Welcome to Saint Edmund's, Horndean

First of all, may I wish you all a Happy and Holy Easter! I also write this note after the death of Pope Francis. A Pope who has indeed guided the Church. He has helped us to be more conscious of the mercy and forgiveness of God and the im-portance of the Church becoming more synodal, listening more attentively to the Holy Spirit and the voices of all especially, those on the margins of our society. May

he rest in peace.

Being more synodal has been one the chief aims of our clergy and the pastoral area council in response to Bishop Philip’s request to bring all our church, school and hospital communities into one large Parish.

An article on our Pastoral Area website highlights this journey so far if you are not up to speed in everything that has been going on in the last three years.

www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/parish/havant-pastoral-area/

I am writing to you today to share with you 2 important events taking place:

1) The choosing of the name for our New Parish

2) A One Parish Pentecost Mass at Oaklands School at 3pm on Sunday 8th June.

At our recent Synodal Day in February over 100 from our communities reflected on four possible names for our new parish. These had been suggested by the clergy. These were: Holy Name of Jesus, Jesus, the living water, Prince of Peace and Holy Paraclete. The Bishop has asked us to choose a name which is a title of Jesus aligned with our diocesan mission of bringing people to Jesus Christ through His Church.

After the discussions that followed and wider consultation, two names were with-drawn and Jesus, the Good Shepherd was added as several participants felt this would be another option to consider. Some further names were suggested but these were also declined as they had been chosen by other pastoral areas already. So, the three names for our Parish that we are reflecting and praying about are these:

The Holy Name of Jesus, Jesus, the Good Shepherd and Jesus, Prince of Peace.

These names are shared with each of our church, school and hospital communities within our pastoral area and each person is able to choose one of these that they think would be best. This can be done in ballot boxes at the communities or by using the link provided here: https://forms.office.com/r/pe5KmJJrBa     

Please only vote once.

One can submit choices up to Sunday 18th May. These will then be collated and sent to Bishop Philip to assist him in making the ultimate decision. The new name of our Parish will be announced at Pentecost when we come together as one new Parish Community at Oaklands School at 3pm on Sunday 8th June. Please save this date in your diary now and do come along if you can. There will be afternoon tea following the Mass. Further details will follow.

Frs Jeremy, Gerard and Andrew have shared their reflections on these names which I encourage you to read and bring to prayer.

May God bless you and our New Parish!

A reflection from Mgr Canon Jeremy Garratt on The Holy Name of Jesus

As a child I was taught to bow my head at every mention of the name of Jesus and to this day I still do so automatically at the name of Jesus. I believe not only that it is a gesture of reverence to Our Lord, but also because of the power of the Holy Name. Jesus tells his disciples:

I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in

my name. (John 16:23)

The seventy-two disciples return from their mission rejoicing. "Lord," they said, "even the devils submit to us when we use your name.”’ (Luke 10:17) And Peter invokes the name of Jesus to cure a crippled man. He tells those who question him, “that it was by the name of Jesus ...by this name and by no other that this man is able to stand up perfectly healthy...For there is no other name in all the world given to men by which we can be saved.” (Acts 4:10).

Many saints have recognised the power of the Holy Name. Saint Bernardine had a great devotion to it. In his home town of Siena over nearly every doorway you will see the famous Christogram - IHS, the three first letters of the name Jesus in Greek capitals, to protect those who live there and remind them of Jesus’ self-sacrificing love.

St Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuits and used the Christogram for his coat if arms. He encouraged his followers to meditate on the name of Jesus and to invoke it in times of temptation and difficulty. The Holy Name of Jesus has also inspired many other saints and holy people including St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St Alphonsus Liguori and Blessed Henry Suso who carved the Christogram on his chest with a penknife!

I feel there could be no better honour or title for our Parish because there is ‘no other name in all the world by which we can be saved’, and it fits so well with our diocesan motto ‘Bringing People to Jesus Christ through the Church’. Moreover, it would be a wonderful tribute to the late Pope Francis who, as a Jesuit, included the Holy Name in his coat of arms.

A reflection from Canon Gerard Flynn on Jesus, The Good Shepherd

At his mother’s knee Jesus learnt a psalm which many Christians know by heart.

The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want.

He will have seen it made real, day in, day out, in the countryside around him. Jesus knew the work of shepherds intimately. He would have recognised all the references in the psalm.

He makes me down to lie in pastures green;

Jesus saw how carefully shepherds sought out rare grassland and vegetation amongst the desert and the scrub.

He saw how carefully shepherds took their sheep to drink, not in rushing, bubbling mountain streams. That would have disturbed their peace. Shepherds led their flocks by the quiet waters, the still pools and gentle brooks.

There they could drink in tranquility. Jesus saw death’s dark vale;

it was a deep chasm between two valleys, hidden from the light.  A single narrow path hung above a precipitous drop. He knew the tradition of the shepherds. They led their sheep one way along the path in the morning and the other in the evening. Never need two flocks clash for space or the right of way.

Jesus knew what it meant to speak of making me walk within the paths of righteousness. He saw the rod keeping sheep on the right path, the staff hoicking out of ditches errant ones who fell from the true way. Jeus saw, at the end of a day, good shepherds checking their sheep for scratches or fractures from thorns and brambles. He saw their tenderness, anointing their flock with oil and ointment, healing any wounds and hurts.

Jesus took to himself the name of the Good Shepherd. He knew the same deepest stirring of compassion for a lost sheep that impelled the pastor to leave everything so as to save the one most in peril. Jesus learnt about shepherding as a boy. As a man He found it right to call Himself the Good Shepherd. He knew in His heart, as we know too, that he was no hired man, likely to abandon the flock in any crisis. He was ready to lay down his life for his flock.

A reflection from Fr Andrew Wagstaffe on Jesus, Prince of Peace

Around Christmas each year we read in one of the best known and best loved Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament that “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ... and his name will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

On the first Christmas Day, angels appeared to shepherds watching their sheep on Bethlehem Down and praised God in words which are familiar to us from Sunday Mass: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.” (Luke 2:14)

At his very birth, Jesus was already bringing peace into the world. Mary’s baby inspired in her a deep contemplation, the capacity to assimilate and process the miraculous events in which she was taking part (Luke 2:19). Jesus fulfilled humanity’s longing for peace in his ministry of saving, healing and preaching. He may have been angry

and grieved at the hardness of heart of the pharisees who gathered in the synagogue to catch him out healing on the Sabbath, but he channelled his anger and grief into bringing about a greater peace when he restored the man to wholeness (Mark 3:1-6). When the terrified disciples woke him in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, he silenced the storm with “Peace! Be still!”. In the Beatitudes, Jesus blesses the peace-makers, “for they shall be called children of God.”

Jesus’ outlook was one of radical non-violence: “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Above all, Jesus’ self-offering on the Cross is the paradigmatic act of peace and peace-making. In words that have entered the Liturgy, Jesus consoled his disciples at the Last Supper, saying: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

Jesus offered no resistance to his captors in the Garden of Gethsemane; he gave his back to those who struck him, and his cheeks to those who pulled out the beard (Isaiah 50:6), and was silent before his accusers, “as a lamb that is led to the slaughter.”

In the Resurrection, the wounds of crucifixion are transfigured into the source of peace and joy for the disciples, as Jesus appears to them, announcing “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). The Paschal Mystery is a great act of peace-making: St. Paul describes Christ “reconciling us both to God in one body through the cross” for “He is our peace.” (Ephesians 2:14-18). “The kingdom of God is justice and peace, and joy in the holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) By dedicating our new parish to the Prince of Peace, we would be making a programmatic statement of our com-

mitment to the peace of Christ and his Gospel of Reconciliation.