Dear Friends

November is traditionally the month of The Holy Souls. It is a good thing to pray for those who have gone before us and it may well be useful to reflect on the letter of St Paul to the Corinthians. 1 Cor. 15 :12-21

"If Christ raised from the dead is what is being preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection from the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing in it is useless: indeed, we are shown up as witnesses who have committed perjury before God, because we swore in evidence before God that he had raised Christ to life. For if the dead are not raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people.

But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ: but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet.

God of the living and of the dead,

you brought Jesus back to life;

raise up the faithful departed,

and let us come with them into your heavenly glory.

Bishop Tom Burns SM Will be Installed at a special Mass as the Eleventh Bishop of Menevia in St Joseph’s Cathedral, Swansea, on Monday 1^st December at 11.30am. Our prayers are with Tom as he sets out on this new pastoral responsibility.