Dear friends in Christ

This Sunday Pope Francis will proclaim Blessed Mother Teresa a Saint. By giving the Church this particular woman as a Saint, the Pope is reminding us of a central truth of the Christian life and one that we hear in the Gospel of the Mass this Sunday: that to follow Christ authentically means a total renunciation of self. A Saint is someone who gets to Heaven; this was the only ambition that Mother Teresa had. To become a Saint was something she prayed for, and she shows us, as do all the Saints, that this is a possibility for us too. From today we can be sure of a new friend who lives with God above. We look at her model of poverty and humility and at the same time ask her prayers for us still here on earth, pilgrims to the Father’s House.

This Monday evening I will give the first of Three Talks on the Faith for Non-Catholics. Please invite or bring along a non-Catholic friend or relative who might like to discover more about the Faith; it could be that start of a pilgrimage of faith which will bring them into the fold of the Catholic Church.

Many of our Schools and Colleges being their new academic year at this time; we wish especially our local Catholic Schools a happy and fruitful year ahead as together as Parishes and the wider Deanery and Diocese we all advance in the knowledge and love of the One True God. God bless you all!

Msgr Kevin Hale