30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
WEEK: OCTOBER 25TH - NOVEMBER 1ST 2020
YOUR CHARITABLE PRAYERS are requested for our parishioners and friends, especially those whose names appear below.
SICK : Sr. Catherine; Vivien Higgins; Breda Barret; Margaret Lawless; Lesley Hayes; Emma Golden; Michael Guilfoyle; Dominic Boardman; Kath Green: Cyril Clarke; Mary Flaherty; Ann Taylor; Megan Taylor and her daughter Phoebe; Susan Fox, Josephine McLaughlin, Judith Bradbury, Sean McGowan.
LATELY DEAD: Susan Fox, Josephine McLaughlin, Judith Bradbury, Sean McGowan
ANNIVERSARIES: Paul Higson; Stephen David Hilton
Thanksgiving for 18 years of marriage: David and Brendalyn Niala. Congratulations!
COLLECTION: Total: £489.13
Monthly payments directly to the bank:
Standing Order: £534 a month
CHURCH BOXES / DONATIONS: CAFOD: £5.00; £10. Food Bank: £10.00.
Many thanks for your kind generosity.
Please click this link for today's Mass sheet HYMNS FOR TODAY'S MASS Entrance: For the healing of the nations, Lead us Father into freedom, All that kills abundant living, You, Creator-God, have written Kyrie Christo yokela biso mawa Gospel Acclamation:. 1) Mimi nasikiya ee
Sanctus: Agnus Dei: Communion 1 Recessional: I will bless the Lord at all times Let the lowly hear and be glad Ev'ry spirit crushed He will save; We proclaim the greatness of God, |
The OBLIGATION to attend Mass on Sunday remains SUSPENDED. Therefore, we ask you to consider the possibility of continuing to follow the Mass online or attend on a weekday. This will ease the pressure of numbers for the Sunday Masses, and allow a gradual return to the Eucharist for more people.
If you do want to attend Mass on Sunday, numbers are limited, therefore, it is essential that you book a place. To do this, phone, text or e-mail Fr. Phil, who will make the arrangements. This is done on a first come, first served basis.
Face coverings in church are now mandatory; however some people are exempt for medical or other reasons. Social distancing must always be observed where possible.
Please respect the requirement to socially distance while in the church. We have the privilege of being able, still, to meet for Mass, even while restrictions are becoming even tighter for the rest of society. We cannot afford to jeopardise this. If “Test and tracing” ever revealed that someone had contracted the virus in the church, the whole community would suffer. So, please, respect the requirement to keep socially distanced from each other.
QUOTATION FROM POPE FRANCIS: “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” “An evangeliser must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral.” “It’s not by proselytising that the Church grows but by attraction.” “The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious and laity – into the “art of accompaniment” which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other.”
(These are all quotations from the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, from 2013).
THIS WEEK’S SAINTS:
Monday 26th October: Saint Chad and Saint Cedd. These were brothers who were educated at Lindisfarne under St. Aidan. Cedd was the founder of many monasteries and was appointed Bishop for an area that is now Essex and died of the plague in 664. Chad was originally abbot of Lastingham monastery but then appointed Bishop of Northumbria. However, his ordination was contested by Wilfrid and he humbly withdrew. He was sent as Bishop of Mercia instead, where he founded the See of Lichfield. He was revered very soon after his death for his humility and his dedication to preaching the Gospel.
Wednesday 28th October: SS. Simon and Jude (Apostles). Little is known of Simon except that he was born in Galilee and he was referred to as “the zealot”. Jude is also known as Thaddaeus and was the apostle who, at the Last Supper asked the Lord why he showed himself only to his disciples and not to the whole world (John 14:22).
BOOKS AND THE PANDEMIC. During the pandemic, I, like many of you, have had more chance to read books and one of the books I read was “Ghost ship”, by Fr. Azariah France-Williams, an Anglican priest, who is now based in Hulme in Manchester. He wrote about institutional racism in the Church of England but so much of what he wrote has parallels within the Catholic Church. Fr. Azariah addresses the belief that is often expressed by people in this country, namely, that racism is no longer a serious problem here. There’s even a book written by Douglas Murray, “The Madness of the crowds” that makes such a claim. However, a recent report from the Runnymede Trust called “Ethnicity, Race and Inequality in the UK” shows unequivocally that racism and inequality are still very much present. It may have changed its face to a certain extent, but, regrettably, it’s still here. So much of it is in unconscious bias or the belief that being colour-blind (I don’t see colour!”) is good. All those many years ago, the MacPherson report (after the killing of Stephen Lawrence) described the colour-blind approach as an example of institutional racism; if you don’t see colour then you don’t recognise the particular needs of people of colour. But Brexit and the rise of populism has also seemed to give licence to some people to be hateful towards people from other countries; the rise in the incidence of hate crimes has been significant since the beginning of the Brexit campaign.
“Stay With Us Lord On Our Journey”