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I wonder if Blessed Frederic Ozanam realised what a global organisation the SVP would become when he founded it in 1833? Today, the SVP has conferences, i.e. local groups, in many countries and the SVP headquarters encourages each conference to twin with at least one conference in another country.

This has some great upsides in that ideas and lessons learnt can be shared, prayers can be offered for each other, friendships can be nurtured and resources can be distributed to where they are most needed. One downside, however, is the language barrier. We are twinned with a conference in Romania but are really struggling to communicate effectively – even with the help of Google Translate! Can you, or do you know anyone who can, speak or read Romanian? We would truly welcome your help as we strive to better know our Romanian Twin!! We look forward to some help with this request.

With the New Year now in motion, the SVP and B-Attitudes teams are already ‘back to normal.’ Our busiest workstreams at the moment are the food bank, bereavement support, home visits and care home visits. Since we re-formed the SVP in the parish in 2016, we have really only being visiting one care home in our parish, Brackenbridge House. There are others, but we simply do not have enough members to cover them.

Now that we are reaching the end of 2022, it just remains for the SVP Team, and our young persons SVP B-Attitudes Team, to wish all of you a very Holy and Peaceful Christmas and the best of everything for 2023.

The SVP Team was re-established in the parish in 2016, the Year of Mercy, in response to the appeal from Pope Francis for every parish on the planet to perform an act of mercy. Since then, we have only been able to keep going by the power of the Holy Spirit and the tangible support from yourselves. Please accept our heartfelt thanks and please continue to pray for, and support, us as we head in to what looks like choppy waters ahead.

We had our final monthly meeting of the year on Monday evening and, as usual, the agenda was pretty full! Thanks to the generosity of the parishioners, and the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, we are ending the year in good shape. Our 18-strong team, ably supported by the energetic B-Attitudes, are ready to address the challenges that these dark and cold months always bring. Be it the hungry, the lonely, the sick or the imprisoned, we are on standby to help.

Monday is the UN’s International Volunteer Day. This is a timely reminder of the great team of young people and adults that we have in the SVP parish family! Not just that, though: We also have a lovely team of people who just like to help us out at the food bank on Saturdays.

Irrespective of the different paths to volunteering, I think all the volunteers would testify to the presence of something ‘mysterious’ within them that makes them want to put in the effort. This mysterious something is, of course, the power of the Holy Spirit. As a hymn reminds us, ‘…the power of the Lord is moving in this place..’. Let’s all say ‘Thank You’ to the Lord for being such a tangible presence within our parish and please pray that the Holy Spirit continues to energise our volunteers.