Newsletter 8 October 2021
Greetings to everyone, especially our readers online.
Incidentally, if any of you wish to comment, you are welcome to do so. Please use the telephone or the e-mail address above. The ‘Contact us’ facility attracts anonymous advertisers and I tend to delete their messages. October rushes by, with a vague orange tint of autumn, which used to be in September (when ‘leaves of brown came tumbling down’) but now happens in late November. October has been a time for reciting the daily rosary. As usual there is so much to pray for. This week particularly we are asked to pray for the fruitfulness of the consultation which the Holy Father is initiating this week. As soon as I get any information about it, or requests for ideas, I most certainly will pass them on. Meanwhile we are invited to pray. If it seems good to the Holy Spirit, it will succeed.
The readings at Mass this weekend contain an important passage from Hebrews about the
power of God’s word, and Wisdom gives us a paean of praise about the most profitable of gifts, which eventually brings with it even riches. But in the gospel Jesus warns how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. ‘Why would we want to?’ seems to be their question.
There will be Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament here at St Winefride’s on Tuesday at 7.00pm followed by Mass at 7.30pm. There will also be Mass on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings at 9.15am. On Thursday morning after Mass we welcome people back to enjoy the coffee mornings, not just for the ‘aficionados’ but for a new crowd of sociable people. We have feasts of English saints this week: St. Wilfrid, an influential seventh century bishop of York, (Tuesday) and St Edward, a holy king of Saxon England (Wednesday) who died in 1066. Friday is the feast of the Spanish reforming nun St Teresa of Avila. Mass intentions have been offered for John Dodd, Sean O’Cleirigh, Sister Catherine Joy and ‘Geoff and Rita’.
RE lessons on Thursdays
The first important task is to identify any children in years 3 or 4 (a double intake) who want to make their first Holy Communion, and they will take priority. Please would parents of these young people find an enrolment form at the back of church, fill it in, and hand it to Fr Elder before half term at the latest. When we know the numbers we can arrange for suitable instruction to be given. Please register immediately, and let other parents know.
Last week the CAFOD envelopes were available for you to help those people in less fortunate economic states than us. There was more ‘loose plate’ than usual. If you still wish to donate, please do so this week, but please use the special envelopes, whether you can ‘gift-aid’ the donation or not. There have been other requests for money this week, from the Diocesan welfare service ‘Caritas’ and from ‘Right to Life UK’. See our noticeboard.
We are trying to re-establish our music for the Saturday evening Mass, and would like to increase our numbers is possible. If there are any musicians (grade 4+) who would be interested in joining the music group, please contact Annette Bourke (753321).
Fr Tony
