Dear Friends in Christ

In the Gospel of this Sunday, Jesus speaks about the requirements of following Him, and since He has called each one of us, we must be attentive. Whenever a person accepts a great undertaking, make an appraisal of the situation ahead; we look at the road and asses how we might proceed. The Way of Jesus is the Way of the Cross, as he repeatedly reminds us. September is the month of the Holy Cross; the feast is celebrated this Saturday, 14th. We celebrate an instrument of terrible torture and death because by the Cross Jesus triumphs over sin and death. One of the most famous and best-loved images of the Tree of Life is found in the Basilica of San Clemente, Rome. This apsidal mosaic (reproduced on the front page) represents Christ on the Cross with His Mother and St John, and the Tree of Life from which flow the streams of living water for which the deer longs, from which the tendrils of a vine grow out to encompass all of human life. Truly the Cross is our life and hope; as is sung in the hymn for the feast: Vexilia Regi, prodeunt…the royal banners forward go…O Crux, ave, spes unica…Hail, O Cross, our only hope! We view the Cross with gratitude for all that was accomplished by It’s means. We glory in this sign of our salvation, and the paradox that God has taken something so negative and transformed it into the Standard of eternal life.

I would like to bring to your attention this week several forthcoming initiatives which are important diary dates:

The showing of Bishop Robert Barron’s recent Pivotal Players on the last two Mondays of this month (cf the details in this Newsletter); the introduction of a new resource for Returning Catholics - Landings - which we hope to initiate at the start of Lent (cf a new page on the Parish website); and the start of our Journey in Faith which begins at the start of October, for anyone wishing to become a Catholic in the near future. Do encourage your friends and family to come along to any of these initiatives which will greatly inspire, inform and enable us in the living of our Catholic Faith.

God bless you!

Msgr Kevin Hale
Priest@LourdesLeigh.org ✚ 01702 478078
The Sunday Homily is available as a podcast at LourdesLeigh.org