All posts by 3 churches

Summer schedule

newsletter

The Eucharist is at the centre of our lives. As we gather together to receive Jesus in his Word and his Sacrament, we grow into the One whom we receive, in order to share him withour world. And that “togetherness” is an essential part of being his follower.

For the first summer or two when I came to the 3 Churches, we followed a “summer schedule” for Sunday Masses in our 3 Churches. This was done to avoid having to bring in priests from outside, and therefore to enable one priest to celebrate all the Masses on summer weekends. We moved on to welcome visiting priests, but now the picture has changed, and there are no longer as many – if any – priests “out there” to assist us. We are very grateful to those who have helped in June, but not all can assist beyond this month.

Therefore from the weekend of 4/5 July we will follow a summer schedule this year with 5 Masses instead of our usual 7 over Saturday evening and Sunday. Principles in deciding how to do this included the availability of Fr Leyshon, and possibly others, to help in the earlier morning “slot”. This factor suggested 2 Masses at 9 and one at 10.30. As our 3 churches are roughly aligned north to south it seemed to indicate that the two 9 o’clock Masses should be at Christ the King and St Paul’s and 10.30 centrally at St Brigid’s. Secondly, as Christ the King and St Brigid’s are the larger churches, it suggested one Saturday evening and one Sunday evening Mass at each of those two.

So this is the timetable for July, August and September (or until further notice). I know we will all work together at the very centre of what we are about.

Saturday evening 6.30pm Christ the King
Sunday morning 9.00am St Paul’s
Sunday morning 9.00am Christ the King
Sunday morning 10.30am St Brigid’s
Sunday evening 6.00pm St Brigid’s
Fr Matthew

The sacred heart

newsletter,

The devotion to the Sacred Heart can sometimes get a little lost in sentimentality. Yet it points to a truth which Pope Francis is reminding us is at the very centre of our Faith – the mercy of God. Sometimes it is the language of prayers etc which can put us off, so here are three traditional prayers in modern English. The first was written by St Margaret Mary Alacoque, the visionary of the Sacred Heart in Paraty-le-Monial in Burgundy.

O Heart of love,
 I place all my trust in you.
 I fear all things from my own weakness,
 but I hope for all things from your goodness.

Secondly, from St Claude la Colombiere SJ her spiritual director:

Jesus I feel within me
 a great desire to please you but, at the same time,
 I feel totally incapable of doing this
 without your special light and help, 
which I can expect only from you. 
Accomplish your will within me, 
even in spite of me.

And lastly a prayer from Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

Make us worthy, Lord,
 to serve our fellow human beings throughout the world
 who live and die in poverty and hunger.
 Give them through our hands this day
 their daily bread,
 and by our understanding love
 Give peace and joy.

Fr Matthew

The Northern Arc

3 churches

As Catholics we know we are part of the universal Church, and also part of the local Church – our diocese, gathered around our Archbishop, George Stack. More locally we are part of Cardiff deanery, and therefore in our planning we must take into account all these “bonds”. Over recent years several parts of the city have begun to do pastoral planning in local groups of parishes.

In one sense we here in the 3 Churches blazed the trail here in this joint planning, but we too are part of these different levels, we too have neighbours. A few months ago the Archbishop asked me to start working more closely with Fr Gareth Leyshon of St Philip Evans and Fr William Isaac of St Teilo’s and Our Lady of Lourdes. He referred to us as the “Northern Arc”! We have met three or four times since and have begun work on three fronts, with a few others lined up behind them.

Baptism preparation

We are aiming to set up a joint Baptism Preparation course to run every month instead of our current every few months. All baptism catechists and those interested are invited to come to a shared meeting at St Brigid’s Hall on Monday 22nd June at 7.30pm. If you would like to come along, please let me know.

Marriage preparation

We are collating resources for the preparation of couples getting married, with a view to sharing good practice and perhaps cooperating in the preparation too.

General issues of cooperation including weekend Masses

We are convening a joint meeting of two parishioners of each of the six churches plus we three priests on Wednesday 24th June, again at St Brigid’s Hall. We will discuss the principles of cooperation in the mission of the Church. Our own current experience here in the 3 Churches shows how close we are to being unable to sustain the current pattern of weekend Masses. St Philip Evans have their own issues also. In the absence of Fr Tomy, we came very, very close to having to reduce the number of Saturday evening and Sunday Masses for the month of June. This reveals that the current pattern of 13 Masses within the cluster and several involving our priest elsewhere, sustained by 4 priests in our six churches is under severe pressure when one is on holiday or sick etc. I must emphasise that this is an exploratory meeting, a gathering to seek a vision of how to proceed, while understanding that we really cannot remain as we are. Our Parish Councils are advising me on who to represent our 3 Churches.

Please remember this initiative in your prayers. We live in times of challenge for the Church, challenges both from the world in which we live and challenges from within the Church too. Yet with the Lord’s promise to be with us always, the principles of the Second Vatican Council, the leadership of Pope Francis and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are more than up to those challenges.

Fr Matthew