Category Archives: Clitheroe

Parish Draw

PARISH DRAW will commence in September. Cost of a ticket is £20. You will be given a number which will go into the draw which will take place at the end of each month (10 months in total). If you would like a ticket then please fill in one of the blue forms that are available at the back of church with your name, address and telephone number and pop it in the box provided. Please note: In the past if you received your ticket from either Arnold Marsden, Janet Clegg, Peter Sutcliffe, Sheila Webb, Derrick Hutchinson, Anne Marie Williams, or any other agent namely Margaret Marsden who retired or Mary Preedy who sadly passed away YOU STILL NEED TO COMPLETE ONE OF THE SLIPS.

 

MISSIO (Red Boxes)

MISSIO (Red Boxes) We are asking people to check if they have a red box at home which for some reason may not have been collected for a while. Maybe you have moved house. Envelopes for your donations are available in the porch along with contact details for Janet and Sion Hall. Please call us with any query you may have 01200 428949. As Pope Francis recently said ‘By making a personal donation you are giving a part of yourself, first to the Lord and then to others, which becomes a tool for the evangelisation of humanity built on love.

 

Foodbank shortages

The Foodbank is currently short of sponge pudding, tinned custard, sauces (tomato or brown) and chocolate treats (inc wrapped choc biscuits). Telephone Ruth Haldane on 07849 534431 if you would like to help or info@ribblevalley.foodbank.org.uk

Foodbank – Cookery Classes

Steady progress is being made on our bid to start classes in Clitheroe, but we need more volunteers for the following — cooks—washers up—collecting food from supermarkets—to name but a few. If you are interested in this project or are willing to help in any way then why not come along to our next meeting on Monday 17th August at 7.30pm at The United Reformed Church. We would be delighted to see you and whether or not ask that you will hold this project in your prayers

 

Fr Frankie’s Memory Book

FR FRANKIE’S MEMORY BOOK – a copy of the book that was presented to Fr Frankie is available at the back of church (St Michael & St John’s)—please have a look BUT do not take it home!

Lourdes Pilgrimage – petitions

PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES. Anyone who wishes a petition to be taken for them, to be placed at the grotto, please use the box at the back of the church. The box will be available until Wednesday 29th July. Boxes are also available both in Sabden and Dunsop Bridge

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 5th July 2015 – Weld Day

Dear Parishioners,

Some time ago the Bishop wrote a letter inviting people to write to him and share ideas on how our diocese should organise itself and move forward as a Christian community in the 21st century. He received a massive response both by letter and email and has consolidated many of the questions and suggestions into a questionnaire to gauge opinion on a wide range of issues such as the appropriate age for First Communion, Confirmation, lay involvement in the management of the diocese, the mission of our schools, a diocesan development plan and, Chris Carr will be delighted to learn, whether we should have permanent deacons. All in all there are 33 questions, most of which require ticking either a Yes or a No box.
The paper questionnaire is available at the back of the church or may be answered online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Salford2015 or by the diocesan website at http://www.salforddiocese.net  Please note that you must respond before Friday 7th August.

As the new Parish Priest, last Sunday I celebrated Mass in St Hubert’s Dunsop Bridge and afterwards met and discussed a number of issues with parishioners. Mgr Chaloner is to remain in retirement living in the Presbytery and has kindly agreed to celebrate a 10am Mass on Sundays in St Hubert’s. Midweek I shall celebrate a Mass on Tuesdays at 9.30am and whenever required. Then after the holidays on the 6th September I shall again celebrate the Sunday Mass and afterwards meet with the whole parish in Thorneyholme School to arrange how best we all may contribute to the growth and organisation of the parish within the parish of Our Lady of the Valley.

Teenager Betty Ward, a Dunsop parishioner, writes “My unruly, curly hair is one of my defining features and up until a few years ago I couldn’t bear to think of losing it. However, I met a brave young girl who at the age of 11 was diagnosed with alopecia and began losing her hair. The thing is you don’t just lose your hair; you lose your confidence and feel self-conscious. Please help me support the Little Princess Trust which provides real hair wigs to children with hair loss by sponsoring my hair donation. For me, my hair will grow back but for some children it never will. Help make a little girl feel like a princess again.” So Betty will donate her hair and also hopes to raise money by people sponsoring her. Text BWRD56 followed by £2/£5/£10 to 70070 or go to http://dnasab.net/tag/dnasab/ www.justgiving.com/bettyward.

Happy Weld Day!

Fr John

 

Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Dear Parishioners,

Today I celebrate Sunday Mass in St Hubert’s, Dunsop Bridge, and afterwards shall meet with parishioners to begin the process of shaping our three very different Catholic communities into a cohesive Missionary Parish – as Pope Francis has asked us to become. Thankfully we have behind us the successful amalgamation of St Michael and St John’s Clitheroe with St Mary’s Sabden, in the process of which both communities generously shared, learned and benefited from each other.
Today I have only three aims. The first is to organise a general meeting of St Hubert’s community at which a couple of representatives from Clitheroe and Sabden will be invited to share the stories of their journey to amalgamation and respond to any anxieties which may exist within the Dunsop Bridge community. The second is to arrange for a midweek morning Mass in St Hubert’s (not on Sabden’s Wednesday)! The third is to organise a meeting with a member from the parish finance committee, Mgr Chaloner and a Dunsop representative to discuss finance.

On a different topic, in the 1800’s a Pedlar’s Trunk was discovered at Samlesbury Hall where it had lain hidden in a priest hole for 200 years. The Trunk contained all that was necessary for the celebration of Mass (but disguised as a pedlar’s wares) and is thought to have been used by our martyrs St Edmund Arrowsmith and/or St John Southworth. In 1892 the Trunk was sold at general auction to a local Catholic man who recognised its religious significance. Subsequently it was handed over to the care to Stonyhurst College. The College has loaned it as part of an exhibition at Samlesbury Hall over the coming year. If you would like to visit the exhibition, the Hall is open for visitors Sunday to Friday 11am – 4pm but closed on Saturdays and occasional Fridays. (To check opening times contact 01254 812010). This is a golden opportunity to introduce your children to Lancashire’s Catholic heritage and have a day out.

Finally we celebrate the beginnings of our parish next Sunday on Weld Day, beginning with Sunday Mass at 10.30am in the garden, followed by a parish picnic. A complementary glass of wine, strawberries and ice-cream are provided by kind sponsors – you bring along the family, a picnic and some sunshine.

Fr John

 

The Most Holy Trinity – 31st May 2015

Dear Parishioners,

Speaking recently about the family Pope Francis offered his unique form of spiritual, common sense guidance.
He told a personal story about an occasion when he was rude to a primary school teacher, who promptly called his mother. When his mother came to school the next day, she made him apologize to the teacher and then disciplined him when he got home. Today, instead, he said, parents reprimand the teacher who tries to discipline their child.
He then said it is obvious that the current situation is “not good” or “harmonious,” since it tends to put families and schools in opposition rather than in collaborative relationships.
Further he claimed that parents today are “puzzled by the new demands made by children” and the complexity of life, so that many are “paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake.”
Another problem is that “Educating children is difficult for parents who see their children only in the evening when they return home tired from work.”
“It is even more difficult for parents who are separated, who are weighed down by their circumstances,” he said. He urged separated parents to “never, never, never take a child hostage” by speaking ill of the other parent. He recognized that being separated is “a trial” but added that “children must not be the ones to carry the weight of this separation or to be used like hostages against the other spouse.”
The advice the apostle Paul gives to both children and parents in his Letter to the Colossians (Col 3, 18-21) that children obey their parents in all things and that parents never drive their children to resentment — is “a wise rule,” he said.
To exasperate a child is to ask them to do things they are not able to do, the pope explained. Rather, children must be accompanied and “grow without being discouraged, step by step,” he said.
He also encouraged families to practice patience. “Even in the best of families, there is the need to put up with each other,” he said. “But that’s life. Life is not lived in a laboratory, it’s lived in reality.”
If families were able to recover their pride in being the primary educators of their children, he said, “many things would change for the better, [both] for uncertain parents and for disappointed children.”

Fr John