St James the Great - Peckham Rye

Fr Jack’s mobile: 07909 140867 (text)        Mon 26^th February to Sun 3^rd March 2024

Mass Intentions

Monday          10:00am  Intention of Jessica

Tuesday         10:00am  Peace in the World

Wednesday   10:00am  Medical Staff  -  No evening Mass

Thursday        10:00am  Displaced people of the World- No benediction

Friday             10:00am   World Leaders

 Stations of the Cross after 10:00am Mass

Saturday        06:00pm Peggy McAdams

Sunday           08:30am  People of the Parish

10:00am   Personal Intention

12:00noon Mary Ryan RIP

12 Steps

The 12 steps from Alcoholic Anonymous are a well tried, tested and proven method of changing one's life.  I think they are a fantastic help for any one trying to find Christ also.  Like today's gospel they can transform your life/spirituality.

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carrythat out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

A Place at my table

A BIG THANK YOU to ASKI for giving us a terrific day last Wednesday.  There was plenty chat, dieting consultation and a beautiful lunch.  All those (20) who came thoroughly enjoyed it.  The next one is on Wednesday 20^th March 10am to 2pm.  Please book in with Fr Jack.

Saint Vincent de Paul

JUMBLE & Bric-a-Brac sale (No rubbish please)

Saturday 16^th March 12:00 noon till 4pm.  All donations welcome for the work of the SVP.

Lent

A great time for going to confession with Fr Jack or Westminster Cathedral

St James the Great - Peckham Rye

Fr Jack’s mobile: 07909 140867 (text)

Mass Intentions

Monday          10:00am  Peace in the Holy Land

Tuesday         10:00am  FM Harry & Teresa Logan

Wednesday   10:00am  Ukraine & Russia

Thursday        10:00am  Holy Souls

04:00pm Benediction

Friday             10:00am   The Needy and the Hungry of the World

 Stations of the Cross after 10:00am Mass

Saturday        06:00pm Personal Intention

Sunday                       08:30am  Joseph & Maria

10:00am         People of the Parish

12:00noon     Michael Gleeson RIP

WALK 200 KM IN 40 DAYS TO HELP FIGHT GLOBAL POVERTY

Challenge yourself and take on The Big Lent Walk! Walk when and where you choose over 40 days, alone or with friends. Raise money to help people as they overcome poverty. 

Go on  Google and sign up for CAFOD  200 mile walk.

Only five miles a day, in your own time and at your own place and space.

Get sponsorship and raise money for Cafod or a charity of your own liking. 

And why not  pray and/or fast on your walk. 

What a wonderful Lent PRAYER, FASTING, HELPING OTHERS.

And guaranteed to feel better by Easter Sunday for a personal resurrection.

Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

KARAOKE -An afternoon of fun socialising and enjoyment

Sunday the 25th February.  2pm to 5pm in the afternoon

There will be some food available.  But could I ask people to bring a picnic type lunch for themselves and a bit too share.  This is not being mean but an attempt to spread the workload.  And if it works well, we could have a karaoke afternoon every month, be a great parish builder.

The PLACE AT MY TABLE

Weds 21st Feb 10:30am to 2:30pm

Exercise, chat, meal.

Places still available let Fr Jack know on

Tarmac

I hope you enjoy the new car park, thank you very much £27,000 including VAT

A beautiful story of healing in today's gospel, But please note two things:-

1.  Jesus healed him.
2.  The man wanted to be healed.  ("of course I want to.")

I would like to give up my drinking problem, I would like the end of war and violence, I would like a better environment, I would like a better relationship with Jesus, I would like a better relationship with my partner.    But what am I willing to do to achieve anything?  Just vaguely wishing just hoping God or someone else will do it.  It does not work like that.  God gave us a brain, would I upset you if I said he gave some of us a brain?  Sorry!

I am sure many people will read the first reading today from the book of Job and feel how true it is.  Sadly that is the state of many peoples' lives drudgery, monotony and boredom.  You have my sympathy. Wishing it was all over.  Life has nothing to offer. First port of call, talk to someone,

come and talk to me.  It is always good to talk.  People do not have magic solutions 

but we all need a "shoulder to lean on."  Job talked to three of his friends and they upset him and he threw them out in anger.  Read the book. He even cursed God.   But he kept on talking to others and to God.  And eventually he came up with an answer.  Do you want an answer?  Read Job.

The last few weeks I have been challenging you as to whether your faith is making the world a better place or not.  Is it making you/me a better person? Today I have another challenge.Is Jesus just another voice among many for you.   Is He the way, the truth and the life for you?  A great mistake is to make Him into another voice among many and it is up to me to take my pick.  Sounds like a lotto, and as we know, in that, there are many losers.   "Jesus spoke with authority."  He did not have to refer to anyone else.  As at times I may refer to the Pope or somebody else. 

Even to Pilate, He said, “I am He."

In today's Gospel we see Satan recognising Jesus and he trembles in his boots.   I hope you recognise him and He IS YOUR LIFE.

"An unexamined life is a life not worth living."  So says Socrates, and this is what Jesus is calling us to do.  "Repent." 

Look at your life.  Is your life worth living?

"To live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often."  Who said that?  A fiver for the first correct answer.   As Christians we need always to be reflecting on our life.  

Am I a passenger or a driver in the world?  Do I make things happen in other people's lives or in my own? In the second reading Paul was reviewing his life and he said what he said because he believed the end of the world was near.  Again get your priorities right.

God, others and me. In that order..

Evangelization is a big word but simply means spreading the Gospel or telling other people about Jesus.  How do I do it?  There are as many ways as there are people willing to do it.  Just look at what the Master Himself did in today's Gospel.  "Come and see."  Invite somebody to church.  Have you ever done so?  Don't just land them in.  Explain a little to them as to what it is all about and be the star host.  I hope many "strangers" come among us now and again.  Would meeting you make them want to come back again?

Please every baptised Christian has a duty to spread the Gospel.

Today after 12 mass there will be a meeting to look at this very issue. Consider yourself invited.  You have something to offer.

Fr Jack

A few  very simple things about today's reading.

1. The magi studied the start.  That was their job.  They noticed something different and they followed their instinct using nature/their job.  They read the signs of the times.
2. 2. It led them to a small village and to a dirty stable where they saw a baby who was also a king. God appears in very strange places.  We need to have eyes to see.

3.  Having discovered the child/God their lives were never the same again.

From Archbishop Wilson

It was faith in God, and fidelity to God’s word, that enabled Abraham and Sarah to believe God’s promise. It was faith in God, and fidelity to God’s word, that made Our Lady and St Joseph capable of cooperating so uniquely and beautifully with God’s purpose for their lives and our salvation. It is our Catholic faith that gives identity and meaning to the Sacrament of Marriage and to family life as the domestic church. The family, in the closer and wider senses, remains the most important building block of the Church and of society. When the family flourishes, the Church flourishes. When the family flourishes, society flourishes. Catholic faith is intrinsic to our understanding of marriage and family life, supported by our parishes and schools.

I have been privileged over the past year to witness so many inspiring examples of husbands and wives, with their children and extended families, living and celebrating their Catholic faith, passing it on, and making it central to their day-to-day life. We know that every family has its difficulties. Sometimes, sadly, we also know there is breakdown, both in marriage and in family life. To anyone who is wounded by damaged or broken relationships, please know that the Church is your home, a compassionate ‘hospital’ of healing and mercy. I want to say a very sincere ‘thank you’ to every family which forms part of our Archdiocese. Thank you for your commitment to your faith and for making your homes holy places where the values and virtues of the Holy Family of Nazareth are put into practice.

FR JACK

"Make A Straight Way For The Lord."

Then you will be in the light. This is the call of Christmas. Make a straight way for the Lord. 

How do I make the way straight?

What kind of person am I? 

Is my life straight? 

Am I gravitating towards Christ?

Am I helpful, kind, generous, forgiving, understanding? Then when I straighten my life, I am making the way straight for the Lord.  When I straighten my life, and you straighten your life and everyone else straightens their life.  The kingdom will truly reign in our midst.  We are not talking about mountains and valleys.  But about you and I.

"O come, O come Emmanuel,"  this hymn is a great Christian prayer.  It is a call on God to come and save, rescue me.  In the fifth century there was a heresy which was condemned by the council of Ephesus. This was the heresy known as Pelagianism which says I can save myself and don't need Christ. Sadly there are people today who still think they can save themselves. To the point whereby I say,  "some people do not need Christ or his saving work."   They believe they are getting to heaven by their own efforts. The AA (alcoholic anonymous) talk about the need of a greater power outside

themselves.  They have got it right.

For us it is Christ.

First Sunday of advent and our thoughts turn to Christmas.  Is that Christ, our shopping, or pressure, or embarrassment

or lack of money, or eating or drinking or Santa or........A thought...

"When God becomes absolute in our lives, consumer goods become relative."

This Tuesday we start with confession with a number of priests.

1. If it is over a year since I have been then I need to go.

2, Do I have a concern for the hungry, poor, homeless, housebound, or strangers.

3. Am I serious about my relationship with God, others, mass or is it all a bit hit and miss.
4. If I am married, am I married in the church?
5. As a parent, do I pray with my children every day?  Lead by example.
6. Work... do I work honestly and treat others fairly.  Employers or employees.
7. As a child of the universe do I have concern for the environment.
8. Am I a good member of the family of St. James. Do I pull my weight.
9. Do I respect my parents, children,

 teachers?

10.How about pride, anger, laziness, drunkenness, obesity, drugs, porn, jealousy?