Message from Phil

I thank you all for your prayers, cards and gifts for my Ordination to the Diaconate by Bishop Crispian last Sunday at Palazzola, Italy. It was a joyous and wonderful occasion and I feel truly blessed. I pray that I may serve you and all I meet as a deacon in love and generosity of spirit and, God willing, next year as a priest.

Today's Gospel (19th July, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time) follows on from last week's sending out of the Apostles to proclaim the Good News: they now return and tell Jesus all they have done and taught. Yet the people's thirst could not be quenched and they want still more: Our Lord sees this and takes pity on them for “they were like sheep without a shepherd”. It is this love of his sheep, his people, that causes God to call new shepherds to feed them in every generation as he promised in our first reading: “I will raise up shepherds to look after them and pasture them”.

God calls all of us. He does not call us in a vacuum: we are all living members of his Body, the Church, animated by his Holy Spirit. The call each of us receives is a personal call and also a call that is rooted and grounded in community. He calls us in different ways and for different purposes, but always to the end of holiness and building up the Body.

Pray that all God's people may generously respond to his call in their lives and particularly, in this Year for the Priesthood, that he will raise up more shepherds to pasture his sheep.