Posts

Showing posts from February, 2016

Sunday 28th February 2016

Image
3rd Sunday of Lent 11am. Sung Mass at St. John Fisher Catholic Church Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Celebrant Fr. Lee Bennett Fruits of the Fig: Scott Hahn Reflects on the 3rd Sunday of Lent Readings: Exodus 3:1-8 , 13-15 Psalm 103:1-4 , 6-8 , 11 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 , 10-12 Luke 13:1-9 In the Church, we are made children of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the God who makes known His name and His ways to Moses in today's First Reading. Mindful of His covenant with Abraham (see Exodus 2:24 ), God came down to rescue His people from the slave-drivers of Egypt. Faithful to that same covenant (see Luke 1:54-55 , 72-73 ), He sent Jesus to redeem all lives from destruction, as today's Psalm tells us. Paul says in today's Epistle that God's saving deeds in the Exodus were written down for the Church, intended as a prelude and foreshadowing of our own Baptism by water, our liberation from sin, our feeding with spiritu

Sunday 21st February 2016

Image
2nd  Sunday of  Lent 11am. Sung Mass at St John Fisher Catholic Church Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Celebrant Fr. Jeff Woolnough - Preacher Deacon Richard Cerson     Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem… Dear friends, We hear in our Gospel text today, the story of the Transfiguration. Although the feast of the Transfiguration falls on August 6 th , we are given it’s transforming power in Lent to strengthen our faith and to help us understand   the true significance of that supernatural event! The Transfiguration is an epiphany , a moment of revelation to the disciples of who Jesus truly is. The symbols of the cloud , the dazzling clothes and the presence of Moses and Elijah emphasise the divine presence, but at the heart of it we find the Cross, the passing to glory which awaits Jesus in Jerusalem. This revelation marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Judea and Jerusalem, just as his Baptism stands at the start of his ministry in G

Sunday February 14th 2016

Image
First Sunday in Lent 11am. Sung Mass at St. John Fisher Catholic Church Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Celebrant: Fr. Bob White   Stations of the Cross every Weds in Lent at 7pm (except Holy Week)      

Sunday 7th February 2016

Image
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time              11am. Sung Mass at St. John Fisher Catholic Church Home to the Southend Ordinariate Mission Celebrant: Fr. Lee Bennett Dr Scott Hahn reflects on the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8 Psalm 138:1-5 , 7-8 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11 Simon Peter, the fisherman, is the first to be called personally by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. His calling resembles Isaiah’s commissioning in the First Reading: Confronted with the holiness of the Lord, both Peter and Isaiah are overwhelmed by a sense of their sinfulness and inadequacy. Yet each experiences the Lord’s forgiveness and is sent to preach the good news of His mercy to the world. No one is “fit to be called an apostle,” Paul recognizes in today’s Epistle. But by “the grace of God,” even a persecutor of the Church—as Paul once was—can be lifted up for the Lord’s service. In the Old Testament, humanity was unfit for the  divine—no man could stand in God’s presence