Dear Friends,
The cold weather has caught us all by surprise after such a warm summer. It is good that it seems not to have spoiled the new Ellerslie Flower Show in Hagley Park. The senior classes of S. Michael’s School have been on camp at Wainui, catching some of the worst of the weather. But they have still had a wonderful time.
Tomorrow afternoon many of us will be gathering at the Cathedral with Fr Bosco, Helen and Jonathan, to say farewell to their beloved daughter and sister, Catherine Peters. I shall be taking part with a sense of the loving and sympathetic support for the family which all of us at S. Michael’s are feeling for them. Later on we may be able to do some practical things to show our support for them in their sorrow. May Catherine live in the peace and joy of God, and may God bless her loved ones.
Next Sunday is Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. As is our custom, the Church and School communities will gather here together for the Mass at 10:00 am. The Revd Lynne Horwood, our honorary Assistant Priest and School Deputy Principal, will be the preacher. This celebration will of course include the blessing and distribution of flowers, and it would be appreciated if all who can would make and bring some small posies to add to the supply.
On Friday evening and Saturday, the Diocesan Synod met at S. Margaret’s College for a special session, to discuss and adopt a new Strategic Plan for the Diocese. Those of us who represented the parish will report in due course.
May God bless you all.Peter Williams
The Lesson of the Cross:
God’s power as shown forth in ‘Christ crucified’ is the reversal of power as violent control. It is the power to bring life, even in the face of the worst, most destructive power that can be brought to bear.
…The first-century Christians, and we, are not equipped by common understandings and expressions of power as control, to perceive as power the non-coercive, non-manipulative, non-dominating power for which the cross is the central symbol in Paul’s writing. In fact, as we look for signs of power based on an understanding of power as control, we will be fooled into thinking that non-controlling signs of life are weak, vulnerable to coercion, manipulation, domination, even crucifixion.
For Paul, the lesson of the cross is that even the most violent efforts to manipulate life, to control the power of God, are finally overcome by that very power that by worldly standards looks like weakness.
It is important to realise the degree to which we still struggle to identify and experience power as life… We must perceive and intend a reality altogether different from the old understanding, as different as the cross is from the soldier’s sword.
(Sally Purvis The Power of the Cross, Nashville 1993)
Lent Readings: Week Three
Monday 2 Kings 5: 1–15 Luke 4: 24–30
Tuesday Daniel 3: 25, 34–43 Matthew 18: 21–35
Wednesday Deuteronomy 4: 1, 5–9 Matthew 5: 17–19
Thursday Jeremiah 7: 23–28 Luke 11: 14–23
Friday Hosea 14: 2–10 Mark 12: 28–34
Saturday Hosea 5: 15–6: 6 Luke 18: 9–14
