FROM FR RICHARD

		Preparing for Holy Week

		Celebrating Holy Week together in church is a source of great comfort and, indeed, there is a sense of holy joy even amidst the desolation of Good Friday. I find it so moving on Holy Thursday to see you remain in church and watch at the Altar of Repose with so much tenderness. Then there is the joy of the vigil and the delight we take in Easter Sunday together as families.

		Naturally, you will be grieving this loss but I would suggest that this year could be a most authentic celebration of Easter where you enter deeply into the paschal mysteries. 

		This week more than ever will we understand the Way of the Cross, that at the heart of our Christian Faith is the innocent victim. This week more than ever we can pray for the sick and the dying and for those who are literally in the Garden of Gethsemane full of fear and anxiety. This week more than ever we can give thanks and offer our petitions for all those who will be working on the front line. There may be many more of our parishioners than you think who are undertaking such work.

		Our own restriction can be offered up for the good of all as Christ sacrificed himself for others.

		By not being able to attend the Easter Service we will hopefully appreciate the many, both now and in the past, who have been persecuted and have had to practice their faith underground. We will stand in solidarity with these and those who in many parts of the world only have the sacraments celebrated once a year.

		Most of all we will understand the healing effects of the Holy Mass is not just restricted to the church buildings but you, in your isolation, social distance are benefitting more than ever from the Holy Sacrifice. Fr Cenydd and I don't celebrate Mass in an empty church but see you all there in front of us as we will throughout Holy Week. That is the power of the right Spirit!

		Father Richard

Michael Cenydd, 04/04/2020