Christ, our hope, is risen! Alleluia!
St Beuno’s Outreach in the Diocese of Wrexham, UK, wishes you a joyous and blessed Easter.
Image: John Stuart © stushieart.com
Easter Sunday 2024
Feast
Easter Sunday, Year B, 31st March 2024
Christ, our hope, is risen! Alleluia!
We greet this day with thanksgiving and praise. Christ our hope is risen and we want to announce it by our life and our joy.
This is how we see Peter in the First Reading. He is addressing Cornelius and his household, recounting Jesus’s life and death, and how, as a witness to it, Peter has been ordered to proclaim Christ’s resurrection to his people.
St Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians (Second Reading), encourages us with the practical example of getting rid of the old yeast, to be completely renewed through Christ, in sincerity and truth.
The Psalm is a joyful Easter song celebrating Christ’s triumph. It will be a refrain for us throughout the season.
In the Gospel, after Mary of Magdala finds the stone rolled away from the tomb, she runs to tell Peter and John. By seeing the empty tomb and the discarded cloths, they slowly come to realise that Jesus has truly risen.
Let us pray that we, too, will witness to the resurrection in our lives.
The Baptism of the Lord, Year B, 7th January 2024 (Europe)
‘You are my Child, the Beloved; my favour rests on you’
Today’s feast of the Baptism of Our Lord follows on from the Epiphany. It can be seen as a second manifestation of Christ, as the heavens are opened before the whole world. Through Christ’s baptism, in which the entire Trinity is present (Gospel), the world is made into a second creation.
In the First Reading, from Isaiah, we hear how God’s word will bear fruit in us. The one we see being baptised in the Gospel is the Word and, by carrying out the Father’s will perfectly, all creation is restored.
This is why we can join with the Psalmist: ‘With joy we shall draw water from the wells of salvation’!
St John develops this theme (Second Reading) when he says that because Jesus overcame the world by water and blood, so we, with the Spirit living in us, can be saved.
This coming week, let’s strive to deepen our trust in the Father, who is our salvation; to nurture our faith in the Spirit, who works in us to ensure we do not return empty-handed; and to strengthen our joy in the Son, through whose incarnation and baptism we are made into God’s children.
Christmas Day 2023
The St Beuno’s Outreach Team in the Diocese of Wrexham, UK, wish you a peaceful and blessed Christmas
Kateryna Shadrina, Holy Family (2021)
Iconart Contemporary Sacred Art Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine (iconart-gallery.com/en)
Image used by kind permission of Iconart Gallery
Christmas 2023 with St Beuno’s Outreach
Praying Christmastide with Pope Francis
The period around Christmas can sometimes be frantic, allowing little space to meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation: God’s love coming to us in the person of Jesus. But whether we are busy or not, we can still pause awhile to marvel anew at the miracle of this small baby born into obscurity and poverty. This year, St Beuno’s Outreach invites you to pray with a blend of familiar scripture passages and related reflections by Pope Francis. Please use them in whatever way works best for you. On some days, a single phrase or image may be enough; on others, you may have time for a more leisurely celebration of the joy and hope brought about by this holy birth.
Our images this year come mostly from the Holy Land and Ukraine, with special thanks to the Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour (b. 1947), and the young iconographers of the Iconart Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine. Their work has been chosen to help us pray for peace in all parts of the world where people are broken and suffering this Christmastide.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year A, 26th November 2023
‘¡Viva Cristo Rey!’ (‘Long live Christ the King!’)
The scripture texts of this solemnity, on the last Sunday of the Church year, sum up what we have been reading, listening to, and pondering all year. We have watched as Jesus taught, healed, freed, consoled, and reached out to all. From birth to death, and in his glorified life, he was the visible presence of the Father’s kingdom of love on earth.
The Second Reading gives us a picture of Christ’s kingship. St Paul reassures the church at Corinth that, despite the direst of circumstances, all earthly rule and authority will give way to Christ. When God’s enemies, including sin and death, are destroyed, then all will be alive in God. How we need such a message in today’s world!
The Psalm tells us that God, Shepherd and King, has such authority that we can safely feast, even within sight of our enemies. With him, we shall never be in want.
The First Reading, from the prophet Ezekiel, also contains the theme of shepherd. Though judge, the shepherd is one who serves. Jesus picks up this theme in the Gospel, but now he is found not only in the one who serves the poor, but also in the poor themselves. Both readings reveal a divine bias, if we can say such a thing – against those who would exploit, and for those who are exploited.
The response to ‘¡Viva Cristo Rey!’ (‘Long live Christ the King!’) is ‘¡Que viva!’ (‘He lives!’). Let’s pray that Christ the King will live in me; will live in my actions this coming week. Amen.
Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, 31 July
‘Those who carry God in their hearts, bear Heaven with them wherever they go’
Wishing everyone a very happy feast day!
With warmest good wishes and prayers from St Beuno’s Outreach
St Ignatius as depicted by Jusepe de Ribera (c.1622, the year of his canonization), Rooms of St Ignatius, House of Gesú, Rome
The Transfiguration of the Lord, Year A, 6th August 2023
‘It is wonderful for us to be here’
The liturgy of Transfiguration Sunday gives us a foretaste of future glory.
In the Gospel, as in all the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), the account of the Transfiguration occurs as Jesus is about to make his final journey to Jerusalem and to the Cross. His imminent tragedy is seen through a vision of the glory that is to come.
For us, who carry our own tragedies and crosses, there is help in these readings. They hint at our own glory, too, as God’s adopted children, redeemed and sanctified.
We, too, will be led into his presence and offered a share in his glory (First Reading).
On that day, all creation will rejoice (Psalm).
The gift’s promise is, for us as it was for Peter, ‘a lamp for lighting the way through the dark until the dawn comes’ (Second Reading).
This week let’s pray that, despite our own personal struggles and the darkness of the world’s news, we might hold onto the hope of the glory that is ours through a share in Christ’s everlasting life.
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), Year A, 11th June 2023
‘The bread we break is a communion with the body of Christ’
Today’s feast is an opportunity to reflect on the wonderful mystery of the Eucharist: the sacrament that nourishes our faith and gives life to the world. Each reading offers an opportunity to pray about the significance of this gift, reminding us of the richness of the Eucharistic tradition in the Church.
Moses recalls that though the people of God were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, God never abandoned them (First Reading). Instead, he encouraged them to have faith in his continuing living presence.
The Psalm suggests many reasons to praise God, including both the material and spiritual nourishment that God offers us.
Paul reminds the factious Corinthians of the profound spiritual significance of taking the body and blood of Christ. By participating in the Eucharist, they are uniting themselves to Christ and to the whole Christian community. (Second Reading)
In the Gospel, Jesus affirms that he is the bread of life: the very life force of God. Through his life, death and resurrection, Christ nourishes our deepest hunger for God. We draw life from him even as Jesus drew life from the Father.
This week, we pray for a deepening of Christian Unity. We ask that we may truly become one as followers of Christ.
The Most Holy Trinity, Year A, 4th June 2023
A God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness
Today we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity: one God in three persons. God is the Lover (Father, Creator), the Beloved (Son, Saviour), and the Love which flows between them (Holy Spirit, Counsellor). Our readings help us see who God is, and what God does for us.
Moses’s obedience and humility are revealed as he calls on God from the top of Mount Sinai (First Reading), pleading for the headstrong people of Israel. In responding, the Lord describes himself as ‘a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus of the overwhelming love God has for the world in sending his Son to be its Saviour. Through Jesus’s death and resurrection, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s wish for the discordant Corinthians (Second Reading) is peace, unity, fellowship and love. Paul encourages them (and us) to reveal the qualities of God seen in Jesus, gifted to us through the Holy Spirit, and gifted to others through our behaviour.
The Psalm, taken from the book of Daniel, gives praise and glory to God, exalting him above all forever.
Rublev’s famous icon suggests the love the Holy Trinity has for us in the humility, harmony and mutual love of the three persons. I notice the space at the front of the table inviting me to share in this love and life. In thanksgiving, let’s pray St Paul’s blessing this week, that ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all’.
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