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
“I have come to fulfil the Law... ”
This Sunday, Jesus lays it all on the line. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the or the prophets.” I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. He then explains what he means. Again and again, he explains it: “You have heard that it was said...” then he adds: “But I say to you...” He gives his audience an earful. He boldly clarifies what it really means to kill, to commit adultery, to take a false oath. It is more than what his listeners probably expected.
In his own way, Christ echoing John the Baptist- calling people to repentance, to conversion, to live by a higher standard than what they were used to. This Sunday’s gospel reading helps set the stage for the next several weeks and can serve as a powerful and provocative introduction to Lent. It is almost here.
Wednesday, three days after hearing Christ’s admonitions, with his words still ringing in our ears and burning in our hearts, we line up to receive the ashes on our foreheads with words: ‘Repent and believe in the gospel’ or ‘From dust you came to dust you will return.’ We will begin follow the Lenten traditions and embark on the “campaign of Christian Service” that prepares us, ultimately for Easter.
It is fitting, then, that this last Sunday before Lent offers us a lesson in what is expected of us as
disciples of Jesus. He maps out the road we need to travel. We should take heart from the first
reading, and the wisdom of Ben Sirach: If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; “if you trust in God, you too shall live... Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”
These words also lay out a prevailing theme of Lent. It can be a time of choosing, and of change. We begin the season every year being reminded of our death, making a commitment to conversion, going without simple pleasures so that we can give more of ourselves to others and to God. The readings this Sunday call us to think more deeply about the choices we make. We could consider Christ’s words a rallying cry: “Think differently! Live differently! Choose wisely!”
God bless you all. Fr. Henry
IN THE NEWS...
Pope at Audience: the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning and truth
Pope at Audience: the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning and truth
Pope at Audience: the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning and truth
The Word of God speaks to the life of every faithful, as it puts us in dialogue with the Lord, and it fuels the Church in its mission, Pope Leo XIV said during the Wednesday General Audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall on January 11, 2026.
“The Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning, for the truth about our life,” Pope Leo said.
“We live surrounded by so many words, but how many of these are empty! At times," he acknowledged, "we even listen to wise words, which do not however affect our ultimate destiny.”
The Pope continued his catechesis series on the Documents of the Second Vatican Council, focusing again on the 1965 Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum on Divine Revelation. In this week’s catechesis, he reflected on the “profound and vital link” between the Word of God and the Church.
He explained that the Second Vatican Council reminds all that the Church “has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord” and it “never ceases to reflect on the value” of the Word of God.
Cardinal Cupich calls on White House to apologise over social post
Pope at Audience: the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning and truth
Pope at Audience: the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning and truth
The Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, has called on US President Donald Trump to apologise over a “viciously racist” videoclip posted to his Truth Social account.
The final frames of the video, which appeared on President Trump’s account on Thursday evening, depicted former US President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the video, describing the reaction to it as “fake outrage”. It was later deleted, some twelve hours after being published.
In a statement, Cardinal Cupich stressed that “portraying human beings as animals – less than human – is not new”. Successive generations of immigrants to the United States have been demeaned in this way, he said.
The videoclip, Cardinal Cupich wrote, shows that “in the White House such blatant racism is not merely a practice of the past”.
Babies die in Mediterranean migrant tragedy
Pope at Audience: the Word of God responds to our thirst for meaning and truth
Babies die in Mediterranean migrant tragedy
Only two Nigerian women were rescued by Libyan search and rescue operators. One said she had lost her husband in the tragedy, the other said she had lost two babies.
They said the rubber dinghy overturned off the coastal Libyan town of Zuwara just six hours after its departure and immediately took on water.
IOM data show that in January alone, at least 375 migrants were reported dead or missing following multiple “invisible” shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean amid extreme weather, with hundreds more deaths believed to be unrecorded.
These repeated incidents highlight the persistent and deadly risks faced by migrants and refugees attempting the dangerous crossing.
The U.N. agency also said that more than 1,300 migrants have gone missing in the Central Mediterranean in 2025, and that "The latest incident brings the number of migrants reported dead or missing on the route since the beginning of this year to at least 484.
The Libyan route one is one of the main transit routes for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe. It is a journey riddled with perils across the desert and across the Mediterranean Sea.
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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