God's Love for You - Sunday 16th February 2025
Webmaster • February 15, 2025
Christian Charity (2)
Christian Charity (2) We talk a great deal about loyalty and justice nowadays, but forget perhaps that the chief obstacle to their practice in private life and on an international scale is above all lack of charity in the most Christian sense of the word. The vital force for any virtue whatsoever is absent if love of good, and love which is reflected from God upon our neighbour, is not present in our hearts. Therefore, our proclamation of charity - a Christian's Love, must be operative rather than just words, and should begin at home, with ourselves. But first, we must love God. Since a person who does not love God, who is the greatest good, does not love at all. Jesus once told us: 'If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love...This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you' (Jn 15:10,12). Hence loving our neighbours is inseparable from loving God. For God is Love and He is the source of Love. If we don't get close to the source, how are we going to have resources to give to others? If we don't get close to Jesus, how do we truly able to love others as ourselves? For how can we be charitable to all if we don't have love within our hearts? Stay closer to Jesus then, let Him dwell within you, then His Love will flow from you! We love God, so we love our neighbours. We serve God by giving help and service from our hearts to others. Therefore, in all our works of charity, we should have before our eyes God the Father and his beloved Son Jesus Christ. And that is how we can see Jesus, like Mother Teresa, in the face of all our neighbours. Charity excludes no one; whether to those in Heaven, in Purgatory, and on earth - present and to come. No one escapes the extended arms of love except those who have willingly put themselves outside its grasp forever. Therefore, our love needs to be as universal as God's Love, because it is the charity of God in us. Do the utmost good for your neighbour; and what you cannot do in need, do in desire, through compassion, by interceding for men in your prayer to God. There is an enormous amount of good to do in this world, if only we want to! Do not forget, every work of charity has an infinite value. Our endurance and perseverance of charity to our neighbours on earth can exchange for us the unimaginable and unending bliss of heaven.
(Reference: 'Rosminian Spirituality: In the Spirit of the Founder', Fr Giovanni Gaddo, 1971)
You can help our neighbours affected by the 24 June earthquakes in Venezuela with emergency shelter, water and food. CAFOD is already working with local Church partners to support people who have lost their homes, but we need your support to help more survivors. Your donation will provide essential supplies and help families rebuild their lives. Donate today: cafod.org.uk/ Venezuela or call 0300 999 0030 or scan the QR code. Please keep our neighbours in Venezuela in your prayers.
Eucharistic Miracles of Buenos Aires, Argentina (Part 1 of 3) In the parish of St Mary, there has been 3 Eucharistic Miracles that occurred in 1992, 1994 and 1996. After the Mass on Friday 1 May 1992, while preparing the Eucharistic reserve, a Eucharistic minister found some pieces of consecrated Host on the corporal. Following what the Church prescribes to do, the Priest put them in a vessel of water, which was then placed in the Tabernacle to wait for them to dissolve. Several Priests went to check it in the following days, but nothing had changed. 7 days later, on 8 May, they opened the Tabernacle and saw that the Host fragments had become a reddish colour that looked like blood. During the two evening Masses on 10 May, several small drops of blood were noticed on the patens with which the Priests distributed Communion. On 24 July 1994, during the children’s Sunday Mass, while the Eucharistic minister took the pix from the Tabernacle, he saw a drop of blood running along its side. On 15 August 1996, a consecrated Host which fell to the ground during the distribution of Communion in Mass, had to be placed again in a vessel of water so it would dissolve. But days later, on the 26th, a Eucharistic minister opened the Tabernacle and saw the Host had transformed into Blood. An Australian lawyer, Ron Tesoriero, who was central to the scientific investigation on the 1996 miracle, gave the account: “…On 21 October 1999, we presented a sample for DNA testing to Forensic Analytical Genetics laboratory in San Francisco. On 1 May 2000, they reported to me that whilst there was the presence of human DNA, no human genetic code could be obtained. This was unusual. Different scientists had different opinions. Who was right? I proceeded to study forensic pathology and cell biology. For more than one year I researched hundreds of histology images and eventually found one that resembled the Buenos Aires case. (Reference: www.miracolieucaristici.org)
By Fr Benny Dennis Travelling to Uganda with our college students for the outreach programme was a grace-filled experience. As a teacher, I was drawn to the classrooms and the eagerness of the children to learn. As a priest, I found myself reflecting on the quiet ways God is present in people's daily lives. We spent much of our time in schools, and what struck me most was not the lack of resources but the abundance of joy. The children welcomed us with smiles that seemed untouched by the hardships they faced. They celebrated life with a simplicity that challenged many of the assumptions I carry from a more comfortable world. One encounter remains particularly vivid in my mind. A young girl came to school carrying her toddler sibling because her parents had gone to work and there was nobody else to care for the child. She sat in class with responsibilities far beyond her years, yet there was a determination in her eyes whenever she engaged with her lessons. In that moment, I was reminded that the desire for education is often strongest among those who have the least access to it. Throughout the visit, I met people who worked tirelessly to provide for their families. Resources were limited, yet I heard little complaint. Instead, I witnessed resilience, generosity, and a strong sense of community. The experience was a humbling reminder of how easily we overlook the blessings that surround us. It deepened my gratitude to God and renewed my appreciation for the dignity and strength that exist within every human person. As I reflect on our time there, my prayer is simple: that these children may continue to find joy amidst their challenges, that education may open doors of opportunity before them, and that the bonds of faith, fellowship, and mutual care that I witnessed among them may continue to flourish. They taught me far more than I could ever have hoped to teach them.
O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sunday 5th July 2026 3pm Starting from the Lighthouse, Roath Park Lake Colette Jones is our key walker and will walk 11 thousand steps for the 11 million unborn children who have lost their lives under the UK 1967 Abortion Act. Further info or to take part please phone Paul and Diane on 02920 405942
There is a Second Collection this weekend 27/28 June Donating to Peter’s Pence is a concrete gesture of communion with the Holy Father and of solidarity with his mission to bring the Gospel throughout the world. As every year, every offering – large or small – will support the Holy Father in his ministry and in his charitable activities in response to emergencies and needs around the world. Visit: www.obolodisanpietro.va or scan the QR code Join the Pope in His mission of Peace, Hope & Love
Nursery applications for 2027 intake are now open for St Peter's RC Primary School. Families with children born between September 1st 2023, and March 31st 2024, are encouraged to submit their applications via the school's website - www.stpeters.wales . St Peter's has just been rated EXCELLENT in every area of their latest Catholic School Inspectorate Report. Call to arrange to view the fantastic facilities 029 20497847.
What is a Miracle of the Eucharist? Miracles of the Eucharist are miraculous divine interventions that are aimed at the confirming faith in the real presence of the body and blood of the Lord in the Eucharist. We are familiar with the Catholic doctrine relating to this real presence; with the Words of Consecration, “this is my body” and “this is my blood,” the substance of the bread becomes the body of Christ and the substance of the wine becomes his blood. This awe-inspiring change is known as transubstantiation, in other words, the transition of the substance. Only the appearances, or species, of the bread and wine remain; these are known by the philosophical term “accidents”. The dimensions, colour, flavour and odour remain, as do the nutrients, but the substance, or rather the true reality, does not remain because it has become the body and blood of Christ. Transubstantiation can in no way be experienced by the senses; faith alone makes certain of this miraculous change. Miracles of the Eucharist are intend to confirm this faith, which is based on the words of Christ, according to which what seems like bread is no longer bread, and what seems like wine is no longer wine. Flesh and blood, or one or the other, appear in Miracles of the Eucharist, depending on the case. The aim of miracles such as these is to demonstrate that we should not look at external appearances (bread and wine), but at the substance, at the true reality of things, which is flesh and blood…The Lord carries out these miracles to give a sign that is easy and visible to all, that the real body and blood of Christ are present in the Eucharist. But this real body and this real blood are not those that appear, rather they are substantially contained beneath the species or appearances, species or appearances that were those of the bread and wine before the miracle, and after the miracle are those of flesh and blood. Christ is truly and substantially contained beneath the appearances of flesh and blood, just as he was before the miracle. This is why we can worship Christ in his real presence beneath the species of the flesh and blood. Fr Roberto Coggi O.P.
O God, who on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul give us the noble and holy joy of this day, grant, we pray, that your Church may in all things follow the teaching of those through whom she received the beginnings of right religion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo Saints Peter and Paul are considered the foundational pillars of the Church. Peter represents the stability of the Church and the office of the Vicar of Christ. Paul represents the mission of evangelization that was entrusted to the Church by Jesus Himself. He was also the Church’s first theologian, which is seen in his numerous letters that expound on the Gospels. Though unlikely, one tradition states that they were both martyred on June 29, in Rome, making them twin martyrs. Their twin martyrdom reminds us that the Church must be both stable and mission-oriented. It must remain grounded in the ancient Truth, yet grow and flower with an ongoing understanding of the mysteries of faith. As we honor these two pillars of the Church, recall the fact that, though they are great saints, they were also ordinary men called to extraordinary vocations. They responded and God used them in ways they could have never imagined. Ponder your own calling in light of theirs and resolve to lay your life down for the Church, joining yourself to these two men so that God can continue their holy mission through you.