 A few words....
Hope all’s well. We continue our journey through Eastertide. Hard to believe that that’s almost 10 years now we’ve been using the new translation of the Roman Missal. Over the past decade, we’ve had to get used to a number of changes. One in particular - if we remember, the familiar ‘Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again’ was removed and not included in the new translation. Why? Well, the prayer is immediately after the act of consecration, the bread and the wine becoming the body and blood of Christ, and it was felt that it wasn’t directly focused enough on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. ‘Christ has died, Christ has risen.....’ was speaking of Christ and not to Christ. As we know, in the new translation of the Mass, there are three options of a memorial acclamation prayer straight after the act of consecration. In two of them, we say, ‘O Lord’. In the third, we say, ‘Save us, Saviour.’ Each is directed to Christ, speaks to Christ and acknowledges the mystery of the real presence. Jesus says in the gospel for today’s Mass, ‘The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world’ We understand that the Eucharist is really and truly the body of Christ we receive in Holy Communion. Not a sign of Christ, or a symbol of Jesus. Not a representation of Jesus, but really and truly Christ present. A mystery of faith. A wonderful mystery of our faith. What we believe, what we understand is something that was never questioned until the 11th century, and then the matter of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist was thrown into increased confusion in the 16th century. Sadly, many people today refuse to take Christ’s words literally. The Church is the final interpreter of sacred scripture, and by her sacred tradition, and guided by the Holy Spirit, she is a safe guide when Christ’s words are to be taken literally. Jesus meant what he said when he said, ‘The bread I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world’ He meant what he said when he said, ‘This is my body...this is my blood’ The mystery of faith ~ Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your cross and resurrection you have set us free. Start of May tomorrow and the feast of St Joseph the worker. I’ll do a wee video on St Joseph. Remember, if you want to share a photo of your May altar, send it in. Have a good day Take care Fr Mackle
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Requiescat in pace Sadly, Margaret Gallagher died yesterday morning at her residence in Westerton Care Home. Our deepest sympathies to Margaret’s family. May Margaret rest in peace.   One of the great 14 century mystics of the Church is Catherine of Siena, whose feast day it is today.
These are just some words that she addresses to God, 'You are a mystery as deep as the sea....the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find, the more I search for you......But I can never be satisfied. What I receive will ever leave me desiring more. When you fill my soul, I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light' As well as being a great mystic, as well as knowing the importance of prayer, she knew the importance too of charitable service, of helping those in need. She might have spent a lot of time in the chapel, but she also spent time nursing the sick and the dying, and bringing comfort to prisoners by visiting them in jail. She teaches us the importance of finding fulfilment in times of prayer and in service of others, especially those in need. Just before the start of this millennium, Pope John Paul II named her Patron of Europe. St Catherine of Siena, pray for us, pray to Jesus for us that during this global pandemic we may have courage and hope. A bit overcast today, but still we can't complain with the spell of April sunshine we got. Hope you have a lovely day Take care Fr Mackle  Archdiocesan St Nicholas Care Fund is currently prioritising applications for projects and initiatives providing support to those most affected by the current Covid19 crisis. Groups working to support families, refugees, children of key workers or others are invited to submit applications for consideration.
There are currently no deadlines for applications, and they are are being assessed remotely. The Care Fund is doing its best to make the process as swift as possible. Grants are being paid via bank transfer. Application forms are available on the website: http://www.rcag.org.uk/index.php/the-archdiocese/st-nicholas-care-fund and can be emailed directly to: [email protected]. Other conditions remain the same - you need to submit an application form, get two referees, and one-off costs only will be covered.  "Our Lady Of Sorrows" Michelangelo A few words....
Hope all's well. Not far off two months now without public Masses. It has been a long period of time, and undoubtedly will be much longer, without us being able to come together for Mass, without people being able to receive holy communion, which is food for the journey. 'Give us that bread always' the people in today’s gospel say to Jesus. Jesus answers, 'I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never be hungry' Desperately unwanted as this period of lockdown is, the challenge, as we know, is to try and be productive with our time. To try and use it well. To try and let these weeks and months in many different ways be fruitful. Hopefully, not having the weekly opportunity to receive the real presence of Christ in holy communion, not having the opportunity we receive Jesus the bread of life, will help people grow more in an appreciation of Christ's great gift of the Eucharist. Maybe one of the things to think about is, when our church does reopen and Masses start back (goodness knows though when that will be) seizing every opportunity when it arises to bring others closer to Christ, truly present in the Eucharist. I’ll light some candles at the statue of Our Lady this morning in the church at 11am for the nation’s minute’s silence paying tribute to NHS staff and other key workers who have sadly lost their lives in the fight against coronavirus. May they rest in peace. Our Lady of Sorrows, stand by us in this time of difficulty and care for us in our many needs. Take care Fr Mackle Mary's Meals Virtual Church Talk Thanks so much again, St Andrew’s, for agreeing a Mary’s Meals visit in September, please be to God our churches will be open again by that point. We would be so appreciative if you could share this church talk from our founder Magnus on your website/social media channels, so we can raise awareness of our work during this difficult period. Thanks for all you do, St Andrew’s, to support our mission and look forward to meeting you at some point in the future. God Bless, Calum MacFarlane-Barrow  Donate on this link The coronavirus pandemic is causing challenges for us all, and we are very sorry that we cannot visit your church at this time to share the Mary’s Meals story. Until we can be together again, our founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, has recorded a special message for your parishioners. You can find his message, filmed outside the shed in Argyll where it all began for Mary’s Meals, here. We hope you will help to spread the word about our beautiful mission by sharing it on your website or social media channels. Do not hesitate to contact us if you need the message in another format, or if you would like a copy of one of our moving films, Child 31 and Generation Hope, to share with your parishioners. A children’s activity pack, based on the story of Mary's Meals, is also available to download here. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers, and we look forward to meeting you again soon. If you would like to register interest in hosting a talk from one of our volunteers when it is safe to do so, contact us. May the Lord bless and keep you,  Daniel Adams UK Executive Director, Mary’s Meals  A few words...…
Sorry, I've lost count now of which week of lockdown this is. Anyway, hope all's well. Great getting Monsignor's video posted at last. Thanks to everyone for all their help and suggestions. Something that can be helpful for us to get to know Jesus better is to place ourself as an onlooker in a gospel scene. In doing that, ask yourself - What do I see? What do I hear? How do I feel? What would I say to Jesus? What would I say to other people in the scene? It's a good prayer exercise to do. Try it sometime. The feeding of the 5000. Place yourself as an onlooker in that scene. You see something wonderful being done. You see satisfaction in people's faces. You hear the sound of eating. You see bread being broken open. You see fish bones being discarded. You hear the chatting among people. You see a miracle being performed. You see all the extra food being collected. How do you feel as an onlooker on the hillside among the 5000? When you think of it, many who saw the great signs worked by Jesus, including the wonderful episode of the multiplication of the loaves, many failed to understand him. One of the things the feeding of the 5000 was saying to the people was there's something going on here which is more than meets the eye. There's a reality here deeper than what you can see. The people really were being challenged to open their eyes, to look beyond the signs. Really the people were being invited, and you are as an onlooker, too, to ask and to think what's going on here. Whenever a sacrament is being celebrated, whether for example it's Mass or a baptism or anointing of the sick, it can be helpful to ask ourselves - what is going on here? For there is more going on than meets the eye. The challenge always is to look to the reality beyond the signs, and to look with the eyes of faith. Not just with the sacraments are we invited to do this, but so, too, with people. We can see more in people if we take the time and the trouble to really look beneath the surface. Looking like it will be another sunny day. Lovely blue sky as I look out the window early morning just before I ping these words to our online team. Hope you have a lovely day. Take care Fr Mackle Monsignor has recorded an excellent video presentation on the Emmaus story using a Caravaggio visual aid. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, (and me being an email and WhatsApp that’s my limit kind of man, and struggling to use Dropbox, We Transfer, iCloud etc) I have been unable to transfer the video to our online team. Parish / archdiocesan email system unfortunately has a cap on the size of attachments that can be sent.
I had thought it would have been quite straightforward emailing the video as an attachment. We’re still working on it, though, and aiming to get it posted as soon as is possible. Just letting you know, just in case it’s not posted today. Sorry about that, folks. Monsignor said to say Hi to you all. We do look forward to his video being posted. Hope you all have a good and peaceful Sunday. Take care. Fr Mackle |
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