DIOCESE OF PAISLEY

BISHOP JOHN KEENAN

DIOCESE OF PAISLEY

Cathedral Precincts
Incle Street | Paisley | PA1 1HR
Scottish Charity Number SC013514

JUBILEE 25 marks 25 years since the great Jubilee of 2000 with Pope Saint John Paul II and 10 years since the extraordinary 2015 Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis. The Holy Father will lead his second Jubilee, giving it the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” beginning just before Christmas Day 2024 and ending on the Solemnity of the Epiphany in 2026. Hopefully and prayerfully this will inspire Catholics and even those from other faith traditions to make plans to visit the Eternal City during the Holy Year. 

The motto Pope Francis chose for the Jubilee 2025 is “Pilgrims of hope.” The virtue of hope illuminates the pilgrimage of life, revealing all of us as companions on the journey.  It is not a solitary wandering.  It is a journey of confident and joyful people moving towards a new destination.  The breath of the Spirit of life does not fail to brighten the dawn of the future that is about to break.  The Heavenly Father tenderly and patiently observes the pilgrimage of His sons and daughters and opens wide the Way for them, pointing to Jesus who makes himself the way for all to walk through.

The logo for Jubilee 2025 features four stylized figures that symbolize humanity from all four corners of the earth.  Each of them is embracing the other, as a sign of the solidarity and fraternity that must unite all people.  The first figure is clinging to the cross as a sign of the faith it embraces.   It is also a sign of the hope in Christ that can never be abandoned.  The waves below are agitated indicating that the pilgrimage of life is not always a journey through calm waters.  The lower part of the Cross is extended turning into an anchor which asserts itself on the motion of the waves.  The connection of the embracing four figures indicates that the journey of the pilgrim is not a solitary or individual affair but a collective one that leads ever more toward the Cross.

What do you get if you make a pilgrimage to Rome and walk through the Holy Door? A plenary indulgence! (Part 1) That is the remission of temporal punishment for sins forgiven in confession as long as you receive the Eucharist, Confession, pray for the intention of the pope, and perform an act of mercy.  Pope Francis said, “The Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope.”  The doors of any Church mark the boundary between the sacred and the profane. By throwing them open Pope Francis is emphasizing his desire to throw open to the doors of the faith to the world.  In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

An indulgence (Part 2) is the concrete manifestation of God’s mercy, which transcends the boundaries of the human understanding of justice and transforms them.  The treasure of grace became history in the lives of Jesus and the saints.  By looking to these examples and living in communion with them, our hope for forgiveness and for our journey of holiness is reinforced and becomes a certainty.

President: 
Archbishop William Nolan 
 

For more information about issues of social justice, and to keep up to date with current campaigns, follow Justice & Peace Scotland on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or check out the website,
                  www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk  

If you wish to be more involved in the work of justice and peace, email:   [email protected]

The staff will be willing to help you in any way they can. At the moment the office is closed and staff are working from home, Monday to Wednesday. 

Justice & Peace Scotland
65 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 2BX
Phone 0141 333 0238
 

For more information, visit:

COMMUNITY COUNCIL WEBSITE

Join us in St Mirin’s Cathedral or online from 8am for Mass, Adoration, Rosary, Scriptural Meditation and Simple Benediction. Holy Mass will be celebrated at 10am followed by the opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

STREAM LINK: https://www.rcdop.org.uk/events/first-saturday-fatima-devotions 
 

The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has confirmed the approval by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland for the new Lectionary. The Lectionary, which includes the scripture readings for Mass and the sacraments, will come into use in Catholic parishes in Scotland from Advent 2024, the beginning of the Holy Year. The English Standard Version Catholic Edition (ESVCE) will be used to ensure that ‘the treasures of the Bible can be opened up more lavishly for the faithful at the table of God’s word.’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium 51).

“His teaching made a deep impression
on them because He taught them
with authority.”

Is the Lord asking you to share in his pastoral love for his people, perhaps in diocesan priesthood, diaconate or religious life? 

For more information - contact
Fr. John Morrison
on 0141 889 5056
or email [email protected]

Priest                                                             For most men who apply to become priests the attraction to ordained ministry has been with them for some time. Perhaps they have been slow to reveal this thought to anyone else and have mulled it over quietly in their own mind.                                                          

Deacon                                            The Permanent Deacon's ministry includes a specific role of preaching and teaching, a degree of leadership in the organisation and oversight of specific activities, especially of charity in the Church, and in the liturgical role assigned to him by Canon Law. 
 
Religious Life                                  People entering religious life today have the same basic motivation as the hundreds of thousands of religious men and women who have lived this life throughout the history of the Church. Religious life has undergone great changes but the call remains the same:
to follow Christ as closely as possible.                                                                     

We pray for Fr. Joe McGill, who was ordained a Priest in our Diocese by Bishop John on 6th July 2021.

We pray for Fr. Ryan Black, who was ordained a Priest in our Diocese by Bishop John on on 15th August 2020.  

Please remember Fr. Ryan and Fr. Joe in your prayers and all the priests of our Diocese. Pray also for an increase in vocations in Paisley Diocese.

Remember in your prayers,
all our seminarians.

Serran Prayer for Vocations

O God, Who wills not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live, grant we beseech You
through the intercession of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin Saint Joseph, her spouse and all the saints an increase of labourers for Your Church,
fellow labourers with Christ to spend and consume themselves for souls
through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son
who lives and reigns with You,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God forever and ever.   Amen.

 

Prayer For The Perseverance
Of Vocations

O God, You have constituted Your only-begotten Son supreme and eternal Priest
for the glory of Your Majesty and the salvation of mankind: grant that those whom He has chosen ministers and dispensers of His mysteries may be found faithful in fulfilling the ministry they have received.
 

Our Lady Queen of Vocations, Pray for us!

 

A NEW CHAPTER

As it moves towards a new future in the city centre of Rome, the Pontifical Scots College is getting ready to conclude seminary formation on the Via Cassia, outside of the city centre, where it has been since 1964.

The Pontifical Beda College, situated near the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls and with much better transport links to the centre of Rome, has kindly offered to house the Scots seminarians while the search for a new College is ongoing since no suitable building has yet been found for the College. For the forthcoming academic year, seminary formation will take place there.

Please pray for the Scottish seminarians as they look for a new place to call home.

Farewell Mass on Saturday, May 20 2023            This will be a celebration of all that has been achieved over almost 60 years of seminary formation on the Via Cassia.

Diocesan phase: consultation and participation of the People of God

To ensure all Catholics have an opportunity to share and to listen as part of the initial process leading up to the Synod of Bishops in 2023, the Vatican has extended the local phase by more than three months.

Continental phase: dialogue and discernment

This is scheduled to take place from September 2022 to March 2023. Each continental grouping will draft a final document, which they will send to the General Secretariat in March 2023.

The Secretariat will then draft a second Instrumentum laboris, based on the responses. Publication is planned for June 2023.

Universal phase: the bishops of the world in Rome

The synodal journey will culminate in October 2023 with the celebration of the Assembly of Bishops in Rome, according to the renewed procedures established in 2018 by Pope Francis in the Constitution
 

Pope Francis extends Synod on Synodality’s Roman phase to two sessions in Oct. 2023 and 2024.

The third and final phase was originally scheduled to be held in the Vatican in Oct. 2023 only.  However, Pope Francis has decided to celebrate this final Roman phase in two sessions given the importance of the subject under discussion for the future of the Catholic church.

PRAYER FOR THE SYNOD

We stand before You, Holy Spirit, as we gather together in Your name.
With You alone to guide us, make Yourself at home in our hearts;
Teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find in You our unity so that we may journey together to eternal life and not stray from the way of truth and what is right.
All this we ask of You, who are at work in every place and time, in the communion of the Father and the Son, forever and ever.
Amen.