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The recording of the Sunday Mass is available every Sunday at 9.00 am

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C – 16 January 2022
Dear brothers and sisters,
As this is the first message for the year 2022, I would like to wish you all God’s blessings for the year ahead and may the Lord protect you during this year.
Today, we read the Gospel about the wedding at Cana. It is a wonderful story, but we need to realize that this story about the first miracle of Christ, has a far deeper meaning than just the changing of water into wine. Like all the miracles of Christ, we need to look at what the evangelist trying to teach us by telling us these particular miracles. In the case of this particular miracle, we need to see that it is about the abundance of God’s blessings.
Looking at the story of the wedding of Cana, the one sentence that has struck me was the line where Mary tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2 v 5). This is a challenging verse for us to reflect on, because this instruction was not only for the servants, but also for the disciples of Jesus, the bridal couple and their family and other guests that had been invited to the wedding. When we read further into the Gospel we see that some people heard the call, but did not understand, others heard but choose to ignore it and others heard the call and followed the teachings of Christ. They might not have foreseen the implications of what the call meant, but they put their faith and trust in the Lord knowing that he would help them to improve their relationship with God. They were looking for something new and in the teachings of Christ, they found it because it was steeped in love for God and love for neighbour.
These words of Mary are relevant for us today as well. She tells us “Do whatever he tells you”. We need to consider how do we react to them. Have we heard and not understood or have we heard and just ignored them, or have we heard and despite that we not have fully understood or foreseen the implication, have we responded in a positive way to the words? When we consider the words of Christ, sometimes, it is easy to follow and obey, but sometimes it becomes more difficult because it calls for us to change. We need to reflect and see how, at times, we listen rather to the temptations of the devil and follow them. This is often due to the fact that when we are challenged to listen to the words of Christ then it calls us to take a complete change of direction in our lives. This is difficult at times, but if we put our faith and trust in the Lord, then we will be able to change and our lives will lead us closer to the Lord.
Therefore, let us listen to the Lord and follow him as he leads us to eternal life.
God bless.
Fr Mark

Message sent via email to parishioners Friday 24th December 2021

Dear brothers and sisters,

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed and spirit-filled Christmas.

Thank you for your co-operation and your understanding of the difficulties we faced in the parish this year. With your help, we have gratefully have not had to close our parishes for quarantine. This is testament to your co-operation in abiding by and maintaining the protocols as set by the Diocese and the Government.

I would especially like to thank those who have maintained their financial contributions during this year, as well as those who have responded to the call for financial help when the parish had been in financial straits. Your contributions have been very helpful in maintaining the parish and keeping everything running.

It is my prayer that the year 2022 will see us overcoming the pandemic and being able to open the churches for more participation with people.

I look forward to celebrating Christmas with you at Mass. Sadly I cannot be with you all as the Masses are fully booked and the numbers have been limited. But I will hold you all in my heart and keep you in my prayers this Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Fr Mark

4th Sunday of Advent Year C – 19 December 2021
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Advent. In the Gospel, we meet two extraordinary women, Elizabeth and Mary. There is a wonderful interaction between these two women. Elizabeth, as we know, was six months pregnant with John the Baptist and Mary, our Lord Jesus Christ. These two women, the coming together of the two testaments that we find in the Scriptures. Elizabeth represents the Old Testament and Mary the New Testament. This shows how the testaments are moulded together. Elizabeth is going to be the mother of the greatest and last prophet of the Old Testament. Mary, on the other hand, is carrying the dawn of the New Testament. In this interaction between Mary and Elizabeth affirm in each other the will of God. For Mary, she had expressed her willingness of being the mother of the Lord, but hearing the words of Elizabeth “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears the child in my womb leapt for joy” (Lk 1: 43-44). In this exchange we find besides Mary, John the Baptist experiences for the first time the gift of the Holy Spirit and of being in the presence of the promised Messiah. Mary, on the other hand, responds to the greeting of Elizabeth by praying the Magnificat which although is not in the Gospel of today, but follows the Gospels text of today. Mary shows her humbleness by giving all praise to God for what has happened to her. She says that it is the blessings of God that has helped her to make the decision to say yes to the will of God in her life. It is these blessings that inspire Mary to leave Nazareth and travel down to the city of Ein Karem, the traditional birthplace of John the Baptist, to help Elizabeth in the final months of her pregnancy.
In these final days of Advent, it is a wonderful opportunity to slow down from our busy lives and think about visiting family and friends and bonding together in our shared love that we have for one another. It is also a time for us to reflect on God wanting to visit us. He wants to visit us, but we need to open the door to him and let him into our lives. A practical way that we can do this is to build a small crib under our Christmas tree. It does not have to be too big. Even if it is just a figure of the Holy Family, then round that crib, we as family, can gather for a short time and just pray as a family. It can take the form of saying the rosary, or reading the Christmas narrative that we find in the Gospel of St Luke and St Matthew. We can share what blessings that the Lord has given us through this year, or ask the Lord to protect our families during this time of Pandemic especially during this fourth wave that we have running rampant in our country at this time. If we do this, we will be amazed at how spiritual this time of Christmas can become for us.
As the Holy Spirit visited Mary, Elizabeth and John the Baptist during this visitation in Ein Karem, so we can ask the Holy Spirit to visit us. It is the same Holy Spirit that made John the Baptist leap for joy in his mother’s womb, the same Holy Spirit that descended upon the apostles at Pentecost, the same Holy Spirit that we have received through the sacraments.
Therefore, I would like to encourage you during these final days of Advent to make a special effort to bring the Lord a little more into Christmas and celebrate this Solemnity with great joy and peace.
God bless.
Fr Mark

MASS INTENTIONS for St Bernard’s & St Ignatius

Mass is once again open to public, but with restricted numbers. Our parish, according to the restrictions and protocols of the government and our Archdiocese, is limited to 60 attendees. This will slowly be increased as we are able to handle the influx.  Please book for the weekend Mass to avoid disappointment. There is no need to book for the week day Mass.

Mass at St Ignatius is on Saturday evenings at 5.00pm, Sunday mornings at 10.30am and Wednesday mornings at 9.00am

Mass at St Bernard’s is on Sunday mornings at 9.00am & Sunday evenings at 6.00pm, Tuesday mornings at 9.00am, Thursday evenings at 5.00pm and Friday mornings at 9.00am

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We remember in our prayers those who have gone before us:

St Ignatius:

18 March 2020 – Marjorie Van Rensburg
13 June 2020 – Yvonne Beckam

13 November 2020 – Edmund Peter Nasson

12 January 2021 – Christopher Shelmerdine
25 March 2021 – Colin Burgess
13 October 2021 – Michael Pienaar

St Bernard:
4 March 2020 – Henry Hugo
5 May 2020 – Stephanie Poezyn
May 2020 – Maurizio Allugrecia
19 June 2020 – Cecil Bradley
20 July 2020 – Paul Dobson
8 August 2020 – Jacqueline Petersen
9 August 2020 – John Kellett
21 November 2020 – Patrick Moore

15 February 2021 – Sandra Nel
18 February 2021 – Theresa Naidoo
2 March 2021 – Eve Griesson
13 May 2021 – Brian Louw
24 July 2021 – Antoinette Esterhuizen
28 July 2021 – John O’Hagan
8 August 2021 – Antonio Marchesini
6 September 2021 – Brian Joyce
16 September 2021 – Yvonne Visser
18 October 2021 – Luigi (Gino) Tarantello

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