email sent on 17 April to invite participation

You are encouraged to forward this email.

This email invites you to join others to pray whenever possible at 6:15pm each day outside St Mary's RC Cathedral for 30 minutes for an increased outpouring of the Spirit on the Roman Catholic Church, and on our own diocese. By beginning on Tuesday 17 April we have 40 days to Pentecost.

This period from Easter to Pentecost is one when the disciples were confused, wanting to live in the light of the Resurrection not knowing how. So it is always a powerful and prayerful time for Christians.
Today in the Roman Catholic Church we have our own additional and intense sources of confusion.

In the last few months we have seen:

- The marginalising of many whose experience is not heard, because it does not echo the opinions of those who seek to exercise power.

- Division arising from the new Mass text, which has polarised communities, stressed relationships and individuals. Some say "its what we should have had for years" and others say that in many ways the text is defective and alienating.

- Many people who consider themselves to be formed in the light of Vatican II are in a crisis of belonging within the Church.

For this 40 days of prayer, a simple quiet time is proposed as a pattern, with brief singing before and after:

Taize - Veni Sancte Spiritus

Silence

Taize - Ubi Caritas


For further information email mike.mineter@gmail.com
(For those wishing to respond, in a way that can be seen by others, a blog has been set up, [URL given])