SUNDAY MASSENTRANCE ANTIPHON:The merciful love of the Lord fi lls the earth; by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia.FIRST READING: Acts 2:36-41.RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Psalm 23.RESPONSE:The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.1. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose. Near restful waters he leads me; he revives my soul. ℟2. He guides me along the right path, for the sake of his name. Though I should walk in the valley
of the shadow of death, no evil would I fear, for you are with me. Your crook and your staff will give me comfort. ℟3. You have prepared a table before me in the sight of my foes. My head you have anointed with oil; my cup is overfl owing. ℟4. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for length of days unending. ℟SECOND READING: 1 Peter 2:20-25.GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:Alleluia, alleluia! I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my own, and my own know me. Alleluia.GOSPEL: John 10:1-10.COMMUNION ANTIPHON:The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep and willingly died for his fl ock, alleluia.
CCCCatholic ink inkinkinkL Easter Light4th Sunday of Easter Year A Divine Office: Week IV 7 May 2017
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A painting of St Christopher by Titian, 1524
EVERY YEAR on this, Good Shepherd Sunday, we are invited to pray for ‘good shepherds’ within the Church. This year the Pope
has chosen to reflect on a vital aspect of the vocation of every Christian: the missionary dimension of being a disciple of Jesus. The basis of the message of Pope Francis for Vocations Sunday is that all Christians are called to be missionaries of the Gospel: ‘As disciples, we do not receive the gif t of God’s love for our per sona l conso la t ion , nor a re we ca l led to promote ourselves, or a business concern. We are simply men and women… who cannot keep this experience to ourselves’.
I f every Christian is a ‘Christ bearer (christopher)’ then this is v iv idly the case for those called to the Consecrated Life (in Religious Life) and/or to the ordained ministry (deacons, priests, bishops).
In his Message for today’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations the Pope offers a brief reflection on three aspects of the missionary vocation.
The f irst is the fact that as Christians we share in the very mission of Jesus himself. Through our baptism we too are anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (Luke 4:18-19). Without this mission we would not be Christian.
Secondly the Pope assures us that as we
bring the good news to others, Jesus is with us ‘at every step of the way’. He reminds us how Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus with the dejected disciples af ter the tragedy
of Good Friday and how they eventually recognised him in how he explained the Scriptures to them and in the breaking of the bread. So with us on our journey of faith: Jesus accompanies us, warms our heart with his Word and feeds our spirit with his real presence.
Finally we are offered an important insight into how to be missionary. Pope Franc i s echoes the Gospel in telling us not to put our trust in ‘power, prosely tism or intolerant f anat icism’; nor should we place too much reliance on ‘undue concern for structures’. The secret of missionary work and indeed o f vocat ions promot ion , l i e s i n ‘ c o n s t a n t contemplative prayer’.
We are reminded that the Spirit works quietly, secretly and silently; our role is to be available to sow the seed – and to let God give the increase.
It is in our ‘profound friendship with the Lord’ that all missionary/vocation ministry f lourishes.
The Pope finishes his Message by recalling how Mary, Mother of our Saviour, placed her youth and her enthusiasm in God’s hands. Young people will respond to the gentle invitation of the Spirit if we show them an attractive face of Jesus by our own missionary enthusiasm.
Light on Vocations
Live the Word T H E W E E K A H E A D
(KEY: SOLEMNITY; FEAST; Memorial; (Optional Memorial)Colour = Liturgical colour of the day or feast)
Mon 8 May Liturgy of the DayActs 11:1-18; Psalm 42; John 10:11-18Just as water is so much more precious when one is thirsty, so our focus on what we long for fades quickly if and when it’s obtained. Cherish your thirst for God as the gift that keeps you seeking.
Sun 14 May 5TH SUNDAY OF EASTERActs 6:1-7; Psalm 33; John 14:1-12Jesus promised a place for us, in his Father’s house, beyond the grave. We don’t know exactly what to expect, but we can be sure of a homecoming, a wel-coming, and we will know that we are f inally home.
Sat 13 May (Our Lady of Fatima)Acts 13:44-52; Psalm 98; John 14:7-14Sometimes we feel that God seems hidden from us. Yet God may in fact be shouting at us, but because God’s ‘shouting’ is so knitted into ordinariness, we don’t hear the ocean against the noise of the waves.
Fri 12 May (St Pancras, Martyr)Acts 13:26-33; Psalm 2; John 14:1-6No two humans have exactly the same perception or experience of God. Though we agree on essentials, our beliefs are not exactly the same due to our dif-ferent experiences and preferences.
Thu 11 May Liturgy of the DayActs 13:13-25; Psalm 89; John 13:16-20Our God is not the white bearded elderly gentle-man sitting in the clouds ruling the universe from afar. Our God knows us intimately, knows us by name, knows us better than we know ourselves.
Wed 10 May Liturgy of the DayActs 12:24–13:5; Psalm 67; John 12:44-50If Christ were to come back today, would he rec-ognise us as his followers? Is forgiveness, kindness and compassion at the centre of our lives? Today, do we really stand with Christ in our lives?
Tue 9 May Liturgy of the DayActs 11:19-26; Psalm 87; John 10:22-30No matter where we travel or what obstacles we face, no matter what personal crises or health issues we battle, God sits at our centre and connects us to something real and true and strong.
A program to help couples heal and renew their marriage relationship. Programs offered in Durban,
Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.THERE IS HOPE AND HELP
make the call – 082 850 0500 or visit www.helpourmarriage.com
HOLY REDEEMER PARISH
Parish Priest: Fr Gerard McCabe C.Ss.R � [email protected]
Assistants: Fr Scott Davidson C.Ss.R and Fr Charles Mulenga C.Ss.R
6 / 7 MAY 2017 ~ FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER PAGE: 255 in New Sunday Missal. Year A. THEME: The Good Shepherd
WEEKEND SUNDAY MASS TIMES :
SATURDAY: 6.00pm
SUNDAY: 7.00am, 9.00am, 11.00am and 6.00pm
FRENCH MASS: SUNDAYS: 1.30pm
DAILY MASS TIMES:
MON to FRI: 6.15am (or Communion Service)
MON to SAT: 8.30am
MORNING PRAYER: MON to FRI at 8.00am
ROSARY: WEDNESDAY after 8.30am Mass
CONFESSION TIMES:
THURSDAY: 7.00 to 7.30pm
SATURDAY: 9.00 to 10.00am & 5.00 to 5.55pm
ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT:
MONDAY to FRIDAY: 9.00am to 9.00pm
except THURSDAY: 9.00am to 7.30pm
NOVENA & BENEDICTION:
TO OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP
THURSDAY: 7.30pm
NORMAL WORSHIP TIMES
CONTACTS
Bergvliet Road, Bergvliet, 7945
021 712-2210 or712-1181
021 712-4271
9.00am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday
www.holyredeemer.co.za
Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Bergvliet
Catholic Counselling
Network
Need somewhere to talk that is safe, where there is total confidentiality and where you will not be judged?
Contact one of our trained counsellors
Cynthia Wiese: 021 794-1601
Annette Milner: 021 715-8177
St. Vincent de Paul Society assists the areas poor.
If you need help / assistance / a visit contact the SVDP pres-ident on 083 450-5479. The matter will be dealt with in confidence.
WEEKLY DIARY MASS INTENTIONS
May 8 Mon 6.15am Philippe Souchon - Rip 8.30am Joan Williamson - Birthday
May 9 Tues
Care & craft after 8.30am Mass Edna Cottle room SVP 6.30pm Room 2 RCIA 7.30pm Edna Cottle room Liturgy group 7.30pm in boardroom Charismatic Praise & Worship 7.45pm Room 1
6.15am Private Intention 8.30am Joao & Julea Martins - Rip
May 10 Wed Rosary after 8.30am Mass 6.15am Private Intention 8.30am Private Intention
May 11 Thurs Novena 7.30pm in the Church 6.15am Private Intention 8.30am Private Intention
May 12 Fri 10.00am Private Intention 8.30am Lisa Stokoe - 21st Birthday
May 13 Sat. Legion of Mary 9.15am Room 2 Baptism instruction 1 – 4.30pm Parish centre
8.30am Michael Fernandez - 21st Birthday 7.30pm Special Intention
May 14 Sun Fifth Sunday of Easter Theme: The Many Ways of Giving up One’s Life
PAGE: 259 in New Sunday Missal. Year A
7.00am For All Mothers 9.00am Edna Cottle - Rip 11.00am Tyrone Lombard - Birthday 6.00pm Parishioners
PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS
LORD of the Harvest, BLESS young people with the gift of courage to respond to your call.
Open their hearts to great ideals, to great things. INSPIRE all of your disciples to mutual love and giving—
for vocations blossom in the
good soil of faithful people. INSTILL those in religious life, parish
ministries, and families with the confidence
and grace to invite others to embrace
the bold and noble path of a life
consecrated to you.
UNITE us to Jesus through prayer and sacrament, so that we may cooperate
with you in building your reign of mercy
and truth, of justice and peace. Amen.
— Pope Francis
(A WORD FROM YOUR PARISH PRIEST— CONTINUED)
the Gospel tells us to reject the idolatry of power and success, undue concern for structures, and a kind of anxiety that has more to do with the spirit of con-quest than that of service. The seed of the Kingdom, however tiny, unseen and at times insignificant, silently continues to grow, thanks to God’s tireless activity. “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep or rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how” (Mk 4:26-27). This is our first reason for confi-dence: God surpasses all our expectations and constantly surprises us by his generosity. He makes our efforts bear fruit beyond all human calculation.
With this confidence born of the Gospel, we become open to the silent working of the Spirit, which is the basis of mission. There can be no promotion of vo-cations or Christian mission apart from constant contemplative prayer. The Christian life needs to be nourished by attentive listening to God’s word and, above all, by the cultivation of a personal relationship with the Lord in Eucha-ristic adoration, the privileged “place” for our encounter with God.
I wish heartily to encourage this kind of profound friendship with the Lord, above all for the sake of imploring from on high new vocations to the priest-hood and the consecrated life. The People of God need to be guided by pas-tors whose lives are spent in service to the Gospel. I ask parish communities, associations and the many prayer groups present in the Church, not to yield to discouragement but to continue praying that the Lord will send workers to his harvest. May he give us priests enamoured of the Gospel, close to all their brothers and sisters, living signs of God’s merciful love.
Dear brothers and sisters, today too, we can regain fervour in preaching the Gospel and we can encourage young people in particular to take up the path of Christian discipleship. Despite a widespread sense that the faith is listless or reduced to mere “duties to discharge”, our young people desire to discover the perennial attraction of Jesus, to be challenged by his words and actions, and to cherish the ideal that he holds out of a life that is fully human, happy to spend itself in love.
A WORD FROM YOUR PARISH PRIEST
The Message of His Holiness Pope Francis 2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, I would like to reflect on the missionary dimension of our Christian calling. Those who drawn by God’s voice and determined to follow Jesus soon discover within themselves an irre-pressible desire to bring the Good News to their brothers and sisters through proclamation and the service of charity. All Christians are called to be mis-sionaries of the Gospel! As disciples, we do not receive the gift of God’s love for our personal consolation, nor are we called to promote ourselves, or a business concern. We are simply men and women touched and transformed by the joy of God’s love, who cannot keep this experience just to ourselves. For “the Gospel joy which enlivens the community of disciples is a missionary joy. Commitment to mission is not something added on to the Christian life as a kind of decoration, but is instead an essential element of faith itself. A rela-tionship with the Lord entails being sent out into the world as prophets of his word and witnesses of his love.
Even if at times we are conscious of our weaknesses and tempted to discouragement, we need to turn with God with confidence. We must over-come a sense of our own inadequacy and not yield to pessimism, which mere-ly turns us into passive spectators of a dreary and monotonous life. There is no room for fear! God himself comes to cleanse our “unclean lips” and equip us for the mission: “Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me’” (Is 6:6-8).
Certainly many questions arise when we speak of the Christian mission. What does it mean to be a missionary of the Gospel? Who gives us the strength and courage to preach? What is the evangelical basis and inspiration of mission? We can respond to these questions by meditating on three scenes from the Gospels: the inauguration of Jesus’ mission in the synagogue at Naz-areth (cf. Lk 4:16-30); the journey that, after his resurrection, he makes in the company of the disciples of Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35) and, finally, the parable of the sower and the seed (cf. Mt 4:26-27).
Jesus is anointed by the Spirit and sent. To be a missionary disciple means to share actively in the mission of Christ. Jesus himself described that mission in the synagogue of Nazareth in these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Lk 4:18-19). This is also our mission: to be anointed by the Spirit, and to go out to our brothers and sisters in order to proclaim the word and to be for them a means of salvation.
Jesus makes the seed grow. Finally, it is important to let the Gospel teach us the way of proclamation. At times, even with the best intentions, we can in-dulge in a certain hunger for power, proselytism or intolerant fanaticism. Yet
(Continued 2nd last page)
2nd COLLECTION
This week: Ecclesiastical Education Fund
Next week: Archdiocesan Priests Sick
Fund
DOUGHNUTS FOR SALE
Sunday 7 May after 7 & 9am Masses
THEOLOGICAL CIRCLE MEETING
Monday 8 May at 7.30pm
Venue - Boardroom
LITURGY GROUP MEETING
Tuesday 9 May 7.30pm
Venue - Boardroom
FUND-RAISING MEETING
for all stall holders
Monday 15 May 7.30pm
Venue - Parish Centre
YOUNG ADULTS MEETING
Tuesday 16 May 7.15pm
Venue - Monastery
BAPTISM INSTRUCTION
Saturday 13 May 1.00 to 4.30 pm.
Venue - Parish Centre
BAPTISM CEREMONY
Sunday 21 May after 11.00am Mass.
ALZHEIMER’S SUPPORT GROUP
MEETING
Wednesday 17 May 10.00am
Venue - Parish Centre
TALK—DIABETES
The Holy Redeemer Seniors' Club invites you to hear Leslie Smith , the Chairman of the Diabetes Clinic of South Africa, deliver a very interesting and important talk in the Parish Centre on Thursday 18th May at 11am Tea/coffee on sale, R5. All welcome.
KNIT-A-THON
Please join the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa for a fun afternoon at the Annual Knit-a-thon on 20th May 2017 at 2.00 pm in the Parish Centre. Tea will be served and beautiful prizes to be won. All funds raised will go to the Sisters of Charity in Khayalitcha to assist in their work. Please contact Angela Preyser on 071 400 9988 if you have any queries.
REPOSITORY
Available from the Repository
• New stock
• Faith themed gift items and cards
• Living Faith for April -June
1. Papal surprise for KZN nun
2. Soccer star now a Catholic
3. Our Lady 1000 times around the world
4. Priest: I used to spit on Catholics
5. Why true friendship is a divine gift
THIS WEEK’S EDITORIAL:
Vocations today
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAY FOR OUR SICK
Barbara Alexander Monica Arendse Fr Anderson Lily Ball Dylan Berry Jill Buser Gloriana Cloete
Alvin Cozett Magdalena Cozett Trevor de Beer Mr Doidge Christian Engelbrecht Mary-Anne Esau
Desmond Fernandez Dawn Forsdyk Jose Santos Gomes Keith Gomez
Fred Harrison Kerry Heideman
Rita Hendricks
Sam Hendricks
Dale Heynes
Dawn Heynes
Russell Heynes
Jean Kennedy
Fr Lunney
Gerald Louw
Geraldine Malander Willi Malherbe
Brian McEvoy
Rosetta Orgill Monty Pasqualie
Patrick Perreira
Ernest Peskin Sylvia Peters
Albert Petersen Carris Pietersen Lindsey Pietersen
Elaine Roode Lionel September Dorothy Slayne Vera Steyn
Renelda Visser Jack Whitwam Eileen(Fr Gerard sister)
NOVENA TO OUR MOTHER OF
PERPETUAL HELP
Thursday evening at 7.30pm
Place your special Prayer Intentions & Thanksgivings in the box at the back of the Church.
Also at www.holyredeemer.co.za
ADORATION CHAPEL
Please Note
The Adoration Chapel has now returned to the usual hours Monday to Friday 9.00am to 9.00pm except on Thursday when the Chapel closes at 7.30pm
There is an urgent need for someone to fill the following hours
Monday: 1 to 2pm and 2 to 3pm Wednesday: 2 to 3pm
Friday: 5 to 6pm
If you are interested please contact Carol Cornell on 073 194 7295 or Theresa in the office
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THE SVDP
Meetings are held fortnightly at 6.30pm on a Tuesday. For further information or confirmation of meeting dates, please call 083 450-5479
SMS “CATHOLIC” to 31222
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FEAST OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA - MAY 13TH
FATIMA has interest for all Catholics as a focus or meeting-point of the sen-timent of the faithful and as a Marian centre which prompted significant pa-pal pronouncements. It was at the end of an address to a gathering at Fatima, on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the apparitions (31 October 1942) that Pius X11 first pronounced the act of consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. On May 13th1946, the same pope deliv-ered a lengthy address to pilgrims at the shrine on the theme of Mary’s roy-alty. Paul V1’s apostolic constitution (A Great Sign,1967) was issued on the Golden Jubilee of the apparitions when the pope visited Fatima. St John Paul also made a dramatic ges-ture when he went to Fatima and pre-sented to the shrine the bullet that nearly killed him in St Peter’s Square.
Fatima will forever be associated with growth in devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Like most pilgrimage centres, nowadays, Fatima has be-come a centre of a spirituality which embraces many aspects of our faith journey, not just devotional piety but social and cultural development, justice, reconciliation and peace.
OUR LADY OF FATIMA, PRAY FOR US.
PRAYERS FOR OUR WEEKEND
For all couples participating in the Retrouvaille Weekend for hurting marriage, we ask for healing and growth in their relationship. We ask this in Jesus Name
PRAY FOR OUR DECEASED
Russel Martin- RIP