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Copyright. Do not reproduce without permission. © Redemptorist Pastoral Publications, P O Box 341, Merrivale, 3291. Phone 087 808 2369. Fax 086 545 4381. Email: janet@rpp.org.za. Internet: www.rpp.org.za. Printed by Paarl Media.

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SUNDAY MASSENTRANCE ANTIPHON:To you, I lift up my soul, O my God. In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame. Nor let my enemies exult over me; and let none who hope in you be put to shame.FIRST READING: Isaiah 63:16-17; 64:1, 3-8.RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Psalm 80.RESPONSE:O God, bring us back; let your face shine on us, and we shall be saved.1. O shepherd of Israel, hear us, enthroned on the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse up your might and come to save us. ℟2. God of hosts, turn again, we implore; look down from heaven and see. Visit this vine and protect it, the vine your right hand has planted. ℟3. May your hand be on the man at your right

hand, the son of man you have confi rmed as your

own. And we shall never forsake you again, give us life that we may call upon your name. ℟SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9.GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:Alleluia, alleluia! Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation. Alleluia.GOSPEL: Mark 13:33-37.COMMUNION ANTIPHON:The Lord will bestow his bounty, and our earth shall yield its increase.

A n u n u s u a l a n d innovative, colour ful b o o k i n t r o d u c i n g young ch i l d ren to the Euchar is t . Th is new edition contains the revised texts of the liturgy and is an ideal companion for children. The wipe-clean sur face means that they can ‘use’ the book each week afresh.

To order email orders@rpp.org.za, OR on our website www.rpp.org.za

TODAY WE begin the season of Advent. For many people Advent means end of year parties, buying presents for friends and

family, preparing food and drink for a Christmas like no other.

For Christians, of course, Advent is an important liturgical season. It is a time of religious preparation for the commemoration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas. But Advent has a deeper significance: it is also a time of spiritual preparation for the final coming of Christ in glory. Advent looks back to an event which has left an indelible footprint in history – the birth of the Messiah, God-with-us. It also looks forward to the “Last Things” and to the “End Times” in which the full glory of Christ as Son of God will be revealed.

In the Catholic Link this Advent we will pause over the classical “Four Last Things” as a small element in our prayerful preparation for Christmas 2017.

There are two (at least) undeniable facts about death: every living being dies and we all try to interpret death. Although there is a popular denial of death in the sense of refusing to face up to death, none of us escapes the reality of death. Yet we all try to deal with it in one way or another. Some refuse to give death any significance whatever; others have the humility to pause before the mystery of life and death – and to ask why?

For the Christian of course the key to death is the death of Jesus. In the Book of Revelation we read, “Do not be afraid, it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death...” (1:17,18). Jesus tasted death for everyone; the Father did not save Jesus from death but glorified him in his death.

“Dying he destroyed our death”: the death of Jesus has drawn the sting out of death so that it now becomes for us a gift drawing us into the fullness of life in God. “Rising he restored our life”: through death we are introduced to a totally new kind of life, for which we cannot have any adequate description this side of death.

This pattern of entering into the dying and rising of Jesus marks all Christian lives from their very baptism; hence all Christian lives are marked by hope. We are made for that new kind of existence we call “Resurrection Life” and throughout our daily lives, little by little, we hand ourselves over to that New Life. Death is the final and enduring self-surrender to the love that brought us into existence in the first place.

Christmas is therefore both a celebration of the birth in the flesh of our Messiah and also an anticipation of our definitive birth into God through our death.

The Life and

Death

of Advent

Live the Word T H E W E E K A H E A D

(KEY: SOLEMNITY; FEAST; Memorial; (Optional Memorial)Pr=Priest; D=Doctor; B=Bishop

Mon 4 Dec (St John Damascene, PrDIsaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Matthew 8:5-11Out of a desire to grow closer to God many think that they have to earn their way into God’s heart. That they need to be worthy. Yet it is only when we open our lives to God’s free gift of grace that God enters our lives.

Sun 10 Dec 2ND SUNDAY OF ADVENTIsaiah 40:1-5.9-11; Psalm 85; Mark 1:1-8Optimism can be learned, and will lead to a happier, healthier life. Believe in the midst of great pain that you can see God’s good gifts all around you and you shall indeed see them. Look for good in all places.

Sat 9 Dec (St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin) Isaiah 30:19-21.23-26; Psalm 147; Matt. 9:35–10:1.5-8All cultures seem to reach for the heights: temples on hills; monasteries on mountains; towers stretch-ing to the sky. We look up, we reach, we lift our eyes. We yearn for God, waiting beyond us in love.

Fri 8 Dec IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONGenesis 3:9-15.20; Psalm 98; Luke 1:26-38Humans do not get to choose their parents, but God was able to choose the mother of Jesus. And God picked the very best. Today let us reflect true sanctity in our own lives in the warmth and love we show to others.

Thu 7 Dec St Ambrose, BDIsaiah 26:1-6; Psalm 118; Matthew 7:21.24-27Nothing is made to last a lifetime. Things wear out and come to an end. Fortunately for us, this is not the case with God’s mercy. The psalmist reminds us today that God’s compassionate care surrounds us forever.

Wed 6 Dec (St Nicholas, B)Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 23; Matthew 15:29-37Many of us don’t offer our gifts and abilities to God be-cause we have convinced ourselves that whatever little we have is just not good enough. Yet, Jesus chose the little gift that someone had to offer. That’s the miracle.

Tue 5 Dec Liturgy of the Day Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72; Luke 10:21-24Isaiah calls us to live in genuine hope: to act out an unshakable conviction that sin and death will not have the final word, that an altenative worldview grounded in compassion, welcome and acceptance is possble.

HOLY REDEEMER PARISH

Parish Priest: Fr Gerard McCabe C.Ss.R � parishpriest@holyredeemer.co.za

Assistants: Fr Scott Davidson C.Ss.R and Fr Charles Mulenga C.Ss.R

2 / 3 December 2017 ~ FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

PAGE: 436 in New Sunday Missal. Year B. THEME: The Vigilant Wait

WEEKEND SUNDAY MASS TIMES :

SATURDAY: 6.00pm

SUNDAY: 7.00am, 9.00am, 11.00am and 6.00pm

FRENCH MASS: SUNDAYS: 1.30pm

DAILY MASS TIMES:

MON to FRI: 6.15am (or Communion Service)

MON to SAT: 8.30am

MORNING PRAYER: MON to FRI at 8.00am

ROSARY: WEDNESDAY after 8.30am Mass

CONFESSION TIMES:

THURSDAY: 7.00 to 7.30pm

SATURDAY: 9.00 to 10.00am & 5.00 to 5.55pm

ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT:

MONDAY to FRIDAY: 9.00am to 9.00pm

except THURSDAY: 9.00am to 7.30pm

NOVENA & BENEDICTION:

TO OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

THURSDAY: 7.30pm

NORMAL WORSHIP TIMES

CONTACTS

Bergvliet Road, Bergvliet, 7945

021 712-2210 or712-1181

021 712-4271

9.00am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday

parish@holyredeemer.co.za

www.holyredeemer.co.za

ricardo1duncan@gmail.com

Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Bergvliet

Catholic Counselling

Network

Need somewhere to talk that is safe, where there is total confidentiality and where you will not be judged?

Contact one of our trained counsellors

Cynthia Wiese: 021 794-1601

Annette Milner: 021 715-8177

St. Vincent de Paul Society assists the areas poor.

If you need help / assistance / a visit contact the SVDP pres-ident on 083 450-5479. The matter will be dealt with in confidence.

WEEKLY DIARY MASS INTENTIONS

Dec 4 Mon 6.15am Private Intention 8.30am Private Intention

Dec 5 Tues

Care & craft after 8.30 Mass Edna Cottle room SVP 6.30pm Room 2 RCIA 7.30pm Edna Cottle room Charismatic Praise & Worship 7.45pm Room 1

6.15am Private Intention 8.30am Fred Hickey - Rip

Dec 6 Wed Rosary after 8.30am Mass 6.15am Private Intention 8.30am For South Africa Good Governance &

Peace

Dec 7 Thurs Novena 7.30pm in the Church Badminton after Novena Parish centre

6.15am Private Intention 8.30am Special Intention

Dec 8 Fri 6.15am Ida Smith - Rip 8.30am Edward Jordan & Anthony Benjamin - Rip

Dec 9 Sat. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF OUR LADY Legion of Mary 9.15am Room 2

8.30am Private Intention 6.00pm Private Intention

Dec 10 Sun SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT Theme: Conversion and New World PAGE: 440 in New Sunday Missal. Year B

7.00am Mortuary List 9.00am Yvonne Franks - Rip 11.00am Tania Van Binst - Birthday 6.00pm Parishioners

St Andrew’s Prayer

O Glorious Saint Andrew,

you were the first to recognize and follow

the Lamb of God.

With your friend Saint John you remained with Jesus

for that first day,

for your entire life,

and now throughout eternity.

As you led your brother Saint Peter to Christ

and many others after him,

draw us also to Him.

Teach us to lead others to Christ solely out of love

for Him and dedication in His service.

Help us to learn the lesson of the Cross

and to carry our daily crosses without complaint

so that they may carry us to Jesus.

(A WORD FROM YOUR PARISH PRIEST— CONTINUED)

their deeper question or the question they should have asked.

And here it is the same. The ‘key’ is the word, ‘stay.’ Sometimes our translations have abide, remain or stay. But in the original Greek of John’s Gospel, it is always the same word. It is one of John’s motifs, like light and darkness. For example, ‘If you remain (abide, stay) in me and I remain in you ... ’ Start looking and you will find it all over John’s Gospel.

The next line opens it up further: ‘ ... and they remained (same word) with him the rest of that day.’ Andrew and his companion did remain with Jesus the ‘rest of that day’, the ‘day’ that was their lives. They followed Jesus from then on.

And in the other places we meet Andrew in the Gospels, he is always bringing more peo-ple to Jesus ... his brother [Jn 1:40-42], the little boy with the fives loaves and two fish [Jn 6:8], some Greeks [Jn 12:20-22]. He spreads his joy at hearing and finding Jesus to others.

We are looking forward to Christ’s coming at the end of time, to his coming as a child in Bethlehem. The Medieval theologians taught, the Second Coming of Christ was actually in the Spirit at Pentecost so that Christ is still present among us until the end of time within our hearts. He abides in us truly.

He stayed with Andrew: ‘If anyone loves me ... my Father and I will come to them and make our home [abode] in them.’ This is the indwelling presence of God through the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And then, like Andrew, our lives will be attractive enough to draw others to Christ.

How like Andrew are we? Do we lead others to Christ? Do we put Christ first?

Fr Scott, CSsR

A WORD FROM YOUR PARISH PRIEST

Thinking our Way into Advent

Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. The secular world starts celebrating Christmas earlier and earlier. Christmas specials start appearing as early as September in some shops and Black Friday is seen as being the first of the Christmas sales.

For us, however, Advent is not just impatient waiting for Christmas to get here, in the same way as childhood isn’t wasted time until we become ‘real’ people as adults.

There are two distinct halves of Advent and two aspects to our spiritual approach to Advent. The first half of Advent, until the 16th December concentrates on the Final Coming of Christ at the end of time. Even our hymns look at the end of all things. We don’t start anticipating the first coming of Christ at Bethlehem. Then from the 17th December onwards, we start preparing our hearts to celebrate the coming of the Christ-child in Bethlehem. We hope that this year, at least, even though there was no room in the inn, there may be room in each of our hearts for Jesus to be born in them anew.

So there is waiting, anticipation. But that anticipation is tinged with awareness of our unreadiness. Much as we look forward to the coming of Christ at the end of time, most of us, if we’re honest, know that we’d rather have a little time to tidy our hearts and our lives to make them ready for Christ’s inspection! And certainly, a few dusty corners may need a bit of sweeping if Christ is to be born in our hearts anew this Christmas.

That is why Advent is a quiet anticipation, hence purple vestments rather than joyful colours just yet. It is an acknowledgement of the truth of our human nature. We trust and hope in God’s love but we do not presume upon that love.

The purple of Advent is, strictly speaking, a different purple to Lent: in Advent we use a bluey-purple, in Lent a reddish-purple — blue for birth and red to remember the passion.

So perhaps it is a good time to begin to reflect on the quality of our response to Christ.

This past week, on the 30th November, we celebrated the feast of the Apostle, St Andrew, and perhaps reflecting on his life gives us a way to assess our Christian journey. The first thing that jumps out at you, in the few references to Andrew in the Gospels, is ‘immediately.’ St Mark uses ‘immediately’ or ‘and immediately’ forty times in his Gospel. Indeed, Mark’s Gospel is the ‘airport’ Gospel ... even more gripping than anything Dan Brown could pen.

But in Matthew, of all writers, we have Andrew and Peter, James and John, leaving their boats, their nets, and their families immediately and following Jesus.

And we ask ourselves, how complete is our following of Christ, how focussed are we?

Then in John’s Gospel, Andrew and his companion, disciples of John the Baptist, hear John say, ‘Behold, the lamb of God,’ and they immediately follow after Jesus.

This leads to something interesting. More than once, I have heard people explaining this passage by saying that, when Jesus asks Andrew and his friend, ‘What are you looking for?’, they answer, ‘Rabbi, where do you stay?’ because they are embarrassed; they don’t know why they are tagging along behind Jesus. They don’t know what to say so they blurt out the first thing which comes into their heads.

This is far too facile. There are no unnecessary words in John’s Gospel. Often in John’s Gospel, when people ask Jesus a question, his answer seems to have nothing to do with the question. However, if we stay with the text, we realise that he is answering either (Continued 2nd last page)

2nd COLLECTION

This week: Advent Next week: Advent

ADVENT ENVELOPES Available in church porch.

BAGS OF LOVE FOR THE POOR

Available after all Masses @ R10.00 each. Please fill it – list provided. Return by 15th December 2017

100CLUB - NEXT DRAW Friday 8 December.2017

under close scrutiny in the parish office

Please ensure your contributions

are in by Tuesday 5th November 2017

Further info: www.holyredeemer.co.za

THEOLOGICAL CIRCLE MEETING

Monday 11 December at 7.30pm Venue - Monastery

bring & share

PPC MEETING

The PPC meeting scheduled for 4 Dec will be postponed to 2018.

Available from the Repository

• New Stock - Faith themed gift items

• Various Advent Reflections

• Gods Word Daily Reflections for 2018

• Liturgical Calendars for 2018

• Sunday Reflections for 2018

1. Mini World Youth Day in Durban set to start

2. Priest who helped mediate Mugabe exit

3. Pope: Don’t text and drive

4. No true Christmas without Christ

5. Advent: What are we waiting for?

THIS WEEK’S EDITORIAL: Sowing seeds at SA’s youth day

ANNOUNCEMENTS

REPOSITORY

FREE IN THIS ISSUE

Upper Room booklet of daily devotions for

January & February 2018

PARISH YEAR PLANNER

Ministries/societies/fundraising groups: please advise the Parish Secretary of dates for future meetings/events for 2018, irrespective of whether you have had meetings in 2017. Only notices received from LEADERS will be accepted. E-mail: parish@holyredeemer.co.za

HOLIDAY CLOSURES

Office: Tuesday 26 December 2017 to Tuesday 2 January 2018 inclusive

Hall: Friday 15 December 2017 to Tuesday 16 January 2018 inclusive

ADVENT RECONCILIATION SERVICE

Thursday 21 December 2017 at 7.30pm.

CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT

Join us in welcoming Christ into our Community. Sunday 10 December at 7.30pm. Corner of Gordon & Roscommon Roads, Heathfield.

BAPTISM

No Baptism will take place in December 2017 or January 2018.

Monica Arendse Fr Anderson Lily Ball Dylan Berry

Fr Duncan Blackie Jack Brownrigg Justin Brownrigg Peter Buser Gloriana Cloete

Alvin Cozett Magdalena Cozett Trevor de Beer Wilf de Hahn

Mr Doidge

Christian Engelbrecht Desmond Fernandez Dawn Forsdyk Isabella Gabriel Jose Santos Gomes Keith Gomez

Fred Harrison Kerry Heideman

Aiden Lee Hendricks Rita Hendricks

Dale Heynes

Dawn Heynes

Russell Heynes

Jean Kennedy

Marcel le Breton Gerald Louw

Fr Lunney

Geraldine Malander Fr Gerard McCabe

Eleanor McDuma Brian McEvoy

Elaine Neethling

Rosetta Orgill Monty Pasqualie

Shirley Pasqualie

Kathleen Pereira

Ernest Peskin Sylvia Peters

Albert Petersen Carris Pietersen Lindsey Pietersen

Wynand Rinkwest Sabastian Rodgers

Elaine Roode Lionel September Dorothy Slayne Vera Steyn

David Jude Van Schoor

Jack Whitwam Margie Wilhelm Eileen(Fr Gerard sister)

PRAY FOR OUR SICK

NOVENA TO OUR MOTHER OF

PERPETUAL HELP

Thursday evening at 7.30pm

Place your special Prayer Intentions & Thanksgivings in the box at the back of the Church.

Also at www.holyredeemer.co.za

SMS “CATHOLIC” to 31222

Receive a daily reflection from the Redemptorist Community to your mobile phone. Support the Redemptorist Mission in South Africa.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THE SVDP

Meetings are held fortnightly at 6.30pm on a Tuesday. For further information or confirmation of meeting dates, please call 083 450-5479

ADORATION CHAPEL

PLEASE NOTE That the Chapel will close for the Christmas Season on Wednesday the 13th December. The Adoration Chapel hours will continues as usual from 9.00am to 9.00pm Monday to Friday, except Thursday when the Chapel closes at 7.30pm for Novena.

New members are always welcome so if you are interested please contact Carol Cornell on 073 194 7295 or Theresa in the office

Got questions about life?

Alpha is a series of interactive sessions that freely

explore the basics of the Christian faith. No pressure. No follow up. No charge.

The Alpha course can help answer them for you and them!

Join us, or invite a friend to come along to Holy Redeemer, Bergvliet on Wednesday 24 January 2018 @ 7pm.

For further info contact: Paul Miles at pmiles@sweetvalleyprimary.co.za or on 0829315546, check out the Holy Redeemer website or chat to an Alpha Group member.

PRAY FOR OUR DECEASED

Suzan Maria Louw - RIP