"We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty". The gospel reading for this Sunday brings home to me the words Cathy and I heard from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, when attending a day for deacons on 24 September. The Cardinal reminded us that we are all called to serve Christ in the Church: Bishop, Priest, Deacon and the laity. A deacon through the grace of his ordination is called to serve in a special way. The Cardinal told us that he always vests with his dalmatic first as a reminder to him that he too is called to serve God's people. He went on to remind us that at times we see or hear things about which we want to make a comment. However hard it may be we have 'to zip our lips or button it'. This is not easy but we have to strike our breast 'mea culpa'. In Poland this year, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, addressed the human attraction to power and grandeur, saying it is 'exquisitely divine' to 'give oneself for others, eliminating distances, dwelling in littleness and living reality of one's everyday life".
The Cardinal spoke about the parish. "The parish is always valid! The parish must remain: it's a structure we must not throw out the window! In fact, the parish is the house of the People of God, the one in which it lives. The problem is how to build the parish! There are parishes with closed doors. But there are also parishes with the doors open, parishes where, when someone comes to ask, one says: 'Yes, yes … make yourself comfortable. What is the problem?' And one listens with patience, because to take care of the People of God is exhausting, it's exhausting!"
After speaking to us for over an hour we had the Deacons' Mass in the Cathedral in the Jubilee Year of Mercy with the renewal of Diaconal Promises. I found this very humbling as I said once again my 'I am' to each response as the Cardinal said Are you resolved to be faithful ministers of the mysteries of God to assist at the Eucharist and other liturgical services with sincere devotion? Are you resolved to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you are, by believing the Gospel you read, teaching what you believe and practising what you preach? Are you resolved in union with your Bishop faithfully to proclaim the Kingdom of God by working for peace and unity both within and beyond the Christian Community, seeking always to ensure that the love of Christ is made visible in your actions?
Please pray for me, your unworthy servant. I assure you that you are all in my prayers daily.
Kevin
The sick and housebound
Those who have recently died: Cath McIntosh
Years Mind:
Monday: Fr Michael Hopkins
Wednesday: Fr Henry Healy, Fr David Logue
Thursday: Fr Edward Heery
Friday: Fr Harold Cahill
Saturday: Fr Alfred Clements
Sunday: Mike Post
Invent, seek, go out, seek the people, and engage in the people's difficulties. If you don't go to seek the people, if you don't approach them, they don't come. And this is a missionary disciple, the outgoing parish. Go out and seek, as God did who sent His Son to seek us.
Pope Francis July 2016
First Reading 2 Kings 5:14-17
Naaman the Syrian general is healed of his leprosy in the Jordan and gives thanks to Israel's God.
Second Reading 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Paul bears his suffering for the sake of the Good News, which he preaches in the hope that all may experience the
salvation that is promised in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Luke 17:11-19
Jesus cures the ten lepers but notices that it is the foreigner, the Samaritan, who is the only one to come back to
thank and praise God.