The Parish of Our Lady and St Patrick Oldham

TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
(YEAR B)
WEEK: OCTOBER 6TH - 12TH 2024

Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

"An icon of the presence of God?"

YOUR CHARITABLE PRAYERS are requested for our parishioners and friends, especially those whose names appear below.
SICK: John Green, Joan Killeen, Eileen Killeen, Cyril and Christine Clarke, Tony Kenny, Luke Burke, Amy Howard, Dominic Boardman, Connie Marrone, Alexander Loughlin, Mary Malone, Win Powell, Surya Duval, Margaret Lawless
LATELY DEAD: Beatrice Butler, Alan Bedford, Jean Woolley
ANNIVERSARIES: Dimitri Michailuk, Jan Feniuk, Michael Hywell

LAST WEEK'S COLLECTION: £967.02

Standing Order: £674.00 a month

CHURCH BOXES / DONATIONS
Caritas (Homeless) £20.00; Foodbank £25.00
Many thanks for your kind generosity.

Our Bank: Barclays Bank - Account Name: TSDT, Our Lady and St. Patrick’s, Oldham; Sort Code 20 55 34; Account Number 90652504; Reference: Contr.

THIS SUNDAY'S MISSALETTE & HYMNS

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Missalette

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Hymns

NOTICES:
All Masses will continue to be live streamed. A link is provided on the Parish website: www.smwsp.org.uk or via the Twitter App (@PhilipSumner13).

FIRST COMMUNION PROGRAMME FOR 2024-25
We welcome the children at Mass this morning who will be beginning the sacramental programme which will prepare them to receive their First Communion on May 18th next year. Please be patient with them and pray for them.

POPE FRANCIS CALLS FOR 7 OCTOBER TO BE DAY OF PRAYER AND FASTING FOR PEACE
Pope Francis has called for a day of prayer and fasting on 7 October, the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. “In this dramatic hour of our history,” the Pope said, “while the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to devastate entire peoples and nations,” the Christian community is reminded of its call to “put itself at the service of humanity”.

FIRST COMMUNION PROGRAMME FOR 2024-25
The first meeting where children and at least one accompanying adult will sign up for the programme will be at 10am on Saturday, 5th Oct. in St. Patrick’s Church. The First Communion itself will be celebrated on Sunday 18th May at 3pm.

MARY’S MEALS CHARITY
“School feeding charity, Mary’s Meals, needs your help! We are looking to recruit some new Parish Reps to raise awareness of our mission and help us to reach more hungry children with food & hope for the future. This is a highly rewarding role, with a very low time commitment. Responsibilities include sharing information & giving updates on Mary’s Meals to your parish community. We always welcome new volunteers to our growing family. Joining our network of church representatives is a fantastic way of putting something into action to help make a difference to the lives of children across the globe. For more info please contact Fran Lawson by email: fran.lawson@marysmeals.org or call 0800 698 1212. Thank you for your support!”

CARJ CONFERENCE
Yogi Sutton, the Chair of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice, wrote to me after the Conference on 21st September, here at St. Patrick’s. She wrote: “The celebration today was exceptionally good. The content of the talks and the delicious food, the wonderful people, the most enjoyable Mass and music, the atmosphere and, all in all, the learning…Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Yogi Sutton. I will place a few photographs of the event in the ‘Past events’ section on the Parish website.

SPECIAL DAYS THIS WEEK
Monday 7th October – Our Lady of the Rosary
Wednesday 9th October – John Henry Newman – He was born in London in 1801 and died in 1890. He was educated at Oxford and became the most notable Catholic convert of the age. He became a member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and was made Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII.
Thursday 10th October – St. Paulinus of York – He was among the second group of monks sent to England by Pope Gregory. After working for 20 years in Kent, he was ordained bishop and sent to Northumbria. By 627, he had baptised the king and many of his nobles. He died in 644.
Friday 11th October – Pope St. John XXIII – His name, at birth, was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. He was born in 1881 and, in 1904 was ordained priest. In 1953, he was created a cardinal and made Patriarch of Venice. In 1958, he was elected Pope and it was during his pontificate that he called the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. He died in 1963.
Saturday 12th October – St. Wilfrid – He was born in Northumbria in about 634 and became the Bishop of York. He was removed from that post but appealed to the Pope and was re-instated. However, he fell out again with the king and with some of the other bishops and was forced to move to the East Midlands, where he continued with his ministry. He finally moved back north, to Hexham, where he died in around 709.

THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
In today’s Gospel Jesus and his disciples have reached the east coast of the Dead Sea on their journey to Jerusalem. They’re in the territory of Herod Antipas. This is an important piece of context for what takes place. You will remember that this Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist for daring to criticize him for taking his brother Philip’s wife for his own. The Jewish opponents of Jesus saw an opportunity to trap Jesus and to get him into trouble with Herod. If Jesus criticized divorce directly, they could go to Herod and make things difficult for him.
But the question about divorce didn’t come out of the blue; two schools of thought had developed at that time, led by two of the esteemed Rabbis of the day. One of these was more liberal in his interpretation of the beginning of Chapter 24 of Deuteronomy, the other only allowing divorce in the case of adultery. The Book of Deuteronomy suggests that a writ of divorce could be given when a man finds that his wife has not pleased him or when he finds out that she has been involved in some impropriety. The presumption of the Book of Deuteronomy is clearly that this practice of the man issuing a writ of divorce is acceptable. But one of the two rabbis suggested that the only impropriety enabling him to issue such a writ was adultery.
For his part, Jesus focuses on marriage being that which makes many men and women whole and makes them an icon, or a sacrament, here and now, of the presence of God. Clearly, there are marriages, perhaps those, for example, involving serious domestic violence, that could not be seen as icons of God. But Jesus is saying that this is not what marriage is intended to be. If people corrupt the icon in this way, they have done great harm to each other and to the wider community, which needs that sacramental presence among them, and they have let a tremendous opportunity slip through their hands.

ANNUAL PARISH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
Don’t’ forget that the annual parish international music festival will take place this year on Saturday 30th November at 3pm. Please begin to get your different presentations together.

HEATING IN CHURCH
At this stage, I can’t imagine that any decision is going to be made about our suggested new boiler till 10th October when the Diocesan Property Committee meets. I have written to the Diocese again this week to give my own preference for the quote from a company called ‘Fiducia’. Their quote was for just over £20K but it included several features not included in the other quotes and did not require us to create a new flue coming up the side of the building. The company assured us that they could legally use the existing chimney by installing a twin wall stainless steel flue liner. Thankfully, while it has been cold in church for the last few weeks, I have not seen my breath while I’ve been speaking, which I used to do occasionally during the winter months when I first arrived in the parish, 23 years ago. And that was when the heating was on!

FESTIVAL OF LIGHT
Every year the Oldham Interfaith Forum celebrate a festival of light, when several of the major festivals of the different religions are marked under one roof. This year the Festival of Light will be at 6.30pm on 18th November in the QE Hall, Oldham. The festivals celebrated are Diwali, Channukah, Mawlid al-Nabi and Christmas. The event is free to enter. More information later.

WEEKLY SERVICES
SUNDAY:	10.00am. 12.30pm (Polish Mass) 6.00pm
MONDAY:	12 noon Mass
TUESDAY:	12 noon Requiem Mass for Irene Watson
WEDNESDAY:	12 noon Eucharistic Service Father Phil will be in Newman College all day
THURSDAY:	12 noon Mass
FRIDAY:	12 noon Requiem Mass for Barbara Blackhurst
SATURDAY:	12 noon Mass Inez Cook will be received into the Church and be confirmed at this Mass