The Word This Week

After our brief excursion last week into Saint John’s Gospel, we are back on track this week with Saint Luke – whom we will follow for the rest of the year. Today is about beginnings: the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It begins with the Word of God, in the synagogue. Jesus reads from the Old Testament, as we do every Sunday, and tells the people that it is fulfilled in him. Everything that God has said to his people, through his prophets, comes together in Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God. Today is an ideal Sunday to think about the ministry of reader – about how as readers we make present the same fulfillment, Jesus, when we read the word of God in our Churches.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Nehemiah 8: 2 – 6, 8 – 10;
1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 30;
Luke 1: 1 – 4, 4: 14 – 21

Latest Newsletter is Out

Our latest newsletter is now ready for you to view (or print off) from this website. Please click this link to download the newsletter for the 3rd Sunday of the year (27th January). And don’t forget that you can get updates of all articles we publish on this site sent straight to your email inbox. Simply click on the link to the right (under email updates) and following the instructions.

Reading the Council for the Year of Faith

To start us off with the second of the for great Documents of the Second Vatican Council, ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium’, the Document on the Liturgy, Father Ambrose Walsh will put it into context for us in what promises to be an informative and illuminating introduction on Tuesday, 5th February at 6.30pm in the Hall. All welcome! Then in Lent we will have an opportunity to read through and discuss the document together on Tuesday afternoons.

Cafod Supporter’s Event for Cardiff Archdiocese

CAFOD Supporter's Meeting South WalesOn Saturday 9th February CAFOD will hold a day event at The Cornerstone, Charles Street, Cardiff (opposite St David’s Cathedral) for all CAFOD parish contacts, volunteers and supporters. This day will be a chance for supporters to come together from across the Archdiocese to listen to speakers, reflect, and learn about CAFOD’s Lent focus this year. For further details please see the poster at the back of the Church , visit CAFOD South Wales or contact 029 2045 3360.

Time: Saturday 9th February, 11:00 – 16:00 (Mass available at the Cathedral at 10:00)
Keynote speaker: TBC

You could also print off this poster and display at work.

The Word This Week

Giotto Scrovegni Marriage at CanaThe Gospel of this second Sunday of Ordinary Time continues the theme of the end of Christmas – revelation. Jesus is revealed to the world by his birth, by his baptism, and by his miracles – the “signs” as John calls them. The wedding in today’s Gospel is interpreted in many ways: today, reading the Gospel with the First Reading in mind, we can see it as an image of the way in which God is so close to his people, it is as though he is married to them. Thus Jesus, the spouse of the people, shows God’s closeness by revealing his glory in this miracle.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Isaiah 62: 1 – 5;
1 Corinthians 12: 4 – 11;
John 2: 1 – 12.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

On Friday we begin The Week of Prayer for CHRISTIAN UNITY. Through our Baptism, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, called to life together in heaven in his Body the Church. The first place we can start this is in prayer. So our fellow Christians will come to join us at Mass next Saturday evening: This is ‘out of their comfort zone’ for many of them, so please extend a warm welcome, and be helpful and careful to any visitors who sit by you. We are then invited to join the Archbishop in Saint David’s Cathedral for an ecumenical celebration of Vespers at 3pm next Sunday, and then to join our Christian neighbours again in Prayers at 7pm on Wednesday 23rd in Saint Andrew’s church.

Join Our Singing group

The Singing Group will meet again this week on Monday 14 January at 7.30pm in the church, after mass. We will be preparing for Easter and learning some new hymns. The sessions will last about an hour as usual. New members are always welcome, no experience needed just a sense of fun and a desire to keep our parish praising God through music.

Hope to see you there, Brett.

The Word This Week

Guido Reni, Baptism of Christ 1622It may seem strange, but this is a Christmas Feast. Not if we think of Christmas only in terms of the Baby in Bethlehem, but if we have followed the ideas of the Feasts of Holy Family and especially Epiphany, and have seen the Season in terms of the growing manifestation or appearing of the Son of God: first to the shepherds and then to the wise men from the East. Now in the River Jordan, Jesus, Son of Mary, is revealed to all as the fullness of all God’s promises: “You are my Son, the Beloved”.

On this day we stand before the revelation of God’s love for us, such that he would send his only Son into the world. Christmas without the Baptism of the Lord, and the words that are spoken from heaven, would be incomplete, since it is only in them that we fully see the wonder of what happened in Bethlehem. As we come to the end of Christmas today, and look forward to hearing the Gospels in Ordinary Time, we do so having been shown who it is we listen to: the only Son of God, the Beloved.

This Week’s Readings

Isaiah 40: 1 – 5, 9 – 11
Titus 2: 11 – 14, 3: 4 – 7
Luke 3: 15 – 16, 21 – 22