Our September Chapter meeting brought up the occasion of our 45^th. Anniversary. Our President, Brian Low took the opportunity to read out an extract from the Pax Newsletter, taken from the archives, detailing the events occurring at the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Oblate Chapter.

We welcome three new oblate novices into the Chapter. First, Sebastian Ang, who completed our Faith Formation programme via the Internet and was received as a novice by Mgr. Cornelius Sim, Apostolic Prefect of Brunei Darussalam on 30 August. Our second oblate novice and also via the Internet, was Peter Maher, from the Gold Coast - Queensland, who was received by Fr. Andrew Kinmont on 14 September. Both Mgr. Cornelius and Fr. Andrew conducted the reception ceremonies on behalf of the Abbot and Director of Oblates of New Norcia. Our third oblate novice was Eric Kidd from Perth, who was received during our Chapter meeting at South Perth on 19 October, the ceremony carried out by our Director of Oblates Fr. Anthony Lovis. To all three oblates, our Chapter extends congratulations and best wishes.

Oblate novice Frank Woods has recently travelled to Phnom Penh, in Cambodia, for a six month stay, working with a group called Hagar Projects. Frank has offered his expertise in the commercial catering field to assist the local population in setting up sustainable industrial business enterprises. He is due back in February 2004.

Our Secretary, Adrienne Byrne departed these shores again in October, joining the pilgrimage lead by Archbishop Barry Hickey to Rome for the celebrations attached to the beatification of Mother Teresa and also be present at the investiture of Archbishop George Pell, of Sydney, as Cardinal. Unfortunately we have since heard that she contracted bacterial pneumonia on route and spent two and a half weeks in hospital in Rome and thus missed the planned events. She has now arrived home and we hope she will be fully recovered soon.

A family reunion was in order for Abbot Placid, as he welcomed his four elder brothers and their wives, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. The four couples, three from Queensland and one from NSW, travelled by rail on the ‘Indian Pacific’ and were met by Fr. Abbot in Perth, on arrival.

Fr Abbot visited Perth again on 9th September, this time to meet Abbot Primate Notker Wolf from Rome, who spent a couple of nights at New Norcia before flying with Abbot Placid to Sydney. He is a German who plays the flute very well and very willingly (and delivered an excellent selection of duets with Fr. David). Abbot Notker speaks English fluently and was also interviewed by The Record and The West Australian.

We have also been advised that the Abbot Primate has suggested to the National Council of Italian Benedictine Oblates that they should organise the first World Congress of Benedictine Oblates, to be held in Rome from 19th to 25th September, 2005. An organising committee under his direction and in close collaboration with the National Council, has begun to plan the Congress.

Dom John was stationed at Floreat Parish with Fr. Paul Fogarty for a month gaining pastoral experience. Dom John’s ordination to the priesthood will take place at NN on Sunday 1 February 2004 at 9.00am, officiated at by Bishop Justin Bianchini.

Fr Seraphim joined the 90s club on 28th November, which was the cause of a pleasant little party for the monks. He had been interviewed on ABC television on 3rd November in a documentary about the ‘Koolama’ incident. He was leader of the rescue party from Kalumburu, when that boat went aground in 1942.

The New Norcia Studies Journal 2003 is now available for purchase. To order send $25 to: The Archivist – Benedictine monastery. New Norcia. WA 6509. This issue contains 105 pages and twelve articles from the Space Station to Archeology and much in between.

Some time back a visitor showed me a picture of a hermit monk whose face and eyes had such a look of peace that I began thinking about some past experiences of facial looks. I suppose one of the memories I have, is when I was in about fourth grade and my public school teacher told me to ‘get that sneer off your face.’ I was astounded because I didn't realize I had a sneer on my face. Then I went home I told my aunt about it. She was a teacher in the Minneapolis public school system. ‘My teacher told me to get the sneer off my face,’ I told her. Her comeback was simple and direct: ‘You go back and tell that teacher that that’s your face!’ How encouraging for a fourth grader!

Another memory came to mind as well. It was of a face I saw in September 1986 in the town of Dharamsala in northern India. When our group arrived in India, we were told not to get caught up in giving money to beggars because so many of them make a career of begging and probably have more money than the tourists who fall for their sad looks. One day I encountered a man sitting on the side of the road, dressed in white and holding out his hand for an alms. I walked on, giving him nothing. But I had looked at his face and especially at his eyes. That look, stayed with me the following days. Several days later we were taken in a jeep-like vehicle to another place and on the way passed by this same man at the roadside. Once again our eyes met, but because we were in a moving vehicle I couldn't stop. I have never forgotten those eyes, the look of absolute peace, interior peace.

The man was probably a Hindu sannyasi, a person who has renounced all, a wandering ascetic. The Hindu believe that to give an alms to such a one is to gain a blessing for oneself. To this day I cannot forget those eyes and the peace that surrounded this man. It is as if I just saw him a moment ago. It seems to me that it is this peace that we look for, the peace we claim as one of the mottoes and goals of our monastic life. It is the peace that Jesus tells us is the gift the world cannot give, the peace he gives to us. The Hindu sannyasi will discipline his life to the extreme in order to achieve that peace and when he does have it, the world knows it in his quiet peacefulness and yearns for the calm that those eyes reveal. So what does this have to do with us and our Christian and monastic life?

Why do we not seem to experience that same peace that we believe Jesus gives to us? Much of it has to do with the way we live. We live on the outside of ourselves and on the outside of each other. We measure our happiness by what happens to us from the outside and get dejected when outside reality is not in our control. We are at the mercy of other peoples’ choices and of events that we cannot plan, only endure. And so we are not at peace.

To live and exist from the inside is different. That which is stable and even predictable, is Gods love. We begin, quite literally, at Gods love, for we are by the loving will of God. Coming to know our beginning is to come to know God and God’s love. All we need for our existence is already there. It is when we forget this, when we are unmindful of God, that our selfishness takes over and we look outside for our meaning, our sustenance, our love.

Getting our own way becomes crucial because we seek the fulfilment that we think will give us meaning and die in our disappointment, that finally life does not yield success. Because we think that realization can await our death bed, we move on in our lusts, our greed, our intolerance, our hatred, our competitive ambitions, and barely pay lip service to our declared faith in God. This is a God who is far from us, but in reality is the God whose love even now creates us.

We are not at peace because those around us do not give us what we want, what we say we need. We get even with them by exalting ourselves over them. We point out for the world to see, the deficiencies of those who do not acknowledge our superiority. We set the stage and light the fire of multiple holocausts designed to exalt self at the expense of others’ lives.

As we came forth by the creative Word of God, we were immediately invited to give thanks for the gift of life and to dedicate our attentive praise to the One whose love is so immediate and is everlasting. When we instead concentrate on our deficiencies, then we regret that we are not God ourselves and then dedicate ourselves to becoming what we are not and can never be.

‘Thanks for life,’ we say, ‘but you could have done it better.’ This is when we choose to live on the outside, instead of from within. The Lord Jesus Christ lived from within whether in the seclusion of the desert or mountain top, or in the busy-ness of the temple courtyard, or in the midst of 5,000 and more people on whom he had pity. Yes, he fed their outside needs, just as God liberated a people from slavery and fed them manna in the desert and brought forth water from the rock. But most of all he fed them with the living Word that comes forth from the mouth of God, the same Word that created them and calls them to a peace the world cannot give.

The immediate goal of Christian and monastic life, is to know the peace that comes from gratitude to God for life, for the love that alone completes us, for the essential contemplation of God always with us. There is a process of grace that leads one to this inner peace and a great part of that process has to do with getting to know oneself, not by the characteristics of temperament or even of ones rootedness, so much as it is getting to know oneself, by perceiving ones own essence as coming from God. When this happens it is a short journey to getting to know others from within, for they too come forth in their essence from God, from the same common source. One then knows all of creation from within, as having its source in God, though that which is human is also in the image of God.

True intimacy, is not the result of knowing others from the outside. We know them from the inside only as we move to the inner core of who we ourselves are. Changes make little difference because what we then see in ourselves and others, is the essence that comes forth from the Creator, of who we and all others are. Then the enemy and the friend are loved alike, must be loved alike, because to do otherwise would be to reject the very source of our being, a denial of the One in whose image we are made. The result is peace, a peace that the world cannot give. Reaching this goal is not easy, because it involves disciplining and bringing into subjection the emotions, feelings and thoughts that keep us focused on the external and changing, at the cost of ignoring the internal and unchanging essence of who we are at our core. The mystical traditions of the great religions of this world tend to confirm this view, as they teach us the value of self-discipline for the sake of that enlightenment that provides the experience of the unity of all of creation, of all that is.

Our Judaeo- Christian heritage draws us to our centre, where we discover within, what we have been taught from without - that we are made in the image and likeness of God and that humanity in unity is the image of God in creation.

Because our focus has been on the external and we have ignored the inner unity that is ours, we have through sin and selfishness lost it. The salvation from that death, is in the resurrection of Jesus, who now by his Spirit-poured-out, has touched us from within and brought us in Him, to the unity that restores humanity to the image and likeness of God, which results in the genuine intimacy and peace that can come only from inner living.

FRANCES OF ROME - Patroness of Oblates

By Peg Gawne-Mark, OblSB taken from the St. John’s Abbey newsletter.

In 1384, a special child was born to Paul de Buxo and Jacobella Rofredeschi in the Trastevere district of Rome. Today we know her as Frances of Rome, Patron of Oblates. She took the habit on St. Benedict's Day in 1437. Remembered as one of the greatest mystics of the fifteenth century, we celebrate her feast day on March 9.

Raised in an aristocratic family, Frances was known for her piety and purity from a very young age. At eleven, she wanted to enter the monastery, much to her parent's dismay. When her father arranged her marriage, Frances stubbornly prayed to God to prevent the marriage, until her confessor pointed out, -‘Are you crying because you want to do God's will or because you want God to do your will?’ In 1396, she followed her parents' wishes and married the rich young Roman nobleman, Lorenzo Ponziano.

Troubled with illness and carrying out her family duties, Frances found an ally in her sister-in-law Vannozza. Together they prayed daily and performed penance for the Church in its trials at that time. They visited the poor, took care of the sick, brought firewood and food to those in need. When a flood brought disease and famine to Rome, her father-in-law was furious that she was giving away their supplies. Frances ordered that no one seeking alms would be turned away. When he sold all their extra corn so Frances could not give it away, Frances sifted through the straw and gave away the left over kernels. After she left, her husband came in and was stunned to find the previously empty granary filled with yellow corn.

Mother of three, Frances outlived two of her children who died of the plague. After the death of her son Evangelista, she had a vision in which he told her that her daughter Agnes was also going to die. In return, God was granting her a special grace by sending an archangel to be her guardian angel for the rest of her life. Her angel was her constant companion and spiritual adviser. Frances' angel once commanded her to give up her severe penances of eating only bread and water and wearing a hair shirt. ‘You should understand by now that the God who made your body and gave it to your soul as a servant, never intended that the spirit should ruin the flesh and return it to him despoiled,’ he confronted her.

Frances had the gift of miracles and ecstasy. She had revelations concerning purgatory and hell and foretold the ending of the Western Schism.

While Lorenzo was off defending the legitimate Pope from the anti-Popes, his enemies destroyed his property and possessions. Frances cleaned up part of the family villa and turned it into a hospital. During the epidemics at the time, it was difficult to find even priests to care for the spiritual needs of the ill. Frances herself would seek them out and bring them to those who were disposed to receive the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist. In 1425, Frances founded a society of devout women under the Rule of St. Benedict known as the Oblates of Mary, or Oblates of Tor de Specchi. Her example was such that many Roman ladies gave up a life of pomp and idleness and joined in her pious exercises, putting themselves under the direction of the Benedictine monks of Monte-Oliveto. They did this without leaving the world, making vows or wearing any particular habit. Frances' followers call their profession an oblation using the word offero, not profiteor. Being a living offering, Oblates strive to devote themselves to God in all their actions and designs, to turn their lives into a sacrifice of fidelity, obedience and love offered to God. Even meals, rest and recreational time are sanctified by these intentions.

Forty years after her original desire to enter religious life, Frances joined the community when her husband died. It appears she had been right in discerning her original vocation - she just had the timing wrong. Frances died in 1440 at the age of 56 following a seven-day illness. It was reported that she died with a strange light on her face stating - ‘The angel has finished his task. He beckons me to follow him.’ She is buried in the Church of Santa Maria Nuova, now called Santa Francesca Romana.

Frances is often portrayed in the dress of a Benedictine nun, with a black gown and white hood, an angel holding open the book of the Office of Virgins. She is also pictured with the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to her holding a number of broken arrows, while dead and dying persons lie around (an allusion to the cessation of an epidemic that was attributed to her prayer). At other times, Frances is shown leading an ass laden with wood, finding grapes on a leafless vine in midwinter.

Pope Paul V canonized Frances in 1608. Long before the Church formally honoured her, Frances was recognised by those around her. Widowed after 40 years, she is remembered as patron of widows.

Invoked as patron of taxi cab drivers, Pope Pius IX named her patron of motorists based on Frances' ability to see at night by the light of her angel.

Cited as a model of fidelity and devotedness to her domestic responsibilities, Frances makes a good patron for those who attempt to juggle their priorities. She is attributed to have said, ‘A wife must, when necessary, leave her devotions at the altar and find God in her household affairs.’ A lover of solitude and prayer, Frances also makes a good model for all monastics and especially delayed vocations.

Next year 2004, brings up the centenary of what has been claimed as one of the greatest revivals the world has known. In November 1904, the spiritual revival that broke out in Wales, not only sparked off others around the globe, but also had a radical impact on society. Even though it only lasted two to three years, the reports of it still send shock waves of conviction and hope to those who hear the story.

During the spring of 1904 a young Welshman named Evan Roberts was repeatedly awakened at 1:00 a.m. in the morning and called to prayer, often until 5:00 a.m. The revival followed. He became the most well known of the evangelists of the period. He did not come with new teachings, neither was he considered a good preacher. His strength, people feel, was that he followed the promptings of God.

Evidence points to the fact that the spiritual condition of Wales at the time was very dark. Bars flourished, cockfighting, gambling, prize-fighting and prostitution were the norm, with murder, rape and other violent crimes fast increasing. The dark tunnels of the Welsh coal mines seemed a fitting example of what was happening to the country.

Evan had commenced work in the mines at the age of nine, after his father had broken his leg in the pit. Later he learned the trade of a blacksmith. However, he always had a passion to preach. He eventually was able to leave the mines and at the age of 26, he attended the preparatory school at Newcastle as a prelude to entering Trevecca College. Evan would never finish school. Visions and instructions that he maintained he had received from the Lord, dictated his return home.

Evan went straight to his local church on his return and asked permission to hold services for young people. The first night’s service at the church in Moriah was a great disappointment, with only sixteen adults and one small girl staying. Evan decided to persevere, with each meeting showing strangely increased attendance. It was to be a week later on the evening of Monday 7 November, that the church at Moriah was packed to the doors and Evan read from the last chapter of Malachi. A young girl named Florrie Evans, who had only been a believer a few days, rose and with a trembling voice said simply: ‘I love Jesus with all my heart.’ Other young people's hearts were melted and a powerful spiritual awakening that brought 100,000+ people to Christ was under way. Almost everyone in attendance that night was moved to tears, with many crying out in remorse. The people had never experienced such deep repentance, or such profound joy. The next evening there was a scramble to get seats, with people unwilling to leave before 3.00am. By 11 November, Moriah was teeming with more than eight hundred people trying to squeeze into the small church. Townsfolk began opening their homes for meetings and soon wagons and carts were pouring in from all over the countryside.

Evan and other evangelists departed to visit more than two dozen country villages and towns in Wales, sparking further revivals. It appeared as though wave after wave of the Holy Spirit was sweeping the land. Churches everywhere were packed. The meetings went on for many hours - often for more than 10 without a break. People lost all sense of time and churches were so full that crowds gathered outside until they could somehow squeeze their way in. The remarkable thing was that once the Revival had started it was not limited to where Roberts was speaking. Others ‘caught the fire’ as the Spirit moved throughout Wales.

On 10 January, ‘The Times’ newspaper commented that ‘The Welsh revival movement has shown no sign of flagging’, entire congregations were on their knees in fervent prayer and ‘for the first time there was not a single case of drunkenness at the Swansea Petty Sessions.’ On 11 January, The Times noted that David Lloyd-George, who later became the British Prime Minister, said the Welsh revival gave hope ‘that at the next election, Wales would declare with no uncertain sound, against the corruption in high places which handed over the destiny of the people to the horrible brewing interest...’ Lloyd-George even saw one of his political rallies taken over by the revival. He was impressed as a young girl prayed in the presence of 2,000 people. He said that ‘in one town the tavern sold only 9 pence worth of liquor on a Saturday night!’ The Times again observed that -‘The whole population had been suddenly stirred by a common impulse. Religion had become the absorbing interest of their lives.’

An excerpt from a Welsh newspaper, tells a story that was recurring throughout the country:

Rhondda Valley – A scene that may be witnessed any morning in dozens of pits in South Wales is carried out every day here at 5.00am. Scores of miners hold a service before going home from the midnight shift. The Superintendent starts a hymn and then the pit re-echoes the song. An old man whose grey head is tinged with coal dust falls on his knees to pray. Others do the same. The service attracts men from different workings and flickering lights are seen approaching the improvised temple. ‘Now boys, those of you who love Christ, up with your lamp!’ cries a young miner. In a second, scores of lights flicker in the air and another song of thanks sets the mine ringing.

The revival among the miners was so great that they stopped swearing. A glorious event, but it threw the mining companies into a strange turmoil. The horses were so used to hearing swear words as a part of their orders, that when the men stopped swearing, the horses did not know what they were saying. Some mines actually had to shut down until the horses could be retrained.

Before the revival there had almost been a plague of drunkenness and gambling. During it, taverns were either closed or turned into meeting halls. Working class men, who used to think about nothing except their favourite sport – soccer, gave it up without even thinking about it. The star (soccer) players were converted and joined the many open air street meetings to testify what the Lord had done for them. Teams disbanded and the stadiums were empty. No one preached against sport, people just lost interest.

Wales has seen the hand of God move powerfully in revival many times. The previous widespread revival of 1854, had also brought in an estimated 100,000 converts. Since then scattered outpourings had led to the conversion of a 100 here or 200 there, but nothing like this event, which touched the nation as a whole.

As is the case with many great leaders, their strengths are also their weaknesses. Evan Roberts great strength was that he dreaded publicity, because he felt it detracted from the One who was the true Source of the revival. He withdrew himself from reporters, meetings and people in general. He retired and became a semi hermit and the revival quickly died.

In a sense, it could be said that the revival was the fruit of long time preaching by a previous generation of ministers and Sunday school teachers, whose efforts were rewarded in 1904. When the revival began to decline, the established churches found it difficult to gather in and disciple the new converts, which is what they so desperately needed to do. Today, we would have to seriously question whether the Church is in a position to cope with tens of thousands, may be millions of new converts, if a new wave of the Spirit were to next time sweep the world.

Much can be learned about prayer and contemplation from Thomas Merton's uncensored writing in his (now) published letters. Interestingly, most of his best correspondence about contemplation is not with ‘official’ contemplatives - like persons in Holy Orders or in religious vows. It is with the laity and usually with persons who were not in the Roman Catholic community. One question that Merton addressed many times, is the extent of God's call to contemplation. Is it a vocation for a few favoured persons or are all of the baptised called to contemplation? The answer depends upon what one means by contemplation. Depending upon the context of the correspondence, the Trappist said it is a special gift and yet he also says, all persons are called to contemplative living. In fact he wrote in one place: ‘Christ came on earth to form contemplatives.’

One of his frequent correspondents on the topic was an Anglican laywoman, Etta Gullick, who apparently wrote to Merton frequently about contemplation. Contemplation, the Trappist contended, cannot be explained. It can only be hinted at or suggested. It is only ‘known’ in the doing of contemplative praying and living. He wrote to Gullick in 1962 of the inadequacy of all explanatory words. ‘The nothingness and emptiness (of contemplation) are more important than their explanations and I think you will find eventually that explanations are not needed. Yet of course, you do need to communicate with someone and feel yourself understood. But you are understood by Christ and that is the great thing, the least thing is to understand oneself.’

How does one learn contemplative prayer and living? Merton wrote to Gullick in 1964: ‘I do not think contemplation can be taught, but certainly an aptitude for it can be awakened. It is an aptitude that quite a lot of people might have. The important thing is that this be made real and credible by someone who knows by experience what it is and who can make it real to those in whom it begins to awaken.’

How does one measure one's growth in prayer? In 1965 Merton answered Etta Gullick's question on this point. He warned her about the danger of too much self-focus in this matter of measuring one's prayer. ‘Progress in prayer - it is a ticklish subject because the chief obstacle to progress is too much self-awareness and talk about how to make progress, is a good way to make people too aware of themselves. In the long run, I think progress in prayer comes from the Cross and humiliation and whatever makes us really experience our total poverty and nothingness and also gets our mind off ourselves.’

Thomas Merton wrote some very practical advice to Abdul Aziz about the role of reading, vocal prayer and silence in meditation. ‘One who is learning to meditate, must also learn to get along without any support external to his own heart and the gifts of God. Hence it is good for such a one to have to remain in silence without reading or even using vocal prayers sometimes, in order to come to terms with the need for inner struggle and discipline. On the other hand this is not a universal rule. There are times when it is necessary to read and even to read quite a lot, in order to store up material and get new perspectives. In the solitary life however, though one has a lot of time for reading, it becomes difficult to read a great deal. One finds that in a couple of hours one reads only a few pages. The rest of the time is spent in reflection and prayer. It becomes difficult to absorb more than this. Someone in solitude who would read voraciously all the time might perhaps be in the wrong place. Moderate reading is however, normal. Provided that more time is spent in prayer and meditation than in reading.’

In 1964 the Trappist wrote to Gullick – ‘I have greater and greater confidence in the reality of the path that is no path at all and to see people following it in spite of everything is comforting. By rights, they should all have forgotten and lost their way long ago. If they keep on it without really knowing what it is, this is because God keeps them there.’

BOOK REVIEW‘The Path of Life’ by Cyprian Smith OSB

Many people today are increasingly interested in the life of the Benedictine monk. Some look at it with a certain envy and nostalgia, sensing that there is something there of incomparable value that they cannot share in completely – perhaps not at all. Are they right to feel this? What are the fundamental aims of Benedictine monastic life? What spiritual resources does it contain? How far can people who are not monks, tap into these resources and pursue these aims?

This book attempts to answer these questions. The writer’s conviction concerning the aims of a Benedictine monk, is that they are not fundamentally different from those of the ordinary Christian. As for the spiritual resources of monastic life, some of these are fully available to the non-monk, others less so. How far they are available and in what way they can be used, is the aim of this book to show. Not all people can be monks. It is neither necessary nor desirable that they should be. Those who do not have this particular vocation should not feel deprived, as their own way of life will contain its own strengths and resources that the monk cannot share in. This book is based on conferences originally delivered to the novices and juniors of Ampleforth Abbey. They therefore deal with the central themes of monastic life and spirituality. They have however, been adapted to widen their scope, so that they may also be relevant to people outside the cloister.

This book is now available from the Oblate Library and is strongly recommended to all oblates who wish to deepen their spiritual walk and their understanding of the Benedictine Way.

Recommended Oblate Daily Reading - New Testament Reading & Rule of Benedict.

December 2003

Gospel reading RB

January 2004

Gospel reading RB

February 2004

Gospel reading RB

1 Mt. 8: 5-11 50 7:34

2 Lk. 10:21-24 51

3 Mt. 15:29-37 52

4 Mt. 7:21,24-27 53:1-15

5 Mt. 9:27-31 53:16-24

6 Mt. 9:35-10:1,6-8 54

7 Lk. 3: 1-6 55:1-14

8 Lk. 1:26-38 55:15-22

9 Mt. 18:12-14 56

10 Mt. 11:28-30 57

11 Mt. 11:11-15 58:1-16

12 Mt. 11:16-19 58:17-29

13 Mt. 17:10-13 59

14 Lk. 3:10-18 60

15 Mt. 21:23-27 61:1-7

16 Mt. 21:28-32 61:8-14

17 Mt. 1:1-17 62

18 Mt. 1:18-24 63:1-9

19 Lk. 1:5-25 63:10-19

20 Lk. 1:26-38 64:1-6

21 Lk. 1:39-44 64:7-22

22 Lk. 1:46-56 65:1-10

23 Lk. 1:57-66 65:11-22

24 Lk. 1:67-79 66 25 Jn. 1:1-18 67

26 Mt. 10:17-22 68

27 Jn. 20:2-8 69

28 Mt. 2:41-52 70

29 Lk. 2:22-35 71

30 Lk. 2:36-40 72

31 Jn. 1:1-18 73

1 Lk. 2:16-21 Prol:1-7

2 Jn. 1:19-28 Prol:8-13

3 Jn. 1:29-34 Prol:14-21

4 Mt. 2:1-12 Prol:22-30

5 Mt. 4:12-17,23-25 Prol:31-38 6. Mk.6:34-44 Prol:39-44

7 Mk.6:45-52 Prol:45-50

8 Lk. 4:14-22 1

9 Lk. 5:12-16 2:1-5

10 Jn. 3:22-30 2:6-10

11 Lk. 3:15-16,21-22 2:11-15 12 Mk. 1:14-20 2:16-22

13 Mk. 1:21-28 2:23-29

14 Mk. 1:29-39 2:30-32

15 Mk. 1:40-45 2:33-40

16 Mk. 2:1-12 3:1-6 17 Mk. 2:13-17 3:7-13

18 Jn. 2:1-11 4:1-19

19 Mk. 2:18-22 4:20-40

20 Mk. 2:23-28 4:41-54

21 Mk. 3:1-6 4:55-78

22 Mk. 3:7-12 5:1-13

23 Lk. 10:1-9 5:14-19

24 Mk. 3:20-21 6

25 Lk.1:1-4,4:14-21 7:1-9

26 Mt. 5:1-12 7:10-13

27 Mk. 3:31-35 7:14-18

28 Mk. 4:1-20 7:19-25

29 Mk. 4:21-25 7:26-30

30 Mk. 4:26-34 7:31-33

31 Mk. 4:35-41 7:34

1 Lk. 4:21-30 7:35-43

2 Lk. 2:22-40 7:44-48

3 Mk. 5:21-43 7:49-50

4 Mk. 6:1-6 7:51-54

5 Mk. 6:7-13 7:55

6 Mk. 6:14-29 7:56-58

7 Mk. 6:30-34 7:59

8 Lk. 5:1-11 7:60-61

9 Mk. 6:53-56 7:62-70

10 Mk. 7:1-13 8

11 Mk. 7:14-23 9

12 Mk. 7:24-30 10

13 Mk. 7:31-37 11

14 Mk. 8:1-10 . 12

15 Lk. 6:17,20-26 13:1-11

16 Mk. 8:11-13 13:12-14

17 Mk. 8:14-21 14

18 Mk. 8:22-26 15

19 Mk. 8:27-33 16

20 Mk. 8:34-9:1 17

21 Mk. 9:2-13 18:1-6

22 Lk. 6:27-38 18:7-11

23 Mk. 9:14-29 18:12-25

24 Mk. 9:30-37 19 25 Mk. 6:1-6,16-18 20

26 Lk. 9:22-25 21

27 Mk. 9:14-15 22

28 Lk. 5:27-32 23

MEETING PLACE

PRAYER LIST

ITEMS OF INTEREST

FAITH FORMATION

THE WELSH REVIVAL OF 1904-05

BOOK REVIEW‘The Path of Life’ by Cyprian Smith OSB