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15 May 2016

15th May 2016 – Pentecost Sunday

On this week’s programme John is joined by Martina O’Sullivan and Michael Keating to reflect on the Solemnity of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is perhaps the more difficult of the Persons of the Trinity to speak about. We can have some sense of what it means to have a Loving Father and Jesus came to us as God-made-man, but the Holy Spirit is more difficult for us to understand so Scripture gives us images: fire, water, breath etc. and tells us the Holy Spirit will be our Helper, Paraclete etc. The team reflect on the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments and talk about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. They also share their experience of Life in the Spirit seminars.

You can listen to the podcast of this week's programme HERE and the reflection on the Holy Spirit is excerpted HERE.

Gospel - John 14:15-16, 23-26 - Pentecost Sunday

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me you will keep my commandments.

I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever.

If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.

Those who do not love me do not keep my words.

And my word is not my own; it is the word of the one who sent me.

I have said these things to you while still with you;

but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.”

Reflections on this week's gospel:

Word on Fire
English Dominicans
Centre for Liturgy
Sunday Reflections

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - psalter week 3; week 7 in Ordinary Time

Saints of the Week
May 16th - St. Brendan, Abbot

May 17th - St. Paschal Baylon

May 18th - St. John I, Pope, Martyr

May 19th - St. Celestine

May 20th - St. Bernardine of Siena, Priest

May 21st - St. Christopher Magallanes and his Companions, Martyrs

12 May 2016

13th May - Feast of Our Lady of Fatima (Repost)

“Throughout history there have been supernatural apparitions and signs which go to the heart of human events and which, to the surprise of believers and non-believers alike, play their part in the unfolding of history. These manifestations can never contradict the content of faith and must, therefore, have their focus in the core of Christ's proclamation: the Father's love which leads men and women to conversion and bestows the grace required to abandon oneself to him with filial devotion. This too is the message of Fatima which, with its urgent call to conversion and penance, draws us to the heart of the Gospel” (The Message of Fatima, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 26, 2000).

The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated under this title following apparitions to three shepherd children — Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco — in Portugal in 1917. The message of Fatima includes a call to conversion of heart, repentance from sin and a dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially through praying the Rosary.

From CatholicCulture.org:

The famous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the children of Fatima took place during the First World War, in the summer of 1917. The inhabitants of this tiny village in the diocese of Leiria (Portugal) were mostly poor people, many of them small farmers who went out by day to tend their fields and animals. Children traditionally were assigned the task of herding the sheep.

The three children who received the apparitions had been brought up in an atmosphere of genuine piety: Lucia dos Santos (ten years old) and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta. Together they tended the sheep and, with Lucy in charge, would often pray the Rosary kneeling in the open. In the summer of 1916 an Angel appeared to them several times and taught them a prayer to the Blessed Trinity.

On Sunday, May 13, 1917, toward noon, a flash of lightning drew the attention of the children, and they saw a brilliant figure appearing over the trees of the Cova da Iria. The "Lady" asked them to pray for the conversion of sinners and an end to the war, and to come back every month, on the 13th.

Further apparitions took place on June 13 and July 13. On August 13 the children were prevented by local authorities from going to the Cova da Iria, but they saw the apparition on the 19th. On September 13 the Lady requested recitation of the Rosary for an end to the war. Finally, on October 13, the "Lady" identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary" and again called for prayer and penitence.

On that day a celestial phenomenon also took place: the sun seemed to tumble from the sky and crash toward earth. The children had been forewarned of it as early as May 13, the first apparition. The large crowd (estimated at 30,000 by reporters) that had gathered around the children saw the phenomenon and came away astounded.

Official recognition of the "visions" which the children had at the Cova da Iria came on October 13, 1930, when the bishop of Leiria - after long inquiry - authorized the cult of Our Lady of the Rosary at the site. The two younger children had died: Francisco (who saw the apparition but did not hear the words) on April 4, 1919, and his sister Jacinta on February 20, 1920. Sister Lucia died on February 13, 2005, at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal, after a long illness.

You can read more about the apparition and messages of Fatima HERE and HERE and also from the Fatima Sanctuary website including a live feed HERE.

Word on Fire reflection HERE and CNA resources HERE.

Previous reflections on the devotion to Mary, the Rosary and the linkages to Fatima available HERE.