1 March 2020

 

Holy Mass Intention
Saturday      29th      6:45pm Dec members of Johnson family
Sunday         1st         9:30am James & Edith Hooper RIP
Monday       2nd        6.45pm Foundation (2)
Friday          6th         9.30am Holy Souls NDL
Saturday      8th        6.45pm    Parishioners
Sunday             1st     9.30am Taylor Family
   

 

OTHER SERVICES AND DEVOTIONS
Monday 2nd March: Exposition / Benediction: 7.10-7.45pm, Confessions: 7.10-7.35pm;  Friday 6 March: Stations of the Cross after 9.30am Mass;  Our Lady’s Lamp is sponsored to 5 April – thank you

Holy Mass for Sunday at St. Peter & St. Paul’s, Mawdesley – Saturday at 5.00pm, Sunday at 11.15am

This Week    
Ministry E. Minister Reader
Saturday   M Rouse
Sunday     J Hushon P Allison
Next Week    
Ministry E. Minister Reader
Saturday   M Cookson
Sunday J McDaid D Culshaw

PARISH  OFFERTORY COLLECTION:  £272.10  Thank you                   

COFFEE MORNING / 200 CLUB DRAW:  Next week, 8 March (not 1 March) – to coincide with the Parish Synod Meeting.

SYNOD 2020 PARISH MEETING / COFFEE MORNING / 200 CLUB DRAW: There are leaflets for the final theme of Building community, nurturing belonging’ on the table in the porch.  Please help yourself and give some time to reflect on these important questions.  The final Parish Synod Meeting will be held next week on SUNDAY 8 MARCH, after 9.30am Mass.  Tea, coffee, cakes, sandwiches and biscuits will be served.

MISSION BOXES:  Please bring your Mission Boxes in for counting and leave in the Sacristy.  Many thanks.

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER – FRIDAY 6 MARCH: The Tarleton & District annual service will be held at Hesketh Bank Methodist Church, Chapel Road, at 7.30pm.  The theme this year is ‘Rise! Take Your Mat and Walk’.  All are welcome.

CAFOD FAMILY FAST DAY – 6 MARCH: Envelopes are available from the porch for this year’s Family Fast Day.  CAFOD urgently needs help to fund local experts, like Sr Consilia, who is a trained pharmacist, working in an out-of-town health centre in Zimbabwe. Please Gift Aid your donations – it makes a huge difference!  Envelopes can be returned next week (8 March) and the following week (15 March).

CATHOLIC TIMES / UNIVERSE: Copies are available for parishioners, at the extremely reasonable rate of £1.50 each.  Purchasing a paper enables you to keep up to date with the latest news and developments, both locally, nationally and internationally.  The papers can be found on the table in the porch: 2 copies of The Times and 3 of the Universe.

SEND EASTER CARDS TO OUR PARTNER CHURCH IN THE LATIN PATRIARCHATE OF JERUSALEM: Archbishop McMahon is encouraging all parishes to send cards to their twinned parish in Jerusalem.  Our Lady’s  – and Ss Peter & Paul in Mawdesley – are jointly twinned with the parish of St Joseph’s in Jifna and their priest, Fr Johny Bahbah. Please write your Easter greeting to our brothers and sisters in Jifna parish and leave your card in the box provided in the porch.  They will be sent on 23 March, as they can take several weeks to arrive. Fr Mario da Silva in Gaza says, ‘It is a personal joy for me and my parish to receive every year your cards.  Thank you for your concern about our difficult situation here.

IN THIS WEEK’S UNIVERSE & TIMES

  • Bishop encourages parishioners to remind EU citizens of the need to apply for the Settlement Scheme
  • Italy and the Corona virus
  • Jean Vanier guilty of sexual abuse
  • Review and analysis of the Church’s abuse summit so far
  • Priests who cared for victims of epidemics
  • Vatican wartime records opened to researchers for the first time
  • How to get– and stay – fit
  • Re-dedication of England as the ‘Dowry of Mary’ – 29 March: a national day

LENT: SILENT PRAYER IN A DIGITALLY NOISY WORLD

As Catholics, our lives shift up a gear during Lent, and this shift is visibly marked on Ash Wednesday, with ashes on our foreheads.

Lent offers us a time to take stock of our lives, question our motivations, examine our relationships and pray more attentively.  The ashes on our faces remind us that we are not indestructible, we will not live forever and therefore our life has a real purpose.  We realise that there is something more than this material world in which we bumble around every day.

We need the spiritual dimension of our existence, since we are made up of both spirit and biological matter.  When we can pause from our crazy, technologically and digitally-wired existence, we realise that we need to go deeper – to centre ourselves and commune with God.

Adapted from Sr Nancy Usselmann FSP in The Catholic Times (Focus on Lent) 21 February 2020