Monday 28 July 2008

Richard’s First Anniversary.

Today is the first anniversary of Fr. Richard passing on to a new life - May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

My thanks go to Marianne (from Mulhouse) for reminding us of the powerful words that Richard often used at weddings, which took on a new meaning a year ago today.


Because you belong to Christ
You are akin to me
One in the bonds unbreakable
Wrought for eternity
Spirit with spirit joined
Who can the ties undo
Binding the Christ within my heart
Unto the Christ in you.


Where ever Richard landed he would be surrounded by an informal lay community. As Richard moved from apostolate to apostolate these lay communities overlapped and then spread throughout the world. It was one of Richard’s heartfelt wishes that there would one day be a formal Salvatorian lay community to share this sense of community, but formed in Salvatorian spiritually. We can be sure that Richard will be pleased to see that a Salvatorian lay community is now in formation in the capable hands of Father Alex McAllister SDS. You will be able to find out more from http://gb.sds.org/LaySDS/index.htm


My thanks to Stephen Evans for the visual memory below of one of Richard’s informal lay communities at the top of Tryfan (Snowdonia) in the late 70’s. Can you spot Richard?


Sunday 29 June 2008

The Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul

The Mass intention at our parish Mass this morning was to pray for vocations. On the altar was David a parishioner who has just completed his first year at the Diocese of Westminster seminary. He is about to go on a placement to a church named after the twin pillars of the church, St. Peter and St. Paul. Coincidentally, it is their feast that we celebrated today.

It was on this great liturgical feast day 47 years ago that Fr Richard RIP and others were ordained as Salvatorian Priests. In the year before and after Fr Richard completed his Priestly ministry, the Salvatorians have had to bid a fond farewell to many other of Fr. Richards contemporaries. The call to pray for vocations is a reminder of how lucky many of us were to fall under the mantle of the Salvatorians.



The photograph shown here is of Fr Richard in his first apostolate as a teacher, taken in the old laboratory at Christleton (Aug 1961). Many of the recipients of the lessons delivered by the Salvatorians would share the vocation to the Priesthood with three becoming Bishops. Our thanks for the photograph go to Trevor Green one the students at Christleton. Looks like they learnt more than the legendary dissection of frogs!
Liam