Newsletter

Twenty-First Sunday of the Year

August 24th 2025

 

My dear parishioners,

I hope this finds you and your families well. In last week’s newsletter I mentioned that the church and the world are watching and listening, to get some idea of the direction our new Pope, Leo XIV, is inviting us to take. I thought I would share with you some further thoughts written by Sister Gemma Morato Sendra about the election and early days of Pope Leo.

 

“When Pope Leo stepped onto the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first public appearance, the words he chose were not political, nor poetic, nor strategic. They were gospel: “Peace be with you.” These same words were spoken by the risen Christ to a fearful and disoriented group of disciples, locked away in an upper room. Pope Leo XIV knew exactly what he was doing. He was inviting the church, and the world, into the heart of Christ’s message: peace, not as comfort, but as a calling.

 

This peace, he emphasised, is not a fragile cease-fire or a temporary truce. It is the disarming peace of Christ – humble, persevering, unconditional; it is not imposed from above but sown from below; it does not begin in structures or speeches but in the heart of every person willing to live with open hands and an unguarded heart. For Pope Leo, peace is not merely a social value or political goal, but rather the fruit of deep conversion, personal and communal.

 

Throughout his pastoral ministry, particularly as Bishop of Chiclayo, in Peru, Pope Leo lived this peace daily. In his diocesan writings, especially his reflections on Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, On Fraternity and Social Friendship (2020), he laid out a vision of the church as a field hospital and a bridge builder in a fractured world. He invited people to rediscover fraternity as a pathway to peace, and listening as the method by which that peace is built. To speak of peace, he said, is to speak of transformation, reconciliation and justice woven into daily life.

 

In a world wounded by war, division and indifference, Pope Leo’s approach to peace is radically evangelical. He does not deny conflict: he embraces it with the tools of the gospel. He rejects the language of “us versus them”, instead calling for encounter, respect, and shared responsibility for the common good. His voice is calm but unwavering: Evil will not prevail. We are all in God’s hands.

 

For Leo XIV, Fratelli Tutti is not a text to be quoted but a path to be walked. He reads it not as a manifesto but as a spiritual itinerary. Peace is built not by policy alone but by the daily conversion of hearts. By seeking the suffering, welcoming the excluded, and healing the wounded, the church becomes the living instrument of Christ’s peace. Pope Leo invites us all to be artisans of peace. To begin in our families, our neighbourhoods, our churches and to believe, against all the odds that Christ’s peace is possible, because it is not our invention. It is Christ’s gift to us, and it is then our gift to share with others. G.M.Sendra, “10 Things Pope Leo Wants You to Know.”

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I offer here the Schedule for the Daily Liturgy:

 

Monday August 25th: Mass at 10am

Rosary at 9.40am; confessions at 6.30pm; Novena at 7pm

 

Tuesday August 26th: Mass at 10am

Rosary at 9.40am

 

Wednesday August 27th: Mass at 10am

Rosary at 9.40am

 

Thursday August 28th: Mass at 10am;

Rosary at 9.40am

 

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Parish Pastoral Council will meet on September 2nd at 7pm in the parish meeting room. The PPC is there to serve the parish; your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please speak with one of the council members or put your suggestion in the box at the back of the church.

 

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA): if you are interested in becoming a member of the Catholic Church, please speak to Fr. O’Brien in the first instance. On Thursday September 4th at 7pm there will be a meeting in the parish meeting room for those interested in becoming a member of the church. Please spread this invitation widely, especially if you know someone who might be interested in making this journey of faith.

 

A Message from The Parish Stroller’s Group: we are still strolling along every Tuesday. We meet at the Museum on Muir Street at 11am and walk for one hour; we have tea/coffee and a chat after our stroll in the Museum café; new members are always welcome; just turn up and stroll along!

 

Sincere thanks: the parish has received a bequest of £5,000 from the estate of

Mrs. Sandra Bogan, who died on February 17th 2025; we offer sincere thanks for this gift, and especially to Kevin, her husband. Sandra will be remembered among the benefactors of St. Mary’s and St. Paul’s Parish, Hamilton, requiescat in pace.

 

Recently Deceased: Tom Jack, Sarah Scullion, Jenna McInally, Mary Teresa Brown, Hugh Carlton, Solange Murphy, Thomas Sweeney, Margaret Neary Dempsey, Marie (Brennan) Campbell, Jean McLean, Patrick McCafferty, Emma Lamb, Dominic Pelosi

                                                                                                                         

Special Remembrance: Stefanja and Harry Johnson, Jaime Donnelly, Tom McLean, Mary and John McCaig, Jean and Jim Ward, Ellen McCabe, Nan Dalton and deceased members of the Dalton and McKenna families, Frank Cassidy, Mary and Michael O’Brien and all our own deceased relatives and friends, and all the benefactors of our parish.