Newsletter 24 December 2022

CHRISTMAS EVE

6.00 pm Carol service begins
6.30pm First Mass of Christmas (Private Intention)

CHRISTMAS DAY

9.00am Parishioners 10.30am Thanks (Martins)
The other published Mass intentions will be offered in due course.

First of all we wish all our readers, on the website and the people who picked this newsletter up in church, all the blessings of Christmas as we celebrate the birthday of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We thank God for sending us his Son, telling us the Good News that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us individually, and that Jesus has prepared a place for us to be with him sharing his Life for all eternity, with our sins forgiven us. The angel choir sang of peace to people of good will. May this peace be felt throughout the world, and in our own homes and hearts.

It is hard to think of the world of twelve months ago, when we were tiptoeing our way back to normality after the lockdown and restrictions of Covid. Since that time the invasion of the Ukraine has happened; we have lost our Queen and welcomed a new King; we have faced this upsetting inflation; and have had three prime ministers. Not everyone has survived all the upheaval. We remember them at our Christmas Mass, and give thanks for the strength and guidance given to the rest of us as we plough on as people always have to do. May God bless us all and our fellow citizens this day.

NEXT WEEKEND

Saturday evening Mass at 5.45pm (for the Clayton and Higginson families)
Sunday morning 9.00am (Parishioners) 10.30am (Catherine Evans’ intention)

There will be no services during the week. We dedicate the New Year to God and ask the help of Mary his Blessed Mother.

THANK YOU

Thank you from us all to the people who during the past year have been so unselfish in helping services to keep going – to our musicians and singers, to the volunteers who have acted as sacristans, to the mysterious ‘brownies’ who come and clean the building when no one is looking, to the people who set up the crib, to the ladies who have been decorating the church with flowers, to our health and safety officers, to those who have kept the grounds tidy and attractive, to our readers, and above all to those who have been ready to stand up and be counted in the absence of the parish priest. (who thanks you again for your get-well messages).

A REMINDER that the Christmas collection is taken as personal to the priest.