Dear friends in Christ

The Word of God proclaimed in the liturgy for this Sunday exhorts us to an unconditional trust in God. He created us and holds us in being. We have so many blessings for which to be grateful: our life, our Faith and our individual gifts to start with! On a personal note, I give thanks this Sunday for the grace of my Priestly Ordination that took place on this date forty years ago, in my home Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead. It is a moment deeply engrained in my consciousness and a gift that I thank God for daily. To have been able to be an instrument for the salvation of souls over those years is overwhelming. I reflect with emotion on all those souls upon whom I have bestowed the new life of grace in Baptism; the adults I have Confirmed; the penitents absolved and the innumerable Holy Masses celebrated and Communions given. I think too, of those I have blessed as they have begun the path of Marriage and family life and the souls prepared for their final journey by the Sacraments administered for the last time. None of this has been possible without the sure support of the prayers and affection I have received from the people I have served in the five Parishes where I have ministered. Most especially, to all of you in this Parish where I have been privileged to have spent over half of my Priestly ministry. I thank you for your constant encouragement, support and tolerance!

I pray this weekend for Bishop Thomas McMahon who Ordained me and for Bishop Alan Williams whom I have been privileged to serve these last ten years as Vicar General. I welcome him to the Parish this Sunday; he has graciously agreed to preach at the Mass of Thanksgiving. On Monday—the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist—I will have a celebration with the Priests of the Diocese; this will take the form of Vespers (to which you are also invited) followed by a supper with them.

On the day of my Ordination I consecrated my life and Priesthood to Our Blessed Lady, and she has not forgotten me! There is a providential symmetry in that I was Ordained in the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes (and attended that Primary School) and now she has been my Patroness here in Leigh under her very same title.

How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me? The chalice of salvation I will raise and I will call upon the Lords’s name! (Psalm 115).

Msgr Kevin Hale