Peter Blog a few random thoughts

The Royal Wedding Prince William & Catherine Middleton Friday 29 April 2011 Prayer For use around the time of the Royal Wedding Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing upon his Royal Highness, Prince William and Catherine as they pledge their love for each other in marriage. May your love unite them through their lives. Grant them the strength to serve you, our country and the Commonwealth with integrity and faithfulness. Through Christ our Lord.  Amen

Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops discuss Big Society at Southwark summit Tuesday 5 April 2011  London SE1 website team   Church of England and Roman Catholic bishops are confused about the Big Society, claimed Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols during a visit to Southwark on Monday. Two SE1 residents: The Archbishop of Southwark, Most Revd Peter Smith, chats with Archbishop of Canterbury Most Revd Rowan Williams (Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk) The new Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Rt Revd Christopher Chessun (centre), with Church of England and Roman Catholic colleagues (Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk) The Archbishops of Westminster, Southwark and Canterbury give the blessing at the end of Choral Vespers in St George's Cathedral (Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk) The Roman Catholic primate was speaking in Southwark's  St George's Cathedral  after the Anglican and Roman Catholic diocesan bishops of England had spent Monday meeting together at...

SAINT RICHARD OF CHICHESTER Bishop (1197-1253)         Richard was born, 1197, in the little town of Wyche, eight miles from Worcester, England. He and his elder brother were left orphans when young, and Richard gave up the studies which he loved, to farm his brother's impoverished estate. His brother, in gratitude for Richard's successful care, proposed to make over to him all his lands; but he refused both the estate and the offer of a brilliant marriage, to study for the priesthood at Oxford.         In 1235 he was appointed, for his learning and piety, chancellor of that University, and afterwards, by St. Edmund of Canterbury, chancellor of his diocese. He stood by that Saint in his long contest with the king, and accompanied him into exile.         After St. Edmund's death Richard returned to England to toil as a simple curate, but was soon elected Bishop of Chichester in prefe...

I remember a good number of years ago I was involved in Youth Retreat work. One of the things that we used to do quite a lot was a trust walk. This was where we blind folded one person and allowed the person to be led by another. The one thing that constantly surprised them after doing the walk was where they were and that they were actually crossing over familiar things. So a tree stump for example felt like a big tree. It constantly fascinated me often when we don’t understand or our vision is impaired we can feel lost and we can feel scared or even alone. Faith can sometimes feel like this. I have often heard people who say that they have lost their faith when something bad has happened in their family or even in the world. They go through their own darkness where God feels distant. John of the Cross speaks of the dark night of the soul where you may feel far away from God. But as John of the Cross says it is here that God is closest. In the Gospel we notice that the man born blind ...

  These are some of the most fantastic images that I can remember from 1989 when the Berlin wall came down through a miracle of faith and of people power. This symbol of oppression was no more. It is one of those events like the death of Princess Diana or the Death of Kennedy where wee remember where we were and what we were doing at the the time.  We still live with oppression. We still live with injustice even in our own communities where one group are disliked or put down or persecuted. We all have out own Berlin wall. We as a people need to speak for freedom for the under privileged the down trodden and the poor. let us fight for justice, fight for freedom and fight for those who are put down.      Grant us, Lord God, a vision of your world as your love would have it: a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor; a world where the riches of creation are shar...

I thought this was pretty Good stuff and am hopping that people might think about coming to the sacrament of Reconciliation before we celebrate Easter.  Pope calls for caring, faithful confessors  Continuing his cycle of lessons on the Doctors of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI told believers Wednesday that prayer and confession are the best antidotes to our era marked by “signs of loss of conscience and morality”. Outlining the legacy of an 18 th  century Neapolitan Saint, Alphonsus Liguori, during his Wednesday catechesis, the Holy Father spoke of the obvious “lack of esteem” for the sacrament of confession among Catholics today and urged priests to adopt a more “charitable, understanding and gentle attitude” towards penitents while always remaining faithful to Catholic moral teaching. As a young man, the founder of the Redemptorists Order, observed the Pope was “an outstanding eighteenth-century preacher, scholar and Doctor of the Church. Alphonsus left ...

John presents for us today a great dramatic and theatrical encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. Jesus is tired after his long journey and sits by the well for something to drink. First of all she comes to the well at noon which would have been a long time after some of the other women had come to the well. It presupposes that she had been shunned by the other women of the village because of her great sins and yet it is this sinner who preaches to her community about Jesus. There is also the bad relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans this goes back to the year 722 when the Assyrian army descended on northern Israel and took its population into exile. This is why the Samaritan woman was very surprised when Jesus spoke to her at the well. The symbol of water has become a very important symbol in the Church. It cleanses and also blesses us. When we think of the waters of baptism it washes us clean and gives us new life in the Lord. We remind ourselves of that new...