Confessions; by appointment & Sat 10.30- 11.00, 5.45-6.15. First Friday's 6.30-7.00pm
Good Shepherd Catholic Church
2010
First Friday
all night vigils
Starting at 7.00pm with Mass
and ending on Saturday 10.00am with Mass
Next one is on Friday 2nd July
The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed during the night. Please sign up. This is part of our year of preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Church in 2011. The intention of the all night vigil in May is the Pope's intentions, but do not hesitate to come to pray for your own intentions.
Good Shepherd Church Pastoral Letter
Sunday 5th July 2009
Sex is for family in a state of loving.
The occasion for this letter is a homily to be given to the confirmation candidates a week before the confirmation. The topic is entitled above.
The teaching of the Catholic Church
Many people, non-Catholics included, know the Church's teaching in this area. It bears repeating. Sex is for the marriage state. It is contrary to the Church's teaching to have sex outside of marriage or to be unfaithful in marriage. Sex is also called to be open to life at all times, and so all artificial contraception is sinful, the condom, the pill, sterilization, and the coil. For the Church God is the author of the meaning of sex, and it is called to be the way for conception, and so IVF is seen as wrong. That God is the author of the meaning of sex is also why the Church disagrees with the homosexual act. Abortion is wrong, as it is the taking of human life. The taking of the morning after pill is clearly very sinful as the aim is to kill any conceived fetus. . Many so called contraceptives like the coil and the pill allow abortion. The Church encourages Natural Family Planning, which allows the spacing of children for good reason in a natural way, taking advantage of the fertile cycles of the woman.
It is clear that many young Catholics who have been through the Catholic system, attended Catholic Schools, been confirmed, do not believe the above to be important. If they have boyfriends or girlfriends, they feel that if they love each other sex naturally follows. Seeing as they have no wish to have children at a young age, they will use contraception. These actions are often associated with their being independently minded, not wishing to be dictated to by the Catholic Church. A few Catholic parents believe in "safe sex" for their children and encourage such practice if their teenage children are in a relationship.
Promoting a civilization of love
This letter has limited aims. It is to promote sex in marriage, and discourage the 'contraceptive' mentality so prevelant in our society and indeed even in our Church. It is to indicate that young people have been sold a lie. For future happiness, for a world with stable friendships and relationships, for a place where children are brought up in the most secure environments, the Catholic Church's teaching is tried and tested.
Nobody starts married life with the intention of getting divorced. There was horror from confirmation candidates a few years ago when I asked if they wanted to get divorced. Yet it is the case that previous actions make divorce more of a possibility. In 2003 the Sunday Times, (not the most Catholic paper!), revealed the result of the biggest survey of what makes wedlock work. It was commented "I think there is a fantasy that living together is a way of testing what marriage would be like". Cohabiting was seen as increasing the chances of divorce. Previous actions before you meet your partner affect the marriage. The idea that one could have previous partners and this not seriously affects a future marriage was seen, for the most part, to be unfounded. Details of this survey can be found on the notice board.
Contraception, abortion, and STI's
A "Contraceptive society" will become a society where abortion is prevalent. None of the contraceptives will stop pregnancy for the sexually active. The lie that they are efficient in this area means that it is no surprise that teenage abortions are so high in this country. A mother attended a clinic last year indicating that the unborn baby had survived the condom the pill and the morning after pill! It also has lead to a dramatic increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STI's) in young people. This is not surprising as pregnancy can only happen a few days in the month, while both sexes can catch a sexual disease any day of the month. Yet still the government promotes condoms as the answer.
Love involves chastity
In all the State-sponsored programs, sex is reduced to an activity which can be engaged in whenever it feels right. As the 'for young people' website puts it, 'Sex should be fun, don't make it a problem.' This is disastrous and damaging advice. Sex is the "Marriage Act", and is called to be chaste. There was a television programme on Channel 4 a year ago which had teenagers who had been sexually active being shown the chaste way. For all of them it was a clear realisation that in their previous relationships they had never truly loved. They had been sold the lie that sex 'makes love", but found that true love involved chastity. Chastity means one loves freely and warmly with innocent intention and without erotic disturbance or demand. When appropriate, so in marriage, it integrates sexual feelings into authentic love so that one can give sexually.
Due to the effects of original sin, so many wrong decisions are innocently made in this area, to disastrous effects. As the Church puts it: "In our present fallen condition people mistakenly equate love and sex" (CCC2351). Such a mistaken view leads to so many broken hearts. Surely it is authentic love that we all wish to experience.
Sex is for family
Research shows that, on average, children thrive best in a family where they are raised by their mother and father. The relationship between sex and children must come back into view. There are two purposes for sex, the first being procreation and the second the union of the husband and wife. Anyone who is in a sexual relationship should believe that their spouse would make a good Father or mother, and know that both partners will be there to bring up any child that might be born. To be responsible and honourable is an admirable trait, but surely it comes more naturally in a married relationship.
The value of good friends
I know many people have appreciated the "Six basic steps to Chastity" which we have on the notice board. Some of the advice is outstanding. Step 4 deals with finding people with similar values. It is important to have good friends who hold the same values. It makes it easier to keep your value system. The hope of a priest is that friendships in a confirmation class are important in this way.
The Catholic Church is the good guy
It is important to note when the Church has shown evidence for its wisdom in this area.
The Prophetic words of Pope Paul VI
It was in 1968 that the Church affirmed its teaching on artificial contraception. The question then was whether such means could be used in marriage when a couple had already a number of children. The world of teenage sex and abortion that we have today was not under consideration. Pope Paul VI knew well however that the situation we have now was on the horizon if this contraceptive mentality was to win the day. In his 1968 encyclical on Human Life (Humanae Vitae, n.17) Pope Paul VI wrote prophetically:
'Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law.'
As Pope Paul foresaw, we have indeed experienced a great decline in moral standards.
Church's viewpoint confirmed by healthcare professionals
In the field of sexually transmitted diseases, saved sex is now being widely suggested by many sexual-healthcare workers. The idea is that sex is saved for a time when the relationship between the partners is at such a level of intimacy that it is exclusive for the rest of their lives. They have come to this view by looking at the disastrous effect that the "contraceptive mentality" has had in the area of STI's.
Catholic Church and Aids
In the Lancet, the main medical magazine in England, an article call "Cautions about Condoms in the Spread of Aids" said: "the likelihood of failure is sufficiently high that condom use by risk groups should not be described as safe-sex". It is noticeable that countries with large Catholic populations shows significantly lower rate of HIV/Aids infections than countries with mostly non-Catholic populations. Thus Burundi (62%) has a 6% Aids rate, Ghana (63% Christian) has a 3.1% infection rate while Botswana (5% Catholic) has a 37.3% infection rate.
The Church is being faithful to Jesus/The value of confession
Jesus himself said that if we even look at someone lustfully we have committed adultery of the heart (Mt5:28). This is the same Jesus who forgave the woman caught committing adultery. His standards of sexual morality are as demanding as His compassion for weak human beings is great. The Church practices the mercy of God in confession. If one has fallen in these matters, the road to forgiveness remains open. Should anyone have failed in any of these areas, I urge them to avail themselves of this gift of mercy. No priest will condemn you. Rather, he will administer lovingly and joyfully the forgiveness of Christ, and provide help to avoid falls in the future. All that is needed on our part is sincere sorrow and a purpose of amendment.
The call for a civilization of love
Dear friends. We would all wish to build a civilisation of love. The vision of love that the State is presenting to our youngsters is not the vision of love that Jesus Christ came to share with us. Let us help promote this Catholic vision of true love. I ask that parents take a personal interest the sex education of their child. I ask that teenagers make a stand for a truly beautiful vision of love and sex.
One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is chastity. We ask for his power in our lives and pray for the confirmation candidates of 2009.
I would be pleased to receive your comments on the matters I have raised. Please feel free to phone, email or write, or come along and see me. If any of you would like to form a discussion group to talk about these issues, just let me know.
I would happily try to organise some speakers on the subject of family life and education for loving if people were interested.
This pastoral letter ends with a moving witness to forgiveness and the hurt of abortion
Wishing you the grace and peace of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am
Yours devotedly,
Fr. Stephen
Here is a testimony from some one who was moved to write following the SPUC White Flower Appeal in a Catholic Church this year. Listening to the talk a few weeks ago about SPUC I came out of Church feeling as if a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders when I heard the words "all those unborn babies go to heaven." I felt they were safe.
Even through my selfishness some good has come for these babies I chose not to have. I live with the very wrong decision that I made not once but twice and wish every day that I could turn back the clock and un-do the wrong I chose to make things right for myself.
The first time I was young and had a 6mth old child and had just recovered from cervical problems and it seemed at the time to be almost justifiable. I know now that it was not. The second time was just pure selfishness from both parties. 100% inexcusable. We already had a number of children and "this new addition" just didn't fit into our busy materialistic lives. There was no room for one more!
I laid in the bath the morning of the termination placed my hand over my flat stomach and thought "it's not too late to change my mind." But things were arranged and I tried to convince myself it was the "right" thing to do. I had no one to ask... "Help me do what deep down I know is right, tell me it's wrong." I had no one to put their hand out to me and say ... "I'm here for you, it's going to be fine." I was alone.
I have been to confession many times since but am still tormented by the grief and the unjust choices that I made for those two tiny lives that depended totally on me.
Forgiveness has to begin with forgiving myself.
I am happy for this to be read out at Mass or passed on to SPUC in the hope that it prevents other women making the same mistakes as I have
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WE ENTRUST, O MARY, AND CONSECRATE ALL PEOPLES, OURSELVES AND THIS PARISH TO YOUR IMMACULATE HEART! Thursday 1st January 2009. |
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On Thursday, 13 May 1982, after the concelebrated Mass in Fatima, Pope John Paul II made the an act of consecration of the modern world to Our Lady of Fatima. Adapting it a little for today, we make this consecration. 1. "We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God." As we utter the words of this antiphon with which the Church of Christ has prayed for centuries, we find ourselves tonight in Good Shepherd Church, New Addington. In the bond of this union, we utter the words of the present Act, in which we wish to include, once more, the hopes and anxieties of all peoples in the modern world, most especially our Parish Church and all people present here on this first day of 2009. Sixty seven years ago and again ten years later, your servant Pope Pius XII, having before his eyes the painful experience of the human family, entrusted and consecrated to your Immaculate Heart the whole world, especially the peoples for which you had particular love and solicitude. This world of individuals and nations we too have before our eyes today, as we use the entrusting and consecration carried out by Pope Pius XII. The Church, mindful of the Lord's words: "Go... and make disciples of all nations... and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:19-20), renewed, at the Second Vatican Council, her awareness of her mission in this world. And therefore, O Mother of individuals and peoples, you who "know all their sufferings and their hopes", you who have a mother's awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, as though moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your Heart. Embrace, with the love of the Mother and Handmaid, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate to you, for we are full of disquiet for the earthly and eternal destiny of individuals and peoples. In a special way we entrust and consecrate ourselves and this parish to you. We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God: reject not the prayers we send up to you in our necessities. Reject them not! Accept our humble trust and our act of entrusting! 2. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).It was precisely by reason of this love that the Son of God consecrated himself for all mankind: "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (Jn 17:19).By reason of that consecration the disciples of all ages are called to spend themselves for the salvation of the world, and to supplement Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church (cf. 2 Cor 12:15; Col 1:24).
Before you, Mother of Christ, before your Immaculate Heart, we today, unite ourselves with our Redeemer in this his consecration for the world and for the human race, which only in his divine Heart has the power to obtain pardon and to secure reparation. The power of this consecration lasts for all time and embraces all individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil that the spirit of darkness is able to awaken, and has in fact awakened in our times, in the heart of man and in his history. The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, unites herself, through the service of Peter's successor, to this consecration by our Redeemer. Oh, how deeply we feel the need for consecration on the part of humanity and of the world—our modern world—in union with Christ himself! The redeeming work of Christ, in fact, must be shared in by the world by means of the Church. Oh, how pained we are by all the things in the Church and in each one of us that are opposed to holiness and consecration! How pained we are that the invitation to repentance, to conversion, to prayer, has not met with the acceptance that it should have received! How pained we are that many share so coldly in Christ's work of Redemption! That "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions" is so insufficiently completed in our flesh. And so, blessed be all those souls that obey the call of eternal Love! Blessed be all those who, day after day, with undiminished generosity accept your invitation, O Mother, to do what your Jesus tells them (cf. Jn 2:5) and give this parish, the Church and the world a serene testimony of lives inspired by the Gospel. Above all blessed be you, the Handmaid of the Lord, who in the fullest way obey the divine call! Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your Son! Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, of hope and love! Help us to live with the whole truth of the consecration of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world. 3. In entrusting to you, O Mother, this parish, all present, the world, all individuals and peoples, we also entrust to you the consecration itself, for the world's sake, placing it in your motherly Heart. Oh, Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future! From famine and war, deliver us. Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies. Let there be revealed, once more. in the history of the world your infinite power of merciful Love. May it put a stop to evil. May it transform consciences. May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope. |
Altar Servers "Summertime 2008" Weekday Services 
See Homepage, Telephone or check parish newsletter
Weekday Service
See home page
Parish Lourdes Trip 24th - 26th April 
Rome 22nd - 23rd May
Day with Mary: Thanks to the Day with Mary team
Friday Football Match: Good Shepherd 8 St Bedes 3
Thanks to Fr. Chris Basden for bringing the servers.
Football team that played St. Bedes in an earlier match. Alistair, who is missing from the picture, supplied the football and scored one of the goals
Flowers after the Marian Procession from the School. Thanks to pupils and staff for a fantastic act of love to Mary.
Southwark Vocations - see the diocesan vocations blog and YouTube for Fishers of Men
