23rd Sunday of the Year: 8th September 2019
Services for the Week:
- SUNDAY: Mass at 10.00 am
- MONDAY: Mass at 10.00 am
- TUESDAY: Communion Service at 10.00 am
- WEDNESDAY: Communion Service at 10.00 am
- THURSDAY: Communion Service at 10.00 am
- FRIDAY: Mass at 10.00 am
- SATURDAY: Mass at 10.00 am; Vigil Mass at 6.00 pm
- CONFESSIONS: After SaturdayMass and from 5.30 – 5.55 pm
Collections: The Offertory Collection last weekend realised £421.87, and the second Collection, £96.18 Grateful thanks to all donors! Special Collection next week, for the Aged and Infirm Clergy Fund.
In your charity, please remember in your prayers, Scott Allan, Jean McCullough, Eileen Smullen and all the sick and housebound. Also, Joy Clark, Christina McAllister, James McAvoy, Elizabeth Orr, May Patrick, James Tooey and David Ward, whose anniversaries occur about this time.
Mass Intentions:
- VIGIL: Christina McAllister
- SUNDAY: People of the Parish
- MONDAY: Elizabeth Orr
- FRIDAY: David Ward
- SATURDAY: Margaret Mulholland
Parish Pastoral Council: The next meeting of the PPC will take place in the church hall on Wednesday18th September at 7pm. All are very welcome to attend.
Season of Creation: From Septemberto Octobereach year, the Christian community celebrates the Season of Creation by praying and acting together for our common home. The season is celebrated by tens of thousands of Christians annually. With climate change affecting our world at such an alarming rate that governments across the world are declaring a climate emergency, Pope Francis has emphasised our need to respond to this as a Christian community. In 2015, he wrote Laudato Si' - his encyclical letter on the theme of care for our common home. This calls on us all to reflect on the needs of our planet through the lens of faith, understanding that to damage our environment is to damage the world that God has entrusted to us, but equally that to care for our planet is to respond to God's call to stewardship where he asks us to take care of all of his creation.
Reflection on Sunday's Gospel:
Whenwill we all join forces, to reflect and together, devise the future path we need to follow? Should we set aside more time to listen more closely to the message of the Gospel, and to meditate further on it, in order to discover new callings and develop new ways to follow Jesus?
Jesus also warns us to be realistic. We are going through an unprecedented socio-cultural change:
Is it possible to spread the faith in this new world being born, without knowing it well and understanding it from within?
Is it possible to help people gain an understanding of the Gospel if we do not know how the men and women of today think and feel or if we do not understand the language they speak?
Is it not a mistake to respond to the challenges of today with dated and irrelevant policies?
It would be foolish in the present crisis, to act blindly and unthinkingly. We would expose ourselves to failure, frustration and even ridicule. As the parable warns, an unfinished tower would only invite the contempt of people toward the builder. We must not forget the realistic and humble words of Jesus, inviting his disciples to become the transforming influence into the lives of the people.