Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) 4/5 February 2017

Fr Frank writes:

My Dear Friends,

At all Masses next weekend I will read a letter from Pope Francis, in which he speaks of the 11^th February being the 25^th World Day of the Sick. This ‘day’ was instituted by Pope St John Paul II in 1992, and first celebrated in Lourdes on 11 February 1993. It is a day when we can pray with special fervour for the sick, for those who suffer and for those who work to alleviate suffering – families, health workers and volunteers. The Pope goes on to remind us that this celebration also gives the Church renewed spiritual energy for carrying out ever more fully that fundamental part of her mission which includes serving the poor, the infirm, the suffering, the outcast and the marginalized.

This coming Saturday, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the principal patron of our Diocese, is also the beginning of the diocese’s centenary year. To mark this significant day, the bishop is asking each parish to hold a period of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Accordingly, in both parishes there will be a period of Adoration following the Saturday morning Mass (at which there will be anointing of the sick). This Mass will be that of Our Lady of Lourdes. Please come along and unite yourself in prayer, together with all the other parishes, for our diocese and for all the sick and those who work to alleviate pain and suffering.

May God bless you, and may Our Lady of Lourdes pray for you.

Fr Frank ofs

Sunday Smile:

A young priest, trying to wake up his sleepy congregation, suddenly interrupted his homily with the words, ‘I remember the time when I was in the arms of another man’s wife!’ Everyone sat up. ‘She was the wife of my father,’ he added to chuckles from the congregation.

His elderly bishop heard of this, and decided the joke would make an excellent introduction to his next homily. He stood up in a packed cathedral; ‘I remember the time when I was in the arms of another man’s wife,’ he began, with great aplomb. Then there was a long pause. The bishop stammered, ‘Just for the moment, I can’t remember whose wife she was!’