion.
As always, all of the profits from the sale of the items will go to Parish funds. Our sincere thanks to everyone who purchased from the stall during lockdown – due to your support, we were able to transfer £900 at the end of 2020 and £800 for 2021. We’d be grateful of volunteers who would be willing to help us with manning the stall after each Mass. If you could spare 15 minutes, we would really appreciate your help. The rota sheet for April, May and June is on the Piety Stall door. Any questions please call Anne MacIntosh 931-5861 or Annamaria Strachan 942-9799. March Campaign - We have joined up with SCIAF to urge the UK Government to do the right thing and allow our brothers and sisters fleeing war in Ukraine to come to the UK. Please click on the link below to add your name to this urgent call. Thank You! Ask the Prime Minister to waive visas for Ukrainians | SCIAF  Catholic Social Teaching Thought for the Week - 13th March  Below are links to three video recordings of the recent Holyrood Webinar on assisted suicide that was organised in association with Not Dead Yet UK. Talk 1. Tanni Grey-Thompson Talk 2. Marie Fallon Question & Answer Session  Synod 2023 ~ That's four synod gatherings we've had for people to pray, discuss and reflect on the synod questions and topics. There will be an additional gathering this Tuesday at 10.30am in the chapel house. All most welcome.
Look out in your inbox for our synod questionnaire or you can find it here on this webpage. We’ll be emailing it out very soon. If you didn’t manage along to one of the gatherings, please take some time to have your say. Got some time this weekend? Get yourself a coffee and start to have your say at St Andrew's Synod Survey There’s a very good Synod 2023 article in this month’s Flourish on the Vatican Cardinal’s Synod message to Scots. Flourish is free. Copies in the porch and it's online. |
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