Our Thanks Go to the Friends of St Peter S Who Kindly Sponsor the Newsletter
ST PETER’S CATHOLIC CHURCH GLOUCESTER
October2016 NEWSLETTER FOR FAMILIES
Our thanks go to the Friends of St Peter’s who kindly sponsor the Newsletter.
WitamyMABUHAY BEM-VINDO
SWAGATAMwelcome
Well, where did September go? I always think that when Strictly Come Dancing begins that it is really not that long until Christmas (I don’t intend to panic anyone!). And as I reflect on time and where this year has gone, what I have achieved and where I have failed miserably, I have to confess the Year of Mercy, despite good intentions of mine at the beginning, has somewhat evaded me. I have not yet gone through a door of mercy (and probably will not), I have failed to devote the time to prayer I should and my excuses are rather lame. I like to think of myself as a caring person and charitable to others, but could I have done better? – perhaps to those closest to me? Perhaps what I am trying to say is that if any of you feel like me, we still have time to do something and mercy is not just about this year 2016, it is a way of transforming our lives to see the needs of others and accept that we all need mercy and that our loving God never fails in his everlasting mercy to us. If I was to worry too much about my failings this year then that would be wasted time spent, it has gone. But I can change the future. I can be more merciful and sometimes the hardest thing to do is accept the mercy others show towards us.
Lucy
Notable Dates and Feasts in October
1st OctoberSt Therese of the Child Jesus (Memorial)
4th October St Francis of Assisi (Memorial)
7th October Our Lady of the Rosary (Memorial)
15th St Teresa of Jesus Virgin, Doctor of the Church (Memorial)
17th OctoberSt Ignatius of Antioch (Memorial)
18th October St Luke, Evangelist (Feast)
28th October Ss Simon and Jude, Apostles (Feast)
30th September St Jerome (Memorial)
St Thérèseof the Child Jesus – “the little flower”
Feast Day October 1st
On October 1, Catholics around the world honor the life of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, or St. Thérèse of Lisieux on her feast day. St. Thérèse was born January 2, 1873 in Alençon, France to pious parents, both who have been declared venerable by Pope John Paul II. Her mother died when she was four, leaving her father and elder sisters to raise her.
On Christmas Day 1886 St. Thérèse had a profound experience of intimate union with God, which she described as a “complete conversion.” Almost ayear later, in a papal audience during a pilgrimage to Rome, in 1887, she asked for and obtained permission from Pope Leo XIII to enter the Carmelite Monastery at the young age of 15.
On entering, she devoted herself to living a life of holiness, doing all things with love and childlike trust in God. She struggled with life in the convent, but decided to make an effort to be charitable to all, especially those she didn’t like. She performed little acts of charity always, and little sacrifices not caring how unimportant they seemed. These acts helped her come to a deeper understanding of her vocation.
She wrote in her autobiography that she had always dreamed of being a missionary, an Apostle, a martyr – yet she was a nun in a quiet cloister in France. How could she fulfill these longings?
“Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places...in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My vocation is Love!”
Thérèse offered herself as a sacrificial victim to the merciful Love of God on June 9, 1895, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity and the following year, on the night between Holy Thursday andGood Friday, she noticed the first symptoms of Tuberculosis, the illness which would lead to her death.
Thérèse recognized in her illness the mysterious visitation of the divine Spouse and welcomed the suffering as an answer to her offering the previous year. She also began to undergo a terrible trial of faith which lasted until her death a year and a half later. “Her last words, ‘My God, I love you,’ are the seal of her life,” said Pope John Paul II.
Since her death, millions have been inspired by her ‘little way’ of loving God and neighbor. Many miracles have been attributed to her intercession. She had predicted during her earthly life that “My Heaven will be spent doing good on Earth.”
Saint Thérèse was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997 - 100 years after her death at the age of 24. She is only the third woman to be so proclaimed, after Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa of Avila.
St. Thérèse wrote once, 'You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them."
(Taken from the catholicnesagency.com)
Patron: florists; foreign missions; pilots; AIDS sufferers; loss of parents; illness; France; Russia; Australia.
St Teresa of Jesus (Also known as St Teresa of Avila)
Feast Day October 15th
St. Teresa (1515-1582) was born in Avila and died in Alba, Spain. When only a child of seven, she ran away from home in the hope of being martyred by the Moors; in this way, she said she could come to see God. At the age of eighteen she joined the Carmelite Order and chose Christ as her heavenly Spouse. With the help of St. John of the Cross she reformed most of the Carmelite convents and founded new ones. She reached the highest degree of prayer and through prayer obtained such knowledge of divine things that in 1970 Pope Paul VI named her the first woman Doctor of the Church.
St. Teresa of Jesus, honored by the Church as the "seraphic virgin," virgoseraphica, and reformer of the Carmelite Order, ranks first among women for wisdom and learning. She is called doctrixmystica, doctor of mystical theology; in a report to Pope Paul V the Roman Rota declared: "Teresa has been given to the Church by God as a teacher of the spiritual life. The mysteries of the inner mystical life which the holy Fathers propounded unsystematically and without orderly sequence, she has presented with unparalleled clarity." Her writings are still the classic works on mysticism, and from her all later teachers have drawn, e.g., Francis de Sales, AlphonsusLiguori.
Characteristic of her mysticism is the subjective-individualistic approach; there is little integration with the liturgy and social piety, and thus she reflects the spirit of the sixteenth and following centuries.
Teresa was born at Avila, Spain, in the year 1515. At the age of seven she set out for Africa to die for Christ, but was brought back by her uncle. When she lost her mother at twelve, she implored Mary for her maternal protection. In 1533 she entered the Carmelite Order; for eighteen years she suffered physical pain and spiritual dryness. Under divine inspiration and with the approval of Pope Pius IV, she began the work of reforming the Carmelite Order. In spite of heavy opposition and constant difficulties, she founded thirty-two reformed convents.
Truly wonderful were the exterior and interior manifestations of her mystical union with God, especially during thelast decade of her life. These graces reached a climax when her heart was transfixed (transverberatiocordis), an event that is commemorated in the Carmelite Order by a special feast on August 27. She practiced great devotion to the foster-father of Jesus, whose cult was greatly furthered throughout the Church
through her efforts. When dying she often repeatedthe words: "Lord, I am a daughter of theChurch!" Her holy body rests upon the high altar of the Carmelite church in Alba, Spain; her heart with its mysterious wound is reserved in a precious reliquary on the Epistle side of the altar.
Patron:sickness; against headaches; against heart disease; lacemakers; loss of parents; opposition of Church authorities; those in need of grace; religious; those ridiculed for their piety; Spain; those named Teresa, Theresa, Teresita, Terry, Tessa, Teresina, and Tracy.
For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
Saint Teresa of Avila
Where’s Deacon Colm?
The answer to where Deacon Colm was in the September newsletter was by the charity money box at the back of the church.
Where is Deacon Colm for October?
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October – the month of the Holy Rosary
We looked at the Rosary in last year’s families’ newsletter. But each year, it is good to look at where the Rosary fits into our lives, if at all. Some of us may feel it takes too much time, some of us may not know all the prayers off by heart and then there is an element of the repetitive nature of it which suits some but not others.
The Catholic Church traces the invention of rosary to the year 1206 C.E. when an apparition of the Virgin Mary revealed it to St. Dominic Guzman. The rosary was a helpful way for St. Dominic to teach members of the Catholic Church about the important stages in the life of Jesus. Many people in Europe were illiterate, and therefore unable to learn about their religion through books.
The Mysteries of the Catholic faith are important events in the life of Jesus. They are divided into The Joyful Mysteries, The Luminous Mysteries, The Sorrowful Mysteries and The Glorious Mysteries. Each set of mysteries is recited on the rosary on a different day of the week. The last bead that joins the circular part of the necklace with the string holding the crucifix is the place where the worshiper says the First Mystery. Each single bead between a set of 10 Hail Mary prayers is where the worshiper says the next Mystery after an Our Father and prays the Glory Be prayer.
If we can see that through saying the rosary we are teaching our children the most important times in Jesus’ life then maybe it will become for us more than a few Hail Mary’s. Most of us have computers today,maybe you could find a picture of the particular mystery you are meditating on to look at while you are reciting that decade. Alternatively, if you are not that confident in saying it to begin with, you will find websites or youtubethat have people saying the rosary and you could join in that way– my mum after her stroke has used these as she found her concentration and focus was not as good.
Listed below are some useful websites for you to visit about the rosary, but try your own search, there is so much.
Activity
Try and say at least a decade of the rosary each day in October. Meditate on the particular aspect of Jesus’ life and offer it up for someone or a special intention such as peace in our world.
Activity
You could try and make a one decade rosary using a pipe cleaner and beads. Look at the web address below for instructions.
Useful Websites