May Procession in Erdington...

in honour of Our Lady!

Parishioners, Holy Communion Children and their families and friends gathered at the Abbey to walk in procession and crown Our Lady, Queen of the May!

Fr Gabby Maguire C.Ss.R., speaks a few words before the statue is crowned.

The May Queen crowns Our Lady

Fr Frank Dickenson C.Ss.R., watches from the side.

Our Lady, Queen of the May,

Pray for us!

Liverpool Half Marathon...for Mavambo...

For the third year in succession, runners from Bishop Eton trained hard for several months until they were ready to take part in the 13 miles long Liverpool Half Marathon - in aid of the Mavambo Trust in Zimbabwe.

As you will see, the group raised £4624.67 !!!

A big thank you to the runners and their sponsors.

Happy 280th...to the O.Ss.R.

Today marks the 280th birthday of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer or the Redemptoristines as they are more commonly known.

See below, an old photo of the English O.Ss.R's.

They are a year older than us(!) being founded by the Venerable Maria Celeste Crostarosa in

1731 on the 13th May.

We wish all our sisters a "Happy 280th anniversary of foundation"

and express our gratitude for their generous life of prayer!

Ad multos annos!

A new St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. website...

The official English-language website and prayer community under the patronage of Redemptorist Saint Gerard Majella C.Ss.R.

Click here and go and visit!

May is the month of Mary...

Mary is our Mother — not by the flesh, but by love. That is, she is our Mother by love alone. So someone observes that she glories in being the mother of love. She is all love for us, her adopted children.

The first reason for Mary’s great love for human beings is that she loves God so much. She loved him more in the first moment of her existence than all the saints and angels every loved him or will love him.

Just as there is not one among all the blessed who loves God as Mary does, so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother does. Furthermore, if we heaped together all the love that mothers have for their children, all the love of husbands and wives, all the love of all the angels and saints for their clients, it could never equal Mary’s love for even a single soul.

Mary, to obtain the life of grace for us … offered her beloved Jesus to an ignominious death, and watched him die before her eyes in cruel and unexampled torments.

It is written of the Eternal Father, that God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son (Jn 3:16), so also we can say of Mary, that she so loved the world as to give her only-begotten Son.

So with St. Anselm I will cry: “Let my heart languish and my soul melt away and be consumed with love of you, my beloved Savior Jesus and my dear Mother Mary! But because I cannot love you unless you give me grace, then give me grace, O Jesus and Mary — by your merits, not mine — to love you as you deserve to be loved. O God, lover of humankind, you loved sinful human beings to the point of death. Will you deny your love and your Mother’s to anyone who begs for it?”

— Excerpted from The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori

Fr James McManus C.Ss.R., latest book...

The body is something Christians have often been ashamed of, seeing it as debased, shameful, and a barrier to spiritual perfection. Published to coincide with the beatification of John Paul II, Jim McManus explains the late pope's original and profound teaching abou the sacredness of the body and how, with the soul and the spirit, it is a key part of our God-given humanity. By reading this book you will gain a new understanding of the dignity of your body, and how it is only through this embodiment that we can be "images" of God.

Blessed John Paul II

RMA Sponsored Swim...

"Redemptorist Mission Action" gratefully acknowledge the effort of Claire Daly from Birmingham, who recently swam 60 lengths

and raised over £1,500!

Claire is one of the animators of RMA and she is showing one way in which help can be given!

If you would like to find out more about RMA contact either Claire, or Fr Gabby at the Abbey,

Erdington Abbey, 49 Sutton Road, Birmingham, B23 6QJ

or 

Congratulations and thank you Claire!

Pope John Paul and the Guinness Book of Records...

Redemptorist Youth Ministry Meeting...