Newsletter - 1 September
Making the best of September
It is important that from time to time to review the desires and choices that shape our lives. These first days of September can be such a moment. Will it simply be back to our old routines and habits after the summer break? Or can it also be a new beginning, a time to examine my desires and choices and take some steps toward the abundant life God wants for me?
In his Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius urges us to “desire and choose” only what leads us to the life God wants for us. He believed that our deepest desires show us what God desires for us and from us. The way to the life God wants for us is to acknowledge these desires and let them guide our choices.
Desire – What do we really want? Jesus summed it up; “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). The desire for life seems to be built into our DNA. And amazingly this is what God wants for us too. The more we acknowledge our desire for life, the closer we come to the life God wants for us.
But we know how easy it is to be deceived by our desires. Things we think will give us a better life often become barriers to the life of abundance we truly desire. If we are to have a more abundant life we need to look again at our desires. The clearer we can be about them, the better our choices will be.
Choice – Our life is a gift but also a choice – “today that I set before you, life and death … choose life” (Deut 30:19). It is not simply a matter of one big choice, but of the countless choices, big and small, we make each day. Will I receive in gratitude the life I am given? Or complain about what it is not? Will I share it freely with others confident that in giving more I will be given more? Or will I hoard for myself little scraps of life that never seem enough? These are the kind of choices we must make each day if we are to really “choose life.”
Deacon Ted Wood ccn
Focus of the Week
SEASON OF CREATION 2024
To hope and act with Creation A time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation
WHAT'S ON
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 September
Novena to St Francis Exhibition in the large hall.
Season of Creation Lunch Tickets will be available from 7 September after mass or from the parish office.
Suggested donation adult £10, child £5 after masses on 7, 14, 21, 28 September
Produce Table There will be a table outside the entrance doors each weekend where you can leave any surplus food produce from your garden or allotment, to share with other parishioners. All are welcome to take any of this produce home.
Thursday 19 September
Creation Celebration at the BT Club
Saturday 28 September
Creation Mass at 5.30pm
Sunday 29 September
Creation Mass at 9.00 am and 11.00 am
Creation Celebration – Vegetarian Lunch (provided by the restaurant Lizzie's Cucina) and bar with Fairtrade wine
Friday 4 October
St Francis’ Feast Day – Care for Creation Rosary