Homeless Mission: Good News

Latest news and updates from the St Swithun’s Homeless Mission

St Swithun’s Homeless Mission Angel in the Local News

Thank you so much to our beautiful parishioner Diana Clark who was videoed by a passer by as she fed the homeless as she does every week as part of our St Swithun’s church Homeless Mission Team. To date her wonderful work has reach in excess of 250K views on facebook …
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What does “home” mean to you? – St Swithun’s Homeless Appeal

Warmth, security, shelter, love, family. For one woman however, the immediate response to this question was “it’s where Jesus is”. WOW! How close this woman is to Our Lord for her to respond in this way. To a homeless person, Jesus may not be their first response when asked what …
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Update on our Homeless friends – St Swithun’s Church

Update on our Homeless friends It is almost a year since Fr Marcin took a group to meet the homeless people in Southsea. Some have moved on but others we still see regularly and have become real friends. R the first person we met has found somewhere to live after …
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Helping Our Homeless – Caritas ‘Open Church Project in Southsea’ 2019

Dear Friends OPEN CHURCH PROJECT UPDATE 03-03-2019 As You know, in January , on Monday nights , we started this project again together with other Christian Churches. We are coming to the end of this period . We will be continuing this important work throughout the year. You can fine …
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St Swithuns Facebook Feed

Today, it is 9 days before me and my colleges priests will celebrate 20th Anniversary of the Sacrament of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood. We were ordained in 1999 in Krakow (Poland), and our patroness of a year is St Sr Faustyna. We start the novena to pray for ourselves, and I humbly ask all of You, your Friends and Family members to pray for us. Today, please start with this prayer to pray for us - thank You so much from the depths of my priestly heart.St. Faustina’s Prayer for Priests“O my Jesus, I beg Thee on behalf of the whole Church:Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit,and give power to the words of priestsso that hardened hearts might be brought to repentanceand return to You, O Lord.Lord, give us holy priests;You yourself maintain them in holiness.O Divine and Great High Priest,may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhereand protect them from the devil’s traps and snareswhich are continually being set for the souls of priests.May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naughtall that might tarnish the sanctity of priests,for You can do all things.” ... See MoreSee Less

6 hours ago

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I think that Fr Marcin is 2nd from left

Very happy Fr. Marcin to join all of You in your priestly Novena. May The Holy Spirit guide and protect all of You in your ministry.

With all my heart I will be there praying the nine days for you priests. I do pray every morning for the protection of all priests, and for more young men to hear the calling, we need more priests. Bless each and everyone of you priests.

You are right Len that is Our Fr Marcin . God Bless them all.

You are in our prayers for strength and graces to lead God's flock in Southsea.

Of course we will join you in the Novena. Is that you in the middle? ( with the Bishop watching you?!! )

And Bishop is looking over Fr Marcin's shoulder 🤗🙏

🙏

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Lectio Divina: John 15:12-17Friday, May 24, 20191) Opening prayerLord our God, loving Father,You have given us your Son Jesus Christas the true vine of lifeand our source of strength.Help us to live His lifeas living branches attached to the vine,and to bear plentiful fruitof justice, goodness and love.Let our union with Him become visiblein our openness to one anotherand in our unity as brothers and sisters,that He may be visibly present among usnow and for ever.2) Gospel Reading - John 15:12-17Jesus said to his disciples: "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."3) Reflection• Today Gospel of John 15:12-17: Jesus defines His relationship with the disciples and gives His final commandment to them. Let us take some of the points considered that day.• John 15:12-13: To love one another as He has loved us. The commandment of Jesus is only one: “to love one another as I have loved you!” (Jn 15:12) Jesus exceeds the Old Testament. The ancient criteria was the following: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 18:19). The new criteria is this: “Love one another as I have loved you.” It is the sentence that we sing even today and which says, “There is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s brother!”• John 15:14-15: Friends and not servants. You are My friends if you do what I command you,” that is, the practice of love to the point of total gift of oneself! Immediately Jesus presents a very high ideal for the life of His disciples. He says, “I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I have learned from My Father!” Jesus no longer held any secrets from His disciples. He tells us everything that He has heard from the Father! Behold the wonderful ideal of life in community: to reach a state of total transparency to the point of not having any secrets among us and to have full trust in one another. Being able to enrich one another by speaking about the experience of God that we have. The first Christians succeeded in reaching this ideal after many years: “They had one only heart and one only soul” (Acts 4:32; 1:14; 2:42-46).• John 15:16-17: Jesus has chosen us. We have not chosen Jesus. He met us, called us and entrusted a mission to us to go and bear fruit, and a fruit which lasts. We need Him, but He also wants to need us and our work in order to be able to continue to do today for the people what He did for the people of Galilee. This is My commandment: love one another!”4) For Personal Consideration• To love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us. This is the ideal of every Christian. He showed this not only by dying for us, but by devoting His life to helping us to know and find God the Father. Do I love as Jesus loved and devote my life in the same way?• All that I have heard from the Father I make it known to you. This is the ideal of the community: total transparency. How do I live this in my community, which can be family, parish, neighborhood or religious order?• Jesus called them “friends” and told them to love one another. Do I make distinctions, rather than considering all equally, among those in my community whom I should call “friends”? How do I respond or accept it when I am treated differently than another “friend” in my community?5) Concluding PrayerMy heart is ready, God, my heart is ready;I will sing, and make music for You.Awake, my glory, awake, lyre and harp,that I may awake the dawn. (Ps 57:7-8)#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-24052019 ... See MoreSee Less

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Love conquers all.

CHRISTIAN MORNING MEDITATION:Lectio Divina: John 15:9-11Thursday, May 23, 2019Easter Time1) Opening prayerLord our God,You want Your Churchto be open to all persons and all nations,for Your Son was available to alland Your love all people.God, give us open mindsand open hearts.Save us from our narrow prejudicesand stop us from trying to create peoplein our own image and likeness.We ask You this through Christ our Lord.2) Gospel Reading - John 15:9-11Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete."3) Reflection• The reflection around the parable of the vine includes verses 1 to 17. Today we will mediate on verses 9 to 11; the day after tomorrow, the Gospel skips verses 12 to 17 and begins with verse 18, which speaks about another theme. This is why, today, we include in a brief comment, verses 12 to 17, because in them blossoms the flower and the parable of the vine shows all its beauty.• Today’s Gospel is formed of only three verses which continue from yesterday’s Gospel and give more light to be able to apply the comparison of the vine to the life of the community. The community is like a vine. It goes through difficult moments. It is the time of the pruning, a necessary moment in order to be able to bear more fruit.• John 15:9-11: Remain in My love, source of perfect joy. Jesus remains in the love of the Father, by observing the commandments which He receives from Him. We remain in the love of Jesus by observing the commandments which He has left for us. And we should observe them in the same way in which He observed the commandments of the Father: “If you keep My commandments you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love”. It is in this union of the love of the Father and of Jesus that the source of true joy is found: “I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy be complete.”• John 15:12-13: Love one another as I have loved you. The commandment of Jesus is only one: “To love one another, as He has loved us!” (Jn 15:12). Jesus goes beyond the Old Testament. The ancient criterion was: “You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). The new criterion is, “That you love one another, as I have loved you.” Here He utters the sentence which we sing even until now: “Nobody has greater love than this: to give one’s life for one’s friends!”• John 15:14-15: Friends and not servants. “You are My friends if you do what I command you”, that is, the practice of love up to the total gift of self! Immediately after, Jesus adds a very high ideal for the life of the disciples. He says, “I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from My Father!” Jesus had no more secrets for His disciples. He has told us everything He heard from the Father! This is the splendid ideal of life in community: to attain a total transparency, to the point of not having any secrets among ourselves and of being able to have total trust in one another, to be able to share the experience of God and of life that we have, and in this way enrich one another reciprocally. The first Christians succeeded in attaining this ideal during several years. They were “one only heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32; 1:14: 2:42, 46).• John 15:16-17: Jesus has chosen us. We have not chosen Jesus. He has chosen us. He has called us and has entrusted us the mission to go and bear fruit, fruit which will last. We need Him, but He also needs us and our work in order to be able to continue to do today what He did for the people of Galilee. The last recommendation: “My command to you is to love one another!”• The symbol of the vine in the Bible. The people of the bible cultivated the vine and produced good wine. The harvest of the grapes was a feast with songs and dances, and this gave origin to the song of the vine, used by the prophet Isaiah. He compares the people of Israel to the vine (Isa 5:1-7; 27:2-5; Ps 80:9, 19). Before him, the prophet Hosea had already compared Israel to an exuberant vine, the more fruit that it produced, the more it multiplied its idolatries (Hos 10:1). This theme was used by Jeremiah, who compares Israel to a bastard vine (Jer 2:21), from which the branches were uprooted (Jer 5:10; 6:9). Jeremiah uses these symbols because he himself had a vine which had been trampled on and devastated by the invaders (Jer 12:10). During the slavery of Babylonia, Ezekiel used the symbol of the vine to denounce the infidelity of the people of Israel. He told three parables on the vine: 1) the vine which is burnt and is good for nothing (Ezek 15:1-8); 2) the false vine planted and protected by two waters, symbols of the kings of Babylonia and of Egypt, enemies of Israel. (Ezek 17:1-10); and 3) the vine destroyed by the oriental wind, image of the slavery of Babylonia (Ezek 19:10-14). The comparison of the vine was used by Jesus in several parables: the laborers of the vineyard (Mt 21:1-16); the two sons who have to work in the vineyard (Mt 21:32-33); the parable of the wicked tenants, who did not pay the landowner, beat the servants, and killed the son of the landowner (Mt 21:33-45); the barren fig tree planted in the vineyard (Lk 13:6-9); and the vine and its branches (Jn 15: 1-17).4) Personal questions• We are friends and not servants. How do I consider this in my relationship with other people?• Consider what "friend" really means to you: If you came out of the kitchen with the last bowl of soup there, and your friend was sitting there, would you tell him/her there was no more, or would you offer to share it, or would you give it all to him/her? If you gave it all, would you sit there and look hungry or sad, or would you go back to the kitchen to make it look like you had some too so your friend would have no bad feelings about eating? Ask, what have I done in my past? This scene summarizes our options as Christians to our friends.• It is easy to see and think about necessities such as food in this context, especially as they are used so frequently in biblical references, but it is not limited to this. Consider if I am talking in a group and another joins who perhaps is not as confident in the language I am using. Do I slow down, or use easier words, so that the friend who has just joined the conversation may understand more? Do I help him/her, or do I just continue, not considering such things? Do I make an effort to understand his/her needs in this at all? Or do I just go on, either ignorant of my friend's needs or handicaps, or being critical of them? Do I say "come with me and I will help you" and take personal interest in your friend, or do I just give him/her the name of a tutor and I am done with it?• Who is my friend? Is there a boundary? Do I treat those in my community as different friends than those on the street? Can a stranger be a friend? If, in the soup question, it wasn't a friend at the table, but instead a knock at the door and a beggar was there, how would I answer differently? • To love as Jesus has loved us. How does this ideal of love grow in me?5) Concluding PrayerProclaim His salvation day after day,declare His glory among the nations,His marvels to every people! (Ps 96:2-3)#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-23052019 ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago

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CHRISTIAN MORNING MEDITATION:Lectio Divina: John 15:1-8Wednesday, May 22, 2019Easter Season1) Opening prayerLord our God, loving Father,You have given us Your Son Jesus Christas the true vine of lifeand our source of strength.Help us to live His lifeas living branches attached to the vineand to bear plentiful fruitof justice, goodness and love.Let our union with Him become visiblein our openness to one anotherand in our unity as brothers and sisters,that He may be visibly present among usnow and for ever.2) Gospel Reading - John 15:1-8Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."3) Reflection• Chapters 15 to 17 of the Gospel of John present us with the diverse teachings of Jesus which the Evangelist has put together and placed in the friendly and fraternal context of the last encounter of Jesus with His disciples:Jn 15:1-17: Reflections around the parable of the vine.Jn 15:18 to 16:4a: Advice on how to behave if we are persecuted.Jn 16:4b-15: Promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit.Jn 16:16-33: Reflections on the farewell and the return of Jesus.Jn 17:1-26: The Testament of Jesus in the form of a prayer.• The Gospels of today and tomorrow present part of the reflection of Jesus around the parable of the vine. To understand the significance of this parable, it is important to carefully study the words used by Jesus. It is also important to closely observe a vine, or any other plant, to see how it grows: how the trunk and branches become united, and how the fruit springs from each.• John 15:1-2: Jesus presents the analogy of the vine. In the Old Testament the image of the vine indicated the people of Israel (Is 5:1-2). The people were like a vine that God planted with great tenderness on the hills of Palestine (Ps 80:9-12). But the vine does not correspond to what God expected. Instead of producing good grapes, it produces sour fruit which is good for nothing (Is 5:3-4). Jesus is the new vine, the true vine. In one phrase alone He gives us the comparison. He says, “I am the true vine and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that bears no fruit He cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes to make it bear even more.” Pruning is painful but it is necessary. It purifies the vine, and thus it grows and bears more fruit.• John 15:3-6: Jesus explains and applies the parable. The disciples are already purified. They have already been pruned by the word that they heard from Jesus. God does the pruning in us through His word which comes to us from the Bible, from trials in our life (Rom 5:4; Heb 12:6), and from many other means. Jesus extends the parable and says, “I am the vine, you are the branches!” It is not a question of two different things: on one side the vine and on the other the branches. No! The vine does not exist without the branches. We are part of Jesus. Jesus is the whole. In order to produce fruit, the branch has to be united to the vine. It is only in this way that it can receive the sap. “Without Me you can do nothing!” The branch that does not bear fruit will be cut down. It dries up and it is ready to be burnt. It is good for nothing, not even for wood!• John 15:7-8: Remain in my love. Our model is that which Jesus Himself lives in His relationship with the Father. He says, “As the Father has loved Me, I have loved you. Remain in My love!” He insists on saying that we must remain in Him and that His words should remain in us. And He even says, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you want and you will get it!”, because what the Father wants most is that we become disciples of Jesus and that we bear much fruit. And what is it that we should want? If we are to be like Jesus, it is the same as what the Father wants, and that He grants.4) Personal questions• What have been the various pruning, or difficult, moments in my life which have helped me to grow? What have been the pruning or difficult moments that we have had in our community which have helped us to grow?• What keeps life unified and alive, capable of bearing fruit, is the sap which goes through it. What is the sap which goes through our community which keeps it alive, capable of bearing fruit?• Are those things that I ask of the Father consistent with His will and desire, or my own?5) Concluding PrayerSing a new song to Yahweh!Sing to Yahweh, all the earth!Sing to Yahweh, bless His name!Proclaim His salvation day after day. (Ps 96:1-2)#dailymeditations www.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-22052019 ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

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3 days ago

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Congratulations Kathleen on your wonderful achievement as Mayor of Gosport. May the Holy Spirit guide and help you along the way. Love and prayers, Catherine x

May Our Lord Jesus keep Kath strong in Heart, mind body and Soul blessing her and Kevin in their many duties for the good of all. Amen.

St Swithun’s Homeless Mission Angel in the Local News

What does “home” mean to you? – St Swithun’s Homeless Appeal

Update on our Homeless friends – St Swithun’s Church

Helping Our Homeless – Caritas ‘Open Church Project in Southsea’ 2019

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