We are the parish which includes Immaculate Conception and St. Dominic, Stone; Sacred Heart, Eccleshall; Holy Michael Archangel, Aston-by-Stone.
Join us for Holy Mass
Saturday Vigil
5.00 p.m. Stone
Sunday
9.00 a.m. Eccleshall
10.30 a.m. Stone
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Dear Parishioners,
In our Gospel reading from St. Mark, Our Lord is in Gentile territory. Today’s Gospel of Jesus healing the deaf man with the impediment of speech is preceded by His healing of the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. Our Lord was impressed with this so called “outsider’s” persistence. Our Lord rewards the woman by healing her daughter. Now after a journey through more Gentile territory, Jesus is brought a deaf man who cannot speak properly. As we know, his inability to speak clearly was attributable to his deafness. Jesus will heal the man, but He will do it with gestures and words. When we hear gestures and words as Catholics, we think of sacraments and liturgy. The action of laying on of hands as a healing gesture was recognized by those who brought the deaf man to Jesus. Jesus puts His sacred healing fingers into the man’s unresponsive ears and very intimately places His spittle into the man’s mouth. Jesus looks up to Heaven showing the gesture not only to be a restoration of senses, but one of praise to the Father and thanksgiving for the healing. However, Jesus doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as merely a faith healer, so He tells the man not to talk about the miracle. Of course, like we would do, he was just bursting to share his joy with others and the man is tells everybody of what Jesus has done. The sign Jesus wants us to take from this opening of the man’s ear and release of his tongue is this: we must allow the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual ears to hear His life saving Word. If we do not take the Word deeply inside our lives, minds, hearts and aspirations and commit to it, we will find it difficult to give clear, comprehensible witness to others by what we say by way of the Good News entrusted to us. We ask ourselves ‘Do I put in the effort to hear the voice of God in the Liturgy, reading the Scriptures, and as we listen in prayer? ‘ The world is very good at distracting us and drowning out the small voice of God. I saw a sign on an optician’s that does hearing aids, it read: ‘Hear all the words and not just the gist’. Listening takes concentration and effort. In relation to God’s Word we listen better by giving God permission to allow the Word to change us according to His will. If we do not listen out for God when He speaks, who will? Jesus told his friend Martha that her sister had chosen the better part, and it was not to be taken from her. What did Mary do? She attentively listened. She chose well, so should we.
God bless,
Fr. Gerard
