Congratulations to our new Deacons, Rev David Skillen and Rev Stephen Scott...
Newsletters
Newsletters are available by clicking on the file buttons above. Fr. Matthews latest sermons are available below..
SERMONS.
SERMON_13C_2010..doc - 27th June 2010.
PETER_AND_PAUL_SERMON_2009..doc - 29th June 2010
SERM14C.2007..doc - 4th July 2010.
SERM15C..doc - 11th July 2010
SERMON_16C_2007..doc - 18th July 2010.
SERMON - 17th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR.
24th/25th July 2010.
For me these days at the end of July mark the end of our parish year, I am normally about to go off on my annual holiday, so it marks the end of one year of work and then September the beginning of another, and so I normally get a little bit reflective and think on all that has been happening. These past weeks in our parish have been certainly very exciting, we had the 1st H.C mass, when 44 children made their 1st holy communion and the following Sunday received their certificates-always special days in our community. There have also been lots of weddings in our parish, and it is always very special as a priest to conduct a wedding service and share in the joy of the couple getting married. We had our very successful summer fair last weekend, when despite the poor weather we were successful in the amount of money we raised and thanks again to everyone who helped. The school term/year has come to an end and each school celebrated very beautiful and moving end of term services and prayed especially for all those students who would be leaving. And off course there were the terrible shootings in June, shocking events for us all, and yet also we experienced the strength of our local community and also of our own church, especially when Bishop Michael came to celebrate holy mass the Monday following those tragic events.
But more than anything else we had the ordination of Stephen and David as permanent deacons, there was the ordination service in Lancaster and then the following day the thanksgiving mass here at St. Begh's. I thought they were two lovely services, very inspiring and certainly many of you commented on how special those occasions were. As a parish we are truly blessed to have two Deacons in our community, who will set us all an example of service, since that is the heart of their ministry - being servants of our parish and deanery, in their prayers and in their work. They will act as servants here in Church at the altar, assisting me in the mass and in preaching and also in the celebration of baptisms and weddings, David will especially be a servant in his role as chaplain at St. Benedict's school and Stephen as part of the hospital chaplaincy team, and both of them in taking communion to the sick. Please do pray for both of them in their ministry, pray that they will be good servants of our church and that they will be truly inspiring in the way they serve us.
In a way their ministry amongst us is also the answer to our prayers, we so often pray for vocations and God has in return granted us these two deacons. And it is that idea of prayer which is the theme of our readings today, as it was last week, when we heard of Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary, and held up to us the example of Mary as someone who listened and prayed.
Jesus talks about prayer once again today in answer to the questions of the disciples on how they should pray, perhaps they had seen him at prayer, seen his peace and reflection when he was at prayer and they wanted to share in that better path-and Jesus answers as we all know by giving them the Our Father. Then he goes onto give them some advice about the way they should pray-that they should persevere, not give up, to almost batter down the doors of heaven with their prayers-to be almost rude in their persistence-we have a good practical example of this in our first reading, with Abraham, pleading repeatedly with God for the few good people in Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus is telling us to imitate Abraham in this way, but how can we do this, how can we demand things of God, how can we keep on asking for what we need or think we need-well the 2nd reading answers this for us-because we can pray in the name of Gods son-Jesus Christ-we have been baptised in his name, and in his name we can pray-and because of that name we believe our prayers can be answered. We can be familiar with God, we can be intimate with God, we can demand things of God, because of his son Jesus Christ, and what the son did-suffered, died and rose from the dead for us-we pray in his name. So we should pray as Jesus taught us, praying his prayer, the Lords prayer and also following his example in the way he would seek out quite places to pray, and in that prayer to pray that he would do his fathers will-which after all is what every prayer should be about, that we will do Gods will, that we will give glory to him. But do we have the faith to do this, do we believe enough to offer the kind of prayer the Father wants-a prayer that ends in the way Christ ended his most famous prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before his suffering began not mine but thy will be done.
Finally, when we pray we should also try not to just ask for things, but to give thanks, to say thank you to God for his blessings, for the prayers that have been answered-I think it is something we very easily forget to do, to say thank you to God, and as a parish we have a lot to thank God for, to thank God for guiding us through the events of the past year, to thank him for all the ways he has blessed us and blessed this parish community and to thank him especially in answering our prayers by giving us our two new Deacons.
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