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Buckden Roundabout
February 2018
Church News
Thought for the Month
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Greetings of peace to you. Today peace is disturbed due to the intolerance towards other cultures and religions. Intolerance is
due to lack of appreciation for other cultures and religions. Lack of appreciation is due to lack of knowledge of other cultures
and religions. Faith has become distorted due to lack appreciation to oneself and others. Distorted faith can never bring peace
in the world. Faith is distorted not because of others, but the responsibility lies on oneself. We always insist on others to believe
in the Good News Jesus brought to this world, but we fail to become believable.
Though faith is proclaimed today, it is assaulted everywhere because people do not believe in the persons who proclaim. As
Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga has observed, “It is not enough that we believe but we need to become believable”. Thomas Aquinas
says, “Lord I see only bread and taste only wine yet I believe because you said so”. Many of us have not seen the Dead Sea. Yet
we believe it exists because of the person who has said it is reliable. We believe in Jesus because he rose to new life as he said.
Since we lack credibility people assault missionaries and assault the faith we proclaim. Once faith is assaulted then peace can-
not prevail in the world. So we need to reiterate that the mother of all the crises for missionaries is Faith crisis. Faith crisis is the
only crisis that we have. Cancer is not crisis because we are sure that all of us will die one day. An English lady, who saw Gandhi
coming often to the deck of the ship during voyage to offer prayers, asked what he was doing. He said, “the fish cannot live out
of the water so also I cannot out of God. You can cut me into pieces I may not die but kill my faith I will die”. So peace dies when
there is no life in faith. When we lose faith, we also lose peace.
Blessed Bishop Fulton Sheen gives four stages in losing faith: 1. Neglect of prayer, 2. Substitution of work for prayer, 3. Giving
up mortification, 4. Craving to satisfy the emotions. We can easily identify that one leads to the next. To become credible minis-
ters of the Word, we shall ask for fervent faith that is nourished by prayer, work and suffering. This will certainly help us bring
peace in the world.
We are all called to become the ministers of the Gospel through our baptism. We all have the responsibility to bring the Good
News to the poor and rich alike. We need to become believable through our life and mission. Peace is something you have or do
not have. If you are yourself at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world. Then share your peace with everyone, and
everyone will be at peace. Faith is life which brings peace in the world.
Fr. Antony Arockiam CMF
Parish Priest
St. Hugh Catholic Church, Buckden
STUDY LUNCHES
Lent lunches start on Monday February 19th for 5 consecutive weeks
Methodist Church Hall 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm
Contact:
Ann Brittain
on
812012
Weekly Prayer Roster
Each week during the year the Churches, in their prayers, remember the residents of particular streets in the village, those who
work in the parish and village organisations. Those to be remembered this month are:
4th February
Clubs and societies, their leaders and members, volunteers, and the team that produces and
distributes the Buckden Roundabout
11th February
Cranfield Way, Cranfield Close, Weir Close, Smith Drive, Lucks Lane, Morris Close
18th February
Buckden Surgery: the doctors, nurses, receptionists, pharmacists, health visitors and midwives;
those we know who are in hospital, the elderly, disabled and housebound
25th February
Farming communities, Taylor’s Lane (West), Hardwick Lane, the residents and staff of Hardwick
Dene, Great North Road, Brampton Road, Perry Road, Buckden Wood