Dear friends in Christ

Traditionally this Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday from the opening word of the Entrance Antiphon. The strictness of Lent is interrupted on this Sunday with words that speak of joy. The organ is played and rose-coloured vestments and flowers also remind us of the approaching days of Eastertide. In this way the Church also wishes to remind us that joy and sacrifice, happiness and the cross, are not incompatible. Rather, it is sadness and not penance that is opposed to happiness.

I ask you to continue your prayers for those Engaged Couples who are completing the fourth week of their Marriage preparation this week. Some thirty couples are participating in these evenings which have been occasions of great optimism and enrichment for those taking part and those of us engaged in their formation. I thank the Team of four couples - a very rich and varied Team - who have aided me in this important work of preparing for the vocation which is Marriage.

We should all give thanks on this Sunday for our Mothers! Their unique role in family and society is so evident and important. We ask all Mothers on this day to renew their awareness of how vital they are in the life of the Domestic Church - the home - that they may be icons too, of the love we see in our heavenly Mother, Mary.

With every blessing!

Fr Kevin Hale