22nd April 2012 - 3rd Sunday of Easter (Year B) -

On this weeks programme Fr Richard Keane tells us about the upcoming Eucharistic Rally being held in Newcastle West on 29th April 2012 in preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC2012). We also have our regular gospel reflection and some saints of the week and local notices.

This weeks programme is available HERE.

IEC 2012 - Our Lady's Pastoral Area Eucharistic Rally 29th April 2012

Fr Richard Keane CC joined us this week to tell us about the Eucharistic Rally that is being held in Newcastle West on Sunday 29th April 2012. The rally is being organised by Our Lady's Pastoral Area as part of the preparations for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress which is being held in Dublin between June 10th to 16th at the RDS in Dublin with the final Mass at Croke Park on June 17th. The parishes of the pastoral area are coming together for a celebration as a faith community sharing resources and supporting each other.

The Eucharistic Rally which will be held in the GAA field on 29th April in Newcastle West at 2.30pm. The celebration will be  celebrating the gift of the Eucharist to us as a faith community. It will also be a reminder to people of the up coming IEC 2012 as well as demonstrating the efforts to build up community within the pastoral area, stressing the theme of the IEC 2012 - "The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another".

Any such celebration stresses again for us the central role of the Eucharist in our lives of faith, which reminds us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith as a pilgrim people. It reminds us that just as we are celebrating the Easter season where the risen Christ appeared to his disciples, the Eucharist confirms to us that the risen Christ is still with us in this day in age.


Gospel - Luke 24: 35-48


The Appearance of Christ at the Cenacle - James Tissot

On this weeks gospel we again hear of the encounter between Jesus and his disciples in the Upper Room on the evening of Easter Sunday. We hear from Luke's perspective what we heard from St John last week. Luke's account which we hear this week continues on after the events on the road to Emmaus where two of the disciples fleeing Jerusalem encountered the Risen Lord but didn't recognise him until the see the breaking of bread. Now they have returned to the Upper Room and they are telling the Eleven what had happened.

The gospel confirms for us again this week how close Christ is to us. We believe that Jesus is truly human and truly divine. As Fr Eugene over at Sunday Reflections reminds us this week, if you want to see Christ's humanity, we look to the cross and what happened on Good Friday, To see Christ's divinity, we look to what happened on Easter Sunday and the Resurrection event and what happened after that event.

This week we again encounter Jesus the Consoler in the gospel. Again we have the great prayer and greeting, "Peace be with you". Jesus asks "Why are you so agitated? Why are these doubts rising in your hearts?" Lectio asks how is the Word of God, written some 2000 years ago still speaking to us today? Looking at the lines of this weeks gospel it is hard not see how appropriate this question must be for so many of us today where our faith is battered and bruised from everything that has happened. Jesus is asking us why are we so nervous of our faith? Look have you not seen the marks of the nails in his hands and feet? Have you not heard the witnesses who have seen his Glorified Body? He is still with us even now.

"And their joy was so great" - the joy of the apostles needs to be looked at closely here. If you think of where the disciples were when Jesus first appeared; especially considering everything that had happened three days before and how they had behaved. Yet despite this, Jesus first response to them was "Peace be with you". He stressed to the disciples and to us that despite everything that had happened we still had the same relationship of love and friendship, he offers us the consolation of knowing that everything is forgiven, he is still there, waiting for us to turn back to him once more.

Other reflections on this weeks gospel:

• Word on Fire
• English Dominicans
• Sunday Reflections
• Renewal Ministries
• Centre for Liturgy

Pope Benedict XVI's Intentions for the month of April

• General Intention - That many young people would hear the call of Christ and follow him in the priesthood and religious life.
• Mission Intention - Christ: Hope for Africa - That the risen Christ may be a sign of certain hope for the men and women of the African Continent.

Saints of the Week

Psalter - Week 3

April 23rd - St George, patron of England.
April 24th - St Fidelis of Sigmaringen
(It is also the anniversary of the inauguration in 2005 of Pope Benedict XVI as supreme pastor of the church).
April 25th - St Mark the Evangelist and also here
April 26th - Pope St Cletus
April 27th - St Asicus - patron of the diocese of Elphin
April 28th - St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort