Thoughts from our chaplain - The healing touch!

It was good to have with us last weekend Colin and two core members of the L’Arche communities. It must have been providential that the next day (Monday) the reflection in Magnificat was by Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche!

He has a marvelous piece there about eight-year-old Amando, who can’t walk or talk and is very small for his age. He had been abandoned by his mother, landed up in an orphanage, but there he refused to eat because he didn’t want to live any longer. At L’Arche he met people who held him, loved him and wanted him to live. Gradually he began to eat again and to develop in a remarkable way. “He still cannot walk or talk or eat by himself, his body is twisted and broken, and he has a severe mental disability, but when you pick him up, his eyes and his whole body quiver with joy and excitement and say: ‘I love you’. He has a deep therapeutic influence on people.” It reminds us of the words in St Mark’s gospel: “And all those who touched him were cured”.  

Jesus now relies on us to reach out with a healing touch. Or in the words of Jean Vanier:  “What many people do not always know is that they have a well deep inside of them. If that well is tapped, springs of life and of tenderness flow forth.” May we often have recourse to that well.  

Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm.

(c) Photo Johan Bergström-Allen

New Easter cards 2014

Why not send an Easter card or novena from the National Shrine of Saint Jude to your friends and family? We have a great Easter card package on offer.

Each package includes FOUR brand new designs. There are two novena cards and three Easter cards + three extra Easter cards for ONLY £6.00. Each card is included with an envelope. 

All proceeds go towards the Shrine and the work of the Carmelites in Britain and worldwide. These can be purchased via:http://tinyurl.com/q2gqe2m

Photos and designs by Matt Betts

Summer Celebration - 31 May 2014

On another VERY wet and windy day, we would like to bring a little sunshine into your world by inviting you to our summer event on 31 May 2014! 

The Carmelites are inviting pilgrims to visit the Shrine and enjoy the summer air. A number of activities will take place including an outside Mass, a Saint Jude procession, a chance to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, meet some friars, purchase items from the Shrine Shop, an opportunity to light a candle, and finally, an opportunity to pray and leave intentions at the Shrine of Saint Jude. The summer is always very beautiful at the Shrine, and it will be lovely to see visitors on what we hope will be a beautiful and warm day. 

Timetable

11.00: Devotions with Anointing

12.00 – 13.00: Picnic on the grounds (bring your own food) & opportunity for Sacrament of Reconciliation.

13.30: Open Air Mass, followed by Saint Jude procession and prayers

15.00: Brown scapular

However, we understand that some pilgrims will not be able to attend, so we are offering the opportunity to have a candle lit for your intentions. If you would like to do this, please purchase via our online shop. 

More information and news can be found on the Carmelite website. 

Message from Fr Piet Wijngaard, Chaplain to the Shrine

Fr Piet, our chaplain, is not very well.  Fr Piet is someone who gives of himself with amazing generosity and he is gifted in so many practical ways – we have never discovered the secret of his energy – it must be a special grace.

"This afternoon (04/02/14) I heard at long last the results of the various tests I have had since I landed up in hospital on 27th November with a blockage in my oesophagus. The bad news is that I have a malignant tumour on my right lung, but the good news is that it doesn’t seem to have spread. I have an appointment with an oncologist this Friday and the problem with the swallowing will be addressed soon too. The whole situation makes me think of a lady at home in Holland.

Her name is Truus. She was happily married, was a real bubbly young woman with five sons. One Saturday afternoon her husband, Henk, was watching a couple of their boys playing soccer. It was a very exciting match and he died there and then of a massive heart attack. A long time later Truus told me that she had been pretty miserable and had been going around for a couple of years with only one question in her head “Why me?” until one morning she woke up and found herself asking “Why not me?”. It changed her life in an instant and she became once again the cheerful mum she had been before. 

Now I can really share her sentiments. Millions of people have cancer and after all two of my own sisters died of it and therefore “Why not me?”. Many thanks for your great support and many prayers.     

Piet Wijngaard, O.Carm.   "

(c) Photo Johan Bergström-Allen / www.carmelite.org

The Giving Machine

Thank you to all those who supported us through The Giving Machine over the Christmas period. We really appreciate all your help in supporting the National Shrine of St Jude and the Order of Carmelites.

If you purchase items from the internet, you could help the Shrine of St Jude and the Order of Carmelites. All you need to do is sign up to the Giving Machine via our special page:http://tinyurl.com/oqxrjxk and add the National Shrine of Saint Jude as one of your beneficiaries. Or, alternatively, please send us an email to developmentmanager@stjudeshrine.org.uk, and we'll do it for you.

Afterwards, you can shop via The Giving Machine at any of the 400+ top online shops who have teamed up with The Giving Machine.

Thank you,
Fr Wilfrid McGreal, O.Carm

Carmelite News - Winter 2013

Carmelite News has now been sent out to all those who have subscribed to our online version. 

If you would like to receive an emailed copy ONE WEEK early, please let us know below or via Newsletter@stjudeshrine.org.uk or visit us here.

The printed copy will be with all our supporters in the next week.

Saint Jude Goes Down A Storm

From Carmelite News

For centuries Saint Jude Thaddeus was the most obscure of the Apostles appointed by Jesus, overlooked in popular Christian devotion possibly because of the similarity of his name to that of Judas Iscariot. From the 15th-century onwards, however, he began to be invoked in the Church as patron saint of "difficult cases" with a particular care for those who had been marginalised and overlooked.

It therefore seemed appropriate that on his feast day this year, 28th October 2013, Saint Jude got nationwide media coverage, his name being applied by Britain's Meteorological Office to the worst storm to have hit the country in decades.

Since 28th October fell on a Monday this year, most pilgrims came to the National Shrine of Saint Jude the weekend immediately before, thus avoiding the worst of the storm which hit southern England - including the Kent town of Faversham where the Shrine is located - on Sunday night, with wind speeds reaching up to 99 miles per hour.

More on the Feast weekend from Carmelite News.