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