All posts by 3 churches

The Coming

advent

Welcome to the season of Advent, “The Coming”. We celebrate the fact that we believe in God who comes to us. He came at Bethlehem, he will come again at the end of time, and meanwhile he comes to us in Word and Sacrament among other ways. Truly God-who-comes, God who is with us – Emmanuel!

At Nain, years later, the people who had watched Jesus raise the widow’s son proclaimed that God had visited his people. We have this season, then, to prepare for our greatest visitor, Jesus, true God and true Man. The world is ahead of us in its commercial preparation for the secular Christmas. We start today, the beginning of a new Church year, to show the world what it really means to prepare for Christ-mas, the Mass-of-Christ..

1. I invite you to take time to absorb the Word of God this Advent. Take a look at the accounts of the Christmas story in the opening chapters of the Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke, then move on to the first chapter of St John to see his wonderful meditation on those same events. Use the various publications and online resources that are available to help you.

2. Pope Francis has proclaimed a special Year of Mercy to start on 8th December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The next day, Wednesday 9th we in the so-called Northern Arc of parishes, will celebrate an Evening of Mercy. Fr Isaac, Fr Leyshon and myself will be in St Brigid’s to celebrate mercy through the sacrament of Reconciliation from 6.30pm until 7.30pm. We will then concelebrate Mass for the beginning of the Year of Mercy. I will preside and Fr Isaac will preach. This special evening will replace our normal Advent Penitential service.

3. Our 3 Churches Carol Service this year takes place at St Paul’s on Tuesday December 22nd at 7pm. This will be a great opportunity to usher in the Christmas season together, after school events have ended and most of your home preparations are done. Put it in your diary!

4. Our Christmas Masses will be at the same times as last year. Christmas Eve 6pm at all three churches. 10pm at Christ the King and St Brigid’s. Christmas morning 9am St Paul’s, 10am Christ the King, 11am St Brigid’s. There will be Midnight Mass at St Philip Evans.

So take note of these ways of celebrating the Coming this year – and happy Advent!

Fr Matthew

Seize the opportunity

newsletter

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, marking the last Sunday of the Church’s year. We all congratulate Christ the King church community on the parish feast!

If this is the last Sunday, then next week must be the first of the new year – the First Sunday of Advent. A time for new beginnings, fresh starts… I would like to take this opportunity to invite those who have been considering becoming Catholic to take a step in faith at this time of new starts. Our RCIA groups that help people explore the faith are starting at this time, and always welcome new faces.

Now this might be you who are reading this, or it might be a spouse or relative; it might be a friend or work colleague; it could be anyone that you have heard express an interest! There are no strings attached at this stage – it is an opportunity to explore together with some friendly faces the faith that we all hold so dear. If you or someone you know has shown such interest, let them know. If they have never mentioned it, but you suspect, then make an invitation – you never know what the Lord has up his sleeve… Whoever you or they are, tell them to seize the moment and get in touch with me, Fr Matthew, in the first instance at the Presbytery. Contact details are at the top of this page.

RCIA stands for “The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults”, a bit of a mouthful, but it could be understood more as a “come and see” opportunity. This was what Jesus said one day to the two disciples who had been followers of John the Baptist, but who were thinking of following Him instead. Whether we have been following another community within Christianity, or another faith or no faith at all, the Lord calls each according to her or his circumstances. Each one is different, and so the journey onwards, while sharing common teachings, practices etc, will be different for each one.

Fr Matthew

Mass times (part II)

3 churches

In the last newsletter, we announced that next weekend, the Feast of Christ the King, we will move from our summer schedule to our new permanent timetable for weekend Masses.

Masses

Saturday 6.00pm Christ the King
Sunday 9.00am St Paul
9.00am Christ the King
11.00am St Brigid
6.00pm St Brigid
This week: some consequences
Confessions St Brigid’s Saturday 10.00-10.30 as at present
Christ the King Saturday 5.30pm
St Paul Friday before or after 9.30am Mass

Baptisms

We will keep under review the preferred times and locations for the Sacrament of Baptism.

Confirmation

Next year there will be one celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation for our 3 Churches on Friday 17 June.

First Holy Communion

Timetables for this are being worked out at the moment.

Ministries

Now that we have a permanent timetable, where times or locations have changed, I ask those who have exercised any ministry but now attend a different Mass, please let the coordinator of that ministry know so that you can become part of the team in the new Mass. Readers, Eucharistic Ministers, welcomers, intercessions writers, altar servers, musicians and singers – all should feel welcome in all our celebrations.

So please remember, next weekend some of our Mass times change slightly. At St Brigid’s 11am we will welcome children and staff from our parishes’ primary school, Christ the King, who will take part in the various ministries etc. On Youth Sunday, as it has been nominated by the Bishops, all young people are especially invited to that Mass, including students from Corpus Christi and other high schools, other primary schools etc.