July 2026

I did think to myself, after a recent holiday, of the famous phrase, ‘the best-laid plans of mice and men’, with regards to my plans to switch off and rest in mind and in body. This phrase comes from the novel by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, a standard GCSE text whilst I was at school. I was fortunate to visit the area of California known as Steinbeck country on a previous holiday. The hotel that my parents had booked provided room cards coloured with the American flag. The pride in place was evident to see.

Pride in place comes alongside a sense of belonging. We can sense that when we visit a town or city, or when we are in a Church. It is possible to grasp the atmosphere of a place. There are no set criteria, as a neatly kept modern housing estate on the edge of a large city may well appear to be tidy, yet it often feels like there is not a sense of belonging. Conversely, there are sections of London that I have been in where there is a cluttered and chaotic high street and yet there is a clear sense of people belonging to that place. Community is the key word here, as one cannot belong to a place where there is little or nothing to belong to.

It is my hope and intention that our Churches here are a fundamental part of the fabric of the places within which they are situated. That the Church is intertwined with the sense of someone belonging to Clyro, Llanigon, Hay and Capel-y-Ffin. Much of this can only come about through our cooperating with God both as individuals and as a body.

S. Alphonsus Ligouri wrote the following in a letter written in 1774:

I am sure that Jesus Christ looks upon our little Congregation with very loving eyes. And experience teaches us that, in spite of so many persecutions, He never ceases to help us to promote more and more his glory in so many places, multiplying also his graces.
Let us never cease to entrust ourselves to the divine Mother, since the Lord grants us the honour and pleasure of proclaiming His glories everywhere: this consoles me very much and gives me the confidence that this good Mother will not cease to care for each one of us and to obtain for us the grace to become saints.

Whilst on my holiday I attended Mass at a nearby Church. The Priest mentioned in his homily a recent visit by some religious from Ireland who had been moved by how strong and happy a living community of faith it was. During this homily I was reminded of how our congregations here feel the same to me. I hope that this is a sense that you share. Not only this, but that we wish to joyfully share in, ‘the honour and pleasure of proclaiming His glories everywhere,’ but most particularly in this little area within which we belong.

Please God, let it be that the Blessed Saints, most particularly Our Lady, continue to pray for us!