This weekend is one of those times when I feel like a doctor writing out a prescription because this weekend is First Holy Communion time! Hopefully the mass in each parish will be a wonderful celebration but already I am more concerned about the children's' second, third and fourth communion. In the newsletter I even put down the number 3,796 because going once a week from the age of seven or eight with an average life span is about the number of times someone would receive Holy Communion in a lifetime.

At the same time, in reality, it will depend over the next few years on the attitude of the parents and this is where I feel like a doctor. We prescribe Holy Communion as something that we should receive once a week for the rest of our lives. And just like a doctor we know that some people will take this prescription, stick to it, and as a result their life will have their faith at the centre of it. Others will take it once and then very irregularly from then on.

Often this is at funerals and so faith is seen as important only in the face of death but if that is the case then it doesn't make sense in the same way as when faith is a regular part of who we are. This weekend I feel sorry for doctors who prescribe a course of tablets that they know will help the patient only to be told that they don't work by the patient who only takes some of them or one and then no more. At the same time I remain full of hope that people will stay the course, and that I will too!

Father Chris records his weekly homily so as to make them available to anyone within the parish and beyond who is unable to attend Mass.

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1. Father Chris' Homily:
   - 21/06/2009 (.mp3)

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