Peter Blog a few random thoughts

There is a perception in some quarters of the Church that if we just carry on the way that we have been going then everything will be ok. That Vocations to the priesthood will just appear if we are faithful in prayer " God will provide" you hear many people say. To be totally honest with you. I felt like this at one point. Work hard and people will come to the faith and vocations will come. Last week I went on a two day conference called divine Renovation which comes from a book of the same name. It re thinks the way that we do things in the parish rather than maintiance  of the structures that we have it is a chance to do something different. What I am sharing with you below is my un bridged notes from the two days that changed the way that I think about the Church and also our mission to the Church. Notes on the Divine Renovation Conference October 2017 Pope Francis:  says that we must have a Missionary option to Evangelisation todays world. This means a new way...

I  I remember when I was growing up every month or so on a Saturday morning the family made a trip to the Church to go to Confession. There in this dark room with the jumble we would kneel and go through our list that we had prepared the day before with promptings from my Mum and Dad and my Brother.  It was not my favourite activity that we had as a family. It was a little like going to the dentist but less pleasant. It certainly was not a relationship between my self and the person of Jesus. This has in my experience been the same kind of feelings that many others have had about their first experiences of Confession.  It all changed for me when I went to confession not behind the grill but face to face. At that time the name changed to the sacrament of Reconciliation. Both these things helped me to realise that the sacrament was not about lists and trying to remember what I did or did not do it was about a relationship with the person of Jesus. At abou...

When ever you walk down the road around Brighton you are confronted with one really quite stark reality. That of Homelessness. It is easy to walk by, it is easy to walk by on the other side of the street and blame society or blame them. We might think and say Surely they have homes or they could go back to their own homes. A few weeks ago I got chatting to one on my walking around Brighton. It is so easy not to give a name to homeless people. His name was Rob, he invited me to sit next to him. As we sat and talked I noticed one thing. His world was full of feet, children and dogs. It is easy to walk by but here sitting next to me on the street was what Jesus was talking about in todays Gospel. IF we do not give a name to people, if we use generalisations then it is easy for us to forget that they are christ given as much as you or me. We do this so easily that it becomes  hard to ever think of them as our brothers and Sisters. This is what the Nazi Germany did to the Jews, and wha...

There is a certain kind of Religion that can be really quite off putting. They are the people like these: They go around telling others how they should pray and how they should act. They are their own definition better than anyone else. They are hard to negotiate with and never listen to another persons views for they are right. Laying heavy burdens on others they do not do the same themselves. In the annuals of history they are instantly forgotten.  Real authentic religion is when people are authentic when we can see that what they preach they practice these people are attractive and remember them by the example that they give. There was a beautiful moment a few days after Francis was elected Pope. He asked to go and visit the place where he stayed before the Conclave. A small Hostel with simple rooms on the Via della Scoffa. A place where I have stayed myself when I have been to Rome. You can imagine the surprise on the peoples faces as he came in to pay his bill. ...

West Ham beating Spurs, Haribo, strictly come dancing, Chocolate cake, going for a walk on the sea front, a good game of rugby, reading a book, listening to music, going to the theatre, My Friends, my family and God. These are the things that I love or love to do. We use the word love for so many different things.  But to unlock  this Gospel we need to look more closely at the word love first. For as I have demonstrated the word love is one of the most overused word in the English language and when we use it is has so many different meanings. We can all list the things that we love and the way that we place a different meaning on each different item. My love for example for Chocolate cake is different to the love of my parents or a partner but yet we use the same word. When we look at the Greek word it surprisingly has 6 different meanings. So you can see how complicated it can become. Don’t worry I am not going to go through them now thats for you to have a look at yours...

I want to tell you about a friend of mine called Fred. Fred loves parties. For the first half of his life he lived in institutions and hardly ever said a word. He was rejected by society. Then he found his way by a chance encounter to Laurche community down in Bognor Regis. Now you cannot stop him talking. Now remember that I said that he liked parities. Every birthday he would spend the day getting ready for his birthday party making sure that every thing was just right. He would get dressed up in his finest gear and have a great time. One day Fred came into the scarcity as his usually did on the Sunday and tell me the weeks news. This week he was particularly excited because he had been invited to the Queens Garden party. So on the morning of this special party he got up early, made sure he had his special clothes and arrived early with his career for the party. On his return in his weekly update to me he was able to tell me everything what the queen was wearing and what as he desc...

The Gospel today in the parable of the wicked tenants directly challenges the Jewish leaders thats why they were so angry. When we break down the Parable to different parts we can see why they were so angry. The landowner is God the Vineyard Israel the Wicked Tenants the people of Israel The servants the Prophets and the Son Jesus. Jesus was directly challenging the Jewish authorities in their treatment of the prophets those who were going to tell them God’s ways. By using the quote from Psalm 118 Jesus then turns this parable and focuses on himself. For Jesus is the corner stone rejected by the Jewish leaders the Builders But the keystone is the new people of God which includes the Gentles.  It is also a story about good over coming evil. We know the end of the story. Jesus puts himself in the heart of salvation history of the story of the Old Testament prophets and shows that even he will be rejected and not listened too.  Parables also say something to us. They a...