FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
29 January 2012
FEASTS & FASTS
DAILY MASS helps us celebrate life in all its fullness. On many days there is a focus, be it a saint, an event or a discipline like fasting and abstinence. Let us look at this week for example.
TUESDAY: St John Bosco, priest, 1815- 1888. He founded the Salesian Society (named after St. Francis de Sales). He was highly gifted in working with young people, and became known as "Apostle of Youth". The Salesians work in schools, youth centres and chaplaincies.
THURSDAY: Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. Simeon recognises Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, the Light who will enlighten all peoples. This Feast is known as CANDLEMAS, since we carry candles in procession to celebrate Christ our Light who enlightens us.
FRIDAY SS Lawrence, Dunstan, & Theodore, Archbishops of Canterbury. These saints remind us that for over a thousand years England was Roman Catholic. Today we pray for the conversion of England. St Blaise, bishop and martyr, is also remembered today. He was martyred about 322. Many cures are attributed to him, and the blessing of throats is celebrated after Mass today.
ABSTINENCE: abstaining from meat on Fridays helps us remember the importance of keeping Friday as a day to remember the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Our obligation to do some penance on Friday is fulfilled by abstaining from meat. Following the weekly calendar helps us live the beauty and fullness of the Catholic Faith.
Fr David Barnes. Parish Priest
THE SUNDAY OBLIGATION: The first commandment of the Church binds all Catholics to attend Mass on all Sundays and Holy days of obligation. This is a grave obligation on our conscience, unless some really serious cause prevents us. To come in late, wilfully or through carelessness, when Mass has begun is at least a venial sin. To miss Mass when you cannot help it, or when it would be very difficult for you to attend Mass, is not a sin. So, if you were to miss Mass because you were ill, or because you had to stay at home to mind a sick person or children, or because you were a long way from church, or if for some other reason you could not go, it would not be a sin. When you cannot go to mass, say the Mass prayers yourself at home, if possible.
THE SEVEN CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY To feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to clothe the naked; to harbour the harbourless; to visit the sick; to visit the imprisoned; to bury the dead.
ADORATION: every Tuesday and Friday 8.30am-5.45pm PLEASE "sign up to watch" (list on the table at the back of the church) ROSARY: during this Month of the Rosary please remember * Always have the rosary with you.....in your pocket, bag or (fashionable now!) around your neck Hold it with faith at various times of the day (say, at times of anxiety, or temptation, sadness or joy) for this is a prayerful action opening us to God. Say some part of the rosary every day If possible, join the public recitation of the Rosary every evening in church at 5.20pm.
RE-ESTABLISHING FRIDAY PENANCE
A key resolution of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, released after their May 2011 plenary meeting, was 'to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity.'
This act of common witness will come into effect from Friday 16th September 2011- the day the Church in England and Wales marks the anniversary of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom.
Since the Bishops of England and Wales announced this decision in May 2011, a number of questions have been asked. To help answer these questions the Bishop's Conference has produced a list of frequently asked questions with answers that will help to explain the reasons for the reintroduction of this penance.
The full document which includes further questions and answers, as well as a liturgical explanation of the Friday penance can be downloaded from the link www.rcdow.org.uk/includes/dow-content-print.asp?content- ref= 3473.
Questions and answers include: Why are we obliged to practice penance on Fridays? From the earliest centuries of the Church's history, Friday was dedicated to the memory of the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a day on which we should make a special effort to practice penitence. The seasons and days of penitence in the course of the Liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday) are therefore intense moments of the Church's penitential practice.
Does this mean that we should eat fish on Friday? There is no requirement for us to eat fish instead of meat on a Friday. Our act of abstinence does not mean that we have to eat another particular type of food as a regular substitute for meat on a Friday. The precise goal of penitence is not simply the avoidance of meat or its substitution with another food but relating the external and common act of penance we do to inner conversion, prayer and works of charity.
Are the Bishops placing a greater obligation on Catholics in England and Wales? Apart from the exception above, will it be a 'sin' to eat meat on Friday after the Bishops decision takes effect in September? The obligation on Catholics in England and Wales to do penance on a Friday will be the same after Friday 16th September 2011 as it was before that date. The only change is that the Bishops have determined that the requirement by all the faithful to do penance on a Friday will be fulfilled by abstaining from meat.
While failure to abstain from meat on a particular Friday would not constitute a 'sin' as such, the Vatican previously made it clear that it is our duty as Catholics to undertake penance on a Friday. It is more a question of intending to 'carry a small cross for Christ' than about abstaining from meat. The person who knowingly decides not to undertake any Friday penance at all is probably 'sinning'; the person who accidently eats a ham sandwich for lunch is not.
