(4th March 2010)

A big thank you to the “Hyde 900” team for the opportunity to meet the Vatican facsimile producers who brought the “Causa Anglica” to the Discovery Centre this week; it is a document signed by the Abbot of Hyde, and a number of other notables including the then Bishop of Winchester Thomas Wolsey, asking the Pope to grant Henry VIII his divorce. The petition failed but the document is preserved at the Vatican.

I have also been invited to the procession which will commemorate the translation of King Alfred’s bones from the New Minster (Winchester Cathedral) to their final resting place at Hyde Abbey exactly 900 years ago. It will begin at 11.00am on Saturday 13th March and will last for an hour beginning at the West Door of the Cathedral. St. Peter’s School is taking part and everyone is welcome to come along.
King Alfred, who died in 899, wrote of the longing we all have to “reach that endless life where all shall be made clear.” He was devoted to education and connected it with the desire for eternal life with God.

That desire for God and the endless life of heaven opens us to the many gifts that God provides to bring us to fulfilment in heaven. One of those gifts is forgiveness and the healing and strengthening which comes to us whenever we approach God in a spirit of repentance or change of heart. Lent is a time of intense  change and repentance and it will help us to see those areas in our lives where we need to allow God to bring healing and peace.

There will be two celebrations of forgiveness at St. Peter’s towards the end of Lent.
One will be on Saturday 27th March at 10.30am and the other will be on Monday 29th March at 7.30pm. Both of these liturgies will provide an opportunity for individual confession or reconciliation. Please come along.

The Catechism says of this sacrament: “Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament.  For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation.” (See Catechism of the Catholic Church number 1468.) PJT