Spring has brought an abundance of colour to St Helen’s and, as you are unable to come to us, Father John decided to take his camera out to the gardens to ensure that the glories of Spring can be brought to you. We do hope you enjoy this selection of photos and that they bring a smile to your faces. Feel free to let him know, in the comments below, what you think of his gardening skills in this difficult ‘lockdown’ period.
Yesterday we shared with you an artist’s and priests’s perspective of Michelangelo’s Pietà – probably one of the most famous sculptures in the world. Today we’d like to share with you Leonardo’s Last Supper (ca. 1495-98) which can be found in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Sit back and learn some fascinating insights into this truly amazing painting!
One of the most beautiful statues in the world is Michaelangelo’s Pietà. It was sculpted around 1498 and is housed in St Peter’s Basilica. Why not grab yourselves a cup of tea (or even coffee) and listen to this 9-minute talk by art aficionado Lynne Hanley and Father Christopher Whitehead who offer an ‘art perspective’ and ‘priest’s perspective’ of this amazing piece of art?
This has been a very difficult and different Easter to any other we have encountered. With all church activity temporarily (and understandably) halted, the principle way that the church can communicate with its parishioners is through its online activities. Father John has done a wonderful job of making sure that all the Sunday and Easter masses are broadcast via Facebook and this activity has led to us almost doubling the number of followers on that channel and it has had a knock-on effect on this website.
In the past we have shared the stats from this website to let people know where visitors have come from, the amount of traffic we have per month and some of the top pages that people are looking at. With that in mind I thought I’d share with you some of the stats from the past month.
Let us receive the special grace of this moment. We pause in reverent silence before this empty tomb in order to rediscover the grandeur of our Christian vocation: we are men and women of the resurrection, not of death. From this place we learn how to live our lives, the trials of our churches and of the whole world, in the light of Easter morning. Every injury, every one of our pains and sorrows, has been borne on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd who offered himself in sacrifice and thereby opened the way to eternal life. His open wounds are like the cleft through which the torrent of his mercy is poured out upon the world. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the basis of our hope, which is this: Christos anesti! Let us not deprive the world of the joyful message of the resurrection! And let us not be deaf to the powerful summons to unity that rings out from this very place, in the words of the One who, risen from the dead, calls all of us
“My brothers” (Pope Francis, The Gospel of Matthew—a Spiritual and Pastoral Reading p 239).
Become silent, aware of the awesome presence of God who never ceases to be with us.
Continue reading “Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord 12 April”