The call to holiness doesn’t mean being “weird and fanatical”, but giving “a quieter witness to our faith in the circle of our own family and friends” in our everyday lives, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury told young people last week.
Bishop Davies was preaching on the final day of Youth 2000, an annual five-day prayer festival at the Marian shrine at Walsingham.
He told Catholics aged 16 to 35: “We are never meant to stay in a field, to remain permanently at a prayer festival. We are now called to return to wherever our lives are lived.” He said that the “world needs the witness of your youth”.
One lesson that young people could draw from the 2016 Olympics was to “be inspired” to be more than “armchair” observers, he said. A Catholic should instead strive be a “real participant in a mission much greater than Olympic gold”.
Bishop Davies encouraged them to seek grace in their struggle for holiness by regularly going to Confession and adoring and receiving Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, and he urged them to become better acquainted with the Gospel.
“The ancient world was first converted, not so much by the preaching of bishops, but by the daily witness of Christians in every walk of life who wanted to quietly share their faith often in quiet ways with those around them.”
He said that “most often we are called to give a quieter witness to our faith in the circle of our own family and friends, in our work and our parish – the place where we can each have an influence. It’s an influence that flows from aiming, like the Olympic athletes, to be the best we can be.”
Thriving school to prioritise Catholics for the first time
St Ninian’s Catholic secondary in East Renfrewshire may limit its admissions by prioritising Catholic pupils for the first time.
Catholic schools in Scotland do not usually give priority to pupils from Catholic families as they are largely administered by local councils.
St Ninian’s, south west of Glasgow, has become increasingly popular among non-Catholic parents prompting a consultation on changing its admissions process.
Fr Michael McMahon, director of education for Paisley diocese, said in the past Catholic schools were viewed with suspicion, but this had changed. “From being despised, Catholics now have very successful schools that are over-subscribed,” he said.
East Renfrewshire council’s director of education, Mhairi Shaw, said: “Over recent years the number of East Renfrewshire families choosing a Catholic education for their children has increased by around one fifth and many of these schools are in fact either at or approaching full capacity.”
She added: “It is essential that we either create more capacity for Catholic education or change admissions arrangements.”
Refugee boat cross visits cathedral
A “lampedusa cross”, hand-carved by an Italian carpenter from the driftwood of capsized refugee boats, is being displayed in St Mary’s Cathedral in Middlesbrough for the next three weeks to show solidarity with refugees. It will then be taken on a tour of the diocese.
The cross was due to be presented to the cathedral by Cafod, the bishops’ overseas aid agency, at a Mass yesterday.
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