http://circleplastics.co.uk/?a=fetch Parish Newsletter 7th June 2020 – Trinity Sunday
Alandi I hope that you and your families are all keeping well at this time.
Lent, Easter, Eastertide, Ascension, Pentecost, today Trinity, next Sunday Corpus Christi, so many wonderful feasts, all this year celebrated in such a different way to what we have been familiar with all our life, ways we would never in our wildest dreams have ever imagined. But needs must, and I’m sure we have all found our own way to celebrate them, and will continue to do so for as long as we have to. I of course continue to celebrate Mass in one of our three churches every day, and as I have said so many times, you are daily remembered at the altar.
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day we celebrate that great mystery of our faith, the mystery of the Trinity, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
As Christians our whole lives are immersed in the life of the Trinity, from the moment we were baptised in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, until we leave this earthly life when the prayer is often said ‘Go forth O Christian soul, in the name of the Father who created you, in the name of the Son who redeemed you, and in the name of the Holy Spirit who sanctified you’. So while we are perhaps not able to explain the great mystery of the Trinity, there is no getting away from the fact that our whole life is immersed in this great mystery from our birth to our death.
In our daily lives and in our prayer, let us continue to give glory to the Blessed Trinity from who everything comes and to whom everything goes, and let us continue to pray
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the begining.
is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Lately Dead: We keep in prayer all who have died recently especially David (Dave) Bentley, aged 84 years
Take care and God bless, Fr. Paul.
Reopening Churches: The leaders of all faith communities are in dialogue with the government. Our bishops are trying to show that we have the means of coping with a safe reopening. Salford have proposed a phased reopening of a few churches spread throughout the diocese for private prayer to see how things might work. The diocese have suggested that St. Michael and St. John’s, Clitheroe, a town centre church, could be one of first group of churches to try out these measures but we are still not sure when this could happen. So we now need volunteers who are willing to carry out what will be neccesary.
Please send in your name and contact details if you are willing and able to volunteer. Four people have offered to help up to now. Perhaps you could have a word with parishioners who might not see this notice, who might be able to help out. (See below)
Without volunteers a church will not be able to reopen.
LOCKDOWN EASING:
The government has advised that we may be in a position to re-open our Churches by early July, or possibly sooner for private prayer.
WE ARE GREATLY CHALLENGED WHEN WE RE-OPEN OUR DOORS! The average age of our congregation, and the numbers involved, requires extra sensitivity. There will be a need for volunteers when we open, to limit the numbers in Church and to wipe down surfaces e.g. benches and handles. More information will be given once we receive it.
We obviously need to wait and see what the Bishops and the Government instruct us to do. But we certainly need to be looking ahead to the time when we can open our Churches again. So if you are under 70, and free of any underlying conditions, and would like to volunteer for this role, which would eventually allow our churches to be open, please email me at paul.brindle@dioceseofsalford.org.uk or Janet at janet.clegg@dioceseofsalford.org.uk with your name and contact details, or ring me on 01200 423307. As we receive more guidance from the Diocese I will then be in touch. Thank you.
The Act of Spiritual Communion – St Alphonsus
My Jesus, I believe that Thou art present in the Blessed Sacrament. I love Thee above all things and I desire Thee in my soul. Since I cannot now receive Thee come at least spiritually into my heart. As though you were already there, I embrace Thee and unite myself wholly to Thee; permit that I should never be separated from Thee. Amen.
This week’s feasts:
11 June: Saint Barnabas: born in Cyprus, he became a companion of Saint Paul in his journeys, before returning to Cyprus to preach the Gospel. His name means “Son of Encouragement”
13 June: Saint Anthony of Padua: born in Lisbon in 1195, he first joined the Canons regular of Saint Augustine, but after being inspired by the stories of Franciscan martyrdoms in Morocco he joined the Friars Minor; though he desired to preach in Africa, he ended up in Italy, where he established a reputation as a great preacher and theologian. He died in Padua in 1231, aged 36.
GIFT AID ENVELOPES 2020/21:
We have had some enquiries regarding the new Gift Aid envelopes for the coming twelve months which commenced in April. All the packs of envelopes are ready for distribution. Unfortunately we are unable to issue them until we have had instructions from the diocese to do so in a safe way. Could all of those parishioners who are in touch and are keeping those members of our community who do not have access to the internet with news, please convey this message to them. Also for those of you who are putting their weekly offering aside at home, we ask you to continue doing so until we receive further instructions from the Diocese.
Pope at Pentecost: Holy Spirit unites Christians as God’s children in self-giving
On the Solemnity of Pentecost, Pope Francis urges Christians to ask the Holy Spirit to free them from the paralysis of selfishness and make a gift of themselves by serving and doing good. Let us reflect on as we try to understand what we mean by a New Normal.
Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of Pentecost with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and urged the Holy Spirit to make Christians builders of unity. “Grant us the courage to go out of ourselves, to love and help each other, in order to become one family,” he prayed. Pentecost, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin Mary and the Apostles in Jerusalem, as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-22), is regarded as the birth of the Church.
Unity in diversity
Pope Francis delivered a homily pointing out that despite the diversity of backgrounds and ethnicities among Christ’s followers in the early Church, the Holy Spirit brings about unity by making them realize that they are primarily the children of God. Saint Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians attests to this fact when he says, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.” Coming to our times, Pope Francis said that we too have our differences, such as opinions, choices, sensibilities. But the temptation to fiercely defend our ideas as good for everybody, the Pope warned, is “a faith created in our own image”, “not what the Spirit wants”.
Unity as God’s beloved children
Much more than our beliefs and our morality, the Pope said, the Spirit unites us as “God’s beloved children,” and “that we have one Lord – Jesus – and one Father, and that for this reason we are brothers and sisters!” The Spirit loves us and knows everyone’s place in the grand scheme of things, the Pope said. “We are not bits of confetti blown about by the wind, rather we are irreplaceable fragments in His mosaic.”
Gift of self and proclamation
Taking a closer look at the day of Pentecost, Pope Francis said that the first task of the Church is proclamation. The Spirit does not want the Apostles to be locked in upper rooms where it is easy to “nest”. Rather, He “opens doors and pushes us to press beyond what has already been said and done, beyond the precincts of a timid and wary faith.” After Pentecost, one thing that kept the Apostles going, the Pope said, was “the desire to give what they received”. In the Church, the Pope said, the Spirit guarantees unity to those who proclaim the message. The “secret of unity” of the Holy Spirit, the Pope pointed out, is a gift, as He Himself is gift. Hence, it is important to believe that “God is gift”, that He acts not by taking away, but by giving. If we realize that what we are is due to His free and unmerited gift, then “we too will want to make our lives a gift”. “By loving humbly, serving freely and joyfully, we will offer to the world the true image of God.”
Three enemies of self-giving
However, in this gift of self, the Pope noted there are three enemies: narcissism, victimhood and pessimism.
Narcissism…
the Pope said, makes us concerned only with how we can profit from it. In this time of the pandemic, the Pope lamented the tendency to think only of our own needs, to be indifferent to those of others.
Victimhood…
he said, is equally dangerous. Victims complain every day about their neighbours – that no one understands them, no one experiences what they experience and everyone is against them. In the present crisis, he noted, we are experiencing how ugly victimhood is.
Pessimism…
is an unending complaint that “nothing is going well in society, politics, the Church…”. A pessimist gets angry with the world, but sits back and does nothing. In the current crisis, the Pope said it is damaging to “see everything in the worst light and to keep saying that nothing will return as before”.
Famine of hope
“When someone thinks this way,” the Pope observed, “the one thing that certainly does not return is hope.” “We are experiencing a famine of hope,” he said, “and we need to appreciate the gift of life, the gift that each of us is.” “We need the Holy Spirit, the gift of God who heals us of narcissism, victimhood and pessimism.”
Anthony Brown, Parish CARITAS Rep.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
CHURCH NOTICES
May 29th 1932 Sunday after Corpus Christi
Next Sunday is the Communion Day for the Women’s & Boys Sodalities.
Today: No afternoon Service. At 6.30: Rosary: Procession in honour of Our Lady in which the Sodalities take part: & Benediction. Weather permitting, the Procession will be continued to the Infants’ Playground. The Collection at the evening service will be taken at the door on entry.
Tuesday: The Women’s Sodality will meet at 7.30pm in the Church, and afterwards in the Hall. The Boys Sodality will meet in the Club on Tuesday evening at 7.30.
Thursday: Holy Hour at 7.30: Confessions from 7.30 – 9
Friday: First Friday and Feast of the Sacred Heart. Masses will be at 7, 8, & 8.30
Rosary & Benediction at 7.30
Saturday: Mass will be said in the Cemetery Chapel at 8.30 for the repose of the Souls of those buried in our Cemetery. Communion will not be given during this Mass. A collection will be taken after this mass. As accommodation in the Chapel is limited, those attending Mass outside the Chapel are asked to stand during the ceremony. There will be no 8.30 Mass in the Church that morning.
Will those who are interested in Clitheroe Catholic Ramblers Assoc kindly attend a meeting in the Hall after evening service.
The Catholic Men’s Club is not receiving adequate support from the Men of the Congregation. The Committee are most anxious to increase its membership