SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Divine Mercy Sunday
28th April 2019


Dear Parishioner,

The readings for this Sunday are about God's mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith and the need for the forgiveness of sins. Divine Mercy, or the unconditional love of God, is given to us in each celebration of the Sacraments, especially that of Reconciliation.

The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, explains how the Risen Lord continued to show His Divine Mercy to the sick through the healing and preaching ministry of the apostles in the early Church.

The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, given by Jesus to the Apostle John in exile on Patmos, was intended to comfort and bolster the Faith of persecuted Christians for all time. Today's selection assures us of the presence of the merciful Lord in our lives and encourages all of us to fight fear with Faith, and trepidation about the future with trust and Hope.

Today's Gospel recalls Jesus' institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a Sacrament of Divine Mercy. The Risen Lord gave his apostles and their successors the power to forgive sins with the words, "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn 20: 19-23). So let us accept God's invitation to celebrate and practise mercy and ask God for the Faith that culminates in self-surrender to God and leads us to serve those we encounter with love.

SEND, O LORD: HOLY APOSTLES INTO YOUR CHURCH

Fr Sabu Pariyadan RCJ


Notices:

Please remember to pray for:

Daily for the sick clergy of our Diocese

The sick and housebound

Those who have recently died

Years Mind:
Monday: Fr Brian O'Higgins
Thursday: Fr John Kennedy
Saturday: Canon Thomas Norris, Fr Feargus Saurin, Fr Andrew Dorricott
Sunday: Canon Patrick Palmer, Canon Basil Booker, Fr John O'Callaghan


Next Sunday - THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

First Reading: Acts 5:27-32,40b-41
We are witnesses of all this, we and the Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: Apocalypse 5:11-14
The Lamb that was sacrificed is worthy to be given riches and power.

Gospel: John 21:1-19
Jesus stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.