St. John the Evangelist

Email stjohntheevangelist@gmail.com

www.stjohnevang.co.uk

Reg. Charity 234025

Fr Frank Rice

Rev. Philip White

645 3314

Epiphany 4^th January 2009 Year B

FAITH IN FOCUS: EPIPHANY PEOPLE

To follow the star and become Epiphany people we have to be aware of three important challenges.

Epiphany people have first to be people of faith. Imagine setting out on a journey like the wise men and not actually knowing where you are going, following only where a star leads you. Yet this is what faith demands. To be a person of faith means that we trust in God so much that we are prepared to be led, wherever God decides to take us. Being people of faith doesn’t mean having all the answers; it simply requires us to be open to God’s promptings and prepared to act when others think we are mad to do so. Faith and trust cannot be prised apart.

A second characteristic of Epiphany people is that their faith makes them want to worship. The wise men brought their gifts and worshipped the Lord. Just knowing our God should be reason enough for worship. We bring our gold (the best we can be), our frankincense (our contribution to making the world a more beautiful place) and our myrrh (our pains and our tears as well as the comforting presence we extend to others), and with these gifts of our lives we fall on our knees before the God that our faith journey leads us ever closer to.

And finally Epiphany people are people of change. The wise men didn’t simply spend the rest of their lives fawning at the crib. They left enriched by what they had seen and heard and they headed off to tell others what they had experienced. But they heeded the warning of their dream and decided to change their plans and go back home by a different route. Every encounter with our God-made-man challenges us to change. God never wants us to stay where we are; our job is to follow the star.

Epiphany reveals Jesus to all nations. His glory is seen by people from all over the known world. And these Epiphany people are people of faith, people of worship and people of change.

WORD OF GOD

We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage. (Matthew 2:2)

WORD FOR TODAY

The closing of the Christmas festivities leaves us with one amazing fact: the God who is responsible for the whole of creation took our human flesh and remains for ever within our world in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. Under which star will we find him this week?

SOMETHING TO PRAY ABOUT…

We can join Pope Benedict in his prayer intentions for the month of January:

General:

That the family may become more and more a place of training in charity, personal growth and transmission of the faith.

Mission:

That the different Christian confessions, aware of the need for a new evangelisation in this period of profound transformation, may be committed to announcing the Good News and moving towards the full unity of all Christians in order to offer a more credible testimony of the Gospel.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Stop living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.

1. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God.

2. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Laugh at yourself.the past and start creating the future that Christ has promised you. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks.

3. Expand your horizons. Consider the lilies. Seek God’s Spirit and enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first and last day of your life.

4. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Criticise by creating. Worry less about

Please pray for our sick and those who care for them

Pauline Doyle, Pat Barker, Josie Cohen, Peter Williamson, Kathy Smith, Marjorie Hoey, Mr & Mrs H McCormack, Esther Roche, Eileen Sheehan, Fay Challoner, Sheila Stockley, Joan & Charles Reynolds, Mollie Dowling, Kath Holland, Kath Wright, Sheila Clayson, Mary Bryden, Owen & Josie Toohey, Andrew Jacks, Betty Kennedy, Sally Ankers, Helen Worth, Christopher Hadfield, Ivan Gregory, Betty Treacy , Vincent Sarson, Kath Bassett & Pat Ronan

Money Matters-Thank you for your great generosity

Chrisdtmas Day £1651 71

Sunday Offering £ 732 05

Ark £104 39

Crib offerings to date £24 31p

120 Club Winner No 93 Fr Frank£20

No 88 C Corkhill£10

I have reserved 18 tickets for Buddy, the musical. The date is Thursday 26^th of February at 7.30pmand the tickets are £17.50p. Please let me have your payment by 20^th January to confirm your reservation. We have got great seats in the 2 front rows of the rear stalls. If you no longer wish to join us then please cross your name from the list this weekend. People are waiting.

There are 2 plaques of the blessed virgin left unclaimed. Will those 2 remaining people who ordered them please claim them soon or else I will put them on general sale at the piety stall. Thanks.

I had a telephone call from Fr Roger the other day and his latest missive from South America can be found at the back of the church

If only there were a longer time between epiphany and epitaph. (David Glaser)

The twelve days of Christmas come to an end on January 6th, and the season of the Epiphany begins. But Epiphany not only ends Christmas, it also fulfils it by celebrating the revelation of the Christ to the whole world. The coming of incarnate God to all people, especially to those of us who are Gentiles, is the bridge from birth into life, the event that makes Easter possible for most of us. The light of the Epiphany illuminates the Church’s year as it illuminates the human race from whom the kings came. (Phyllis A Tickle)

Retired Priests Fund Special Collection

Next weekend there is the annual collection for the above fund. Each year the number of priests eligible to draw on the fund increases: in the last financial year, the cost of meeting the day to day needs of clergy who have stepped down from active ministry was £320,000. Over the coming years this is due to rise sharply as more of our priests reach retirement age. We need to do all we can to build up a fund to meet their needs. Envelopes are available this weekend if you already use offertory envelopes. A leaflet is also available if you would like to make your donations by cheque or banker’s standing order and wish to take advantage of Gift Aid. Please can I urge you to show your usual generosity.

My thanks and best wishes

Bishop Brian

We are like the three Wise Men who journeyed to Jesus. Now, like those Wise Men, we return to the world from which we came, to the everyday life where we will witness to what we have seen.

Epiphany compels us to start out afresh on a new stage of the journey on which we become proclaimers and heralds.… The Wise Men were in a sense the first missionaries. Their encounter with Christ did not keep them in Bethlehem, but made them set out anew on the paths of the world.

We need to “set out anew from Christ”, with the zeal of Pentecost, with renewed enthusiasm. To set out from him above all in a daily commitment to holiness, with an attitude of prayer and of listening to his word. To set out from him in order to testify to his love by living a Christian life marked by communion, charity, and witness before the world.

(Pope John Paul II)

Does God Want Us to Suffer?

At some time or other we’ve all been struck by the problem of suffering and evil. It may be something that has happened to us or we may have come across terrible things that befall others, near or far. Unhappiness and misfortune strike in many different forms. We’re all too aware of sickness, suffering and death that attack those we love. In addition we know about the unbelievable capacity that men and women have to inflict evil on each other. From the day that Cain killed Abel in the bible story right down to the horrors of war that flash on our TV screens, or the genocides like the World War II holocaust or the avoidable famines in Africa… it seems that we have not lost the ability to heap suffering upon each other. All of us have asked the age-old question why, if God exists, he allows all this to happen. We can be forgiven for grappling with the dilemma: either God is all-powerful and doesn’t love us or else he does love us but is not all-powerful.

To be continued next week