YEAR OF THE WORD
A PRAYER FOR OUR READERS Praise to you, Lord God, King of the universe. I praise and thank you for calling me to proclaim your Word to your beloved people. Open the hearts of all who worship with us so that they may hear your voice when I read. Let nothing in my life or manner disturb your people or close their hearts to the action of your Spirit. Cleanse my heart and mind, and open my lips so that I may proclaim your Word for all to hear. All praise to you, heavenly Father, Through the Lord Jesus In the Holy Spirit, now and forever amen 
Prayer for Healing by Saint Pare Pio
Heavenly Father I thank you for loving me. I thank you for sending your Son our Lord Jesus Christ to the world to save me and set me free. I trust in your power and grace that sustain and restore me. Loving Father touch me now with your healing hands, for I believe that your will is for me to be well in mind, body, soul and spirit. Cover me with the most precious blood of your Son Our Lord Jesus Christ from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Cast anything out that should not be in me. Root out any unhealthy and abnormal cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild and replenish any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infections by the power of Jesus's precious blood. Let the fire of your healing love pass through my entire body to heal and make new cells to replace any damaged areas so that my body will perform properly the way you created it to function. Touch also my mind and my emotions even the deepest recesses of my heart. Saturate my entire being with your presence, love, joy and peace and draw me even closer to you every moment of my life. And Father fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower me to do your work so that my life will bring glory and honour to your holy name. I ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen 
The altar and sanctuary area in the new St Vincent's Mission Hub.
|
NORMAL MASS TIMES AT ST VINCENT'S SHEFFIELD
(See Bulletin opposite for any changes) SUNDAY: 9.30 am and 6 pm MONDAY: 9.30 am (except First Monday of every month and Bank Holiday Mondays when it is at St Michael's Chapel, Rivelin Valley Road, S6 5GL at 10.30am TUESDAY: 9.30 am WEDNESDAY: 7.00 pm (school holidays 9.30 am) THURSDAY: 9.30 am FRIDAY: 9.30 am 
, THE YEAR OF THE WORD
ARE CATHOLICS BIBLICAL CHRISTIANS The Catholic Faith is a living faith that traces its history back to the witnessing of the early apostles and the communities they formed. Catholics recognise the Bible to be the authentic written expression of the faith of the early Church. The Holy Spirit guides the Catholic Church so that it interprets the biblical revelation without error. The Church in her teaching will guide us in our understanding of the true meaning of Scripture. We are biblical Christians in the sense that we reverence Scripture as being the inspired Word of God but we don't idolise it. Christianity aims to lead us to a deeper knowledge and love of the person of Jesus Christ not being able to quote the bible, chapter and verse in a robotic manner. We, as Catholics see the Bible and the Church as being two sides of the one coin – working in tandem. The Bible's New Testament is a child of the Catholic Church. St Augustine says: "The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old is unveiled in the New". It was the Catholic Church that decided which books of the bible were inspired and which were not (the canon of Scripture). This 'canon' was decided by the Pope at the end of the fourth century. (Council of Carthage 393 AD). It was the Catholic Church that decided, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to commit the Word of God in the New Testament to writing and faithfully interpret it. While on Earth, Jesus never asked anyone to put together a written record of His life and teaching. He left that to the Church. Some people give the impression that the Bible was invented at the Reformation. If the Catholic Church had died out in the second century there would have been no New Testament at all and the Old Testament may not have survived either. With the invention of the printing Press in the 15th century the Bible readership was boosted but the Church cautioned against interpreting it in an arbitrary fashion which could lead to confusion. And that is precisely what happened with the proliferation of protestant sects. Today there are more than 30,000 Protestant denominations and sects - all with their own take on the Bible. You get as many interpretations of the bible as there are preachers and therein lies the danger. How do we know the preacher is interpreting the Bible properly? The Holy Spirit may inspire him but the Holy Spirit is also inspiring another preacher down the road with quite a different take on things, often contrary to the first. Jesus says 'a household divided against itself cannot stand'. Without the oversight of the Church and its Magisterium, guided by the Holy Spirit and headed by the Successor of St Peter, the Bible can so easily be misinterpreted, quoted out of context and even falsified. The Catholic Church, at the time of the Reformation, was also acutely conscious that translations from the original Greek and Latin could easily deviate from what the original authors intended. Calvin's translation of the Bible, (Geneva Bible) for instance, was layered with a heavy anti-Catholic bias, so certain catholic words in the original scriptures were changed to suit his own 'reformist' agenda. The Catholic Church has never taught anything which is contrary to scripture. Some teachings are not immediately apparent but all of its teachings are implicit in the words of scripture and part of its Sacred Tradition. There are many disputed moral questions which the Bible says nothing explicitly about. For instance the bible says absolutely nothing about invitro fertilization, artificial contraception, surrogate motherhood, racial discrimination, stockpiling nuclear weapons, cloning etc. That is why we need the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to help inform and enlighten our consciences in these and many other vital areas of morality without which we end up in a moral quagmire. 
|
|
|
