Welcome
Welcome to St Bede Catholic Church
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
And the love of God
And the communion of The Holy Spirit
Be with you all
The Body and Blood of Christ. (Corpus Christi)
This Sunday we celebrate another Feast, that calls for our faith as Christians. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast forces on the importance of the Eucharist as the means of our salvation. It nourishes us and gives us strength to nourish others. The Eucharist is not only Christ’s action in the past, but a present and ever-new event in our own daily lives and actions.
On this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ we would expect to have the gospel reading about the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. No, the Church puts before us the reading of the wonderful gift of the food by Jesus. The gospel is the narrative of the feeding of the five thousand with a few loaves and fish. It is like an open-air picnic Eucharist.
It begins with Jesus preaching about the Kingdom of God, this is what happens at the beginig of the celebration of the Eucharist. We first listen to the readings, the word of God, and the homily on them. Then he heals those in need of healing. We all need healing in various ways. It is only after healing that Jesus raises his eyes to heaven, blesses the bread and fish and distribute it, just as he gives himself to us in the Eucharist.
A sign of the generosity and plenty of Jesus’ gifts in the Eucharist is given by the twelve baskets of leftovers, ready for consumption by the twelve tribes of the new Israel. In the same way, on this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ we share joyfully in the sustenance which Jesus gives to us and his followers in the whole Church. So, today’s celebration provides us an opportunity to thank and adore Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament. “O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine all praises and all thanksgiving be unto you.”
God bless you all. Fr. Henry
IN THE NEWS...
Holy See urges nations to ratify UN anti-landmine convention
Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, spoke on Friday at the 2025 Intersessional Meeting of the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention.
He expressed the Holy See’s congratulations for the Marshall Islands’ recent ratification of the landmine treaty, known as the Ottowa Convention, which was first proposed in Oslo in 1997 and entered into force in 1999.
Pope: ‘St. Thomas More offers politicians example of martyr for primacy of conscience’
During the Jubilee of Governments, Pope Leo XIV meets with legislators from various nations and recalls the importance of natural law, entrusting them to St. Thomas More, whose "readiness to sacrifice his life rather than betray the truth makes him a martyr for freedom and for the primacy of conscience."
Pope Leo XIV made this observation about the 16th-century English saint and former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain when addressing members of the International Inter-Parliamentary Union in the context of the Jubilee for Governments taking place this weekend in the Vatican.
Benin: Union of Priests in West Africa denounce kidnappings and call for more security and peace
Benin: Union of Priests in West Africa denounce kidnappings and call for more security and peace
The priests of West Africa recently concluded their 11th annual ordinary Congress with Holy Mass at Saint Michael Parish in Cotonou, Benin. In their final communiqué, the Union of Priests of West Africa notably called for peace and security in the sub-region while denouncing cases of kidnapping and assassination of pastoral agents in the exercise of their ministry.
ABOUT SAINT BEDE...
St Bede 673-735AD
Bede was born in 673 AD in the northeast of England. From the age of seven, he received a Benedictine education at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Wearmouth, today part of Sunderland. Bede spent his whole life within the twin monasteries of St Peter at Wearmouth and St Paul in Jarrow, where he became a Benedictine monk and continued his studies using the fine libraries established by the monastery's founder, St Benedict Biscop, Bede's first teacher, and under the guidance of Abbot Ceolfrith (Ceolwulf).
Bede wrote on many topics. His most famous work, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (the Ecclesiastical History of the English People), earned Bede the title "The Father of English History". His works revealed not only Bede's qualities as a scholar and historian but also the qualities of modesty and humility which make his works so memorable. However, Bede's work shows that he had at his command all the learning of his time. Bede's writings included papers and articles on scientific, historical, theological, and mathematical matters, as well as poetry and literature. St Bede is widely regarded as the greatest of all the Anglo-Saxon scholars. His sainthood was generally recognized around fifty years after his death on 25th May 735 AD. His bones were later elevated from St Paul's in Jarrow to Durham, where they lie in the Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral. Bede's scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognized on 13th November 1899 when Pope Leo XIII decreed the title of Doctor Ecclesiae to St Bede the Venerable, making him the only English Doctor of the Church.
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