Message from Canon Kristian

Dear sisters and brothers

The summer holiday season is drawing to a close and, for many, the usual pattern of family, work and school life is about to resume. However, whilst there is inevitably a certain sense of “routine” to life, this year is not last year: circumstances have changed, life has changed, and you and I have changed. So, along with the familiar, there will also be the “new”, and we are called to live out our Christian commitment open to, and fully engaged with, this “new” (and perhaps unexpected) which God will place before us in various different ways and through other people.

One of the guiding principles that St John Paul II gave to the work of canon lawyers like myself in the application of the Church’s law was: “newness in fidelity and fidelity in newness” (in Latin, novitas in fidelitate et fidelitas in novitate), ie that the faithful living of our Christian life will inevitably encounter things and situations that are new, and that we are called to interpret and live this newness in faithfulness to the Tradition that has been handed on to us. In my view, this wise principle holds true for our approach to life in general as followers of Christ and members of the Church. As always with God and the spiritual life, we are often called to “let go” or “to empty ourselves” of what we are holding on to, in order to welcome and embrace that which God wants to give us. Some of us find it hard to “let go” of things and it can take a considerable amount of patience, practice and determination to be able to do this – or better – to allow the grace of God to bring this about in us, but we can’t receive what the Lord wants to give us if our hands are full of the “stuff” we are holding on to tightly!

The way we celebrate our Liturgical Year has a similar perspective. Although we repeat a three-year cycle, the context in which we celebrate the Mass and the different liturgical seasons of “Year A” this year is very different to what it was in Year A in 2023/4. Thus, how we hear the scriptures being read at Mass and the impact they will have on us will be different this time to the impact they had last time. It is never simply a repeat of what went before. This is, of course, how it must be for a faith like ours which is incarnational, ie that has as a core belief that God chose to become human, to become part of our world, to share our life in all things but sin (cf Hebrews 4:15). In a world of change, how my faith is “incarnated” or “takes flesh” in the reality of my own personal life and the world around me will necessarily be different from yesteryear – and even yesterday! As the Second Vatican Council taught, we are a people on the move – the pilgrim People of God, dynamic not static, stepping out in faith and hope, heading towards a time of fulfilment yet to come. In his reflection given at the General Audience on 6 May 2026, Pope Leo expressed eloquently what he called the “eschatological dimension” of the Church:

As we focus today on a section of Chapter VII of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Church, let us reflect on one of its defining characteristics: its eschatological dimension. The Church, in fact, journeys through this earthly history always looking towards her final destination, which is the heavenly homeland. This is an essential dimension which, however, we often overlook or downplay, because we are too focused on what is immediately visible and on the more concrete dynamics of the life of the Christian community.
The Church is God’s people journeying through history, which has the Kingdom of God as the purpose of all her action (cf. LG, 9). Jesus initiated the Church precisely by proclaiming this Kingdom of love, justice and peace (cf. LG, 5). We are therefore called to consider the community and cosmic dimension of salvation in Christ and to turn our eyes to this final horizon, to measure and evaluate everything from this perspective.
The Church lives in history in the service of the coming of the Kingdom of God in the world. She proclaims the words of this promise to all and always; she receives a pledge of it in the celebration of the Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist; she puts its logic into practice and experiences it in relationships of love and service. Furthermore, she knows that she is the place and the means where union with Christ is realized “more closely” (LG, 48), whilst at the same time recognizing that salvation can be bestowed by God in the Holy Spirit even beyond her visible boundaries.
(https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/audiences/2026/documents/20260506-udienza-generale.html – it is only a page long, so I would encourage you all to read the whole thing!)
This year will also be a great time of change in our parish as we move back into our church in Tiverton on 26 September. Here, too, there will be a sense of newness within the context of the continuing tradition of the community. As the Lord teaches us in the parables: Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matthew 13:52).

Together with the newsletter this weekend, I attach:
the weekly guide to a contemplative reading of the Sunday Gospel
the latest News from the Parish Palestinian Support Group

As the arid ground around is refreshed at last by the rain so, this week, I pray that each of you may be gently refreshed and renewed by the Spirit of God who penetrates and consecrates our lives, as the Second Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass beautifully expresses it in reference to the offered gifts, “like the dewfall”.

God bless

Canon Kristian