The Immaculate Conception Church Spinkhill

07/06/2026

Sunday morning Mass,

06/06/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

Over time, practices around the sharing of “The Body and Blood of Christ” have varied. At the 4th Lateran Council (1215) the Church made important statements about what we believe about this great gift of Christ and also felt it necessary to require adult Catholics to receive Holy Communion at least once a year. One difference between 1215 and Communion today, after the 2nd Vatican Council, is that Communion under both kinds is offered to all. Jesus’ gift of his body and blood, in the form of bread and wine, was not just for those at what we call the “Last Supper” but is for all his followers after that too and the separation of the bread and wine in Communion signifies the sacrifice of Christ as his body and blood were separated as he died for love of us.

No-one receives more of Christ in Communion under both kinds but, in the sharing of both, the sign of the Eucharistic feast is more fully evident. The Church doesn’t insist on everyone receiving Communion under both kinds but the Church does say that ”the faithful should be encouraged to participate more eagerly in this sacred rite, by which the sign of the Eucharistic banquet is made more fully evident.” There can be no more fitting time on which to repeat this encouragement than today, the feast of The Body & Blood of Christ, as we remember that the words of Jesus are clear: “Take this all of you and eat it” and “Take this all of you and drink from it.” We have moved on from times when the experience of the Eucharist for many was only by gazing at some distance. We are encouraged to be regularly nourished in sharing both the bread and the cup in which the Lord Jesus offers us his Body and Blood.

31/05/2026

30/05/2026

30/05/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

At various times, and in various places, and in various people, there has always seemed to be a desire to keep God at a distance from us. Even our ways of worship have sometimes celebrated this distance in language and architecture as well as in a very basic relationship of some fear. Now there is truth in the distance between us and God but, as in all relationships, a willingness on one or both sides can offer to breakdown distance and unite us. We do this quite naturally in our relationships with each other and the opportunities life offers us: they can begin with our relationships being marked by blood, or friendship; marked by shared neighbourhood, or work, or interests; marked by a shared faith; or marked by a growing attraction which we can name as “love”.

As this is true about our lives with each other, so it can be true about our relationship with God. There is a distance between us and God, but God has chosen to become intimately engaged in our lives. As God is a trinity of persons who share the one nature of God, we can identify difference (for we are each one person with human nature). But, even as the Trinity, God enters intimately into every part of our lives. We live in a world for which God is responsible; a world of such wonder that it “speaks” to us of God. We have also been offered the promise of new life by the Son of God who took on our life so that we could learn about how we have been saved and can look forward to that promise. And the Spirit of God has been given to us to make our new relationship with God possible and fruitful. If we want to keep God at a distance, we can. But God has chosen to share with us the life that we name as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”. God in love comes to us and invites us to imitate God’s love in the way we love each other. The Trinity may seem to speak of a distance between us and God, but it can also speak of how close God wants to be to every one of us.

Picture: Icon of the Holy Trinity: Notre Dame de Paris

23/05/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

Even before our feast of Pentecost there was the annual Jewish feast celebrated fifty days after the Feast of Passover. Christianity imitates this pattern celebrating our Pentecost feast fifty days after Easter. This feast is sometimes regarded as “the birthday of the Church”. This is signified by today’s first Reading (Acts 2: 1-11) as the followers of Jesus take up their responsibility for spreading Christ’s Good News by preaching to the people gathered in Jerusalem and cooperating in a very practical way with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. This is something of a crossroads moment as his followers, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, take up their responsibility for telling in their own tongues the mighty works of God.

The Holy Spirit was, and still is, the fulfilment of Christ’s promise to send us a gift who would remind us of Christ’s message and give us the ability to know it, accept it, and live it in such a way that others will come to know Christ through us. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us in baptism but the baptised need to make the Spirit their own; to welcome and allow the Spirit to influence who we are and who we are becoming for life with the Holy Spirit is not a “one-off” experience. The Holy Spirit is to be an “ever present” experience, a daily reference point in our lives if we are to know the full benefit of Christ’s promise. The Holy Spirit does not turn us all into the exact same person but works with each of us to help us develop as unique and wonderful examples of Christian life who can help others to want to know, to love, and to be like Christ too. This we can do.

Picture: The Mighty Power of One, from “Indian Catholic Matters”

16/05/2026

Fr Peter offers a ‘Thought for the Week’

Some people like attention more than others, but even those who claim not to be too keen on too much attention may actually appreciate it when it is the right kind of attention at just the right time. Just when it is the right kind at the right time may not always be easy to define, but we will know when it happens by the way it makes us feel and perhaps even changes our lives.

It may be the person who gives us the attention is the key. Or it might be what they bring to us and the reason why. Or it might be, and probably always is, a mixture of all sorts that makes it right for us.

The days of Jesus being with his friends after his resurrection, were clearly the right time for them. And the way Jesus talks to his Father in today’s Gospel (John: 17: 1-11a) may seem almost embarrassing to the disciples as Jesus speaks so highly of them. Jesus clearly holds his friends and disciples very close to his heart.

Hopefully, we may also find ourselves close to the heart of Jesus … but not if we think we are perfect (because we are not and neither were his first disciples). But we will be close to the heart of Jesus if we want to be and show this by trying to follow his ways and by not giving up (for that could be our downfall). If we are honest with ourselves and with God, then we can rest assured that Jesus will speak warmly of us to the Father because our lives will be helping to bring others to know God, to love God, and to follow God as best they can.

Picture: Kindle my heart to the presence of God’s love.