Portsmouth University Chaplaincy Group

Welcome to the University of Portsmouth’s Catholic Society!

‘Vivere pro dei Gloria’

Who are we?

If you are Catholic, Christian or curious about Christianity, you are invited to join our community of students! We offer an opportunity to practise, talk about or find out more about your faith in an environment with other Catholics as well as join a supportive network of people. We see as our mission a calling to live a life which continually glorifies God and we do this through worship, prayer and living out the sacraments in our day to day lives.

Our motto of ‘Vivere pro dei Gloria’ inspires us to seek God’s glory here on earth and thus directs our society in planning events and activities for the future. It comes from 1 Corinthians 10:31, which compels us, saying ‘So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the Glory of God‘ knowing that living for His Glory will bring us joy and peace.

What do we offer?

As a society we offer a mix of socials, praise and worship, speakers, spiritual development and retreats. Our timetable of events is laid out per month and when you join, you will have access to a Gmail calendar, linked to the email you provided which will be constantly updated with everything that goes on.

Mass

As Catholics, our principal meeting is for mass each Sunday. Usually, this will be at St Swithun’s Catholic Church in Southsea at 10:15am Mass or in St Johns Cathedral at 12pm, however, we are currently exploring the possibility of beginning a dedicated youth and students mass; more details will be available once discussions are finalised with the diocese. For more information on general mass times in Portsmouth, please follow these links-

View our Daily Services at St Swithun’s Calendar for the prayers for each day this week>

or you can find general Mass Times for St John’s Roman Catholic Cathedral here

View our Daily Reading Calendar for the prayers for each day this week>

View our Saints Calendar for interesting information about this weeks Saints>

Retreats

We also aim to provide an opportunity for a retreat once a month, details of which will be given out at Freshers Fayre and on the Society Calendar. Examples of retreats in the past have included Worth Abbey, the Catholic Workers Farm, Cambridge and St Albans. At Freshers Fayre, there will be a sign up sheet available for the first retreat to the Celebrate Conference in Southampton

Praise and Worship

New for 2017, due to popular demand, we will begin offering Praise and Worship with the Christian Union every Monday evening from 6.30pm-8.00pm. We are also appealing for any prospective members who are able to play an instrument, so sometime in the future we may also have our own Praise and Worship sessions.

Socials

Let it not be said we leave Jesus for the Church on Sunday- we must also allow Him to flood every aspect of our lives! As a community, it is vital we also interact at a personal level. To help this, our Social Secretary will organize regular social events which can be meals or other activities such as bowling and football tournaments or simply going to the pub together. We also offer post mass meetups after the mass on Sunday, as well as occasional brunch at the Chaplain’s Flat.

Support – Portsmouth University Chaplaincy Group

As a society and particularly as a faith society, we recognise that there are many of our members who require support in their lives, emotionally or physically. If you need someone to talk to, the committee members will always be there to listen to your concerns and give advice when necessary. As always, contact us through Facebook, send us a message using the links below, or simply speak to us face to face

Alternatively, the Catholic Lay Chaplain- Angela O’Donoghue– is available and ready to receive you. She has been with the university for a very long time and is an incredibly good source of advice and consolation. Do give her a ring or send her an email to sort out a meeting.

Email– angela.odonoghue@port.ac.uk

Telephone– 02392 843030

Information for the Portsmouth University Chaplaincy Group can be found Here

We also have assigned to us a member of the Clergy available for advice and support as well as administration of the Sacraments, such as Reconciliation and the Eucharist. For the next Academic year we will be welcoming Fr Philip Carroll into that role.

The costs for joining the society are £5 for the whole year, which covers overheads for any retreats and socials. We look forward to for you to join us and you are welcome to sign up at any time. You will then receive an email with further information.

God Bless!

So why not come and meet us

So all Students go to St Swithun’s Website where you will find so much information: www.stswithuns.org.uk

All of Father Marcin’s Blogs can be found here
Parish Diary & Events Calendar
Daily Readings
Saint of the Day
Daily Meditations by Fr Marcin

and we’ll be updating it regularly with new content, and more Resources!

PLUS We have also created a brand new Facebook Page with Daily Meditations by Fr Marcin and Parish Albums which you can also see on our website

Like us, share with friends and family, and join the conversation!

YOU CAN CONTACT US AT CATHSOC or JUST SEND US A QUESTION

DAILY MEDITATION:Goodness in Abundance 16 February 2019Saturday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary TimeMark 8:1-10 In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance." His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?" Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied. He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over -- seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dism issed them and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.Introductory Prayer: Lord, how quickly I lose faith and begin to trust more in things that I can touch and see than in your promises and strength. But I do believe in you, that you are the Bread of Life, and that only you can satisfy the deepest longings of my heart. As you are my Creator, you know what I need and provide for me each day. As you are my Redeemer, you lead me along the pathway of the cross and forgiveness. I want to follow you more closely.Petition: Lord, strengthen my faith, so that I can be magnanimous like you.1. “I feel sorry for all these people.” Jesus shows compassion for the crowd, even for their temporal needs. He knows how earthly they can be, seeking only to satisfy their need for bread and water. In another passage he says, “Why worry about what you are to eat, or drink, or what you are to wear? … All these things the pagans seek” (Matthew 6:25-33) –– “pagans,” that is, those with no faith or trust in the heavenly Father. Our Lord does not worry about food and clothing for himself, although he does seek to provide them for others. But his charity doesn’t end there. He sincerely desires their greatest good, and for this reason gives them much more than a passing meal. Together with bread and water, he gives them the gift of faith. After all, man does not live on bread alone” (Luke 4:4).2. “Where could anyone get bread to feed these people in a deserted place like this? The apostles ask a very human question, revealing the poverty of their faith in Jesus. Such a question, without faith, would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since the task seems impossible, why try at all? How often does this way of thinking rein us in from doing great things for God and expecting great things from him? How often do we resign ourselves to defeat, content to mourn and lament seemingly hopeless situations, as if God were not almighty and willing to help us? We need the faith of the Blessed Virgin, who believed the impossible and became the mother of all who believe.3. “They ate as much as they wanted and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over.” Jesus offers the fullness of life and love, an abundance of goodness and grace, to all who follow him. His ways are the ways of life. He allows us to suffer want in this life so that we will tap into the true source of abundance through faith, hope and love. Those who seek themselves by seeking purely material goods — which are limited by definition — will always be in want and will always feel the threat of losing what they have. Those who seek Christ and his grace — which is unlimited by definition — will never fear when they lose their earthly goods. That is why Jesus says that to anyone who has (faith, hope, love, grace, the gifts of the spiritual life), more will be given, and from the one who has not (none of these spiritual gifts), even what he seems to have (material possessions which are here today and gone tomorrow, always decaying and coming to an end) will be taken away (Luke 8:18).Conversation with Christ: Lord, give me the gift of compassion, so that I may serve others with your heart. Give me the gifts of faith, hope, and love so that I will understand that your goodness knows no bounds or limits and that you wish to pour out your grace on all until our cups are overflowing. Resolution: I will be magnanimous in my charity towards others today.#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-12022019 ... See MoreSee Less

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We must all help 'D' in anyway we can but most of all pray to the Lord in thanks giving for her good works and well being.

Father, the Lord Mayor Elect wishes to contact her. I don't know D but seen this on the News page. God Bless her.

Bless her❤️

DAILY MEDITATION:Faith and Christ’s Healing Power 11 February 2019Monday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary TimeMark 6:53-56After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.Introductory Prayer: I believe in your power of healing grace, in your capacity to heal both physically and spiritually. I come to you in spiritual illness and weakness, confident in your desire to heal and strengthen me. I humbly offer you my soul, wounded and aching from the spiritual cancer of self-love, pride, and self-sufficiency. I abandon myself to your loving mercy. Thank you, Lord, for watching over me and loving me unconditionally. Petition: Lord, heal my heart and soul, and help me to do what I must do to maintain my spiritual health. 1.“People recognized him and started hurrying all through the countryside.” For the most part, the people in this Gospel were not “hurrying throughout the countryside” to invite others to come and seek forgiveness and spiritual healing from Jesus. They were in haste, yes, but in haste to bring the sick so that the Lord would heal them from their physical infirmities. How blind is the human heart that often fears physical illness more than spiritual infirmities and falling out of God’s grace! The gravest ills we can suffer are those that come from within us: “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:19-20).2.“They laid down the sick in the open spaces, begging him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak.” Holy men and women throughout the centuries have firmly believed that “touching” Christ through receiving the sacraments brings about spiritual healing and redemption. “My heart has been wounded by many sins,” St. Ambrose used to pray before he celebrated Mass, “my mind and tongue carelessly left unguarded. Lord of kindness and power, in my lowliness and need I am turning to you, the fountain of mercy; I am hurrying to you to be healed; I am taking refuge under your protection. I am longing to meet you, not as my Judge but as my Savior. Lord, I am not ashamed to show you my wounds. Only you know how many and how serious my sins are, and though they could make me fear for my salvation, I am putting my hope in your mercies, which are beyond count. Look on me with mercy, then, Lord Jesus Christ, eternal King, God, and man, crucified for our sake. I am putting my trust in you, the fountain that will never stop flowing with merciful love: hear me and forgive my sins and weaknesses.”3.“All those who touched him were cured.” All those who touched Jesus Christ with a touch of faith were cured: the Canaanite woman, the blind man, the ten lepers, the man with a withered hand, the paralytic, Jairus’ daughter, the woman with the hemorrhage, the boy with a demon, the Gerasene demoniac, the deaf man. All these people in the Gospel had something in common: it was their faith that allowed the Lord to heal them. The phrase used in the case of the woman with the hemorrhage is telling: “power had gone out from him” (Mark 5:30). Faith is one of the most powerful acts of the human person since God himself chooses to be moved by it. How strong is my faith in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do I reach out and touch him in faith every day? Do I allow him to act in my life through faith? What am I waiting for? Conversation with Christ: Lord, you are all powerful and the source of my salvation and spiritual healing. In this prayer, I am reaching out to touch you in faith, even though I am unworthy and my faith is weak. Heal me, Lord. Give me the strength to resist the power of evil in my life and to adhere to your grace and goodness. Lord, I believe; increase my faith. Resolution: I will offer up short acts of faith in the Lord throughout the day.#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-11022019 ... See MoreSee Less

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stswithuns.org.uk/newsletter-NL_10022019 Come and join us today for Sunday Mass at St Swithun's RC Church Southsea. Mass Times at 8:30am , 10:15am (family mass followed by Sunday School) and 1pm (Mass in Polish)We wish you all a blessed and peaceful Sunday - Father Marcin Drabik ... See MoreSee Less

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Welcome to the University of Portsmouth’s Catholic Society!

So why not come and meet us

Other Resources and Useful Links

So all Students go to St Swithun’s Website where you will find so much information: www.stswithuns.org.uk

YOU CAN CONTACT US AT CATHSOC or JUST SEND US A QUESTION

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