MESSAGE ON THE 17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YR C)
Friday 22nd July 2022.
My dear people,
It is amazing how quickly the Divine Renovation Conference for 2022 has come and gone. I have spent so much time and energy preparing for it, and already, Llewy, Ann and I are in Indiana. We will be spending time with the different teams at the parish of St John the Evangelist in St John, Indiana for the next four days and will fly back home on Monday. Our host parish has been on the Divine Renovation journey since the Parish Priest and some of the parishioners attended the Divine Renovation Conference in 2016.
The three days of the conference have been truly amazing! There were about 600 people present including 2 bishops and more than 130 priests. I will share what I have lived and felt throughout the three days of the conference. We will organise an evening in August when Llewy and Ann will present a report of their experiences at the conference to you. I will be away on my annual leave at that time but you will definitely hear from me through homilies and announcements!
The three days of the conference have been a time of renewal for me. They have reminded me of the need to re-discover the passion for preaching the Gospel, which can be dulled through the events of everyday life. Holiness is indeed to be found in the ordinariness of everyday living. For that to happen, we must constantly have the burning flame of discipleship within our hearts in order to inspire us to live lives of holiness. There is always an urgency in the preaching of the Gospel. I was also reminded that being and making disciples does not happen without effort. Jesus needs us to make him known and loved. Importantly, if we do not hearken to this need now, the decline in the belief in Jesus will only get worse. The conference has given me a fresh heart to make our parish a place where people come to meet Jesus, form a relationship with him and invite others on the same journey.
At the conference, I was reminded that the three keys of divine renovation are the power of the Holy Spirit, the primacy of evangelisation, and the best of leadership. These three keys will be the ones to open up the doors to missionary renewal in our parish. We need to re-discover the power of the Holy Spirit and constantly invite him into our lives to empower us because without him we can do nothing. We remember that it is his coming at Pentecost that gave power to the apostles to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the ends of the world. The primacy of evangelisation reminds us that we have to ask ourselves how every activity of our parish enables us to evangelise. Finally, it is only with sound leadership in the team which will enable us to go forward in bringing missionary renewal in our parish and make missionary disciples in our parish, to use the words of Pope Francis. Ultimately, the Eucharist is the ring that keeps the three keys together just like our own key rings. We also attended various sessions which looked at aspects of how to use the three keys of divine renovation in parishes. We each went to different sessions in order to hear from different presenters on these topics.
What I have mentioned is but a snapshot of the three days of the conference. In the next weeks, Llewy, Ann and I will also report to you about the sessions which we attended.
To finish, let me say again that the conference has renewed my zeal and passion for the spread of the Gospel in our parish. I pray that Jesus will keep that flame alive in my heart so that I can be better at bringing God to you and you to God.
Llewy, Ann and I return to the parish on Wednesday and look forward to seeing all of you at Mass next weekend.
We continue turning to our patron saint, and we ask for her intercession.
St Catherine of Siena, Pray for us.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr Richard Rosse PP