Peter Blog a few random thoughts

In the Liturgy this weekend the emphasis changes from looking at the Resurrection and focusing on what is to happen after the Ascension we see the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit the Advocate. In a few weeks’ time we will see the power of the Holy Spirit and how it transforms peoples’ lives. A few weeks ago a parishioner cam and asked me why the Church never seems to promote or talk about the Holy Spirit. “After all” he said “it hardly ever appears in the Mass.” Although one can be quite dismissive of this statement at first it is true that the Church sometimes has looked upon the Holy Spirit as there but never really spoken about.  I gently reminded him and asked him to look out for the action of the Holy Spirit during the Mass. After Mass he admitted that in fact it is there quite a lot more than he had first thought.  From the opening dialogue to the epiclesis through to the dismissal the Holy Spirit flows through our liturgy. Sometimes the Holy Spir...

Good Shepherd Sunday   The image of Jesus as Shepherd is one of the oldest images that we have of Jesus. It is one of single devotion of the shepherd to his flock. Shepherds in the biblical times are very different from today. For example when Jesus says that “I am the gate” in the gospel today the Shepherd would lie down and be the gate at night and sleep there guarding them from danger. The shepherd knew his sheep and they recognized his voice. They would not stray because with him they felt safe.   Our Good Shepherd is Jesus he is the voice that we follow his is the voice that we hear and although we sometimes go astray we find our way back to him. To follow the Lord and to hear his call is our Vocation in life and after all that what we must do. There are many vocations in the Church to be single, to get married to be a religious or to be a priest. On this good shepherd Sunday I want to focus on one of them the priesthood. I once asked a young man at the ba...