Llandudno -
Our Lady Star of
the Sea
Parish
Priest: Fr Antony Jones STL - Telephone: 01492 860546 [Email]
Sunday April
9th
2006
Dear Parishioner,
On Saturday evening, at the Easter Vigil, we will have the very real
pleasure of receiving into full communion with the Catholic Church
eight people who have spent the last year preparing themselves for this
most significant moment in their lives. Three of them will be
baptised, and all of them will be confirmed and make their First Holy
Communion.
Two of them will be married with full Nuptial Mass on Easter Monday and
another will celebrate her wedding, also with Nuptial Mass, in the very
near future. Saturday evening will be for all of them a truly
significant moment in their lives and, from the point of view of
eternity, the most important moment in their whole existence.
These eight, Nicola Rowlands, Ina Naeth, Lisa Marshall, Anita McNair,
Betty Causier, Janet Starr, Fleur Williams, and David Swann, have been
supported throughout their preparation by their sponsors. The
Church is grateful to these parishioners who have attended the
Catechumenate sessions and generally “been there” for these new
converts, helping them in all sorts of different ways.
These sponsors will certainly be there on Saturday evening as their
labours come to their fruition. So also will the families and
friends of those being received and, I fondly hope, very many of you as
well, as we witness and welcome these new members being added to our
parish family.
The Easter Vigil has been, since the earliest days of the Church, the
occasion for receiving into the Church new adult members. It is a
time of great joy as the Church rejoices in the new life that Christ
won for us by his glorious resurrection from the dead. It is the
ideal time to pass that new life on to those who have not yet received
it and, in this way, to enter profoundly into what Easter is all about.
The Catechumenate for those to be received into the Church next year
will begin on Tuesday 6 June. Already there are several people
signed up for it. People don’t just turn up at the Catechumenate
out of the blue. There is always a life history that leads up to
it. In all that history, God’s grace has been at work. I
repeat to the Catechumens the fundamental truth that they have not
chosen Christ, but Christ has chosen them, as he says Himself in the
Gospels. But God’s call does not work in a vacuum; he works
through people, especially those who are already close to him.
And that means you.
Before Jesus went forth to his passion and death, he gave us at the
Last Supper the Eucharist, that Sacrament which would perpetuate in the
Church what he was about to do on Calvary and make his glorious risen
presence a reality in the Church for the rest of time. Maundy
Thursday is the day the Church commemorates this institution of the
Mass. Those of you who love the Mass, and I sure you all do,
please come to this beautiful service on Thursday evening at
730pm. It could be your way of thanking the Lord for the
Sacrament that secures your own wonderful communion with Almighty God.
Last week’s Deanery Penitential Week was once again very successful,
with a service held each evening in every parish of the Deanery.
In our parish, Confessions are always on call, which means that you are
welcome to come to the Presbytery anytime you like to receive this
Sacrament. On Holy Saturday, there will be the usual Saturday
morning Service of Reconciliation at 10.30am. This is the very
service that the Deanery has adopted for its Penitential Weeks, with
priests and people alike expressing their admiration for it. I
would be delighted if we could, as a parish, get used to using it more
regularly on a Saturday morning.
God
bless you,
Fr Antony Jones.