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St Swithuns RC Church Southsea

17 hours ago

TODAY – SATURDAY – FEAST OF ST BENEDICT OF NURSIA, PATRON OF EUROPE, 11th July, 2020OUR PLAN IS:St Swithun’s CHURCH OPEN from 8.30pm to 12.00noon and from 5.15pm to 7.15pm;only live-streaming:6.00am – The Holy Mass (in Polish) – Intention: Known to God alone;for all to attend (and live-streamed as well):9.00am – 9.55am – The Exposition of The Blessed Sacrament followed by Divine Mercy Chaplet (approx. 9.30am) and Benediction (approx. 9.55am). [From 9.00am to 9.30am possibility for the Sacrament of Confession];10.00am – The Holy Mass – Intention: 21st Gregorian Mass for + Alex McGoogan RIP;10.30am – The Holy Rosary – Joyful Mysteries.6.00pm – VIGIL Mass of XV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Intention: + Malcolm Chatfield RIP; … See MoreSee Less

St Swithuns RC Church Southsea

17 hours ago

CHRISTIAN MORNING MEDITATION:Teacher and Master 11 July 2020Memorial of Saint Benedict, AbbotMatthew 10:24-33Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”Opening Prayer: Lord, I’m here with you again in spirit to have a heart-to-heart conversation. Help me to open myself up to you, so that you can inflame my faith, hope, and charity. Help me to see that everything I am is in your hands and that nothing I do, nothing that happens to me, goes unnoticed by you. Lord, increase my trust!Encountering Christ:1. Disciples like the Master: “No disciple is above his teacher,” Our Lord says in today’s Gospel. However, he does make a qualification: “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher.” For the Apostles and for us, this is the essence of our Christian lives—transformation into other Christs. We are transformed when we go about doing good, suffering, loving, and blessing as he did despite obstacles. Our Lord had many enemies, so we might also, right? Christ simply tells us, “Therefore do not be afraid of them.” Instead, we pray, “Jesus I trust in you.”2. All in God’s Hands: Christ tells us that two sparrows are practically worthless from an earthly perspective, yet “not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.” Everything that happens to us, everything we do, happens under the loving gaze of God the Father. What an enduring source of comfort! Nothing in our life is meaningless, because the Lord knows and loves us—he knows the number of hairs on our heads and he promises we are “worth more than many sparrows.” 3. Acknowledging Christ: The relationship Jesus offers us transforms us to the degree that we open ourselves to his love. As we are filled with his love, our hearts can’t help but love reciprocally! And what person who truly finds himself in love keeps that love hidden? It seems unthinkable. Jesus tells us that when we acknowledge our love for him before others, he acknowledges us before the Father. May we be evangelists—souls so in love with Christ that we share his truth without fear or hesitation. Conversing with Christ: Lord, may my life be a process of transformation into you; help me to consciously work toward this goal. Help me to see how the Father holds me in his hands with love and sees everything in my life with the greatest understanding. Lord, give me the strength to proclaim your name boldly to others, propelled by your love!Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will take a moment to pray before I start and end my work.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-11072020 … See MoreSee Less

St Swithuns RC Church Southsea

2 days ago

CHRISTIAN MORNING MEDITATION:Jesus Cares About Our Choices 12 June 2020Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary TimeMatthew 5:27-32Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna. It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”Opening Prayer: Here I am again, Lord, coming into your presence filled with hope in your goodness and a desire to hear your voice speak to my heart. I know you are thinking of me right now—you never stop thinking of me. I know you have a beautiful dream for me life, and I can only discover and fulfill that dream if I stay close to you. As I pray and reflect on your words today, I do so with that desire: I want to come closer and closer to you, and never be separated from you. Please enlighten and strengthen me, Lord.Encountering Christ:1. Abusing God’s Gifts: The perennial temptation linked to our sexuality is lust, seeing and treating other people as objects rather than persons, as tools for our own pleasure rather than fellow pilgrims on the way to the Father’s house. This, like anger, is one of the capital sins, because it leads to many other sins. Just as anger can lead to sins like calumny, murder, and even war, lust destroys lives and families through many forms of abuse and exploitation. Our culture seems to have forgotten this. It actively promotes lustful attitudes and actions through the super-sexualized nature of popular entertainment and the ever-growing proliferation of pornography. This promotion of lust, in fact, has contributed to a general loss even of common sense when it comes to some of the most basic realities of our human existence— like our being created male and female, and the lifelong nature of a marriage relationship as the origin of every family. In this passage Jesus is reminding us of God’s noble design for our sexuality: through the faithful gift of each other to each other, spouses image the generous and life-giving love that flows among the three divine persons of the Trinity. Our sexuality is a precious and beautiful part of God’s plan for our lives, and so when lust and infidelity creep in and corrupt it, the corruption is especially destructive.2. Sin Matters: In this context, Jesus also reminds us that sin really matters. Whenever we choose to act in contradiction to God’s plan for our human nature, we cause damage to our souls, which is even more lasting and dangerous than damage to our bodies. This is why Jesus exhorts us to cut away anything in our lives that leads us into sin. His image of cutting out our eye or cutting off our hand if they lead us into sin is not meant to be taken literally. In fact, it can’t be—neither our eyes nor our hands can ever commit a sin, since sin is always a choice against God’s wise plan for us, and choices are made in a person’s spirit. But to choose against God’s plan for us can cause us eternal damage by separating us from his friendship forever. The image of it being preferable to lose a hand or an eye rather than to lose our very self by going to hell is a vivid illustration. Jesus really wants us to know the truth: our choices matter! We can use God’s gifts for the good purposes for which he gave them to us–as in the purpose of our sexuality, which is to bring us together in a spousal relationship of love from which new families are formed–or we can abuse his gifts, and wreak destruction on ourselves and on others. Jesus really wants us to make the right choices, and he will help us do so. We just have to be humble enough to accept the truth of who we are as human beings with a specific human nature created by God, a nature that flourishes when we obey the natural law God has written inside it.3. Occasions of Sin: Catholic spirituality has always encouraged us to avoid the so-called “occasions of sin.” These are situations in which we know we will be severely tempted to sin. We all have situations like that because we all have a fallen human nature. Certain tendencies within us seem to be attracted to sin, even when we know that acting against God’s wise plan for us (that’s the essence of sin) is bad for us and for those around us. Knowing that we have these tendencies of our fallen nature (called “concupiscence” by theologians) can help us avoid situations in which those tendencies may be encouraged— occasions of sin. This is partly what Jesus was getting at when warning us to cut out the causes of sin from our lives. What are my occasions of sin? Certain relationships or social situations? Certain habits of laziness or indulgence? Sin wreaks destruction, because it abuses God’s gifts, using them for purp oses God never intended. Being convinced of that can give us the courage we need to avoid situations that blind us and make sin seem attractive.Conversing with Christ: Lord, you spoke so clearly and directly about sin. You spoke so clearly and directly about sexual sin. The world around me doesn’t do that. The world around me doesn’t even use the term sin anymore. The world around me is filled with confusion and contradiction regarding all things sexual. I want to welcome this gift you have given me and live it with integrity and beauty. I want to live it in the way you meant it to be lived. Please help me. Please enlighten me. Please give me the courage I need to always make choices in harmony with your wise plan for my life and for the lives of those around me. I believe in you, Lord; help my unbelief! (cf. Mark 9:24).Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will make a list of the most frequent occasions of sin in my life. I will talk with you about them and make a realistic plan to avoid them. Then I will talk about that plan with a close friend or mentor in order to have someone who can help hold me accountable to that plan.stswithuns.org.uk/event/dr-10072020 … See MoreSee Less

St Swithuns RC Church Southsea

2 days ago

TODAY – FRIDAY – 14th Week in Ordinary Time, 10th July, 2020OUR PLAN IS:St Swithun’s CHURCH OPEN from 8.30pm to 12.00noon and from 6.00pm to 8.00pm;only live-streaming:6.00am – The Holy Mass (in Polish) – Intention: For Baby Clare Agnes – 50th Anniversary;11.00am – ‘MORNING COFFEE’ with Fr Marcin – Q&A about Catholic Faith (in Polish);for all to attend (and live-streamed as well):9.00am – 9.55am – The Exposition of The Blessed Sacrament followed by Divine Mercy Chaplet (approx. 9.30am) and Benediction (approx. 9.55am). [From 9.00am to 9.30am possibility for the Sacrament of Confession];10.00am – The Holy Mass – Votive Mass of the Precious Blood of Jesus. Intention: In Thanksgiving for Len & Mary Edwards on their 55th Wedding Anniversary;10.30am – The Holy Rosary – Sorrowful Mysteries.7.00pm – The Holy Mass: Intention: 20th Gregorian Mass for + Alex McGoogan RIPNOT live-streamed:from 12.00am to 2.00pm – Pastoral Meetings6.30pm to 6.55pm – Sacrament of Confession;8.00pm – SVP Zoom Meeting … See MoreSee Less