A pure Icon radiating the Joy of the Gospel
Dear Parishioners,
This Sunday, we are only three days away till the 7pm Candlelight Procession and Rosary around the Church Grounds followed by 8pm Mass. This Procession and Mass on this Wednesday night opens our Feast Week, a time full of faith and Community Events to celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady and grow closer to God and each other as a Parish Family under her Patronage.
We encourage all parishioners and especially all Committee members and volunteers for the Feastweek to participate in this opening Faith Event that has been a very prayerful experience for those who have participated over previous years to set us all on the the best footing to journey and benefit from Feast week. By doing this we will follow two central themes of the next paragraph of Pope Francis’, prayer to Mary in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (the Joy of the Gospel.) These two Marian themes are (1) to be a person of listening and contemplation and 2. to be an Icon open to showing others the Joy of the Gospel.
In these two themes Pope Francis captures two central qualities of Mary responding to God’s Magnificent Grace. The Gospel’s speaks of her as ready to listen and contemplate God’s word and calling to her. She listened and pondered in her heart we hear three times in the Gospel of Luke. Mary stood watching, listening and contemplating even at the most painful long moments of her Son’s Suffering and Death on the Cross.
When we commit to taking time to stop and be silent to being prayerful listeners in faith to God and contemplate what His Word means for us we like Mary will be an Icon, humbly reflecting the power and joy of the Gospel, the Joy of living in the power of God’s Grace and His Kingdom.
And so we continue with Pope Francis calling on Mary’s prays as we say:
Virgin of listening and contemplation, Mother of love, Bride of the eternal wedding feast, pray for the Church, whose pure icon you are, that she may never be closed in on herself or lose her passion for establishing God’s kingdom.
Amen! Alleluia!
Monsignor Shora Maree
To Feast Week with Faith-filled Energy & Holy courage
It is only 10 days now until the opening faith event of our Parish Feast Week, the Candle-light Procession and Rosary, at 7pm, around the Church grounds concluding with Mass at 8pm. I really encourage all to look forward with joy and make time to participate in this opening event and all the events of our Parish Feast Week.
If you want to be informed (and entertained a little) you can check out the Feast Week YouTube promo video, put together by our Media Committee and starring Fr Tony and Fr Raphael, explaining the meaning of our Feast Week and all the events. Also you can go to the Parish website to see the program and subscribe to the newsletter.
In the next 10 days to help us prepare we can take the themes of the next paragraph of our prayer, with Pope Francis, to Mary in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. These themes are (1) to have a new ardour [faith-filled energy] born of the resurrection and (2) to have a holy courage [to stand firm despite our fears and uncertainties] to seek new paths to spread the gift and joy of our faith. Often in our lives we do not feel comfortable with new people and new ways of liv-ing the joy of the unchanging truth of the Gospel.
Nobody more than Mary responded with faith-filled energy when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth after being called to share in bringing the One who is the fullness of love and truth into our world. Nobody more than Mary stood with holy courage in the face of fears and uncertainties she would have experienced in her Son’s suffering and death on the Cross. Because of this faith-filled response and holy courage we will celebrate in our Feast Week that she was taken body and soul to share in the fullness of her Son’s resurrection.
Faith-filled energy and holy courage is built up in us when we commit to Our Lord and His mission like Mary and we pray and work in love together like Mary and the Apostles in the early Church.
Let the joy of the Gospel radiate from us as we participate and help out in Feast Week. To help us we pray with Pope Francis:
Mary, through your prayers,
Obtain for us now a new ardour born of the resurrection, that we may bring to all the Gospel of life which triumphs over death. Give us a holy courage to seek new paths, that the gift of unfading beauty may reach every man and woman. Amen. Alleluia!
Monsignor Shora Maree
Click here to read more Shepherd Corner articles
Mary Filled with Christ’s Presence, Radiated Joy to others
Dear Parishioners,
As we journey a week closer to feast week we prepare reflecting on our theme through the prayer of Pope Francis which speaks of Mary filled with the Presence of Christ radiating Joy to John and Elisabeth and in Praise to God.
What can help us experience Christ like Mary and radiate the Joy of the Gospel?Saint (Pope) John XXIII wrote that one of the ten necessary things to do every day was 10 minutes of Spiritual reading followed by 10 minutes of quiet reflec-tion on what is read. I find this spiritual reading helps me to centre and find the presence of God in my day and to feel the joy of Christ’s presence.
Very often the spiritual reading contains a strong and encouraging point to strengthen my faith and trust in God for the day and for a challenging circum-stance I might be facing. It gives me a positive thought for the day for my daily Mass, for conversations and people asking for support,
This week our Parish Gift shop has been re-stocked with some good books for spiritual reading with such books as Inner Freedom by Fr Jacques Phillipe; Hope for Hard Times and A Father who keeps his Promises by Dr Scott Hahn; Behold the Beauty of the Lord by Henri Nouwen; Finding True Happiness by Fulton Sheen; Pope Francis by Matthew E. Bunson and many more such as Return of the Prodigal Son.
I really encourage parishioners to take up this practice of 10 minutes of spiritual reading every day. So, pick a spiritual book from the Gift Shop and take up Pope John XXIII’s suggestion especially as we prepare for Feast Week theme of the joy of the Gospel that way like Mary we can Radiate Joy to others through our awareness of the presence of Christ in us. We can also recommend books and CD’s to others in our circle of family friends and work colleagues. Let us add this to our spiritual practice of our faith and we can pray with Pope Francis….
Mary, Filled with Christ’s presence, you brought joy to John the Baptist, making him exult in the womb of his mother. Brimming over with joy, you sang of the great things done by God. Standing at the foot of the cross with unyielding faith, you received the
joyful comfort of the resurrection, and joined the disciples
in awaiting the Spirit so that the evangelizing Church might be born.
Mary, Mother of Christ, pray for us.
Monsignor Shora Maree
Click here to read more Shepherd Corner articles
