June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a month dedicated to contemplating the love of God made flesh in the heart of Jesus Christ. We are invited in this month to consider the charity of the heart of Jesus and seek to grow in love for Him and for those around us. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is Friday, June 3.

50TH  WORLD  COMMUNICATIONS  DAY

My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

This year’s Communications Sunday message is addressed to us during the Holy Year of Mercy and in his theme, Pope Francis invites us to reflect on the relationship between communication and mercy.

At first sight, that may seem an odd request, we may think of communications as purely functional;  the means by which we impart or convey information to one another.   It may be difficult to see how the transmission of ideas or information can be merciful or otherwise.

If we think for a moment, however, it is clear that mercy is very much a part of all that we do and importantly, of what we say.   As the Pope’s puts it:  “What we say and how we say it, our every word and gesture, ought to express God’s compassion, tenderness and forgiveness for all.   Love, by its nature, is communication;  it leads to openness and sharing.   If our hearts and actions are inspired by charity, by divine love, then our communication will be touched by God’s own power.”

The need to speak with care and compassion is especially important in the digital world of social media.   As Christians we must always build bridges and open doors to dialogue and understanding.   The immediacy and instantaneousness of social media can sometimes tempt us towards angry exchanges and aggressive language.   Hurling insults and abuse will simply entrench misunderstanding and close hearts and minds.

As Pope Francis reminds us, when communicating digitally, we may not see the person we are engaging with, but the dignity and respect we bring to our actual encounters should always be present in our digital ones.

On this Communications Sunday I ask you to consider if you always communicate with mercy and if not, to pay attention to the needs of those we communicate with, always remembering their innate human dignity.

I also ask you to give your support to those employed by the Church to communicate her message to a wider audience.   They need your prayers and rely on your generosity to fulfil the responsibilities placed upon them.

I thank you on behalf of the Bishops of Scotland for your willingness to support the work of our communicators within the church and I hope that you will keep them and the work that you do in your prayers.

Yours devotedly in Christ

+Philip Tartaglia
Archbishop of Glasgow
President, Communications Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland

Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Blessed Lord into Heaven. Our focus during this joyful Easter-tide now turns towards the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Please join us in praying daily the attached Novena, asking the Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon you and your family.

 

 

Novena to the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

 

 

 

 

Eastertide is the time of new life. Our Saviour’s in the first place, living for ever a life which belongs no more to the earth and which one day we shall share with Him in heaven. And then our own lives — from Christ to us — for we have more than the assurance of rejoining Him; snatched by Him from the power of the devil we belong to Him as His by right of conquest and we share His life.

DIRECTIONS

Easter week is the week of the baptised. They have passed from death to life, from the darkness of sin to the life of grace in the light of Christ. Wherever there are neophytes, the Easter season, and particularly the first week, is the period of postbaptismal catechesis or mystogogy The community shares with them a deepening understanding of the paschal mystery and an ever greater assimilation of it in daily life through meditation, participation in the Eucharist, and the practice of charity.

The moral requirements of the new life are recalled throughout Eastertide. They are governed by the principle enunciated by St. Paul that, risen with Christ, the Christian must raise his desires to heaven, detach himself from earthly pleasures in order to love those of heaven. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to complete the formation in the baptized of the “new man” who, by the holiness of his life, bears witness to Christ crucified.

The Fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one “great Sunday.”

These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia.

The Sundays of this season rank as the paschal Sundays and, after Easter Sunday itself, are called the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Sundays of Easter. The period of fifty sacred days ends on Pentecost Sunday. The first eight days of the Easter Season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord.

On the fortieth day after Easter the Ascension is celebrated, except in places where, not being a holy day of obligation, it has been transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter. This solemnity directs our attention to Christ, who ascended into heaven before the eyes of his disciples, who is now seated at the right hand of the Father, invested with royal power, who is there to prepare a place for us in the kingdom of heaven; and who is destined to come again at the end of time.

The weekdays after the Ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.

This sacred season of fifty days comes to an end on Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, the beginnings of the Church and its mission to every tongue and people and nation. (Excerpted from the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Ceremonial of Bishops)

Now that we have marked Ash Wednesday and the start of the Holy Season of Lent, it may be useful to remind ourselves of what Lent is about and learn (or re-discover) some of the wonderful things we can do, to assist in our making the most of this season.

A useful resource for giving different suggestions of activities, can be found on the website of the Bishop’s Conference of the USA: http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/upload/lent-2016-calendar.pdf

In his second encyclical as Pope, St. John Paul II writes,  (in Dives in Misericordia) “mercy is manifested in its true and proper aspect when it restores to value, promotes and draws good from all the forms of evil existing in the world and in man” (DM, 6). This means that we are merciful when we respond to evil with good. We see this lesson first taught by Jesus as He tells us to turn the other cheek and shows us the application of this by bringing humanity eternal life from His Death. At the end of each Lent we celebrate this gift in particular by meditating on the evil brought upon the Son of God during Holy Week, and then the good He brings out of this evil through His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

God has shown us His Mercy. He has brought the greatest good from the greatest evil. In our Christian life, we must strive to imitate God and love like He loves and “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).  It’s good to note that we cannot do evil to bring about good, but in the face of the evil that we experience we must only respond with good.

Ideas for the Lent of Mercy

The tradition of Lent, is offering sacrifices and sufferings up as penance for the forgiveness of sins. This truth of Redemptive Suffering allows us to make up for the wrongs we have done as we rejoice in our sufferings, and in our flesh “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24). We are able to do penance for our sins and the sins of others and, in a way, participate in the Mercy of God. This could include offering up every suffering as a sacrifice throughout your day. Some ideas could be:

• Getting up at the first alarm and offering it for someone you know who is struggling
• Saying yes to anything (reasonable) others ask of you and offering it up for them
• Letting people in front of you in traffic and praying for them at the same time
• Take cold showers and offer it up for friends and family
• Put a pebble in your shoe and offer it up for priests and religious
• When you have the choice, pick foods you want the least and offer this up for those who are spiritually poor
• Go on a spending freeze. Practice the spirit of poverty by not buying anything that is not absolutely essential
• Maintain silence. This can include not turning on the radio and not always speaking freely your thoughts and opinions. Practice the virtue of silence and grow in your ability to really listen to others
• Fast on bread and water on certain days to master your will

The Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy taught by the Church show us many ways to bring good from the bad. We could make it a goal to intentionally seek ways to practice these works this Lent. This will include:

Corporal Works of Mercy-

1) Feed the hungry

2) Give drink to the thirsty

3) Clothe the naked

4) Shelter the homeless

5) Visit the sick

6) Visit the imprisoned

7) Bury the dead

Spiritual Works of Mercy-

1) Counsel the doubtful

2) Instruct the ignorant

3) Admonish sinners

4) Comfort the afflicted

5) Forgive offenses

6) Bear wrongs patiently

7) Pray for the living and the dead

Be Merciful to Jesus

We can be merciful to Jesus this Lent. St. John Paul II explains, “Christ, precisely as the crucified one, is the Word that does not pass away, and He is the one who stands at the door and knocks at the heart of every man, without restricting his freedom, but instead seeking to draw from this very freedom love, which is not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of ‘mercy’ shown by each one of us to the Son of the eternal Father” (DM, 8). We show Christ mercy by loving Him. We can love him through seeking to nourish our relationship with Him and by avoiding sins that hurt our relationship with Him.

I am sure that we can come up with a plethora of ideas, but here are a few to help:

-Daily Rosary

-The Divine Mercy Chaplet recited at 3.00pm (Publicly in the JPII Oratory in Rosyth on a Friday)

-Time in Adoration (either exposed on the altar or reposed in the tabernacle)

-Daily reading of Scripture

-The Stations of the Cross

-Frequenting the Sacraments

-Consecration to Jesus through Mary by the St. Louis de Montfort method.