Today is Sea Sunday, when the Church prays for all those who live and work at sea. Seafarers and fishers play a vital role in all of our lives, but they often work in difficult, hazardous conditions. Today’s second collection is for Stella Maris (Apostleship of the Sea), the Catholic Church’s official maritime welfare agency. It supports seafarers both practically and spiritually. Stella Maris is dependent on voluntary donations, so please give generously. To donate, please visit www.stellamaris.org.uk/donate or text ‘SEA’ to 70460 to donate £5. Thank you.
Let ’s pray that our eyes may see and our ears may hear what the Lord is giving to us.
Lord, hear us
Let’s pray that we and all the church may be able to turn the hardships and even the failures in our lives into gifts that help us to grow
stronger in faith, hope and love.
Lord, hear us
Let’s pray for those who are ill and those who support them.
Lord, hear us
Let’s pray for our dead including Maura Coleman whose funeral took place yesterday and for Lewis Cameron whose funeral al will take place tomorrow.
Lord, hear us
*A Quote from Pope Leo X1V.*
” Brothers, sisters…
I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left.
To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home.
I, too, was angry with God.
I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine.
And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo.
But then I discovered something:G
od doesn’t shout. God whispers.
And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain, from a grandmother who feeds you without having anything.
I don’t come to offer you perfect faith.
I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs.
I’m not asking you to believe in everything.
I’m asking you not to close the door. Give a chance to the God who waits for you without judgment.
I’m just a priest who saw God in the smile of a woman who lost her son… and yet she cooked for others.
That changed me.
So if you’re broken, if you don’t believe, if you’re tired of the lies…
come anyway. With your anger, your doubt, your dirty backpack.
No one here will ask you for a VIP card.
Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary.
God doesn’t need soldiers.
He needs brothers.
And you, yes, you…
are one of them.”
Robert Prevost (Leo XIV)
