Trinity Sunday

We celebrate our faith in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit today. It is a positive faith, as we are reminded in our Gospel today, that God loves the world and all it contains. We can’t greet each other with the holy kiss, as St Paul suggests in the second reading, but we can, and do ...’help one another. Be united; live in peace.’ We are coming through a great time of trial together and these qualities have been very much in evidence. In the first reading, Moses comes down with the Law, the Ten Commandments, but also declares God to be   ‘ a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’. Love and Law go together and we are grateful to all who embody these qualities in our family, community and world.

Good news on the reopening of churches front. We are expecting detailed guidelines for reopening on Tuesday next, which might see us in a position to open before 20 July. The date suggested is Monday 29 June, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. We will begin to plan for reopening during the coming week. If you would like to volunteer to help, please contact the Parochial House.

Cemetery devotions for Rushwee and Grangegeeth were cancelled last weekend. However, I blessed the graves in both cemeteries on Saturday and Sunday, offered the Rosary for those in new and old cemeteries on both days and offered Mass for all on Monday and Tuesday.

Next Sunday is Corpus Christi and, with the loosening of travel restrictions to 20km, I invite you to visit the church on that day. You are asked to use the main door to enter in each church, to use the hand sanitizer provided, to take the short prayer leaflet and bring it with you, or dispose of it in a bin provided. Please don’t stay too long, practice social distancing and exit by the side door. It is a short, tentative step towards reopening. Thanks to all who have quietly worked to keep our church open for private prayer during this time.

Continued thanks to you all for following the guidelines of Church and State. We continue to remember those most affected, the sick, the bereaved, the lonely and isolated, those working so hard, those anxious about their jobs, the young, who are missing their friends and life transitions, those making important decisions for their futures and those accompanying them. Thanks to all doing extra work to help others. We see frustrations and injustices boiling over in other parts of the world. We pray and act for our world with St Paul’s prayer today, at the end of the second reading:
‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all’

                                                              Fr Gerry