buy gabapentin online overnight uk Dear Parishioners,
This week I include important comments from Pope Francis’ address to the World Methodist Council, the Methodist Council of Europe and the Methodist Church in Britain meeting in Rome on 7^th April.

I offer warm greetings to you in this Easter season, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord who enlightens the whole world.  I wish to thank you for the kind words addressed to me.  We come together united in the faith that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised him from the dead.  This baptismal faith makes us truly brothers and sisters.

I was pleased to learn of the opening of the Methodist Ecumenical Office in Rome. It is a sign of our growing closeness, and particularly of our shared desire to overcome all that stands in the way of our full communion. May the Lord bless the work of the office and make it a place where Catholics and Methodists can encounter one another and grow in appreciation of one another’s faith, whether they be groups of pilgrims, those training for ministry, or those who guide their communities. May it also be a place where the progress achieved through our theological dialogue is made known, celebrated, and advanced.

John Wesley, in a letter to a Roman Catholic, wrote that Catholics and Methodists are called to “help each other on in whatever … leads to the Kingdom”. May the new common statement encourage Methodists and Catholics to help one another in our lives of prayer and devotion. In the same letter, Wesley also wrote, “if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike”. It is true that we do not as yet think alike in all things, and that on issues regarding ordained ministries and ethics, much work remains to be done. However, none of these differences constitute such an obstacle as to prevent us from loving in the same way and offering a common witness to the world. Our lives of holiness must always include a loving service to the world; Catholics and Methodists together are bound to work in different ways in order to give concrete witness to the love of Christ. When we serve those in need, our communion grows.

In today’s world, afflicted by so much evil, it is more than ever vital that as Christians we offer a joint witness inspired by the light of Easter, becoming a sign of the love of God, which in the resurrection of Jesus is victorious. May this love, also through our humble and courageous service, reach the hearts and lives of our many brothers and sisters who are looking for such love even without knowing it.

impulsively Ecumenism is a high priority for Pope Francis

Fr John

Dear Parishioners,

“To live is to change.  And to be perfect is to have changed often.”  Famous words of John Henry Newman.  They reflect one of the great demands of the Gospel, which is Christ’s call to each one of us to change.  It is not always welcome, it’s not always comfortable, it’s not always easy, but like it or not, if we refuse to change we will die.  That goes for us as individuals, and for us as a Christian community. (This is reason for the recent parish meeting!) To live is to change.  To be perfect is to have changed often.
Those called to the consecrated life (priests and sisters in religious orders) or to the diocesan priesthood live this out in a special way: a divine intervention takes their lives in unimagined directions. In turn, their changed lives influence others and help many people make the changes necessary to growing in faith, in relationships and in responsibility. The apostles are the most startling example of divinely disrupted lives. ‘Follow me,’ said Jesus, and they left their fishing nets so that untold numbers of people might hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today we pray especially that those God is calling may allow this divine intervention into their lives so that they might become the disciples Christ intends them to be as priests or religious.

This year in Salford Diocese, we look forward to the ordination to the Priesthood of Rev Michael Deas and Rev Richard Howard who are completing their studies at the Venerable English College, Rome. We also have two ordinations to the diaconate: Mark Paver (whom you will remember was on placement with us) also from the English College in Rome and Gavin Landers from Oscott College, Birmingham. Please hold them in your prayers as well as our other students who are continuing their journey in formation: Damien Louden, at the Beda, Rome; Callum Brown (who was also on placement here) and Bob Hayes at Oscott College, as well as Luke Bradbury at the English College in Valladolid, Spain. Please also remember in prayer Daniel Gillard who is currently making a formal application to the Diocese for the coming academic year.

Today there is special collection to pay for the training of these young men and the money you give is essential. In 2014 expenditure on training these future priests exceeded income by £165,000. Please give generously.

Fr John

Dear Parishioners,

On Wednesday evening 59 parishioners responded to the bishop’s request that we review parish structures and activities to identify our strengths, challenges and pastoral needs. Participants represented all three church communities and between tea and cakes managed to cover the evening’s agenda. What became glaringly obvious were the very different challenges facing our three communities. I will take a report to the Deanery and the Bishop. To remodel our parish along Pope Francis’ missionary parish model will be a long haul but we have begun and I’m grateful to all who attended.

Due to the haste of adding Offertory Boxes for St Hubert’s to an order already at the printers no one noticed the omission of Dunsop Bridge from the envelopes. I apologise for this mistake which will be ratified when next we reorder envelopes.

If you go on line to www.clicktopray.org or on twitter or facebook at click to pray you’ll be taken to a new prayer app which encourages support of the Pope’s monthly prayer intentions. In addition it offers a prayer to begin and to end the day.

Our Lady of the Valley is a rural parish so Pope Francis’ April prayer for small farmers caught my eye.

Father of goodness, You created this world for your children

who draw their livelihood from the land.

The fruit of each person’s work should be a decent life,

but many are exploited at work, such as small farmers,

in favour of the economic interests of the powerful.

Touch the hearts of all, so that justice may be done to reward

those who need your support.

I also pray for Christians in Africa, especially those living amid

 conflict, that they may be strong in love and faith.

Our Father…; Hail Mary…; Glory be…

Resolutions for this month:

• I will seek to purchase products from small farmers to support their work.
• I will inform friends of the injustice caused by those who profit at the expense of others.
• I will pray both privately and publicly for the persecuted Christians in Africa.
• Fr John

HOLY WEEK

This week we embark on a journey that will take us from the joy of Palm Sunday through the suffering and sorrow of Holy Week to the triumph and celebration of Easter.

Maundy Thursday

Clitheroe 8.00pm Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

We commemorate the last meal that Jesus ate with his disciples in which he washed their feet and instituted the Eucharist. Afterwards he walked to the Garden of Gethsemane where the Apostles were unable to stay awake and pray with him. In darkness he was arrested. We commemorate this by the removal of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose. As a community we respond to Christ’s words, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” by watching with Christ from 9.00pm until Compline (the Church’s night prayer) at 10.00pm.

Good Friday
Today is a day of Fast and Abstinence

Clitheroe 9.00am Stations of the Cross

Sabden 10.00am Stations of the Cross

Clitheroe: 10.00am Ecumenical Service at St Mary Magdalene’s, followed by procession of the Cross to Castle Gate

Sabden: 11.00am Ecumenical Service at the Village Cross

Clitheroe 3.00pm Celebration of the Lord’s Passion

Jesus died at the ninth hour, three o’clock in the afternoon. We gather in mourning to hear St John’s account of Jesus’ Passion; to pray for all for whom Christ died; to venerate the cross on which he died; and to share the fruit of his redeeming death in Holy Communion.

Holy Saturday    

Clitheroe 8.00pm Easter Vigil

In darkness, the Easter fire and the blessing of the Paschal Candle celebrate Our Saviour’s resurrection from the dead and the victory of light over darkness. Extended readings recall God’s redeeming acts throughout history that culminated in the Resurrection. The Easter Water is blessed and we are invited to commit ourselves afresh to Christ by renewing our baptismal promises. This Vigil Mass is the most important Service of the whole year and should be attended even in preference to Mass on Easter Sunday itself.

Easter Sunday

Clitheroe 9.30am Mass & Renewal of Baptismal Promises

Dunsop Bridge 10am Mass & Renewal of Baptismal Promises

Sabden 11am Mass & Renewal of Baptismal Promises

A prayerful Holy Week and Joyous Easter to all our parishioners…

Dear Parishioners,

You may recall a few weeks ago that I quoted Pope Francis stating that we shouldn’t think of sin as a ‘stain’ on the soul that needs washing away but rather as a wound that needs healing. There is a sacrament of this, that heals both spiritually and psychologically: it is the sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Confession.

In the same interview Pope Francis was asked: “You have said many times, that God never tires of forgiving, it is we who get tired of asking him for forgiveness. Why does God never tire of forgiving us?”

He replied: “Because he is God, because he is mercy, and because mercy is the first attribute of God. Mercy is the name of God.

There are no situations we cannot get out of; we are not condemned to sink into quicksand, in which the more we move the deeper we sink. Jesus is there, his hand extended, ready to reach out to us and pull us out of the mud, out of sin, out of the abyss of evil into which we have fallen. We need only be conscious of our state, be honest with ourselves, and not lick our wounds. We need to ask for the grace to recognize ourselves as sinners. The more we acknowledge that we are in need, the more shame and humility we feel, the sooner we will feel his embrace of grace. Jesus waits for us, he goes ahead of us, he extends his hand to us, he is patient with us. God is faithful. Mercy will always be greater than any sin; no one can put a limit on the love of the all-forgiving God.

Just by looking at him, just by raising our eyes from ourselves and our wounds, we leave an opening for the action of his grace. Jesus performs miracles with our sins, with what we are, with our nothingness, with our wretchedness.

This week the First Holy Communion children from our three schools, Dunsop, Clitheroe and Sabden, will receive the sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time.

On Tuesday evening at St Michael and St John’s beginning at 6.30pm.

On Wednesday evening at St Mary’s Sabden, beginning at 6pm

Parents and parishioners are invited and encouraged to join with them and take advantage of this opportunity to receive this great sacrament of healing, forgiveness and peace.

Fr John