The Parish of Our Lady and St Patrick Oldham

EASTER SUNDAY (YEAR C)
WEEK: APRIL 20TH - 26TH 2025

Easter Sunday

He is Risen! Alleluia!

Pope Francis

Pope Francis (1936-2025)

This great week of the Resurrection has seen the tragic death of Pope Francis. We pray that he may now know the resurrection which we are celebrating and we thank God for his great leadership. His amazing prophetic voice in the world will be sadly missed, but hopefully not forgotten.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

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, Nynna Carpio, Terry Cummins, Elizabeth Flanagan, Margaret Emsis, Francis Doyle, Linda Solan
LATELY DEAD: Leigh Cook, Kevin Mullin, Ron Heaton, Richard Melling, Maria Cavanagh, Jimmy Wood, Bernard and Eileen Davies, Pope Francis
ANNIVERSARIES, Maureen Sumner, Jeff Wright, Brenda Taylor, Doreen Alicia Whitehead, James Patrick Rothwell, Dawn Francene Cookson and baby Robbie, Morgan Otoghile, William Melia

LAST WEEK'S COLLECTION: £938.85

Standing Order: £674.00 a month

CHURCH BOXES / DONATIONS
Caritas (Homeless) £50.00; Donations: £115.00

Many thanks for your kind generosity.

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

THIS SUNDAY'S MISSALETTE & HYMNS

Easter Sunday - Missalette

Easter Sunday - 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).

80TH ANNIVERSARY OF VE DAY
8th May 2025 – Reminder This year sees the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe and a series of events will be taking place around the country on the anniversary of VE Day itself, 8th May 2025. These will include the ringing of church bells at 6.30pm.

PARISH TEAM MEETING
The next Parish Team meeting will be on Thursday 22nd May at 7pm. We will discuss how to nominate the individuals requested for the implementation of the synodal process, among other matters.

MESSAGE FROM BISHOP JOHN RE THE DIOCESAN SYNOD
“I am grateful for the positive discernment in our Diocesan Synod, which produced valuable recommendations for the future of our Diocese. Mgr John Dale has accepted the role of Episcopal Vicar for Synodality, and the implementation work is beginning. Parish Priests have been asked to nominate individuals with expertise in the four recommendation categories: “Community and Outreach,” “Leadership and Collaboration,” “Spirituality and Formation,” and “Young People and Schools,” so that we can build a vision and direction, and share best practice, for our future. And for this continuing work, let us pray, "Stay with us, Lord, on our Journey." Bishop John.”

CAFOD’S MYANMAR EARTHQUAKE APPEAL
CAFOD (the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development) has shared details of its Myanmar Earthquake Appeal. Funds raised for this appeal will provide much-needed water, food, solar lights, mosquito nets and water purification tablets to those devastated by this disaster. Your generosity will extend far and wide and will help the Catholic Church in Myanmar bring comfort and relief to families who are in urgent need. Visit cafod.org.uk/myanmar to find out more and donate.

SPECIAL DAYS THIS WEEK
Every day this week is a day in the Octave of Easter; the Feast lasts for the full eight days, so no other saint’s day is celebrated this week. St. George’s Day, which would normally be on 23rd April, is therefore transferred, this year, to Monday 28th April. I presume that many people in the world around us will still celebrate St. Geoge’s Day on 23rd but, strictly speaking, it should be transferred to the first available day after the octave of Easter.

THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
We can completely misinterpret Easter so that, in effect, it passes us by without us ever really experiencing it. We can ‘Disneyfy’ it and make it the sentimental ending to Jesus’ death on the cross, a type of resuscitation where everyone gets back to where they were before. But resurrection is not getting back to things as they were; it’s a very different reality. We are not celebrating the resuscitation of Jesus but his Resurrection.
Strangely, I was helped to understand resurrection by someone who I think is an atheist, Brian Keenan. He was that journalist who in the late 1980’s was taken hostage for four years. While incarcerated, he admits that he almost lost his humanity. But when he started speaking in way that seemed to suggest his own resurrection, he was not referring to his release but to when another hostage began to share his cell. Then, he spoke of being able to admit to McCarthy the depths to which he had sunk. It was McCarthy’s genuine understanding that enabled Keenan to feel whole once more. He’d been, as it were, at the foot of the cross and, there, known mercy.
Another writer, the absurdist philosopher, Albert Camus, had been living in Paris when the Nazi regime invaded. It must have been a terrifying time. Was it perhaps because of his experience then that he wrote, “In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was, in me, an invincible summer”? Part of resurrection is to find that invincible summer within us all.
Today’s first reading tells us that God raised Jesus from the dead but did not allow him to be seen by the whole people but only by certain witnesses. Two of these witnesses seem to come to the fore in this Easter story, Mary Magdalen and John. Mary was the first to see the resurrected Jesus and, in a sense, the first Apostle, sent to tell the Twelve that Jesus had risen. John, according to today’s Gospel, was also one of the first to believe in the Resurrection. These are two of the people who remained at the foot of the cross until Jesus gave up his spirit. We might well ask if there is a link between being at the foot of the cross and being able to understand or even recognise the Resurrection.
Perhaps, in a sense, John and Mary Magdalene had already begun to see things from a completely different perspective. They could see a different dimension to life which requires the eyes of faith and love. They could see, perhaps, their own failings being made whole by what they had witnessed at the foot of the cross. They became people of the Resurrection, the Easter People, because they could see with this perspective. And, to celebrate Easter, we are taken back immediately to the foot of the cross. For that’s where we go during every Eucharist.

SOLAR PANELS
Given the rather large electric bill for 2024 (just over £6,200), I asked the people who had installed our solar panels to give me a report on their efficiency. They have written to say that, through March of this year, we had a total demand of 1395kwh, of which we bought 646kwh and generated 746kwh. They had forecast that we would only generate 651kwh during March So, we significantly exceeded that. In the three days just prior to 6th April, we used 123kwh but generated 77 of those through the solar panels and only have to buy 34.7kwh. The sun has done well for us during the last week too!

CARITAS SALFORD E-NEWSLETTER
Did you know that Caritas, our diocesan charity, now has a monthly e-newsletter providing updates, free resources, news and event details, plus much more?
To begin to receive it, visit: https://www.caritassalford.org.uk/newsletter/

PARISH FINANCES
Two weeks ago, we dipped briefly into the red, but we have now clawed our way back into the black, but only to the sum of £2,300. The reason for the dip is that we were hit with a whole series of bills at the same time. £8,000 was taken out to pay for the removal of some fly-tipping from the St. Mary’s site. £12, 351.24 was taken out for electricity (for a whole year) and gas (for 2 months). We must remember also that it wasn’t too long ago that we paid £20,000 for the solar panels and almost £30,000 for the new boiler in the church. But, we are expecting a few thousand pounds from last year’s Gift aid scheme to be paid into our account soon and we hope, at some stage, for the sale of the land at St. Mary’s. We are still investigating the possibility of changing the heating system in the house to electric radiators that use electricity super-efficiently. There are, of course a couple of problems with that: we can’t afford it and we need 3 phase electricity coming into the house and we don’t have that at the moment. Someone came around to see how many radiators we would need. He was to send me some costings but, so far, they haven’t arrived.

Happy Easter to you all!

WEEKLY SERVICES
SUNDAY:	10.00am. 12.30pm (Polish Mass) 6.00pm
MONDAY:	12 noon Mass
TUESDAY:	12 noon Mass
WEDNESDAY:	12 noon Mass
THURSDAY:	12 noon Requiem Mass for Kevin Mullin
FRIDAY:	12 noon Mass
SATURDAY:	12 noon Mass