Dear friends in Christ

This week we begin our Parish Mission. We give a very warm welcome to Fathers Dominic O’Toole and Royston Price of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (CSsR) or Redemptorists. They will preach at the Masses this weekend and lead us in our reflections and celebration of the Sacraments during the coming week. Please ensure that you have got a copy of the Mission leaflet giving the details and times of the Services during the week; you might pass one to a friend or neighbour inviting them to some or all of the evenings. It is my hope that we can commit to being in church twice each day: once for Holy Mass in the morning—7 or 9am—and again for the Mission Service in the evening at 7pm; the themes of each evening are printed in the Mission leaflet. Above all, please pray that there will be many extra-ordinary graces obtained during these days: that souls may be converted, lapsed Catholics return to the practise of the Faith and that the Faithful may become more fervent.

As the Gospel of the Mass this Sunday describes the Transfiguration of Jesus, our prayer at this point of Lent, as we begin the Parish Mission, is that we may be moved to looked anew at the glorified face of Jesus. As the result of our days of Mission, may we be like those Apostles as they came down from the mountain: seeing no one but Jesus alone.

God bless us all in these days ahead.

Msgr Kevin Hale