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:Good News ReflectionMonday of the 28th Week of Ordinary TimeMemorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the ChurchOctober 15, 2018Today’s Prayer:Your resurrection, Lord, is the only sign I need to know that my whole life is in the hands of my Father. Amen.Today's Readings:Galatians 4:22-24,26-27,31--5:1Psalm 113:1b-7Luke 11:29-32What sign you are looking for?What kind of sign do you need God to provide so that you can feel assured that your prayers are being answered?Reflecting on today's first reading, let's remember why Abraham had two sons. God had promised him one son, born by his wife, Sarah. But Sarah laughed at that idea, because the signs of her aged body told her that she was long past fertility. Then as time went by without a miraculous pregnancy, both Sarah and Abraham took this as a sign that God wanted the baby to be born through human means, i.e., through a surrogate mother, Sarah's handmaid, Hagar.This decision caused rivalry and animosity between Abraham's two sets of descendants. Four thousand years later, the Middle East is still suffering the repercussions of this decision. (Hagar bore Ishmael, who married an Egyptian woman, according to the Bible. According to the Arabs, he also married a daughter of Sheik Mudad, who bore Adnan, the ancestor of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.) Muslims and Jews have been fighting each other throughout history. What if Abraham and Sarah had continued to wait for God to fulfill his promise, instead of taking matters into their own hands?In the Gospel reading, Jesus says, "This is an evil age. It seeks a sign." Why are signs evil? Because we invent our own signs. We seek signs that are not from God.What help from God are you still awaiting? What resolution to a problem, what new job, what reconciled relationship? Jesus says that he is the sign that we are given. And he is enough! He is the one who is "greater than Jonah".The sign of Jonah was his emergence from the belly of the giant fish after three days. Jonah's mission after getting spewed onto the beach (and presumably after cleaning himself up a bit) was to call the Ninevites to repentance. Jesus emerged from the belly of the earth at the end of his three-day ordeal. His resurrection calls the whole world to repentance.Here is the sign we are given, and it's the only sign that really matters: Since God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, of course he will also give us the new life that we need. Of course he will provide the right resolution to our problems, the job that's right for us, or the reconciled relationships. We fail to notice this sign, however, because God's timing is not usually the same as our preferred timing. While we wait, we take hope from any sign that pops up in our view. We make ourselves miserable and frustrated by trusting in what we see instead of keeping our eyes on Jesus.The storms in our lives could be as huge as a hurricane, but if we look for Jesus instead of signs that the storm is abating, we find him in the eye of the storm. The moment we pull away from him, we hit the hurricane's eye wall and it blows us off our feet. Keep your eyes on Jesus!And while you're waiting for relief from the storm, take a break as often as you need to. Go on a vacation or retreat, attend an uplifting prayer service, talk to friends who are filled with the Holy Spirit's upbeat inspiration, go to daily Mass and let that place be an oasis for you.#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-15102018 ... See MoreSee Less

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THE HOLY EUCHARIST TODAY:AT 8.30AM in St Swithun's churchAT 10.15AM in St Swithun's church (Family Mass)AT 1.00PM in St Swithun's church (Mass in Polish)(an the rest day and whole night a duty in QA Hospital)below we can see the photos from last Sunday's Family Mass - homily for the children and spontaneous renewing the Sacramental Marriage vows by Rosemary & Brian ... See MoreSee Less

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DAILY MEDITATION:Hitting the Spiritual Wall 14 October 2018Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 10:17-30As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'" He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesu s again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God." Peter began to say to him, "We have given up everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."Introductory Prayer: I come to you Jesus, my friend, and my teacher so that by listening to you I will discover you more, learn from you more and fully accept the demanding conditions of following you. I love you Lord, and I trust myself entirely to you.Petition: Help me, Lord, to accept generously the sacrifices that you ask of me today.1. A Sincere Question: Jesus meets a man who wants to do whatever is necessary to obtain eternal life. How do we know this? When Jesus lists off the commandments for him as examples of what he must do to gain eternal life, he replies that he has observed all of them since his youth. Mark goes on to tell us that, “Jesus looking at him, loved him.” If the man weren’t telling the truth, Jesus would have said so, perhaps jogging his conscience and helping him to see where he still needed to improve in his following of the commandments. Jesus does this with us every day if we are sincere and ask ourselves daily if we are truly doing God’s will. He has no qualms in telling us where we are failing and helping us to do better.2. A Sincere Life: Apparently this man is telling the truth. He has always made an earnest effort and has been successful in following all that his Jewish faith asks -- at least insofar as he understands God’s Law. Perhaps we wish we could also respond with a clear conscience, “I have kept all these.” Yet as human beings, we are weak. We can fall at any time. What God expects to see from us is not a life without sin, but that we seek repentance and a quick return to obedience when we do fall. A person who makes light of his sins against God, even in just little things, is destroying his conscience. In contrast, by taking responsibility for our sins, repenting and quickly getting up from our falls, we show our commitment to respect the moral demand of God’s commandments, and we prepare the ground to receive the grace of moral perfection that we cannot achieve by ourselves.3. But He Can’t Step Up: The man is doing everything that his Jewish faith requires and still he wants to do more for God. He has never refused God anything. Jesus sees he is ready for the next step. He calls him to be an apostle. He calls him to give up everything else in his life and follow him. You would think that since he has never denied God anything, he would be able to say “yes” to this. But he cannot. It is too much. Although he doesn’t realize it, there are things he possesses that he loves more than God. Sometimes we progress in our spiritual life, giving everything that God asks for, until the day he asks for something we aren’t prepared to give. Our spiritual life stalls -- sometimes for years -- until we are willing to give what Jesus asks for. Christ calls all people to perfection, to place God above all things. He promises that if we give up our own selves to follow him, he will fill our lives with himself.Conversation with Christ: Dear Jesus, I have tried to follow you faithfully. You know that sometimes it has been a struggle. Help me to leave my comfort zone. Help me to give up the other loves that come before you. Help me to be as generous today as you hope I will be.Resolution: What is the moment in which I usually fail God on a Sunday? I will make sure to be faithful at that moment today.#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-14102018 ... See MoreSee Less

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stswithuns.org.uk/newsletter-NL_14102018 Join us for Mass today at St Swithun's RC Church Southsea. Mass Times are 8:30am, 10:15am (family mass) and 1pm (mass in Polish). Have a peaceful and blessed day from all at St Swithuns ... See MoreSee Less