Charity registration No. SC002876   Sunday June 27th. 2010 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Main Menu Notices 2 Page 4 Page 5 Notices n an age when the teachings of the Church are being  brought into question, it is good as we celebrate this  feast of Saints Peter and Paul on Tuesday to recall that  Our Lord built his Church on the lives of these two  men of faith - St Peter, our leader in faith, and St Paul,  its fearless preacher. They remind us that everything we  know and believe comes to us from the apostles. Apart from  them, we would have nothing upon which to base our  Christian faith.   Peter  Peter was a fisherman with little or no schooling who was  blissfully unaware of the greater world outside of Galilee. He  first came into contact with Jesus by the lakeshore where his  boat served as the master's earliest pulpit. By nature, Peter  was full of energy and impetuous. There was nothing  cunning about him. If he had a strong feeling about  something he let you know it. The gospels go to great lengths  to stress his weakness, fear and failures. He had a tendency  to act first and think later. Peter was never at his best when  relying on his own imagined strengths. When he thought he  could walk on water, he sank. At the Last Supper he made  the bold claim to remain a loyal and steadfast friend of Christ  to the bitter end. 'Even though they all fall away, I will not.'  However, before the night was over, a servant girl taunted  him and his courage ran out. He denied knowing Jesus three  times. We can sense his appalling misery as Our Lord gazed   at him with a look of love after sentence had been passed.  Despite betraying Jesus in his hour of need, Peter experiences  forgiveness and is given the wonderful task of looking after  all the people whom Jesus loved. One thing Peter teaches us is  the importance of getting up and rejoining the struggle, no  matter how often we may fall. Often failure can be the finger  of God pointing the way, awakening within us an awareness  of our own helplessness.   Paul  We first meet Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, on the edge of  a murderous mob that is stoning St Stephen to death. Luke  notes that Paul approved of this terrible deed. Paul was a  champion of the old Jewish religion as well as a fierce foe of  the Christian way of life. He even scoured the countryside in  search of Christians to persecute them. It was on one such  escapade to Damascus that his life was suddenly changed. A  flash of light threw him to the ground and he heard Jesus  calling out, 'Why are you persecuting me?' At that moment he  realised that to persecute Christians was to persecute the  Messiah who somehow lived in the members of his Church.  From this time forward Paul was driven to share the exciting  truth of the gospel. He was a man of action driven on by the  all-consuming love of Christ. His missionary journeys  implanting the seeds of the gospel brought him through much  of the Mediterranean world.      Feast of Saints Peter & Paul Holy day of Obligation Tuesday, June 29th. Masses: Roy Bridge 10 am.