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
‘My Lord and my God’
Today’s reading from the gospel of John, is read on the second Sunday of Easter in all the three Sunday Lectionary cycles. This gospel combines two scenes that is Jesus’ appearance to his disciples after his resurrection and Jesus’ conversation with Thomas, the disciple who doubted.
In today’s gospel passage, Jesus greets his disciples with the gifts of peace and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also commissions his disciples to continue the work that he started. Just as Jesus was sent by God, so too does he send his disciples to continue his mission. This continuity with Jesus’ own mission is an essential element of the Church. Jesus gives his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this mission. The holy Spirit binds us together as a community of faith and strengthens us to bear witness to Jesus’ resurrection.
Jesus’ message to his disciples points at the connection between the forgives of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness and reconciliation are gifts from God to his people. This is another essential aspect of what it means to be Christ’s Church. The Church continues Jesus’ ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Thomas, the disciple who doubts when he is told about the risen Lord, represents the reality of the Church that comes after the first community of disciples. All but the first disciples of Jesus must believe without seeing. Like Thomas, we may doubt the news that Jesus is risen and appeared to his disciples. I is part of our human nature to seek hard evidence that the Jesus who appeared to his disciples is the same Jesus who was crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to obtain this evidence. He gives witness to us all that the Jesus who was raised is the same Jesus who was crucified and died. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are among those who are blessed for we have not seen and yet have believed.
The Lord is Risen, Alleluia!
IN THE NEWS...
Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday aged 88
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta.
At 9:45 AM, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, announced the death of Pope Francis from the Casa Santa Marta with these words:
"Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God."
Pope Francis’ coffin to be sealed in rite on Friday evening
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, will preside at the Rite of Sealing of the Coffin of the late Pope Francis, ahead of the papal funeral on Saturday morning.
The liturgical rite will be attended by several Cardinals and Holy See officials.
It will mark the end of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica, which has seen tens of thousands of people pay their respects to the late Pope.
As his mortal remains lie in state, over 50,000 people have filed past the Altar of the Confession in the 24 hours since the Vatican Basilica opened to the faithful on Wednesday morning.
St. Peter’s Basilica remained open until 5:30 AM on Thursday, closing for an hour and a half before reopening at 7:00 AM.
Jesuit Superior General remembers late Pope Francis as ‘Man of God’
Jesuit Superior General remembers late Pope Francis as ‘Man of God’
“Of the many facets of a person with the long life and responsibilities that he had to carry out, I would like to highlight Pope Francis’ dimension of ‘Man of God’.”
Jesuit Superior General, Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, offered that summary of the late Pope’s life at a press conference held on Thursday, April 26, at the Jesuit Curia near the Vatican.
He expressed the Society of Jesus’ “grateful memory” of the Argentine-born Jesuit Pope.
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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