A message from Fr John

Dear Friends

Good morning - I hope you’re well

Thank you for accompanying me during last week’s retreat. It wasn’t easy to juggle the everyday timetable - phones, emails etc - but I was grateful to know that you were with me. Be sure that I prayed for you and your families especially on my walks.

The retreat finished on Friday evening when we were invited to share together the following prayer from Cardinal Newman. It’s a lovely prayer that ‘works’ for all of us. It’s a prayer of discipleship, of submitting ourselves to the will of God and the service of Christ in all parts of our lives.
'Dear Lord, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.

Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.

Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you, O Lord!

Stay with me and then I will begin to shine as you do;
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Lord, will be all from you; none of it will be mine.
It will be you shining on others through me.

Let me thus praise you in the way which you love best, by shining on those around me.

Let me preach you without preaching,
not by words but by example, by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you. Amen'

(St John Henry Newman)

I hope this Lent has brought you many blessings as we move ever closer to celebrating the all encompassing love of God.

St Joseph, companion on our journey, pray for us

Every blessing

Fr John
PS please note the Day of Reflection and Prayer on Tuesday - CTK will be open from 5 - 7.00pm for quiet prayer