Category Archives: newsletter

Golden opportunities

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Guests at a Baptism are often surprised to be asked to turn around and face the back of the church at the beginning of the liturgy. We then explain that we are standing at the door of the church building, reminding us that Baptism is the door into the real Church – the People of God. Buildings come and go, but the real Church goes on, whether with buildings or not. However, as soon as Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire, and wherever it has taken root in our world, God’s people have wanted a place to gather together for the Mass, a place to come for prayer and peace, a home for the Blessed Sacrament.

And so it is that this year we celebrate 50 years of St Brigid’s Church – the building. Born of the expansion of our city in the decades after the war, and taking over from the smaller and simpler previous church, we have journeyed onwards in the beautiful Church bequeathed to us.

Anniversary Mass

We remember the years and the people today at 10.30 Mass, the anniversary of the first Mass in the church.

Jubilee Lunch

We gather at the New House, where we celebrate our shared birthday!

Church display

In the Lady Chapel to the left of the altar you will find various liturgical items from the beginning of the parish. Why not take a look?

Parish booklets

Available from today are two booklets kindly prepared for us by parishioner David Mclees. The story of the building of our church provides a fascinating insight into the life and working of the parish and diocese 50 years ago. See the discarded proposals, and spot people from those days. The second booklet captures in words the amazing story of our patron Saint Brigid of Kildare. How much do you know about her? Not much, maybe. Enquire within…

Children’s competition

We are running a competition for our younger parishioners between this weekend and the anniversary of the Blessing of the Church on 1st December. Come on and show the gifts of the young people of our own time! Pick up a folder from the back of our churches.

Lastly, many, many thanks to all of you who work in the present and for the future of all 3 of our Churches. May God bless and reward you all!

Fr Matthew

Leave it to the experts, Fr Matthew

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This year the Feast of the Cross falls on a Sunday. Rather than offer here a reflection for the feast, I will leave it to no less than St Paul and Jesus Himself. Here are the first reading and most of the Gospel from today’s Mass, Philippians 2:6-11 and John 3:13-17. The sentence in bold is John 3:16 – a verse which many say is the greatest in the whole Bible. If you want to memorise just one verse – it should be this one.

His state was divine,
yet he did not cling to his equality with God
but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are, he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death, death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name which is above all other names
so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

The Son of Man must be lifted up
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

Fr Matthew

Never ending prayer

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As you read this, I can guarantee that thousands of people across the world are praying for you, for the Church and for the world. They are following what we call “The Prayer of the Church”, also known as the “Divine Office”, or as the “Breviary”, from the book that contains it. So what is the Prayer of the Church?

God’s people must be a people of prayer, and there has always been a tradition of continuous prayer, going back to the Temple of Jerusalem. Our ancient welsh Celtic monasteries always had someone praying in their churches. The Prayer of the Church finds its roots more particularly in the prayer life of the monks and nuns in their monasteries, joining together at regular intervals during the day to pray as a community. This has always been in addition to the individual’s prayer time. Over the centuries this custom spread to all clergy and religions. When I was ordained it was one of our promises – to pray with and for the whole church according to the Divine Office. Since Vatican II the whole Church has been encouraged to join in this very special form of prayer. It is part of the official worship of the Church, and so, along with the Mass and the Sacraments, we call it part of our Catholic “liturgy”, and not just a devotion like the Way of the Cross or even the Rosary. In fact, yet another official name for it is the “Liturgy of the Hours”

The Prayer of the Church, in a four week cycle, is centred around the sequence of the psalms, plus hymns, readings and intercessions, and is uniform right across the whole Church. It is broken into five or seven parts throughout the day – the “hours” – with Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer being the main “hinges” as it were.

Morning and Evening Prayer has been prayed in Christ the King before the appropriate Masses for many years. From time to time I am asked if some of it could be prayed in St Brigid’s also. Therefore, on Monday 15th September I will give a short talk on the Prayer of the Church after morning Mass at St Brigid’s, i.e. at approximately 10.00am. It will be about 30-40 minutes and enable us to decide a way forward. Whichever of our 3 Churches you attend, you will be very welcome to join us.

Fr Matthew