We are starting to see a change of emphasis in the Gospels. The disciples now begin to recognise who He truly is. Jesus hopes to keep His identity secret to prevent interrupting His Mission but is constantly revealed and pursued. Our own mission is to make Him known – not to hide His presence but share the Faith we have been given, far and wide.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This month is a change for our journey too, as hopefully, this country sees the pandemic being overcome and new freedoms come. Other nightmare scenarios like global warming and climate change will become a priority for us.<\/p>\n
Governments can do so much, but everyone must change habits and behaviour. Can we save energy use by turning things off instead of \u2018on standby\u2019, re-cycle better, repair not replace, buy local when we can. \u2018Green\u2019 initiatives and appliances are developing more and more and are certainly needed. Acting now is the only real option for the future. Everything became so clean during the total lockdown. To clearly see the stars at night, breathing was easier, no diesel fumes on the main road. Bexley may have a long wait for those conditions again.<\/p>\n
There is a challenge over the fate of people in Afghanistan, bringing into question how to help them and of the whole purpose and need for war. Something we need to pray about now and over all conflicts; to find peaceful solutions, forgiveness and understanding that some things are not in our power to solve. As Winston Churchill wisely said\u00a0 \u2018Jaw, jaw is better than war, war\u2019.<\/p>\n
3rd \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>St Gregory the Great\u00a0 National Calendar<\/em><\/p>\n 8th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary<\/p>\n 13th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St John Chrysostom<\/p>\n 14th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Exaltation of the Holy Cross<\/p>\n 15th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our Lady of Sorrows<\/p>\n 16th\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ss Cornelius and Cyprian\u00a0 Martyrs<\/em><\/p>\n 17th\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 St Robert Bellamine<\/p>\n 20th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ss Andrew Kim & Companions\u00a0 Martyrs<\/em><\/p>\n 21st\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ss Matthew\u00a0 Apostle, Martyr<\/em><\/p>\n 23rd\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n 24th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our Lady of Walsingham<\/p>\n 27th\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0St Vincent de Paul<\/p>\n 28th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St Wenceslaus<\/p>\n 29th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ss Michael, Gabriel & Raphael\u00a0 Archangels<\/em><\/p>\n 30th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 St Jerome<\/p>\n We are starting to see a change of emphasis in the Gospels. The disciples now begin to recognise who He truly is. Jesus hopes to keep His identity secret to prevent interrupting His Mission but is constantly revealed and pursued. Our own mission is to make Him known – not to hide His presence but … Continue reading “Reflections for the Month of September”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Deacon Michael Baldry<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"