Newsletter 10 September 2020
Hello Again!
The Prime Minister doesn’t like giving bad news, but his speech this week was not exactly encouraging. Many people would like to blame him, but it isn’t really his fault. Some people I speak to seem quite depressed. Normal men and women can only take so much gloom, doom, and despondency before they start expecting everything to be going wrong. I trust that most of you are feeling tough enough, and can lift the spirits of others when they seem to be going under. Do keep your personal prayer wheels turning, storming heaven on your own behalf and for all those whose need is greater than yours.
The theme of the readings at mass this Sunday is forgiveness. The gospel has a parable about a man whose debt is forgiven, but then he badgers other poor wretches who owe him. It is a clear message and there is a threat for those souls who themselves refuse to forgive. The first reading from one of the Wisdom books spells out the importance and the benefits of forgiving those who have wronged us, and asks those who won’t forgive how they can expect forgiveness from God.
Thank you all for phoning and booking a place at Mass. Happily we got a full house even for the third Mass last Sunday, and this coming Sunday there is nearly a full quota for all three Mass times.
Don’t forget, phone Wednesday afternoon from 2.00pm onwards, until 10.00pm. I myself keep forgetting to put my bins out for emptying, so I understand if you are late phoning – memory lets all of us down at times. Some of you seem delighted to be back at mass. Others had a look and didn’t come again. The atmosphere I’m told is very prayerful and relaxed. ‘Where two or three of you are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of you’.
I have offered Mass for Peter Whitelegg, Margaret Coffey, the intentions of the Cooke family, the souls of Hugh McWilliams and Peter Verdin, for Mary Trotter’s intentions, and this coming weekend mass will be offered for all sick parishioners, for Marie & Harold White, and for the parish as a whole. I was allowed into Cheshire Grange NH this week to anoint one of the people I have been caring for during the past eighteen months, (but not during the pandemic). It must be very hard for the patients but also for their relatives, who are not allowed to visit, and also for the staff in these places who try to keep up their own and the residents’ spirits. We keep them in our prayers as well as Fr Mike Dyson (very tall with a limp) who is seriously ill in his care home in Cheadle.
“God’s wrath will come to an end; he will not be angry for ever.
He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults”
(Ps 109 v12 )
Fr Tony Elder
