Candlemas

Presentation

February 2nd is the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, sometimes known as Candlemas. The feast recalls the Jewish purification rites, which would have taken place 40 days after the birth of a child. It was on this occasion when Mary offered sacrifices for her and her son’s purification, and also when the Holy Family met Anna and Simeon in the temple.

We recall on this day, and on Good Friday, the prophecy of Simeon that “a sword shall pierce you own soul too, so that the secret thoughts of many might be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).

 candlemas

On this day’s Mass, the candles that are to be used for the next liturgical year are blessed, hence the common name for the day ‘Candlemas’. Each member of the congregation also gets to keep a blessed candle for use in their home. Traditionally this candle was used to light the way of the priest from the font door of the home to the sick bed, when he was bringing Holy Communion to the ill and dying. Many still like to keep to this practice and it is not uncommon to be met at the door of the house with a lit candle when arriving with the Blessed Sacrament. Others light their candles in times of strife as an act of prayer– the polish community light their candles in heavy storms and pray for good weather to return.

 Blaise 2

Two of the candles, which are blessed on this day, are then used the following day, February 3rd, the day of Saint Blaise. St Blaise cured a child of choking on a fishbone and, as such, he has become the patron saint of illnesses of the throat. The blessing of throats, by invoking the intercession of St Blaise, is carried out on this day by placing the two candles across the throats of the faithful.

Blaise

Synod 2015: The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World.

M and F

Today Bishop Tom issued a pastoral letter to whole diocese. At the same time the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales launched a document called ‘The Call, The Journey and The Mission’. The latter was printed and made available, after Mass, for every household.

The theme of these documents is to respond to an invitation from Pope Francis to reflect upon our experiences of marriage and family life. All of us were born into a family; all of us have a mother and father. Therefore, whether we are married or single, have children or not, we all have some experience of family life. Some of these experiences are positive, some are not.

In reflecting upon our experiences of, we have been asked to answer six questions. There is no need to answer them all at once. In fact, we are being asked to take time to think about our reply to each question. As such, there will only be one question given every two weeks. Responses to each question may then be placed in a box provided at the back of the Church. The responses will then be collected by the diocese, before being sent to the Bishops’ Office in London where Vincent Cardinal Nicholls will take the replies to Rome. Alternatively, responses may be made on-line by filling in the form here.

The questions are:

Question 1: For Sunday 01 February 2015. What are your joys and hopes of marriage and family life today?

Question 2: For Sunday 15 February 2015. What are your struggles and fears of marriage and family life today?

Question 3: For Sunday 01 March 2015. How can we better understand marriage as a vocation?

Question 4: For Sunday 15 March 2015. How does marriage enrich you?

Question 5: For Sunday 29 March 2015. How does your family life enrich you?

Question 6: For Sunday 05 April 2015. In what way, through the abiding presence of God, is your family “Salt of the earth and light to the world,” and a place of and for handing on the faith?

Children, what are you doing? Adults, are you failing them?

Girl

In the UK the age of sexual consent is 16 (Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000). Any person engaging in sexual activity where one of the people is under this age, is party to a criminal act.

Why then are primary school children among 1000s of girls who have been given the contraceptive implant by the NHS? Over the last 5 years almost 10,000 under 16s (including at least three ten-year olds) have been implanted with contraceptive devices.

Norman Wells director of The Family Education Trust said “Fitting young girls with contraceptive implants is quite simply indefensible. It is giving them the green light to engage in illegal sexual activity and robbing them of the protection that the age of consent law is intended to give.”

NHS England figures obtained through a freedom of information request show about 50 twelve year-olds and 300 13 year-olds, as well as 3,000 14 year-olds and 6,000 15 year-olds were given contraceptive implants over the last five years. Numbers may even be higher as dozens of trusts did not or were unable to provide full figures.

When will we wake up and ask the state to protect our young children from abuse, and not allow the state to simply minimise the effects (pregnancy) that such abuse may cause?

If you lived next door to a wanted car thief would you call the police, or take the wheels of your car to stop it being stolen? If your ten year old daughter is being sexually abused, do you want the perpetrator prosecuted, or would you prefer the state to give her a coil?

Many of us are simply unaware of what is happening with sexual health among our younger members of society, and its time we work up to do something about it.

The source of this story is here.

Benemerenti Medal Awarded

Congratulations to Rose and Pat Murphy as Pat receives the Benemerenti medal from Pope Francis!

Benemerenti 1

During his recent pastoral visit, Bishop Tom presented the award on behalf of Pope Francis for Pat’s contribution to Catholic Education and Catechesis.

Both Pat and Rose have spent many years and much effort in actively promoting the vision of the Church which the Bishops of the World put forward at the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council – a vision which saw a notably increased role of the laity through their active participation in the life of the Church.

In his homily, bishop Tom made reference to the Church being more than just a stone building which can be burnt down, but that it is the living body of the people of Christ – the laity and the clergy – who bring their God-given gifts together for the good of all. In his acceptance speech Pat made reference to all the good that had been done in this area, but noted that there is still some way to go. Here in Haverfordwest he invited everyone to be more active in shaping the Local Church and indicated one way to do that would be to get involved in the up-comming discussions concerning the Synod on Marriage and Family Life.

Pat and Rose, all in the parish wish you well, and we all offer our heartfelt congratuations and blessings. May you continue to work hard for the promotion and deeper understanding of our Catholic Faith.

More pictures may be found here.