New Year Retreat - A Good Start

Since St John's day everything in the parish has been gearing up towards the New Year Retreat which started last night. This year our wonderful parishioners are doing the catering but since I am the one with the parish credit card I found myself spending the best part of the day in Bookers with a team of people to do the shopping. Catering for anything between three and five hundred people is no joke. Those who were thinking in terms of a big shop at Sainsbury's soon realised their mistake. Two trailer loads later we were back in the parish ready waiting for the arrival of the advance party - due at 10pm!
Yesterday the first people arrived at 9am (for 6pm registration) but were soon set to work. There's lots to be prepared for a retreat and the more people to help out the better, especially if they've had some previous experience. Seeing how confidently Maxine and her team were looking after the catering, we knew we had no worries there. Indeed, we were treated to some very tasty 'Shepherds Pie' yesterday evening. The choice of food reflected the fact that the Archbishop would be joining us for supper.
I picked up the Arch at 6.00pm and we made good time getting back here so he was able to meet lots of people before and during the evening meal. He enjoyed the first talk by Brother Martin CFR and then presided at Holy Mass.


This picture was taken in the sacristy after Mass. I've had to manipulate it a bit because there was so much incense in the sacristy that it originally came out as a milky haze. Smoke rises and, having done my best to clean it up, I'm amused that the floor area is fairly clear but there's still a lot at head height! We were fourteen concelebrants at the Mass. The Archbishop preached a lovely meditation on Christian Love.
There were over 160 people at Mass which was very good. I had been nervous that the New Year Retreat usually gets off to a slow start and didn't want the Arch preaching to an empty Church. As things were the Church looked full and we were all very happy we the whole occasion. I'm really grateful to all our parishioners who are involved in welcoming the young people to the parish and looking after them.

Day with the Archbishop

On Wednesday 27th Archbishop Kevin celebrated Mass in the Church for our vocations day. Later eighteen of us sat down for lunch together. We were a mixture of priests, seminarians and young men considering a call to the priesthood. In this photograph we see the Archbishop with some fo the forty servers who were at Mass for the occasion.
The Archbishop will be back in the parish tonight when he will celebrate the opening Mass of our New Year Retreat at 9.00pm.

Christmas Cribs

The parish Crib

Visual imagery is very important to us as Catholics. We men and women are body and soul. We might do bad things, but we are created 'very good' by God. What we perceive with our physical senses is an important aspect of our being and also, therefore, of our approach to God. In Catholic worship we make use of things like sight and sound, and even smell (think of incense).
So it's important that in our homes we make use of visual imagery that remind us of God's presence and of his love.

Children can be very proud of their Crib

At this time of year it's important to have a Nativity Scene or Crib in our home. We can encourage the children to pray before it. We can also get them to visit the Crib in our parish Churches and in the homes of our friends and neighbours.

Some Cribs are quite elaborate

Some Cribs can be quite simple. If we have small children it's probably a good idea to have fairly robust figures. Other Cribs can be quite elaborate and take several days to prepare. They're good to get older children involved.

Our image of the Baby Jesus

One tradition is not to put the Baby Jesus in the Crib until after Midnight Mass or Mass on Christmas Morning. It's good perhaps to lay the image of the Baby Jesus in the Manger as a family and then open our presents. Another tradition is to venerate the Baby Jesus with a kiss when we go to Mass during the Octave. We have a special image of the Baby Jesus for this. Another good family custom is to leave the Three Wise Men out of the Crib until the Feast of the Epiphany. Some families have them wandering all over the house so that the children have to spot where they've got to each morning.

Channel Four at it again...

I haven't checked, but one of my parishioners told me before the Vigil Mass this evening that Channel 4 is planning one of its usual attacks on Christianity tomorrow, Christmas Day. I seem to recall having read something about this on the Blogosphere although I forget which Blog it was. I did make a note of the link it offered for an explanation of the faith that would be quite useful to anyone who finds themselves having to argue against the programmes mistakes and distortions. It is Bad Aramaic Made Easy and can be accessed by simply clicking the link (i.e. on the different coloured text in this post).