Do please join us after Mass for Tea, Coffee and Cake in the Vestry Hall - just ask if you don’t know the way!
Services this week: Thursday said Mass at 10.30am; next Sunday Sung Mass at 10.30am. Both followed by Tea, Cake and Fellowship.
St Michael’s Church Summer Fete – NEXT SATURDAY 27th June 10.30am – 1.30pm.
There is a box at the entrance to the Ascension chapel for your donations for the stalls
Note the date – come and enjoy – invite your friends !!
Next Sunday – St Peter’s Folkestone – 2.45pm
The annual Blessing of the Fisheries
We are invited to join with St Peter’s and the other Society Parishes of Canterbury Diocese in this wonderful summer event. The procession begins at St Peter’s Church, and the Blessing is at 3pm by the sea at The Stade.
Followed by Afternoon Tea in the beautiful grounds adjacent to St Peters and a chance to mingle with our friends and clergy from other Society Parishes
Licensing and Installation of Fr Martin Warner as Vicar of St Peter’s Folkestone with +Luke. This is at 7pm on Tuesday 7th July at St Peters. Clergy, Readers and Churchwardens are specifically invited, but I’m sure others will be very welcome too; if you wish to go please let me know in good time so I can confirm numbers to them. Thanks.
FOR OUR PRAYERS:
We pray for our Summer Fete next Saturday and for all who are working hard to make it a success. We also pray for our Flower Festival and Church Open Days in September, giving thanks for the gifts and skills of our flower arrangers and the time they give to enhance our church life in this way. We also pray for and give thanks for those who are knitting poppies for use later in the year, and for the Knit and Natter groups that have formed combining crafts with fellowship. We pray for those preparing to be ordained this Petertide, especially Fr Ben Almond to be ordained Priest by +Luke on 28th June.
We pray for those in need, and especially Glynis Reynolds, Yvonne Young, Lindsay Wheeler, David Green, Norman Farrington, Phil and Marion, Joe, Keira, Freya, Isaac, Lexie Nicholson, Sarah, Janet and Ralph Austin. We pray for the recently departed. We remember those who have faithfully served God in this Church in previous generations, and we pray for those whose year’s mind occurs this week: Helen Atkinson, Betty Stevens, Joyce Worsfold.
]]>O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughing-stock all day long, everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’ For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering: ‘Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. ‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.’ But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
1. It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame has covered my face.
I have become an outcast and a stranger,
Zeal for your house consumes me,
and taunts against you fall on me. R.
2. In your great mercy, answer me O God,
with your great salvation.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise.
for God will save Zion
and those who love his name will live in it. R.
3. The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord attends to the needy.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise. R.
Jesus said: ‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! ‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
]]>Do please join us after Mass for Tea, Coffee and Cake in the Vestry Hall - just ask if you don’t know the way!
Services this week: Thursday said Mass at 10.30am; next Sunday Sung Mass at 10.30am. Both followed by Tea, Cake and Fellowship.
St Michael’s Church Summer Fete - Saturday 27th June 10.30am – 1.30pm.
All your favourite stalls, including Cakes, Gifts and Crafts, Tombola, Raffle, Teas, Coffee and Ploughmans Lunches !!
There is a box at the entrance to the Ascension chapel for your donations for the stalls
Note the date – come and enjoy – invite your friends !!
FOR OUR PRAYERS:
We pray for missionaries and evangelists, and we pray for an increase in those being called to serve in the Sacred Ministry and in other recognised Christian ministries. We pray for all Chaplains, especially prison chaplains, hospital chaplains and school chaplains. We pray for the health and well-being of our parish, and of those who live or work in our parish. We pray for all the preparations for our Summer Fete on 27th June.
We pray for those in need, and especially Glynis Reynolds, Yvonne Young, Lindsay Wheeler, Martyn Nash, David Green, Norman Farrington, Phil and Marion, Joe, Keira, Freya, Isaac, Lexie Nicholson, Sarah, Janet and Ralph Austin.
We pray for the recently departed. We remember those who have faithfully served God in this Church in previous generations, and we pray for those whose year’s mind occurs this week: Catherine Joan Fenton, Louis Mackett, Doris Smith.
FROM THE BELLTOWER: Sunday, 7 June 1280 Cambridge Surprise Major 1 Philip Jarvis 2 Rona Joiner 3 Stuart Cox 4 Mark Elvers 5 Emma Jarvis 6 Paul Barton 7 Mike Birkbeck 8 Neil Jones (C) Rung on Corpus Christi Sunday. A Ruby Wedding compliment to Roy and Sally-Ann Barclay today. SUPPORT ST MICHAELS: to make a donation towards the work and worship of St Michael’s Church go to: www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/maidstone-st-michael-and-aa-maidstone/
]]>Lord, you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worth: send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you. Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AMEN.
The Israelites journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’ So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
1. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2. Know that the Lord is God
Worship the Lord with gladness It is he that has made us, and we are his;
Come into his presence with singing. R. we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. R R.
2. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him, and bless his name.
His steadfast love endures for ever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. R.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’ Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.’
]]>Do please join us after Mass for Tea, Coffee and Cake in the Vestry Hall - just ask if you don’t know the way!
Today we celebrate Corpus Christi Sunday, when we give especial thanks to God for the gift of the sacrament of the Mass and of Holy Communion, and for the sacramental presence of Christ in the Sacred Body and Blood of the Altar.
Services this week: Thursday said Mass for St Barnabas the Apostle at 10.30am; next Sunday Sung Mass at 10.30am.
St Michael’s Church Summer Fete - Saturday 27th June 10.30am – 1.30pm.
All your favourite stalls, including Cakes, Gifts and Crafts, Tombola, Raffle, Teas, Coffee and Ploughmans Lunches !!
There is a box at the entrance to the Ascension chapel for your donations for the stalls
Note the date – come and enjoy – invite your friends !!
Our 2026 Walsingham Pilgrims, pictured outside the Shrine Church with Fr Graeme, the Shrine Priest at Walsingham.
We give thanks to God for a most enjoyable and uplifting
pilgrimage, and look forward to the next time…
If you missed going on this pilgrimage, or if you went and
can’t wait to go again, there are other opportunities to visit the
Shrine – including Bible Weekend 13-15 November, led by
Bishop Lindsay Urwin (former Shrine Administrator, and who
I know from personal experience to a very accessible and
encouraging presenter of our faith); the Advent Retreat
(mainly in silence) 4th-6th December; and I believe there are
places available on the Walsingham Pilgrimage for Society Parishes in our diocese led by Fr Peter Harnden of Harbledown, 17th - 21st August this year.
FOR OUR PRAYERS:
We pray for the advancement of unity between churches, and give thanks for signs of a renewal in dialogue between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches; for greater appreciation of the value and significance of the Sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, within the Church of England, and for renewal generally across the Church of England; for a deepening of faith and practice in our attendance at Mass at St Michaels; for those who receive the Blessed Sacrament from St Michaels at home or in care homes, that they may feel within themselves the reality of being part of the Body of Christ, and be sustained by the grace and blessing of the Eucharist in their lives.
We pray for those in need, and especially Glynis Reynolds, Yvonne Young, Lindsay Wheeler, Martyn Nash, David Green, Norman Farrington, Phil and Marion, Joe, Keira, Freya, Isaac, Lexie Nicholson, Sarah, Janet, Alan and Ralph Austin.
We pray for the recently departed. We remember those who have faithfully served God in this Church in previous generations, and we pray for those whose year’s mind occurs this week: Catherine Carmody, John Frater, Rod Bristow.
FROM THE BELLTOWER: Sunday, 31 May 1280 Pudsey Surprise Major 1 Emma Jarvis 2 Mike Birkbeck 3 Stuart Cox 4 Philip Jarvis 5 Paul Barton 6 Mark Elvers 7 Stephen Coaker 8 Neil Jones (C) Rung for the Festival of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Remembering Paul Mounsey, 29/5/2025, R.I.P.
]]>Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that in this wonderful sacrament you have given us the memorial of your passion: grant us so to reverence the sacred mysteries of your body and blood that we may know within ourselves, and show forth in our lives, the fruits of your redemption; for you are alive and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AMEN.
Moses spoke to the people: You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know.
I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1. I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people. R.
2. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the Lord,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. R.
Jesus said: ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’
]]>Do please join us after Mass for Tea, Coffee and Cake in the Vestry Hall - just ask if you don’t know the way!
This Thursday is ASCENSION DAY, a Holy Day of Obligation – Said Mass 10.30am.
Next Sunday Sung Mass for the Sunday After Ascension at 10.30am
Today we have our Annual Church Meetings, which will take place immediately after our 10.30am Mass in church – followed by coffee etc in the Vestry Hall.
THIS WEEK IS CHRISTIAN AID WEEK. Please pray for the work of Christian Aid and other aid agencies.
THIS AFTERNOON there is a service for Christian Aid Week at 3pm at Holy Cross Church Bearsted ME14 4EE: guest preacher Patrick Watt, CEO of Christian Aid. “Please do come and join us for this service to learn more about the work of Christian Aid, and to pray for the peace and justice which we long to see in our world today. (A large community car park is adjacent to the church).”
FOR OUR PRAYERS:
We pray for the work of Christian aid agencies, and especially for Christian Aid – their emergency aid, their development work, and their advocacy on behalf of the poorest people on the planet. We pray for our church schools of St Michaels Infants and St Michaels Juniors, for Lisa the Executive Headteacher and for all the staff, pupils and the families from which they come. We pray for the work of Growing Hope Maidstone and the young people they are helping.
We pray for those in need, and especially Glynis Reynolds, Yvonne Young, Lindsay Wheeler, Martyn Nash, David Green, Norman Farrington, Phil and Marion, Joe, Keira, Freya, Isaac, Lexie Nicholson, Sarah, Janet and Alan.
We pray for the recently departed. We remember those who have faithfully served God in this Church in previous generations, and we pray for those whose year’s mind occurs this week: Ellen Tame, Cyril Hudson, Pat Lury (Pr), Bill Brewster (Pr), Patricia Follett, Stella Locke, Rosie Smith.
FROM THE BELL TOWER: Sunday, 3 May 1312 Bristol Surprise Major 1 Stuart Cox 2 Nigel Pointer 3 Philip Jarvis 4 Mark Elvers 5 Jane L Kostelnyk 6 Mike Birkbeck 7 Callum Clark 8 Neil Jones (C) Rung on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Remembering John Tester (26/4/22) and Pat Barton (1/5/22), R.I.P.
Friday, 1 May 2026 1260 Spliced Minor (2m) 720 Cambridge Surprise, 540 Plain Bob; 24 com; atw. 1 Emma Jarvis 2 Philip Jarvis 3 Jane L Kostelnyk 4 Mark Elvers 5 Stephen Coaker 6 Neil Jones (C) SUPPORT ST MICHAELS: to make a donation towards the work and worship of St Michael’s Church go to: www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/maidstone-st-michael-and-aa-maidstone/
]]>God our redeemer, you have delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your Son: grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.” Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’
In your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
1. Cry out with joy to God, all the earth;
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise,
Say to God “How wondrous are your deeds!” R.
2. Come and hear, all who fear God;
I will tell what he did for my soul.
Blest be God, who did not reject my prayer,
nor withhold from me his merciful love. R.
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
]]>Do please join us after Mass for Tea, Coffee and Cake in the Vestry Hall - just ask if you don’t know the way!
Services this week: Thursday Mass 10.30am. Next Sunday Sung Mass for the Sixth Sunday of Easter at 10.30am
Next Sunday 10th May, we have our annual church meetings after our 10.30am Mass. As well as electing our Churchwardens, PCC and representatives to Deanery Synod, this is also a time to receive the annual accounts for 2025, to receive the PCC’s Annual report, as well as reports on the church buildings, bellringers and other groups – and to ask any questions you might have about the work of the PCC or the mission and ministry of St Michael’s church.
If you would like to seek appointment as a Churchwarden, member of the PCC, or as one of our representatives on the Deanery Synod please complete a nomination form, available at Back of Church or from Eleanor. Make sure your form is signed by a proposer and seconder, and then pop the nomination form into the box at Back of Church.
To be elected to the PCC, you must be aged 16 or over; an actual communicant member of the church, and (if you are aged 18 or over) your name must have been on the Electoral Roll for at least six months. To be elected Churchwarden you must be aged 21 or over, an actual communicant member, and your name must be on the church Electoral Roll.
We are delighted by the appointment of Bishop Martin Warner to be the next Vicar of St Peter’s Folkestone. He will take up this post following his retirement as Bishop of Chichester at the end of this month, and we look forward to his faith, prayers and energy in the Society parishes of Canterbury diocese.
FiF National Festival: concelebrated Mass, lunch etc, St Alban’s Holborn, Saturday 9th May – details from Eleanor. All welcome, but prior registration necessary.
A service for Christian Aid Week: A special service for Christian Aid Week with guest preacher Patrick Watt, CEO of Christian Aid. 3pm on Sunday 10th May at Holy Cross church, Bearsted (ME144EE). “Please do come and join us for this service to learn more about the work of Christian Aid, and to pray for the peace and justice which we long to see in our world today. (A large community car park is adjacent to the church).”
FOR OUR PRAYERS:
We pray for our ministry of welcome at St Michael’s church, that we may all provide a warm and inviting welcome to casual visitors and first-time worshippers, and help and guidance to our services and other activities. We pray that we would be an outward-looking, vibrant church, ready to welcome all and to share our faith with joy. We pray especially for those who serve as welcomers at the church door.
We pray for those in need, and especially Glynis Reynolds, Yvonne Young, Lindsay Wheeler, Martyn Nash, David Green, Norman Farrington, Phil and Marion, Joe, Keira, Freya, Isaac, Lexie Nicholson, Sarah, Janet and Alan.
We pray for the recently departed. We remember those who have faithfully served God in this Church in previous generations, and we pray for those whose year’s mind occurs this week: Sandy McKenzie, Mary Flisher, Patricia Barton, Margaret Kent.
FROM THE BELL TOWER: Thursday, 23 April. 1 Logan S H Rich 2 Nigel Baker 3 Paul Barton 4 Mark Elvers 5 Richard Young 6 Neil Jones (C) Rung before Mass on St George’s Day. Remembering Peggy Thresh, 23/4/24, R.I.P.
]]>Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant that, as by your grace going before us you put into our minds good desires, so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect; through Jesus Christ our risen Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1. Ring out your joy to the Lord;
it is fitting for the righteous to praise him.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
and sing songs with a ten-stringed lute. R.
2. The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth.
The Lord’s eyes are on those who fear him,
those who hope in his merciful love,
to rescue their soul from death. R.
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling- places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
]]>