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THE PARISH OF OUR LADY AND ST. PATRICK’S
THIS WEEK'S SERVICES

15TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

JULY 13TH - 19TH
2025



WEEKLY SERVICES
SUNDAY: 10.00am.  12.30pm (Polish Mass)
6.00pm
MONDAY: 12 noon Eucharistic Service
TUESDAY: 12 noon Eucharistic Service
WEDNESDAY:
12 noon Funeral Mass for Josephine O’Connor
THURSDAY: 12 noon Eucharistic Service
FRIDAY: 12 noon Mass
SATURDAY:
12 noon Mass

LIVESTREAMING THIS WEEK

From now on we will be using Twitter to provide online Masses. Either download the Twitter App and search for @PhilipSumner13 or click the pic below

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Then either just watch from there. You can also click Follow if you have a Twitter account.

Weekday Masses and Saturday's 12 noon Mass will continue to be Livestreamed, as will Sunday's 10.00am Mass

Click here for Mass Livestream

The church will normally be open on Mondays to Saturdays from 10.00am for private prayer

Confessions
each Saturday 11.00am-11.50am

Baptisms & Weddings
by arrangement

15TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
(YEAR C)
WEEK: JULY 13TH - 19TH 2025

15th Sunday or Ordinary Time

“Which of these...proved to be a neighbour…The one who showed mercy.”

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YOUR  CHARITABLE  PRAYERS are requested for our parishioners and friends, especially those whose names appear below.
SICK: John Green, Joan Killeen, Christine Clarke, Tony Kenny, Luke Burke, Dominic Boardman, Connie Marrone, Alexander Loughlin, Surya Duval, Margaret Lawless, Peter Barlow, Jean Barlow, Terry Cummins, Elizabeth Flanagan, Margaret Emsis, Francis Doyle, Linda Solan, Fred Kibblewhite, Daniel Keane, Ethel Keenihan, Peter Bradbury, LATELY DEAD: Josephine O’Connor, Norma Hill, Fe Jardell ANNIVERSARIES: Rose McGladdery, Phil McDermott, John Rigby, Paul Lawless, Margaret Hywell. Mick McGinn, John Wilson, Cheri Mulryan

LAST WEEK'S COLLECTION: £1,048.65

Standing Order: £572.00 a month

Many thanks for your kind generosity.

If anyone needs the Bank account details to set up Direct Debit payments, please contact Father Phil.


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THIS SUNDAY'S MISSALETTE & HYMNS

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Missalette

15th 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). 

ST MARY AND ST PAUL'S PARISH, DUKINFIELD IS CELEBRATING ITS 200 YEAR ANNIVERSARY with a Parish Heritage Day at St Mary's Church, Dukinfield, today, on Sunday 13th July, from 12 noon to 3pm and would like to invite the parishioners of Our Lady and St Patrick to join us.   There will be an exhibition in church, including the display of the original Parish Registers going back to 1825 and a picnic and games in the church garden.  St Mary's Dukinfield has a close connection with our parish in Oldham.  The mission was started in 1825 by Fr James Fisher.  Rev. James Fisher was not just serving Dukinfield.  He also used to go to Oldham for Mass, which was said in a room over the General Cornwallis Inn. In 1829 Oldham became its own Mission and had its own priest, although when he fell ill in 1830, Fr Fisher again had to look after the congregation in Oldham, until a new priest arrived in 1835.

VISIT OF CARDINAL STEPHEN CHOW FROM HONG KONG
Cardinal Chow will be visiting the Salford Diocesan Chinese Catholic community on Monday and Tuesday of this week. He will be staying with the Bishop of Salford, but, as the Chaplain to the Catholic Chinese Community of Greater Manchester, I will be heavily involved in facilitating the visit. He will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick’s Church, Livesey Street, in Manchester at 6.30pm on the Monday.

PARISH TEAM MEETING
The team were informed that, despite our own assessment not to install a digital collection point in the church, the Diocese had now decided that every church is going to have such collection point installed. We are to be contacted to arrange a date. The team were also informed that our last Gift Aid claim was turned down because the system for making the claim was changed and the Diocese would have to make the claim for us again using the new system. This could not now take place until August this year. The finances continue to be dire. We currently have £2,726.23 in the bank (across all three of our accounts). We just had to pay £2,270.31 to the Diocese for both the insurance and for our monthly diocesan tax (a percentage of what we get in the parish collections). If it had not been for the £5,000 legacy we recently received, we would be in debt. The delay in our Gift Aid claim has certainly not helped this situation. As has been said before, in recent times we have had to pay substantial amounts for a new boiler in the church and for the solar panels, but also for the demolition of St. Mary’s and the removal of fly tipping. The Team asked that I write to the Diocese again to ask about the sale of the St. Mary’s site. That should enable us to be much more financially stable. Information on what was the Parish Hall: There was still no movement on the repair of the drains. Christine Wilson had been asked to remove all the parish belongings from the area behind the bar. The cups and saucers will come and be used at the back of church. But there’s the drinks cooler cabinet. Does anyone know of someone who might be interested in that? I also informed the Team about the copyright issue which I have referred to elsewhere in this newsletter. Finally, some concern was expressed about readers at Mass on Sunday morning reading too fast and not loud enough. It was agreed that each community would give some extra training to these readers.

THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE NEWSLETTER AND ON THE WEBSITE Last week I received an email demanding compensation for the use of a photograph on our website on the Third Sunday of Lent this year. Steve has since removed the offending photograph, but we will probably still have to pay some ‘compensation’ even though we clearly made no money through its use! This will mean that, from now on, I will have to be far more circumspect about using photographs from the internet. It’s not always clear which are images that can be used free, and which are not. So, bear with us on this one.

SPECIAL DAYS THIS WEEK
Monday14th July – St. Camillus of Lellis. -. He was born on 25th May 1550 in Naples. As a young man he had a very quarrelsome nature and was somewhat of a gambler. However, through the patience and forgiving nature of a Capuchin Friar, he completely changed his way, and he entered the novitiate to become a Capuchin Friar. However, a serious injury to his leg, sustained some years previous, prevented him from continuing. He eventually became a priest with the aid of St. Philip Neri and established a religious order to care for the infirm. He died in Rome in 1614. Tuesday 15th July – St. Bonaventure – He was born in Italy in 1221, entered the Franciscan Order in 1243 and studied at the University of Paris. He was later elected as Minister General of the Franciscan Order. He became the Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He died suddenly in 1274. Wednesday 16th July – Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This, of course, is our Parish Feast and, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is also the Patron of the Diocese of Salford.

THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
The readings today highlight a tension between living your life simply according to a moral code, and living in the present, according to your heart. If any of you saw the film, “Chocolat”, you would see the same tension being highlighted. Basically, the story of ‘Chocolat’ sees a woman arrive in a French village with her daughter. They open a shop for selling chocolate-based confectionary. The village is home to a very traditional Catholic community, and she opens her shop during Lent when so many would be abstaining from the delights of eating chocolate. Immediately, the local parish priest sees her as a threat. But, as the story unfolds, it’s clear that she becomes the healing influence in the village. A polite old man is encouraged by her to risk a relationship with someone he has long loved from a distance. She gives a woman the courage to leave her often drunk and abusive husband. The priest of the village, on the other hand, is too interested in people living to a strict moral code. When a group of travellers arrive on the scene, it’s clear that those who side with the priest rather than the chocolate seller have the greatest problem in accepting the newcomers. In the Gospel story today, we see the priest and the Levite walking past the wounded man on the other side of the road. The priest and the Levite of the Good Samaritan story fail to help because of their obsessive focus on law-keeping. By following their rules regarding ritual purity, they have failed to respond to the real needs of the wounded man. On the other hand, someone who simply sees the human situation, responds from the heart and is recognised as the real neighbour. In the ‘Chocolat’ story, the group of travelling people who arrive in the French village are disliked by the religious people of the village, in the same way that the Samaritans were disliked by the religious people of Jesus’ day. The chocolate seller is herself someone who moves from place to place like a disliked traveller, but she is the one who can see the real needs of the situation and respond to them. As the first reading today suggests, we must all be capable of living in the present and responding with our hearts. For it’s there, according to the reading, where we find the Word. There’s no doubt that the tension we see in the Good Samaritan story or in the story ‘Chocolat’ will be at play in our own lives to different degrees. We can’t always just quote the written law; we must also be able to hear the Word in our hearts.