Dear Friends,
St Paul writes about the place of love in every Christian community. He sees it as much more that just a warm sentiment or even being ‘in love’. He uses the Greek word agape to describe this kind of loving. It reflects the love that God has for us – totally self-giving even sacrificial. We see this in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus – the self-emptying, sacrificial love of the Lord. This is the model for all Christian love and its supreme example is found in Jesus Christ. This is what we try to put into practice in our own relationships; in our community, our family, our married lives and our friendships.
In today’s Gospel Jesus preaches in his own town. At first all goes well. But when he tells the people that God’s saving love is for all peoples, not just the Jews, he is faced with fierce opposition. This will be a major theme of Luke’s gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles – the universal nature of God’s salvation.
We are planning to begin the Confirmation course soon. Enrolment forms can be found in each of our churches.
Last Sunday I said that there would be a retiring collection this weekend for the training of our seminarians. In fact this will be on the weekend of 8th May.
Father James
The Journey in Faith group meets next Sunday at 6pm in the presbytery.
Copies of the Synodal questions are in your church porches for you to give your answers and there are boxes in which to leave your responses. You can also respond online. Simply go to the diocesan website which gives a direct link to the online survey: https://www.rcdea.org.uk/bishop-alan-to-launch-synodal-pathway-online-survey/ We are all encouraged to take part in this global consultation process as requested by Pope Francis.
Holy Hour & Eucharistic Adoration is on Thursdays at St Helen’s, at 3pm – a time for quiet reflection, meditation and contemplation.
The recent deaths of four of our parishioners has been a sad loss for their families and for our parish family. Sheila Condon’s funeral took place last Thursday. The other funerals will all take place at the Sacred Heart church this coming week and parishioners are welcome to attend and support the families:
31st January (Monday) at 10.30 am: Requiem Mass for Derek Palman
1st February (Tuesday) at 10 am: Requiem Mass for John Bradley
4th February (Friday) at 11.30 am: Requiem Mass for Hilary Bolger
John Bolger wishes to thank everyone for the support he has received from the parish.
We pray for our sick parishioners: Matt Butler, Frances Palman, Mary Bell, Monica Hawley, Mary Carr, Paul Watson, Iwona Stempniak, Cyril Shenton and Patricia Newton.
We pray for those whose anniversaries occur this week: Eileen Amis, Wladyslaw (Jan) Kurowski, Bridget Dalton, Daisy Jarman, Norman Baguly and Wasil Mychajlyszyn. May they rest in peace.
The diocesan newspaper is now available free of charge. Please help yourself.
Now that most of the Covid-related restrictions have been lifted we will have a brief discussion after each of the weekend Masses about how we can best move forward safely and responsibly, following the guidelines that our bishops have given us.
