NEWSLETTER INSERTS ON THIS SUNDAY READINGS

First Reading from Habakkuk:

‘If we make choices that are guided by doing what is right, just and loving then our souls will be at peace before God even though the consequences of these choices may be difficult. We will have a strength and a peace to face anything or anyone once we know in our hearts that we have always acted rightly, justly and lovingly before God. On the other hand, if we have done what is wrong, or acted unjustly or for selfish motives then we will never be free or have peace. We will be afraid to be found out, always looking over our shoulder. When the first experience of suffering comes along, our soul flags because, exactly as the Scriptures say ‘my soul is not at rights’.

Fr Billy Swan

Second Reading: 'Fan into a Flame the gift that God gave you'

‘I am a lowly creature but I am still his servant, and I hope that he will choose to wake me from slumber. I hope that he will set me on fire with the flame of his divine love, the flame that burns above the stars, so that I am filled with desire for his love and his fire burns always within me!’

St Columbanus

The Gospel - on Faith

'There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence'.

Pope Francis, Lumen Fideii, 4.

'Man is faithful when he believes in God and his promises; God is faithful when he grants to man what he has promised'.

St Augustine

‘Faith does not merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself sees them, with his own eyes: it is a participation in his way of seeing’.

Pope Francis, Lumen Fideii, 18.

‘Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing, and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed. For "how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:14)’.

Pope Francis, Lumen Fideii, 22.