God challenges us to go to new places to take his message to those who haven’t hear it. This can be scary and challenging, but he promises to be with us and help us. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from mass.

Readings for Tuesday of the 5th week of Easter can be found here.

One of the joys of going on holiday is to be able to spend a few days, or maybe even a week or two, in a place that’s different from where we normally live. It’s good to have a change and experience a different setting for a time. If our holiday destination is somewhere we’ve never been before, then there’s an added level of excitement. We can discover a new place and find out about its history, culture, and the best places to eat. Going somewhere new can also have its challenges, however. Will we like it? Will we find our way around? Do we need to speak the language? What will the weather be like? What currency do we need to take?

In our reading from Acts, Paul and Barnabas have come to the end of their first missionary journey. They have taken the Christian faith to new places, going beyond the border of Israel and visiting Cyprus then Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). The trip involved many blessings, as people embraced Christianity and new churches were founded. Yet it also had its challenges, as we see at the start of today’s reading. Paul is stoned by a crowd and dragged out of the city. He survives and carries on with his mission. In the Gospel, Jesus is preparing the disciples for a new and potentially unsettling chapter of their life, when he will no longer be physically present with them. “Let not your hearts be troubled”, Jesus says. “I am going away, and I will come to you”. This seems like a contradiction; but his departure from the world will enable the Spirit to come to the disciples, empowering them to take the Gospel to new and challenging places.

God is continually calling his church to move out of its comfort zone and proclaim his good news in new and different places. This can be scary and unsettling work. Like with Paul, we may face difficulties when we go to those new places and speak to new people. Yet in all this, Jesus leaves us his peace, the peace which helps us not to be afraid, and which strengthens us to do his work.

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 6.30pm.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, check out our Day By Day pages.

Sometimes in life and in faith, we imagine there is a magic formula to success. The truth is often a lot more ordinary and straightforward. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Monday of the 5th week of Easter can be found here.

Browse around any well-known bookstore and you are bound to find a self-help section. These kinds of books have become increasingly popular in recent years, and appear to offer the magic formula that you need to succeed in various different aspects of life. Titles such as “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, “Think and Grow Rich” and “Eat More Food and Lose More Weight”, seem to promise an awful lot. While the titles appear to guarantee an instant, miracle fix, the advice they contain is often more down-to-earth, a mixture of common sense and hard work.

Sometimes in the life of faith we might wish there was a magic formula or secret answer to being a better Christian. If only we could discover it, we might think, then all of a sudden we can become closer to God, live holier lives, and our churches will start growing. Perhaps we look at others who appear more successful than ourselves, and imagine that they have discovered the secret. In our first reading today, the people of Lystra think they have understood the secret reason why Paul and Barnabas were able to heal the lame man. They assume that the pair must in fact be the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes, and start worshipping them, much to the apostles’ horror.

The truth about Paul and Barnabas is much more straightforward. They are not gods come down to earth but human beings like us, in whom the Holy Spirit was at work. This Holy Spirit is available to us all, and there is no magic formula or secret answer to receiving it. In the Gospel Jesus says: “If anyone loves me … My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.” All we need to be is people who love Jesus – it’s that simple. If we do that, even a tiny bit, then Jesus will come to us and enable us to do incredible things in his name.

Mass today is in St Dyfrig & St Samson at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.

Fr Richard Green, Vicar of St Paul’s Church, Grangetown

A Cardiff church will hold a special service next month to mark the anniversary of a Doctor Who episode filmed in the area.

St Paul’s Church in Grangetown will host the event at 11:00 on 17 May, marking the broadcast of Father’s Day, first shown on Doctor Who on 14 May 2005.

Scenes from the episode were filmed inside the church and on nearby streets. Much of the surrounding area was used with little alteration to represent the 1980s setting.

Father’s Day, the eighth episode of the revived series, was written by Paul Cornell and directed by Joe Ahearne. It was first broadcast on BBC One.

The service will focus on ideas at the centre of the story, including grief, loss and the limits of trying to change the past.

St Paul’s Church is currently closed, so the service will be held next door at the community hall, which is being used by the congregation while the church building is shut.

Grangetown priest Father Richard Green said: “The service will reflect how Christian ideas of love, loss, self-sacrifice and redemption appear in the Father’s Day episode.

“Rose tries to change the past. We might wish to but we can’t. We believe Jesus can heal the past and give us a brighter future. Her dad shows great love by laying down his life to save others, as Jesus does for us.

“We’re hoping fans of Dr Who will come along and dress up as their favourite character… everyone is welcome.

“It’s a shame the church is currently closed, but we are hopeful for the future and perhaps this event will spark interest in our Grangetown church.”

Those involved say they hope the building can reopen. Work is under way to explore funding and ways to increase community use while keeping it as a place of worship.

The service takes place on Sunday 17 May and all are welcome – even Daleks! Cosplay encouraged! 

For more details contact Fr Richard on 07773 766071 or email RichardGreen@cinw.org.uk

How can we extend a real welcome to all? Here’s today’s reflection for Mass

Readings for Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter here

In the movie, Heavens Above, Peter Sellers plays the role of a priest who is mistakenly appointed to a parish because he shares his name with another priest who was, it seems, far more “appropriate” for the landed gentry who make up the church. Soon, true to his calling, his socialist beliefs and his empathy for working class people, the church begins to be peopled by those who don’t quite fit in. He creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a family being evicted from their illegal encampment, and persuading local landowner Lady Despard to provide food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. It all leads to disastrous and humorous consequences.

In the first reading of the Acts of the Apostles, we have one of the first real disputes within the church. Is the gospel for Gentiles as well as Jews? There is some heated debate, but soon Peter is convinced that it is, when he is given a vision from God which impresses upon him the inclusiveness of the church. From then on, the trajectory of the church changes, and they can be true to the calling of Jesus to go out into the whole word and proclaim the good news.

It can be very easy to be possessive about our faith and our church. Some people may look suspiciously upon newcomers particularly if they begin to become more active. Or others may feel uncomfortable if someone very different from them sits alongside them. Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Who is missing from our churches? Do we reflect the communities in which we live, or do some people, for whatever reason, feel they won’t fit in? Jesus is looking not jus at the sheep he has gathered, but to those outside it, and so should we.

In South Cardiff Ministry Area, we aim to be a welcoming, faithful and just community. How can we extend that welcome to all, and how can we help all to know that God loves them?

Mass today is in St Dyfrig and Samson at 630pm.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, check out our Day By Day pages.

Organisations are prone to develop long and convoluted mission statements which can mean very little. By contrast Jesus in Mark’s Gospel gives the church a mission which is simple, clear and direct. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for the Feast of St Mark the Evangelist can be found here.

A feature of the last 20 to 30 years has been the rise of the corporate mission statement. The time was when a bookseller’s mission was to sell books, and a shoemaker’s was to make shoes. Now every business needs a lengthy document to say what it’s for. Often, they’ve been written by committee and are hard to make sense of. Take this example: “By integrating agile methodologies with customer-centric paradigms, we aim to co-create sustainable impact through proactive, insight driven collaboration”. Any idea what that actually means? Okay – it was written by AI specially for this homily, but it sounds just like it could come from the corporate world.

Far clearer, and more direct, is the mission statement for the Church given by Jesus in today’s Gospel. “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”. These words could serve as a summary of the entire Gospel of Mark which they conclude. Jesus’ final speech in Mark’s Gospel is strikingly similar to what he says right at the start: “The kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news”. Mark, whose feast we celebrate today, bookends his Gospel with the imperative for the message of Jesus to be proclaimed and heard everywhere. The author of our first reading also gives advice to his readers as to what should be at the heart of their life. They are to remain faithful and steadfast, even in the face of difficulties and persecutions.

We might laugh at the corporate mission statements which sound like gobbledygook, but the Church too is not immune from such things. While it’s no bad thing to have a sense of purpose, it’s all too easy to create a fancy statement and then for it to gather dust on the shelf. We could do worse than to follow the commands from our readings today: proclaim the Gospel everywhere, and remain faithful. In all this, we know that we do not rely on our own strength. Mark tells us that the risen and ascended Lord worked in and through the disciples as they sought to continue his work. We know that in the same way he strengthens and sustains us as we seek to serve him today.

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 11.30am, preceded by the Rosary at 11am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, check out our Day By Day pages.

God frequently confounds our expectations and does things we might find shocking. But he does this in order to demonstrate more clearly his purposes. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Friday of the third week of Easter can be found here.

Think of one of the world’s mega-rich, the multi-millionaires and billionaires, and you probably imagine someone obsessed with amassing more and more money, growing their fortune and enjoying the luxurious life which comes with it. Every so often, however, someone comes along who confounds expectations. Chuck Feeney was the founder of duty-free shops in airports around the world. In 1984 he secretly transferred his entire $500 million stake in the company to a charitable organisation he had founded. It’s estimated he gave away $8 billion in his lifetime, and was known for always flying economy and wearing a $10 wristwatch.

God is often in the business of confounding human expectations, and we see this in our readings today. He doesn’t choose a faithful follower of Jesus to be the next leader of the early church’s mission. Shockingly, he calls Saul, someone who sought to eradicate the new faith and approved of the killing of Stephen. This is all too much for Ananias, who protests to God “I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem”. How on earth could Jesus call such a one to be a missionary of his? In the Bread of Life discourse in John’s Gospel, the people are shocked by what Jesus is telling them: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Yet Jesus continues with his message: “… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”.

Why does God do things which can often be seen as shocking? In the case of Saul, it is surely to remind us that it’s not just the righteous who can serve him. Deeply flawed people also have something to offer; indeed their experience of moving from darkness to light can be crucial for ministry. Jesus’ graphic words about eating his flesh tell us that the Eucharist is not just a symbol or reminder of what Jesus did; it is a participation in his very life. We cannot get closer to him than we do when we receive his true body and blood in the sacrament. May we always be ready to be shocked by God so that we may understand more fully his purposes and his love.

Mass today is in St Saviour’s at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.

The story of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch reminds us that the good news of Jesus is for everyone, regardless of nationality or background. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Thursday of the third week of Easter can be found here.

Have you ever had the experience of being excluded from or left out of a group or community? For my part, I am scarred by my experiences of team games in PE at school. The two best boys at sport would be the team captains, and had to pick players one by one from the rest of the class to be on their team. Needless to say, I was always left right until last. Team sports not being my forte, no-one wanted me on their team. In the course of human history, many groups have experienced much more serious forms of ostracism or discrimination, whether it be on account of race, gender, religion, disability or sexuality.

One such group in the ancient world was eunuchs, castrated males who often served as court officials, such as the one we see in today’s reading from Acts. The book of Deuteronomy said that eunuchs could not be part of the community of Israel. Yet this eunuch is clearly a believer in the God of Israel, since he has been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and is reading the book of Isaiah on his way home. Demonstrating the inclusive nature of the Christian Gospel, the Holy Spirit prompts Philip to go and explain the good news of Jesus to him. In a few short verses we see a beautiful journey of faith on the part of the eunuch, though his poignant words may carry a hint of his outsider status: “is there anything to stop me being baptised?” Happily Philip consents and the Ethiopian’s joy is complete. Two key lines in today’s Gospel reinforce these points. “Everybody who believes has eternal life”, says Jesus; “anyone who eats this bread will live forever”. Everybody; anyone … no exceptions.

In his life on earth Jesus broke down many barriers and reached out to the untouchables of his day. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, Christ died for all so that all may be one in him. Let us then seek to build a church and a world where everyone is included, no-one is left out, and all can come and know the wonderful redeeming love of God.

Mass today is in St Dyfrig & St Samson, Grangetown, at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer then check out our Day By Day pages.