4 OCTOBER – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
MASS INTENTIONS THIS WEEK – Both parishes
Dec members of the Dilworth family
Dec members of the Kelly family
Holy Souls NDL
Parishioners
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OUR LADY’S and Ss PETER & PAUL’S – Both churches are now open for Sunday Vigil and Sunday Masses only. There are no weekday Masses currently, nor are the churches able to open for private prayer as yet. Social distancing rules require all parishioners wishing to attend, to contact the relevant parish office in order to reserve their place at Mass each week. Please wear a mask. |
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JOINT NEWSLETTER
THE RE-OPENING OF OUR CHURCHES
Please continue to contact the parish office on Thursdays to reserve your place(s) at Our Lady’s on 01772 812242 between 10.30am and 3pm – or email olhct@rcaol.org.uk – and on Fridays to reserve your place(s) for Ss Peter & Paul on 01704 822618 between 10.30am and 3pm, or email ssppm@rcaol.org.uk
Please note that, due to social-distancing rules, stewards may struggle to accommodate anyone who has not reserved a place at Mass. Contact the parish office on Thursdays and Fridays (10.30am – 3pm).
Your help on this is greatly appreciated – it helps us to keep everyone safe.
MASS ON SUNDAYS
Don’t forget that Masses will continue to be live-streamed and televised for many months yet, so you can still take part in Sunday worship and the Act of Spiritual Communion will continue to be an important part of people’s worship for the foreseeable future. Please remember that the Sunday obligation remains lifted. This is especially important for those over 70 and those with underlying health issues, who may be wary of attending public events.
If you have any queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
READINGS FOR 4 OCTOBER
1st Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7, The vineyard of the Lord God of Hosts is the House of Israel
Psalm 79: The vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel
2nd Reading: Philippians 4:6-9, The God of peace will be with you
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43, He will lease the vineyard to other tenants
Gospel acclamation: Alleluia, alleluia! I chose you from the world to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last, says the Lord. Alleluia!
Communion antiphon: The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
THIS WEEK’S GOSPEL REFLECTION FROM THE ARCHDIOCESE
This reflection is from Susan O’Halloran, a parishioner of St Anne’s, Ormskirk and a member of the Environment Task Group within the Archdiocese.
Following directly on from last week’s Gospel, we have another parable based around a vineyard. Here, a landowner develops and gives a vineyard to tenants to cultivate, expecting that he will get a good return. However, the tenants seem to have come to look on the produce as theirs. They mistreat the slaves sent to collect it. When the owner sends his son, presuming that they will respect him, they want even more, the vineyard itself, and murder the son and heir.
How does this relate to us? I presume that Jesus is continuing to speak to the scribes and Pharisees, again indicating that they may not be doing the will of God as they think they are. Are we in danger of complacency, assuming that, as Catholics, we must be doing the will of God? Are we the tenants who forget who has made and given us the vineyard we cultivate –God’s Creation, in all its wonder? Pope Francis wrote about his concerns in his 2015 letter to the world Laudato Si: ‘On Care for our Common Home’. He urged us then to grapple with the crisis of climate change and the damage we are doing to the Earth through pollution and destruction.
What has this got to do with our faith and our lives as Catholic Christians? How much do we hear about Creation Time, the period he established from 1st September to 4th October, which closes today on the feast of St Francis of Assisi? This is a season of prayer and action on the climate crisis and its impact on Our Common Home, which Pope Francis wrote about so eloquently.
We have known we are treating the Earth badly for a long time. In 1824, the French physicist Joseph Fourier described the Earth’s natural “greenhouse effect”. In 2013, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC for short) reported that scientists were 95% certain that humans are the “dominant cause” of steady warming of the Earth since the 1950s. I was born in 1954. My generation, who have lived through a period of peace and prosperity which our parents and grandparents did not experience, have enjoyed our comfortable lives at the cost of the crisis we face now. We have all given our sisters and brothers in the many poorer areas of the world, and children and young people everywhere, a frightening future. And not just the future –the crisis is here now –think of the floods and fires around the world and the record high temperatures we have seen in the UK this summer. I have my father’s school atlas from the 1930’s, which has weather information from all over the UK. Temperatures rarely went above 21°C (70°F), even in the middle of the summer. The climate crisis continues relentlessly, and is easy to forget, while other events occupy us.
All our lives continue to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic. It has caused such devastation that it is hard to see that any good can come of it. Recognising the impact of the virus, and the need to Build Back Better, and bringing together our response to both issues, Pope Francis has exhorted the church to Prepare the Future, a better world in the wake of the pandemic. This may be our opportunity to grow the fruits of the Kingdom. We tend to look towards the life after our time on Earth, but we also, as Pope Francis has made very clear, have a great responsibility to care for our Common Home and all her other inhabitants and all life –our comfort is at the cost of so many of our brothers and sisters, not to mention the animals and plants whose homes and habitats being destroyed for our lifestyles.
It will not be easy to make the radical changes that are needed and, like Jesus, we will come up against many powerful interests. But his challenge to us is there and Pope Francis has spelt out what we need to do. What a great way to witness to our faith and build the kingdom of God
SPIRITUAL REFLECTION FROM ‘OUR FAITH ON SUNDAY’ – 4 OCTOBER
The Lord is very fond of the vineyard and the vine as a paradigm of the Kingdom of Heaven. The prophets return to it as well, again and again: ‘Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard’, Isaiah writes and Jeremiah: ‘Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard’.
When Joseph (of the Dreamcoat) was in prison in Egypt, his companions were Pharaoh’s butler and baker. They had dreams, which Joseph – enabled by God – interpreted for them. The butler dreamed of a vine with three branches, ‘as soon as it budded, its blossom shot forth and the clusters ripened in to grapes’. The Song of Songs is a love-story amongst the vineyards.
All in all, it seems extraordinary that the leaders and teachers among the Jews, Scribes and Pharisees, steeped as they were in the Scriptures, would not admit or recognise the continuity of Jesus’ teaching. Perhaps, deep down, they did, but jealousy blinded them. The Acts of the Apostles tells us later that, ‘a great many of the priests were obedient to the Faith’.
POPE’S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR OCTOBER: We pray that by the virtue of baptism, the laity, especially women, may participate more in areas of responsibility in the Church.
THE ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love you above all things, and I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace you as if you were already there and unite myself wholly to you.
Never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.
OFFERTORY DONATIONS DURING THE LOCKDOWN
Many thanks to generous parishioners who have sent in donations to our churches. Your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.
Instead of putting money in offertory envelopes each week, those who are able to make an offering are asked to complete a Standing Order Mandate for your bank, from either your parish office. We can email the document to you, if you wish, so that you can print off, complete and send to your bank.
Alternatively, you may still wish to write a cheque (payable to either ‘Our Lady Help of Christians Church’ or ‘Ss Peter & Paul Church Mawdesley’) and post to the presbytery with a covering letter and one offertory envelope for gift aid purposes.
Donating by text / online: Please check the May Newsletters and use the links provided
MASSES ONLINE WILL CONTINUE TO BE STREAMED INDEFINITELY
Locally, there is St Clare’s, Sharoe Green Lane, Fulwood: www.saintclares.co.uk which streams Mass daily at 10am. Please follow the easy links on the website.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en Pope Francis
https://www.churchservices.tv/whats-on-now/ Great selection of Masses and other Church services https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/tv-lourdes/ Mass and daily at 2pm, the Rosary in English
https://www.livemass.org Extraordinary Form (1962 Missal)
Use the website links to EWTN, those who have Sky can tune in on Channel 588, or the Archdiocese to access daily Masses
On the radio: Catholic Radio Channel 0147
Also, you may wish to try the Pray as you Go phone app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.foxcode.prayasyougo&hl=en
PRAYERS from the Archdiocese, for Stations of the Cross etc: https://www.liverpoolcatholicresources.com/
Please email the Parish Office with details of any other online services you know of that may help parishioners at this very difficult time. We will try to include them in next week’s Newsletter.
SPECIAL COLLECTION THIS WEEKEND: Peter’s Pence
CAFOD FAMILY FAST DAY 9 OCTOBER: Survive, Rebuild, Heal
In this global crisis CAFOD is working hard to save lives and rebuild hope on the frontlines of this emergency.
Money raised by parishioners is already in action – setting up handwashing stations and providing PPE for health workers, and children with books and pencils so they can study from home while schools are closed, as well as delivering food parcels to city-dwellers.
On Family Fast Day (9 October) we can reach out to our global family by sharing a simple meal – virtually or physically.
Please give what you can to this month’s appeal and donate online at www.cafod.org.uk/give or via text: text CAFOD to 70085 to donate £10. Alternatively, if you are able to attend weekly Mass, please collect an envelope as you enter the church and remember to Gift Aid if you are able. Gift Aid makes a huge difference.
OCTOBER – THE MONTH OF THE ROSARY: Pope Francis, like Pope Emeritus Benedict and St Pope John Paul II, reminds us of this important prayer and devotion, helping us to ponder the mysteries of Christ, with the prayers of Our Lady.
MYSTERIES & WHEN RECITED
JOYFUL: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding in the Temple on Mondays / Saturdays
LUMINOUS: Baptism in the Jordan, Wedding at Cana, proclamation of the Kingdom & Call to Conversion, Transfiguration, Institution of the Eucharist on Thursdays
SORROWFUL: Agony, Scourging, Crowning with thorns, Carrying the Cross, Crucifixion & Death on Tuesdays / Fridays
GLORIOUS: Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of Holy Spirit, Assumption, Coronation of the Blessed Virgin on Wednesdays / Sundays
OUR LADY’S RED MISSION BOXES: Red Mission Boxes can be brought in for counting. Please contact the office (phone or email) if you’d like your box to be collected. Many thanks to those who have already brought in their boxes.
JOINT PARISH CALENDAR: Many thanks again to our parishioners for responding so well to the appeal for local photographs. There are some truly beautiful and inspiring photos of our local area. We will be launching a competition, when everyone can vote for the best cover photograph in the next week or so. Please check the newsletter / website for more details on this.
HARVEST SEASON / PARISH FOODBANK: If you are able to donate non-perishable foodstuffs, please bring them with you to Mass on Saturday or Sunday and leave in the labelled box in the porch / narthex.
NHS COVID-19 APP: If possible, please use your phone app to scan in our QR code when you come to Mass.
JUSTICE & PEACE COMMISSION – Prepare the Future: Taking the Common Good Seriously. Everyone is invited to join Christine Allen, Director of CAFOD who will be giving a talk on Zoom on Saturday 10 October, 2020 at 10:00am – 12 noon including small group discussions to identify local actions. Registration to receive the link is on the Liverpool J&P website jp.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk
SAINTS, SCHOLARS AND SPIRITUAL MASTERS: Free online talks organised by the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst, taking place Thursdays at 7:30pm over the coming months. To register: https://christianheritagecentre.com/event/saints-scholars-spiritual-masters/ or by email to events@christianheritagecentre.com
RECOVERY FROM DIVORCE & SEPARATION
The Archdiocese is running a 6-week course, on Zoom to help anyone currently going though – or who has gone through – a relationship breakdown. Topics will cover facing the effects of what has happened, communication and conflict resolution, managing other relationships, legal issues, being single and moving forward. The course is in small groups and is confidential, informative and affirming. Dates: Monday 12 October to 16 November.
For further details and to book a place on the course, please email Maureen O’Brien on m.obrien@rcaol.org.uk
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES OR NEED ANY HELP, PLEASE CONTACT FR ANDERS AT THE PRESBYTERY IN TARLETON ON 01772 812242, OR EMAIL EITHER OFFICE.
WITH EVERY BLESSING FOR THE COMING WEEK