The Catholic Church, Llandudno.

May we know Christ more clearly, love Him more dearly and follow Him more nearly.

Dear Parishioner

On the Sunday following our First Holy Communion celebrations, I would like to congratulate the children who received Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament for the first time.  It was a very joyous Mass and an equally joyous celebration over at Stella Maris afterwards.

In addition to their certificates, the children received a blank CD.  Thinking how wonderful it would be to hear again what the priest said to me on my First Holy Communion Day sixty years ago, the idea came to me that we can now make this possible.  The blank CD is for the children to download the First Communion Sermon from our website (just google Llandudno Catholic Church) and listen to it in sixty years time, or before if they wish!

I would like to thank all who helped in any way with the celebrations last Sunday, those who decorated the church with flowers, those who filled it with music, and those who catered at Stella Maris afterwards.  Thanks to Elsa Best for the magnificent cake she made and donated for the occasion. 

But thanks of a different order are due to Elaine Dingsdale for preparing the children for this Sacrament.  She has given freely of her time for many months to bring these eight-year-olds to the stage whereby they could appreciate something of the immensity of the Sacrament they were about to receive.  The lessons she has given will be of life-long value.  We thank the Parents too for bringing their children to this stage of their spiritual journey through life.  There is yet a long way to go and their labours of love are by no means ended.

Now something about me!  Before Easter I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and it was decided that the best treatment would be a prostatectomy, the complete removal of the gland.  The operation will take place at Glan Clwyd on 16 July.

It is a fairly serious and complex operation and requires a convalescence period of at least three month.  This means that I shall be away from the parish for this period, returning, expectantly, for the beginning of November—All Saints Day.  Hopefully, not All Souls Day! 

I am neither worried nor anxious about it, and, if I am not, then I trust you will not be either.  We are all in God’s hands, and whatever He does is ultimately for our best.  We must thank God for whatever he chooses to put in our path.

While I am gone, Fr Gordon will be Priest in Charge.  It is really providential that we have him with us.  He has been here now long enough to have learned the ropes and to know exactly how the Parish runs. 

When I was ill last time, it was a question of finding a different priest for the Masses every week: a real nightmare for Sister Jennifer.  This time we shall have no such difficulty.

While I am away, Sister Jennifer will live in the Presbytery.  This will make things run almost normally, and I am most grateful to her that she is prepared to leave her own home for such a long period.  Iolo, the whippet, will take up residence here as well!

So, what with Fr Gordon, Sr Jennifer and a first rate Parish Council, the Parish shouldn’t even notice I’m gone!

The Confirmation lessons began on Thursday.  The next sessions are as follows:

Session 2:                    730pm,24 June

Confessions :               10am, 26 June

Session 3:                    730pm,1 July

Session 4:                    730pm,8 July

Confirmation:              730pm 14 July

I repeat that all children in year 8 are entitled to receive this Sacrament, but they must attend the above sessions, with their parents and sponsors where possible.

Now for something completely different. I was reading the psalms in Welsh the other day when the word “gwrogaeth” suddenly made me curious.

Dewch, canwn yn llawen i’r Arglwydd, rhown (g)wrogaeth i graig ein hiachawdwriaeth.  Ps 95

Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord

Pay homage to the Rock of our Salvation.  Now what struck me then was the fact that the word “Gwrogaeth” is an expansion of the word “Gwr”, which mean a man.  The English word “Homage” begins with the letters “Hom”, which derive from the Latin word “Homo” meaning a man. 

So I checked out the etymology of the word “homage” to see what the word originally meant.  This is what I found:

The word “homage” derives from feudal times when the lord of the manner ‘owned’ the serfs on his land.  They were there to do his bidding; they belonged to him, they owed him respect and honour.  I discovered that the original use of the word denoted the ceremony by which a vassal declared himself to be his lord’s “man”.

We live in more enlightened times and anyone would baulk at paying homage like that to another human being, be that person queen or president.  But it expresses perfectly our relationship with God.

Each one of us is the Lord’s man, the Lord’s woman.  We belong to him.  We are his.  He made us; He loves us.  We are united to Him totally through the Sacraments.  We are here to do his bidding, his will.  We should see ourselves as the Lord’s servants, always watching, always ready to do his will, to further his cause.  The Christian is the Lord’s man, the Lord’s woman, whose life is dedicated to Him, whose life is an ongoing act of homage..

God bless you, 

                     Fr Antony.