Father James Teeling

People are not so particular about having a priest who has bright ideas, is articulate in giving homilies, good in building big churches, good infrastructure or beautifying their convent. People need their priest to be with them, to listen to them and to empathize with their difficult situation. “Let the parishioners be the teachers. Priests sometimes give the notions that they are the only one with something to teach or give. As the main ‘coordinators of charisms’ in the parish, a priest must acknowledge and affirm the many and varied gifts within the community. Priests need to be open to being students as well as to being teachers.” (Rev. J. Ronald Knott).

Bishops through the power of the Holy Spirit are preachers and dispensers of the riches of the risen Christ.
Pope Benedict XVI as successor of the Apostle Peter speaks in the midst and in the name of his fellow bishops.
Pope Benedict has asked that all human individuals and communities who profess to be “Followers Of Christ” today! should make ourselves more knowledgeable of the life and mission of the early church to teach and guide us on how we can become more truly followers of Christ.

The Apostles seen the Risen Christ.
Where do we see the Risen Christ?

The Apostles did works of power in the name of the Risen Christ.
Where do we see the power of the Risen Christ at work in these present times and in our daily lives?

The Apostles seen the Risen Christ as the fulfilment of Sacred History in their time and during all time until the end of time.

Where do we see the continuing fulfilment of Sacred History “In the Risen Christ” in our time and for its completed fulfilment at the end of time?

The preachers and dispensers of the riches of the Risen Christ within the creation and event of their respective dioceses which is within the sacred time of the Church Community and its history are through the power of the Holy Spirit called to preach and dispense the riches of the “Risen Christ” in the life of Jesus’ community today.

The Community of the Church has spread from Jerusalem to the furthest reaches of the world. The preaching and dispensing of the riches of the Risen Christ encompasses many peoples and cultures living and worshipping within this universal Church Community. The preaching and dispensing of the riches of “The Risen Christ” are no longer rooted in one nation or in one culture.

Our Parish Community has many peoples from differing parts of the world and therefore from many differing cultures to whom the fullness of the riches of the risen Christ must be preached and dispensed. The power of the Holy Spirit reveals the riches of the Risen Christ and makes known the works accomplished by the Church done in the name of Jesus. The fulfilment of God’s lived activity and encounter with humanity is “In Christ” The greatest act of inculturisation is Christ made man in Jesus. The life of our Parish today is as a direct result of this greatest act of inculturisation. It is within this inculturisation of Christ and the inculturisation of His Body the Church that the riches of the Risen Christ must be preached and dispensed. It is in the preaching and dispensing of these riches that the richness of the “Risen Christ” is made known to us within our differing life stories and cultures. The life of our Archdiocese and the life of our parish are a true witnessing of the values of our Christian teaching and culture. A richness of life that has its source and lived encounter in the life of the Risen Christ. A richness and lived encounter that is realised in the preaching and dispensing of the riches of “ The Risen Christ” A life encounter experienced through the sacred action of God within the sacraments of the Church. A lived encounter with the risen Christ through the sacraments of the church is the means by which Jesus chose to enable His Apostles and their successors the Bishops to preach and dispense the riches of the “Risen Christ”.

If we are “In Christ” then we are “In God”

We need nothing more than God. If everything is in God then we as a Parish Faith Community have everything in God. If we are “In Christ” then we are “In God”. Our life in the Family, in the Parish, and in the Community is where we should experience God’s acceptance, God’s appreciation and God’s love for each of us. It is where we should live together in appreciation, acceptance and love of each other and of God. It is necessary for each member of our families, of our Parish and our school to come to know these differing experiences of Life and love.
Our Gospel for last Sunday speaks to us of how Jesus heals a leper in an instant. It also raises a question:

If a person is put outside of the life and care of their family and the life and care of their faith community and the care of the wider community,,,, to whom do they go to?

It is easy to treat this question as a rhetorical question. We would do Jesus and ourselves a dis-service if we treated it as rhetorical.

To whom do they go? They go to the one who accepts, appreciates and loves them. If the Church is truly an Ecclesial Community then it is to Christ Jesus in His Ecclesial Community that they should find total acceptance, total appreciation and total love.

Unconditional acceptance, unconditional appreciation and unconditional love has to be a lived reality in our life as family, Parish and school. Jesus lives the total acceptance, appreciation and love of God for every human being His heavenly Father has created. No person is placed outside of His presence, outside of His Ecclesial Community by the actions or desire of Jesus. Yet! we can place ourselves outside of His life, outside of His acceptance, appreciation and love and outside of His Ecclesial Community by our own choice, actions and desire to do so. We achieve this point of separation when we follow our own self will and not that of God’s divine will and plan for His creation. God’s plan for our life is an alternative plan to our own. It is in accepting His alternative “Way of Life” that we live the “Fullness of Life” promised to us by Jesus. A Jesus who says ‘Yes! I want to heal you’

Jesus is the healer of our divisions and separations. We, like the leper need to ask Jesus if He wants to heal us and His reply will be the same to all peoples in all times and to all generations ‘Of course I want to” but it is necessary that we ask Him.

Our world is redeemed “In Christ”. It is the divine light of Jesus which gathers and completes all persons, all times and peoples and all Ecclesial Communities into a life “In Christ”. Our families, Our Parish and our school are gathered into His Ecclesial Community. It is in our families, in our Parish and in our school that we and our children should experience the unconditional appreciation, the unconditional acceptance and love of God and of each other. To whom shall they go? To Jesus Christ through the persons who share His life in our Ecclesial Community, families, Parish and school.

Five Things To Remember About Our Parish.

The outward progress of our Parish must come from a deep interior spiritual movement.

Our community at Sacred Heart has come from God and it is for God and we must always be aware of this in all our ministries and service.

Our Parish has a need to live more fully the “Life of the Church”

Christian Institutional Power is not what being a Catholic Faith Community is about.

We are a Church “In Christ” we are formed by Jesus Christ within His Mystical Body

Excerpts from Fr. Jim's Parish Messages.

The outward progress of our Parish must come from a deep interior spiritual movement. Our families, our Parish Eucharistic Communion and our school will grow in spirituality through our turning more fully to the Bible. To come to know God and to love Him we must more and more become a Bible Community. Bible sharing is a movement of the Holy Spirit already being witnessed to in many parts of the world. We can make it a great force for good in our Families, our Parish and our School. It is the “Way of God” the “Way of the Holy Spirit”. Remember this “The Holy Spirit is in each one of us. He lives in each of us and it is that living ‘In the Spirit’ that must be realised in our faith community.

Our community at Sacred Heart has come from God and it is for God and we must always be aware of this in all our ministries and service. We must facilitate the reign of God in the heart of all our family members in our parishioners and in our students and in the heart of each member of the wider community in Sittingbourne. It is also my hope that we can facilitate the reign of God in God's wider world through our supporting of Cafod, Missio and also my work to the poor and abandoned, abused children in the Philippines.

Sunday Eucharist is a celebration of our living communion with God and one another. Mass begins with a lesson and learning together period. The teaching of the day begins (from the beginning of Mass until the Prayers of the Faithful). Then we have a period of worship (from the offertory to the communion). Finally the time to live our Mass (from the Communion to the end of Mass and into our daily lives and work). Living the Mass must be made real in our families, our Parish and our School.

“Enlivened and united in His Spirit, we journey toward the consummation of human history, one which fully accords with the counsel of God’s love: “To re-establish all things in Christ, both those in Heaven and those on the earth”. (Church in the Modern World, No. 45)

God’s goodness and power is centred on Christ. It is Christ who is the wisdom and power of God and who carries out God’s design for his creation and man’s salvation. All that is in our families, all that is in our parish and all that is in our school is achieved through our human achievements and through our seeing the power and goodness of God at work in our time and place. It is all the work of building a better world for the “Coming of the Lord” The Spirit of God is actively engaged in the work of the Church. Our search for God involves us being actively engaged in the work of the Church. It is our striving for justice, freedom and peace that we come to find Christ and to a true witnessing of the values of our Christian teaching and culture.

People can only be helped by their fellow human beings. The first task in helping has been accomplished through, with Christ taking on human flesh. The gifts that have been given to our Faith Community have come from God (James 1:17). The great servant within our Parish is Christ. We are simply his servants in other words Christ’s instruments in His serving the parishioners of Sacred Heart Church. Christ reigns in our Parish.
We simply work to spread His reign in the Parish Community. Through our celebration of our Sunday Eucharist and in the many other ways in which we bring each other closer to Christ. All our Parish activities are a means by which we are lead into a life of prayer. Our Bible sharing, the Sunday Benediction and Evening Prayer, visiting the sick, looking after the elderly, our fund raising events and the many other achievements of our families and school though forgotten in time are still remembered in the mind of God. Our life and activities are a prayer bringing us into union with God through Christ.

God loves humanity! The Incarnation is the actuality and realisation of that love. Through baptism we are caught up into the love that exists between the Triune God and in the love that the Triune God has for humanity. It is through our being caught up in this love of God that we are able to love each other. God’s love has closed the separation caused by sin and death that existed between humanity and God. Sin separates us from love and loving. The absence of love both human and divine is an everlasting death. God’s love shows us the way from
everlasting death to everlasting life. Only God has the power to bring us out of sin and death and to lead us into the light of His truth. The incarnation of Christ brings that light into our created world. It is Jesus who teaches us and leads us in the Way of the Light, a light that always leads humanity to the Way of Life which is the Christ incarnated in the person and life of Jesus.

Our Baptism unites us to Christ. It unites us to “Christ The Priest” who makes us a Holy People. Through Baptism “We Rule with Christ” through serving the Church and each other and the wider world. The movement of the Vision is through Christ, in the Bible and the Eucharist to the Blessed Trinity and God’s Kingdom on Earth. “A Vision for the Parish” must always come through, with and in Christ. “A vision for the Parish” must include the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Eucharist bringing us into right relationship with God and to the creation of God’s Kingdom on Earth.

Kergyma, sharing the Good News, creates Koinonia, the People of God, in Diakonia, in Service. Serving one another in joy allows each of us to grow in knowledge of God, in the stature of the Sacraments and in the wisdom of knowing Christ. This is “Life in all its Fullness”.

Jesus is the cause and origin of our moving. We move with Jesus through His passion and resurrection. We move with Him through His Incarnation. We move with Him in every moment of the Church’s life. The Church’s life is Jesus‘ way of bringing us to the “Fullness Of Life” The “Fullness of Life” is a characteristic of God’s life a characteristic of God himself. The Church through Her Sacraments, given to her by Jesus the Christ brings us into a sharing in the life of God. Baptism moves us to a life of grace. Confirmation moves us to life "In The Holy Spirit”. Eucharist moves us toward “The Mystery Of Christ Within Us” These movements have their origin in God because they are given to the Church by the “Word of God made flesh”.

We propose that our Parish has a need to live more fully the “Life of the Church”. What is the life of our church? One answer is “Life in Christ”. We are a Community of Disciples following the “Way of the Lord” We accept the Way of Poverty and the transforming love and justice of God. We witness to the words, deeds and life of Jesus Christ. We propose the Words and the deeds of Jesus’ life to form the vision for our parish. Our faith community must witness to Jesus Christ’s Gospel through our word, our deeds and our lives. Our animating life force is rooted “In Christ” “In Christ” we are His community being guided by the Holy Spirit. We propose that we follow Christ and that we be His disciples living in the community of His Church while attending to each others needs.

"What we live"

In attaining to a vision for our parish we begin with the initial proposal “What we live” We live according to The Word of God. We live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We propose what we live. Love of God and Love of Neighbour as Oneself. In doing so we act out of the Word of God,

In order to work out of the “Word of God” we have to listen to the Word of God. We also have to share the Word of God and in our listening and sharing we learn to act out of “The Word of God” The Vision for the Parish should be a connection with “The Word of God” and a connection with all who live by every Word that comes from the mouth of God”

We propose that our Parish has a need to live more fully the “Life of the Church”. What is the life of our church? One answer is “Life in Christ”. We are a Community of Disciples following the “Way of the Lord” We accept the Way of Poverty and the transforming love and justice of God. We witness to the words, deeds and life of Jesus Christ. We propose the Words and the deeds of Jesus’ life to form the vision for our parish. Our faith community must witness to Jesus Christ’s Gospel through our word, our deeds and our lives. Our animating life force is rooted “In Christ” “In Christ” we are His community being guided by the Holy Spirit. We propose that we follow Christ and that we be His disciples living in the community of His Church while attending to each others needs.

Vatican II Lumen Gentium (LG 10-13) speaks of the threefold mission of the Church. We are a People of God. This reality enables us to share in the prophetic, priestly and kingly nature of Christ. Our Parish in its vision of mission must live out of this threefold nature and mission of Christ and of His Church.

In our Vision of the Parish we propose that we live out of the Word of God. Our Community / Parish life is His Word active and alive in our lives. Our Parish proposes to be a community of believers, a community of disciples of Jesus who live in koinonia, in communion. Who live as a community of friends, sharing the Word of God, sharing the Bread of Life, and sharing our material possessions (whose sign and symbol is witnessed to in our Mass collections being brought up with the offertory gifts), so that no one is in need – there should be no needy person among the People of God. These signs of the Vitality of the Community, these signs of friendship and community are our starting point for a new society based on the “Civilisation of Love” (Redemptoris Missio 51).

What we live is our first proposal toward forming a vision for our parish. Our very life our every word and action must be incorporated into the threefold nature of Jesus Christ’s mission. Our word must be God’s word. Our actions must be God’s actions. Our life, our vision, our existence must be guided by His Holy Spirit. We propose that we are a community of disciples following “The way of the Lord”. We profess to “Live the Way of the Lord” That is why our first proposal to a new vision for the parish is “What we Live”

“The Church is active participation in the Mission of Christ” Pope John Paul. WYD 1995

“We do not kill our enemies, we forgive them and then learn to love them”. In celebrating the Mass the chalice carries Jesus’ blood which sanctifies the world and cleanses it of sin . A chalice of blood emptied not into the earth but incorporated into the very flesh and blood of His at times sinful yet faithful people. The single historical event in time of the killing and shedding of the blood of Jesus on Good Friday was shed so that the world and all its peoples might be redeemed into salvation. The Eucharist is the continuous action of God’s only Son in all times offering Himself for the redemption and sanctification of the world. We His followers imitate His service of love when we continually serve each other in Christian joy and when we are continuously willing to wash each others feet in the waters of Christian love and forgiveness. Jim

As it is for the ministerial priesthood so it is for all the baptised who share in The Priesthood of Christ.

This year on the 11th June I will be celebrating my 60th birthday. I find myself in a time of reflection on the story of my life and the discovering of new meanings in past events. I suppose I could look back on the past years with a deep sense of sentimental reminiscing and nostalgia but I would prefer to leave that for a later year in my life or maybe never do it at all. This time of my life is a chance for me to reflect upon my future while remembering the words of President Bill Clinton “ I have more yesterdays than I have tomorrows”

Here I am in my 60th year living in Sittingbourne and in the 15th year of my ministerial priesthood. I would not be here if it were not for the man who walked on the shores of Galilee over 2,000 years ago proclaiming “The Good News of Life”. In reflecting back on my life I sense that Jesus allowed himself to be born again in my mind and in my heart. I feel that through receiving and administering the sacraments of the church that I have lived with an experience of love that allowed the full impact of the saving events of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and glorification be a part of who I am. I know in faith that my ultimate incorporation into “Being In Christ” will be a lived event in the future. A future that will bring about my own bodily death, a death where life is changed but not ended a life lived in the hopeful expectation of my resurrection and glorification “In Christ” at the end of time.

In my short fifteen years of ministerial priesthood in which Jesus through His Body the Church has brought me to explore more fully the role of “Servant” in my own life and in the life of Christ. Jesus, the servant son, filled with the Holy Spirit came among us to complete the Father’s plan of salvation. “It is Completed” words placed on the lips of the dying Son of God. Truly my life from conception to death finds it’s completion in this completed mission of Christ which is expressed in His dying words.

Servant, “Obedient Son” is a core part of my seeing Christ in my ministry. I have to be an obedient adopted son of the Father if I am going to fully live out of the grace of ordination.
I am Jim Teeling. I live in this world amidst its complexities and ambiguities and I am an ordained priest in the Roman Catholic Church ministering to the people of Sittingbourne. As a servant I am called to serve God’s people so that they may nurture and promote the human dignity of all peoples . I am a servant to God’s people in mine and their quest to come to the triumph of justice and peace, mercy and love within our human existence. I am a servant to God’s people who with me wait and labour for the coming of the Kingdom of God and for the reign of God. I am a servant to those who along with me live by the “Word of God” and who live the life of the sacraments and who work for justice and peace in our world.

Jesus as the Lord of Justice reigns from “The Cross” On the cross he identifies himself with all sinners. I a sinner must also be willing to incorporate myself into Jesus’ mounting of the cross and into His identification with me and with all sinners. As a confessor I must be instructed in the Lord’s ways so that I may walk in His ways. I must walk in the light of Christ if He is to allow me to minister His sacraments so that I and other sinners may be brought out of darkness into His Wonderful Light. I must repent and seek forgiveness of my sins in order that Jesus through the ministry given to me by “His Body” the Church may call others to repentance and forgiveness. I am Jim Teeling, servant to the Shepherd who feeds His flock with His very own Body and Blood as a sign of His Messiahship.

I am a servant of Jesus and a servant in His Body the Church and a servant of God’s People who through my serving ministry is called by Jesus and His Church to Preach The Gospel, to minister to His work of cleansing repentant hearts with words of mercy. I, Jim Teeling a servant has been ordained to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ so that He may feed His people with food and drink as we journey together into a future that leads us into “The Kingdom Of God” The “Light of Christ” is with us in word and in sacrament, in works of justice and mercy. He the Lord has come to us and now we must come to Him.

O come and save us, Lord, our God. May I, Jim Teeling be a servant to the means of that coming. May I be set free from all sin and all that holds me bound in darkness. May the healing power of Christ bring me into the light of Christ so that I may truly be an obedient adopted son of God and a true follower of Jesus, who as servant son has the power to bring about the completion of my life and the completion of the lives of those He has sent me to serve within the ministry and service of the Church.

This reflection was written on The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. 25th January 2012

We are a catholic faith worshipping community. We live and practice the faith and morality of our faith worshipping community. Our values and allegiances are all faith, worshipping community centred. If our faith worshipping community disappears from public life then there is a danger that secular values could form us into a private individualistic religious entity. Jesus proclaimed the “Good News” in community. His was an energetic proclamation in word and deed. People came in thousands to gather around Jesus and to see and hear him and to receive “Teaching” from Him. “Teaching” on God and our relationship with God. “Teaching” on how we should live our lives in accordance with God’s divine plan for each of us within our faith community. We, His followers are sent by Him to do the same work in words and deeds that are energetic and life giving.

We are called to gather round Him, to be with Him and each other in an energetic and life giving proclamation of “The Good News Of Christ”

The responsibility for the “Proclamation of the Good News of Jesus the Christ” is not simply that of the (The Pope is Bishop of Rome), Bishops, Priests and Deacons; “The Clerics”. Nor is it for those who participate in and receive the Sacraments. Nor is it the sole responsibility of those who see themselves as “Church Goers”.

Christian Institutional Power is not what being a Catholic Faith Community is about. We, have chosen to follow Jesus and in our following accept His being, His Teaching” “The Way, The Truth, and The Life” of our community. He, a living person, a Divine Person and not a Christian Institution.

“Revelation is not a process but a state not a becoming but a being.... to preach the mission of the church (Pope Benedict) Jesus “In Himself” has the fullness of this state and being and has through the Power of the Holy Spirit given this state and being to His Mystical Body “The Church”.

We are a Church “In Christ”! We are formed by the teaching of Christ and of His Mystical Body. We do not seek to be formed solely by our own individual understanding of the world and by our own understanding of morality. Neither do we seek to be formed by the prevailing thoughts and philosophy of our day.

We are a Church “In Christ” we are formed by Jesus Christ within His Mystical Body. We have our life our movement in His Body the Church. All of us have our place in the forming and governance of “The Mystical Body of Christ”. In celebrating the life of the church within its sacraments wherein Bishop Priest and Deacon stand in the person of Christ bringing the full community into a right relationship with God, with each other and with the wider world and all of creation. A celebration in which all are “In Christ” and all are co-equal in the sight and presence of God. A celebration which gains us entry into the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God where all persons and things find the completeness of their state the completeness of their being “In Christ”.

“Your time is my time” normally said when people put a monetary or work value on a persons time. What is a person’s time? God is three divine persons therefore we can speak of God’s time. The time we spend as a community in the worship of God we call Sacred Time. Our celebration of Eucharist involves us in a loving sacrifice of thanksgiving within Sacred Time. The liturgical Calendar involves us now in “Ordinary Time”. We have moved from Advent and Christmas time and have now entered into Ordinary Time. We are a church “On the Move” We are travelling in “Time” toward the fulfilment of the Resurrection.

Jesus is the cause and origin of our moving. We move with Jesus through His passion and resurrection. We move with Him through His Incarnation. We move with Him in every moment of the Church’s life. The Church’s life is Jesus‘ way of bringing us to the “Fullness Of Life” The “Fullness of Life” is a characteristic of God’s life a characteristic of God himself. The Church through Her Sacraments, given to her by Jesus the Christ brings us into a sharing in the life of God. Baptism moves us to a life of grace. Confirmation moves us to life "In The Holy Spirit”. Eucharist moves us toward “The Mystery Of Christ Within Us” These movements have their origin in God because they are given to the Church by the “Word of God made flesh”.

A Papal document which promulgated the Liturgical Calendar in 1969 and titled “The Celebration of the Sacred Mystery” directed us as follows
“The celebration of the Paschal Mystery is of the greatest importance in Christian Liturgical Worship, and that it unfolds throughout the course of days, weeks, and the whole year”

All time is directed toward the Paschal Mystery of Christ. All time radiates out from the Paschal Mystery of Christ. All time is within the Paschal Mystery of Christ. All time comes to its summit and completion in the Paschal Mystery of Christ. All time is directed toward the completion of the fullness of the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Time is our movement toward our completion in Christ, toward God bringing all things together “In Christ” Time is our being "On the Move" with Jesus “In Christ”. Moving toward the “Fullness of Life” toward being like God Himself who is the “Fullness of Life” Your time is my time “In Christ”.

A NEW YEARS MESSAGE FROM FR JIM

On the 13 July 1997, immediately after my ordination, Archbishop
Michael appointed me as Assistant Priest to English Martyr’s Streatham. The following September I attended a meeting in Norwood West - “A Vision for the Diocese” was the title and agenda for the meeting. Over fourteen years of ministry I still find myself attending discussions and meetings about “A Vision for the Diocese”. This is not a criticism; it is a way of highlighting the difficulties of the planning and the execution of such a venture of striving toward a “Vision for the Diocese”.

Maybe! We can help the movement towards a vision for the diocese by striving to form a vision for the parish. One can go to Canon Law to understand the structure and governance of a parish.
One can also look at the place of the Triune God and the place of the Eucharist and the place of the spirituality of the people within the life of the parish.

A New Vision means that we open ourselves to change, to truth and to the future. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit must have their life lived in the Parish. God’s people must live their life by being filled with the Life of God and in that life give true worship to God in grace and truth. Our faith community must be formed by the Gospel of Christ and the Eucharist.
Both speaking to us today, about the things and the needs and joys of today.
Not of yesterday! Nor of tomorrow! But of today!
Our Parish Community can only be formed in a Christ-like way through the Mass and through the Bible. Both must stand at the heart of our community. The Eucharist and the Bible must be shared by all of us. It must be shared within our homes, within our school, within our workplaces, within local government, within all the areas that human life and activity are to be found.

Our Baptism unites us to Christ. It unites us to “Christ The Priest” who makes us a Holy People. Through Baptism “We Rule with Christ” through serving the Church and each other and the wider world. The movement of the Vision is through Christ, in the Bible and the Eucharist to the Blessed Trinity and God’s Kingdom on Earth. “A Vision for the Parish” must always come through, with and in Christ. “A vision for the Parish” must include the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Eucharist bringing us into right relationship with God and to the creation of God’s Kingdom on Earth.

Kergyma, sharing the Good News, creates Koinonia, the People of God, in Diakonia, in Service. Serving one another in joy allows each of us to grow in knowledge of God, in the stature of the Sacraments and in the wisdom of knowing Christ. This is “Life in all its Fullness”.

The Diocese will change because the life of the Parishes will change. The Parishes will change because the life of the Diocese will change. Through opening ourselves to change, to truth and to the future we will experience the truth and the vision of Jesus’ words: “I have come in order that you might have life to the full”.

That is the Vision; we have been given the means to achieve it. The first thing that needs to change is me and you if the goal of the vision is to be achieved. Let us as a Parish, a Faith Community, as God’s family embrace the changes that we need to make to attain to the truth of God and
ourselves as we venture out into the future. A future in God’s presence and to a future that leads to the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth.

January 2012

THE MYSTERY OF GOD MADE MAN

Through the birth of Jesus God enters into time and humanity. The child in the crib is both human and divine. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. We have to consider Jesus in the light of these two true realities. The readings of the Liturgy are for our instruction, to be read, to be thought about and to be prayed over. The Word which exists in eternity is made human in the person of Jesus and He is like us in all things but sin. “He is human”!

Jesus is “Son of God”. The Father sent His divine son into our world so that we might have the fullness of life. The fullness of life is our lived relationship in love with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. A life lived in grace and truth and in our love for God, for self and our neighbour. The Divine Son of God who
receives His Divinity from His Father. A Son who shares the divine nature of God in all things except that He, the Son, is not God the Father nor God the Holy Spirit.

The Incarnation of Christ is a stumbling block for both Jews and Muslims and some Christian Communities (Jehovah Witnesses and Seven Day Adventists) in our world today. Many Christians have difficulty with
understanding the doctrine but live within The Mystery of the Incarnation. The incarnation is and will always be “A Mystery”. The contemplation of the incarnation is still pondered in the Heart of Mary, and in the heart of the Church both in Heaven and on earth.

It is this pondering of the Mystery of the Incarnation that we concentrate on at Christmas. God makes Himself mortal. He made Himself mortal so that we could share in His Divinity and so that we could be recreated in the image and likeness of Christ.

God loves humanity! The Incarnation is the actuality and realisation of that love. Through baptism we are caught up into the love that exists between the Triune God and in the love that the Triune God has for humanity. It is through our being caught up in this love of God that we are able to love each other. God’s love has closed the separation caused by sin and death that existed between humanity and God. Sin separates us from love and loving. The absence of love both human and divine is an everlasting death. God’s love shows us the way from
everlasting death to everlasting life. Only God has the power to bring us out of sin and death and to lead us into the light of His truth. The incarnation of Christ brings that light into our created world. It is Jesus who teaches us and leads us in the Way of the Light, a light that always leads humanity to the Way of Life which is the Christ incarnated in the person and life of Jesus.

The birth of the child Jesus that we commemorate today is the Way, the Truth, and the Life of God present in mortal flesh. Through baptism we are brought into a sharing of His Life, of His Way and of His Truth.
Humanity is the object of God’s love. Our being in Christ empowers us to make God the true object of our love. In Christ we learn to love humanity as God loves it. In Christ we are empowered to serve God and each other and to make both God and humanity the object of true love. The “Word was made Flesh”; “God was made man” so that we might live in God’s grace and truth; that we might live in His Life.

Fr Jim - Christmas 2011

The return of Christ has been the emphasis of our liturgy since Advent Week 1. This last week of Advent brings us to the event of the Incarnation. Our Liturgy of this week concentrates on three annunciation scenes. The Angel Gabriel’s greeting of Mary. An angel who appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him not to abandon Mary who has conceived by The Holy Spirit. Thirdly, the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth and the words of the Magnificat / Benedictus. These three events or happenings preclude the Incarnation of Christ in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The Word of God is rooted in His promise to David (2 Sam 7:12-14); the Word is received in faith (Lk 1:38) and the Word becomes flesh in the One who is to redeem humanity from sin and death. The great intervention of the Transcendent God in human history.

The Word of God is creative and life-giving and our faith tells us that God is with us in this same Word. St. Paul reminds the Romans “ The Mystery hidden for many ages” is revealed at last, the Son of God through whom salvation will be accomplished” (Rom 16:25-27).

People can only be helped by their fellow human beings. The first task in helping has been accomplished through, with Christ taking on human flesh. The gifts that have been given to our Faith Community have come from God (James 1:17). The great servant within our Parish is Christ. We are simply his servants in other words Christ’s instruments in His serving the parishioners of Sacred Heart Church. Christ reigns in our Parish.

We simply work to spread His reign in the Parish Community. Through our celebration of our Sunday Eucharist and in the many other ways in which we bring each other closer to Christ. All our Parish activities are a means by which we are lead into a life of prayer. Our Bible sharing, the Sunday Benediction and Evening Prayer, visiting the sick, looking after the elderly, our fund raising events and the many other achievements of our families and school though forgotten in time are still remembered in the mind of God. Our life and activities are a prayer bringing us into union with God through Christ.

Let our Families, Parish and School live in the joyful expectation of the return of the Lord. “Come, Lord Jesus” The hope of our families, the hope of our Parish and School lies in the future. We look towards the restoration of all things in Christ and to a new heaven and a new earth; then will the Church attain the fullness of her vocation. All will be re-established in Christ.

“Enlivened and united in His Spirit, we journey toward the consummation of human history, one which fully accords with the counsel of God’s love: “To re-establish all things in Christ, both those in Heaven and those on the earth”. (Church in the Modern World, No. 45)

God’s goodness and power is centred on Christ. It is Christ who is the wisdom and power of God and who carries out God’s design for his creation and man’s salvation. All that is in our families, all that is in our parish and all that is in our school is achieved through our human achievements and through our seeing the power and goodness of God at work in our time and place. It is all the work of building a better world for the “Coming of the Lord” The Spirit of God is actively engaged in the work of the Church. Our search for God involves us being actively engaged in the work of the Church. It is our striving for justice, freedom and peace that we come to find Christ and to a true witnessing of the values of our Christian teaching and culture. In the words of Blessed Cardinal Newman “ To live in the thought of Christ as he came once, and as he will come again;

to desire his second coming, from our affectionate and grateful remembrance of his first.

Sunday Eucharist is a celebration of our living communion with God and one another. Mass is celebrated within Sacred Time and not in chronological time. Mass begins with a lesson and learning together period. The teaching of the day begins (from the beginning of Mass until the Prayers of the Faithful). Then we have a period of worship (from the offertory to the communion). Finally the time to live our Mass (from the Communion to the end of Mass and into our daily lives and work). Living the Mass must be made real in our families, our Parish and our School.

Serving the family, serving the parish and the school (in other words serving each other) must be done in a spirit of joy. The parents and guardians of our children along with our school teachers in union with the Parish Priest and Deacon and catechists and other Parish ministries must work together to bring about the type of faith community that is (Diaconia) service to the people who live within the Parish. A community that shares in the “Good News” (Kerygma) and family (Koinonia). All of us must serve each other in joy. We must teach our children by giving them a true example of service and a true meaning of leadership in service.

Our community at Sacred Heart has come from God and it is for God and we must always be aware of this in all our ministries and service. We must facilitate the reign of God in the heart of all our family members in our parishioners and in our students and in the heart of each member of the wider community in Sittingbourne. It is also my hope that we can facilitate the reign of God in God's wider world through our supporting of Cafod, Missio and also my work to the poor and abandoned, abused children in the Philippines.

When one reflects on the Great Deeds that God has done over the past 120 years in our families, in our Parish and School we rejoice and celebrate those 120 years with Christ. “This is how you (God) were pleased to have it happen” (Luke 10:21)

Fr. Jim Advent 2011

God is with us, in Christ, always! Since my coming to Sacred Heart Parish I have tried in my ministry to emphasise our role as a Parish Community in salvation history today! Our new newsletter highlights the triune dimension of our relationships. Family - Parish - School. It is in these three areas of our life that we want to come to recognise Christ in our everyday life. God and Christ seen in Family and Parish and School. If God is at the centre of our Parish then it follows that he is at the centre of our family and school life. If God is at our centre the the Kingdom of God is very close to us. That closeness is best experienced in our love and service to Family, Parish and School and then to the wider communities around us.

At Sacred Heart we are blessed to have many differing ministries and groupings to serve the needs of the community. These ministries and groupings allow us to make known the Love of God beyond the boundaries of the Parish. The work of the Union of Catholic Mothers and of the Knights of St. Columbus or of St. Peter’s child care centre and other groupings are ways in which we can do the work of bringing God’s care to others. I am sure as we venture out into the future we will find other ways and maybe even better ways to be with God.

Our Family - Parish - School Eucharistic Mass at 9.30am every Sunday has through the power of The Holy Spirit gathered many of our young families to worship and praise Our God. This gathering has also enabled our young families to get to know each other in a more personal and integrated way. Our celebration has become a living communication with God and with each other. The building up of our Faith Community must always involve the life of our young families and their spiritual and temporal needs.

Our 11am Mass stands in stark contrast to the 9.30, it is a more solemn celebration of Eucharist. Many of our older congregation come to worship and praise God at this Mass. It is intended in the near future to incorporate the prayers of the Missa de Angeles into our 11am celebration if the congregation desire it. Fr. Jim is learning to sing / chant the Eucharistic Prayers. He hopes to sing the Eucharistic Prayer at the 10pm Mass on Christmas Eve. Our 6pm Saturday Eucharist appeals to those who do not want any singing / music etc. We are lucky to have so many choices as to what Eucharistic celebration we gather round.

Deacon Stephen has called the people of the parish to Evening Prayer and Benediction during the Advent and Christmas season. It is hoped that many will come to join in the Sunday Evening Prayer of the Church and of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I am sure Deacon Stephen will find other ways to call people to prayer in the future.

The outward progress of the Parish must come from a deep interior spiritual movement. Our families, our Parish Eucharistic Communion and our school will grow in spirituality through our turning more fully to the Bible. To come to know God and to love Him we must more and more become a Bible Community. I would hope that our Bible Sharing group will enable our faith community to have the Bible as the central book of all our learning. Bible sharing is a movement of the Holy Spirit already being witnessed to in many parts of the world. We can make it a great force for good in our Families, our Parish and our School. It is the “Way of God” the “Way of the Holy Spirit”. Remember this “The Holy Spirit is in each one of us. He lives in each of us and it is that living ‘In the Spirit’ that must be realised in our faith community.

Advent 2011

Father James Teeling, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1952.
He worked in the service industry until 1985 whereupon he entered the Cistercian Monastery of Mellifont.

In 1995 I was asked to study for the ministerial priesthood for the Diocese of Southwark at the Beda College in Rome and was ordained Deacon in Rome in 1996 followed by Ordination to the Priesthood 1997.

His first appointment was as assistant priest at English Martyrs in Streatham, and was appointed

Send mail to the Webmaster with questions or comments about this web site Copyright © 2007 Stephen M Goldsmith KCHS

Send mail to the Webmaster with questions or comments about this web site
Copyright © 2007 Stephen M Goldsmith KCHS