Lenten Joy
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“In the short chapter on Lent in St Benedict’s Rule he twice mentions the joy of the Holy Spirit, once by making an offering to God “with the Joy of the Holy Spirit” and once by waiting for Easter “in the joy of holy desire”.  For St Benedict Lent is now a season of torture but a season of joy.”
Dom Henry Wansborough OSB
May our Second week of Lent be a joyful time of restraint and preparation for the Easter mystery

The Prodigal Son
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During Lent this year we will hear the Gospel of the Prodigal Son which Pope Benedict 16th said “constitutes one of the peaks of spirituality and literature of all time”.   Part of the famous Rembrandt painting of this parable will accompany our journey in the Church, with the Father embracing his repentant child - as Pope Benedict put it “our Father who out of love created us to be free and endowed us with a conscience, who suffers when we get lost and rejoices when we return”.
 
The Holy Father went on to write “For this reason, our relationship with the Father is built up through events, just as it happens for every child with his parents: at first he depends on them, then he asserts his autonomy; and, in the end if he develops well he reaches a mature relationship based on gratitude and authentic love.
In these stages we can also identify moments along man's journey in his relationship with God. There can be a phase that resembles childhood: religion prompted by need, by dependence. As man grows up and becomes emancipated, he wants to liberate himself from this submission and become free and adult, able to organize himself and make his own decisions, even thinking he can do without God. Precisely this stage is delicate and can lead to atheism, yet even this frequently conceals the need to discover God's true Face.
Fortunately for us, God never fails in his faithfulness and even if we distance ourselves and get lost he continues to follow us with his love, forgiving our errors and speaking to our conscience from within in order to call us back to him”
 
During these Lenten days may we hear the voice of the Father, who is ever merciful and compassionate, speaking to our hearts that we may grow closer to him each day. 

Almsgiving during the Season of Lent
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In one of his Lenten messages Pope Benedict XVI wrote that  “In the Lenten period, the Church makes it her duty to propose some specific tasks that accompany the faithful concretely in this process of interior renewal: these are prayer, fasting and almsgiving” and the Holy Father went on to quote St  Augustine who said that “fasting and almsgiving are "the two wings of prayer" which enable it to gain momentum and more easily reach even to God”
While we all have our own ways of supporting others, during this Lenten Season I would like to invite our Parish community to support both CAFOD but also the work of the Genesis Trust, a local Charity here in Bath, which undertakes some of its outreach at St John’s Church Bath.   Fr Christopher and Fr Jeremy will also be inviting the parishioners in St Johns and St Marys Parishes to take part in this Lenten almsgiving. 
Next Sunday (the 1st Sunday of Lent) there will be collection boxes for you to take home and to use, if you wish, during the 40 says of Lent.   I would then ask you to bring these boxes back either on Palm Sunday or on Maundy Thursday when they will be bought up during the Offertory at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.   The collection will be divided equally between Genesis and CAFOD.
In case the work of the Genesis project isn’t familiar Fr Christopher has written this. 
“Out of a desire to reach out to some of Bath's vulnerable, St John's hosts a lunch each Thursday in partnership with the Genesis Trust to ensure that some of those who live on the streets are nourished and nurtured with a home-cooked meal.  Attracting some fifty guests each week, the lunch is made up of those who are homeless, those with addiction needs, those who are lonely, and those who are vulnerable. The hall at St John's provides a welcoming environment in which Genesis' guests can come to be refreshed, fed, and made welcome. 

Dates for your diary
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Weds 5th March – Ash Wednesday Masses at 0700 / 1200/1800
Stations of the Cross – 1130 on Fridays & 1715 on Sundays
Tue 15th April – Parish Lent Penitential Service 1830

Racial Justice Sunday 16th of February
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On this day the Church focuses on the need to oppose racism and pursue racial justice with renewed vigour. The theme for Racial Justice Sunday is: “Pilgrims of Hope: Our Journey Together Towards Racial Justice”.
 
The theme invites Catholics across England and Wales to reflect on the collective journey towards racial justice in our schools, parishes and wider society. Bishop Paul McAleenan said: “2025 is a very special year. It marks both a Year of Jubilee and the 30th anniversary of Racial Justice Sunday. This year, we invite the Catholic community to reflect on the journey towards racial justice – past, present and future – by asking: ‘How far have we come, where are we now and what remains to be achieved?’
 
Just as pilgrims must prepare for their journey and be properly equipped, we, too, need all that is necessary to propel us towards racial justice – the mind of Christ; examination of our progress and of the challenges that remain; a willingness to learn from one another together; and prayers for and on the journey. “It is my hope that our Racial Justice Sunday 2025 resources will not only assist but inspire the People of God to continue walking and praying together on the path to racial justice.”

Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes
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On Tues Feb. 11, the Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, recalling a series of 18 appearances that the Blessed Virgin Mary made to a 14-year-old French peasant girl, Saint Bernadette Soubirous. The Marian apparitions began Feb. 11, 1858, ended July 16 that year and received the local bishop's approval after a four-year inquiry.
 
Thousands of people say their medical conditions have been cured through pilgrimage, prayer and the water flowing from a spring to which Bernadette was directed by the Blessed Virgin. Experts have verified 71 cases of miraculous healing at Lourdes since 1862, the most recent being John Traynor, a soldier in the Royal Navy, was hit by machine-gun fire in 1915 in present-day Turkey. He was cured at Lourdes during a pilgrimage for his diocese in 1923. The miracle was officially recognised by Bishop McMahon in Liverpool on the 8th of December 2024.
 
During an apparition of Our Lady to St Bernadette on the Feast of the Annunciation, St Bernadette asked to know her identity. Finally, the woman folded her hands, looked up and said: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
 
This prayer is from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington
Ever Immaculate Virgin Mother of Mercy, Health of the sick, refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings; look with mercy on me. By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favours; and already many sufferers have obtained the cure for their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal.
I come, therefore, with complete confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my requests. Through gratitude for your favours, I will endeavour to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory. Amen.

Quote in Homily
A few people asked if they could have the quote from Pope Francis Homily in 2022 on the Word of God Sunday which I used.   The Holy Father said “The Word draws us to God and sends us to others. …. it does not leave us self-absorbed, but expands hearts, changes courses, overturns habits, opens up new scenarios and discloses unthought-of horizons….that is what the Word of God wants to do in each of us”
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Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Next Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and at the beginning of Mass candles will be blessed as a sign of the Light of Christ shining in the midst of the world.
You will be offered a candle as you enter the Church for the entrance procession, but if you would like you could bring a candle too Mass and then take it home afterwards as a sign of the light of faith within your home.
This feast was originally celebrated in the Eastern Churches as "The Meeting" or "Encountering" (Hypapante), in the Church where all people meet the Lord. By the sixth century it began to be celebrated in the West, where the focus became the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was accompanied by solemn blessings and processions with candles; hence, it is popularly called "Candlemas." 
St. Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) wrote this reflection on lighting candles.  “The candles which you light reveal to you the intelligible light. Just as the church, that house of great beauty, is full of light from many candles, so the house of your soul, which is more precious than that church, should be illumined and full of light in a noetic sense – that is to say, that within you all the spiritual virtues should burn with divine fire… The multitude of burning lamps signify the illumined thoughts which should shine within you like lamps, so that there should be no dark thought in the house of your soul, but that all should be aflame and shining with the light of the Holy Spirit.”
 

Looking ahead
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Thankyou again for the prayerful and joyful celebration of Advent and Christmas.  It was a bit sad to see that the Christmas trees had gone!  There is an argument that the Christmas season doesn’t end until the 2nd of February with the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (40 days after the Saviour’s birth) so if your tree is still up you have a good reason to explain it.
 
However I have been thinking ahead to the year to come and considering how we can deepen the prayer life of our parish community which will then overflow into our wider engagement with the local community and there are a few thoughts below.
 
A number of you have spoken of the processions which used to be part of Parish life.  Processions have always formed a part of wider Christian life, be they longer Pilgrimages or simply within the life of the local Church.  We have echoes in the Liturgy as on the Feast of the Presentation when process with lighted Candles, on Palm Sunday, at the Easter Vigil, and others.   So I would like to restore the Procession of Our Lady which will take place in May when we will rededicate our Parish to the intercession and protection of the Mother of God.   As July is the month traditionally dedicated to the Most Precious Blood it would seem appropriate to restore the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament at this time.
 
Our Parish School will also be holding a Jubilee Celebration and processing to the Church during the coming year.  More widely the local Pastoral Area is looking to organise a pilgrimage walking from Downside to Glastonbury in July during this Holy Year.  With all these details to follow and of course help will be needed.
 
In July I would also like us to have a meeting to consider the Pastoral Priorities looking further ahead, and would like a Pastoral Council to develop from this.  Its all very well for me to have thoughts but we are all involved in developing parish life and it is important that we come together to identify priorities and how these can, through the grace of God, be bought to a fulfilment. 
 
For me this also means discovering the living meaning of “Parishes in Communion”, the term used to describe the relationship between Our Lady’s and St Joseph’s parishes.   Bishop Declan reminds me regularly that the actual term is “Parishes in Communion for Mission” and the meaning of Mission which both communities need to consider jointly. 
 
And speaking of Bishop Declan, this year he will celebrate  his Golden Jubilee of Ordination to the Priesthood.  Since his move to Bath we have been blessed to have him as part of our communities and I am sure we will want to mark this special occasion with him.  He did say that he wasn’t going to do anything to mark this Jubilee, but I am afraid I wouldn’t, on your behalf, take no for an answer.  Again details to follow and requests for help as well!
 
This time last year I was just beginning another term with Cadets at Sandhurst and wondering where I would end up with boxes everywhere ready to pack.  The same now empty boxes are in the garage and I have no plans to use them any time soon. Rather as I said after Christmas I feel blessed to be part of the life of our Parishes and look forward to the year to come with you. 
 
The words of Our Lady are clear in Gospel this Sunday , that we are to listen to her Son and “do whatever he tells you”.  As we hear the Lord speaking to us this coming year may we respond generously and willingly to the paths he calls us to walk 

THE JUBILEE YEAR
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….officially began on 24th December when Pope Francis opens the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. At the end of the year, the Jubilee year will be brought to a close with the Holy Doors of St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul’s Outside the Walls being closed. Finally the Jubilee Year will conclude with the celebration of the solemnity of Epiphany in Rome on 6th January 2026.
 
There are several events in scripture where doors were important physically and symbolically. They are gateways to the Divine and provide protection or freedom from suffering and danger. Some are thresholds between one place and another on the way to salvation. Meanwhile other doors signify boundaries between where God and people can dwell. In the ancient world the ordinary domestic door became a symbol of hospitality and safety.
 
A special sanctuary was associated with the threshold of the home.
 
In the New Testament, open and closed doors are mentioned as well as the people who knock on them, both literally and symbolically. A closed door is also used to celebrate humility such as when Jesus encourages us to shut our doors and pray to our Father in secret, rather than parade our piety in public (Matthew 6.6).
 
Perhaps the most powerful image of all is Jesus himself as the door; enabling us to enter into relationship with God (John 10:7-90) and transcending all previous access to the Divine in this one simple universal image.
 
THE DOOR TO NOAH’S ARK (Genesis 6:16)   The door of the ark symbolises God’s justice and mercy as, while judging a fallen world, he opens the way to salvation and world healing to the faithful Noah, his family and the chosen animals.
 
THE PASSOVER DOOR (Exodus 12:7-130)   God instructs Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. The Passover door symbolises God’s protection over the oppressed Israelites and foreshadowed the blood of the perfect, sacrificial lamb, poured out by Jesus on the cross.
 
THE TEMPLE DOOR (Kings 6:31-35)  The door at the centre of the temple symbolised the liminal space between God and humanity. Only the ceremonial pure high priest could enter the door to the Holy of Holies deep within the temple. Inside the Holy of Holies were housed the Ark of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments. Above them hung the temple curtain which was torn apart at the point of Jesus’s death signifying that direct access to God was now possible through Jesus for all people.
 
THE SHEPHERD DOOR (John 10:7-9) This door represents how Jesus is the way for us to be in a relationship with God. Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the Door to eternal life will always go looking for his lost sheep and will lay down his life for them.
 
THE DOOR OF THE TOMB (Matthew 28:1-6)  When Jesus died and rose from the dead, an angel rolled away the newly hewn stone that acted as the door to His grave. This door is the climax of the physical & symbolic miracle of the resurrection. It encourages us to believe that death is not the end but a new beginning in our faith journey to God.
THE DOOR OF FAITH (Act 14:27)   Despite persecution, Paul & Barnabus stayed faithful to the Good News and described their experience as God opening ‘a door of faith’ among non-believers through their preaching mission. 

Thanks to Shelagh Hetreed for preparing this.