Category Archives: Weekly View

Gap Year? – Just Youth

THINKING OF TAKING A GAP YEAR?  We’re Just Youth, a youth ministry project based in Salford run by the Spiritans, who work with children/young people in the North West.  We need volunteers between ages of 18-26 to join our team this summer—enthusiastic creative and willing young people .  If you are fresh out of college or Uni rise to the challenge and take a gap year with us.  admin@justyouth.co.uk or visit our website http://www.justyouth.co.uk

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 28 January 2018

CARITAS SUNDAY

Caritas Diocese of Salford is the official charity that co-ordinates Social Work within the diocese. Its vision is that the lives of all people should be free from poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. It helps the most vulnerable children, young people and adults in our communities to transform their lives and fulfil their potential. It raises awareness on human trafficking and campaigns for justice.  It welcomes the stranger and visits the housebound.  It works in schools and supports young mothers and babies.  Four young parishioners from Sabden raised £100 towards St Augustine’s High School total of around £800 to decorate the Caritas Young Parents Home in Blackburn.

Last year this parish raised £793 for Caritas’s Refugee Response, out of a total of £37,238, this went directly to the ground-breaking work across the Diocese to welcome refugees and asylum seekers.  From almost zero activity just two years ago, Caritas has set up Refugee and Asylum Centre Drop-Ins in Haslingden and Wythenshawe to provide casework support and a welcome face to those escaping war or persecution.  They have provided Volunteer-led English lessons; worked with Revive in Manchester to arrange days out in our parish communities in the Ribble Valley and Irlam; and in October they launched the Refugee Come Dine with Me parish initiative, after a pilot involving many of our parishioners.  Caritas has continued to pioneer the Refugee Community Sponsorship Programme, taking the Canadian model, where a community group welcomes a Refugee Family; from meeting them at the airport, to finding local accommodation, helping with schools, medical registration and providing friendship.  From the original pilot at St Monica’s, Flixton another nine parishes have followed suit and Caritas worker Sean Ryan received an MBE in the New Year’s honours list as a recognition of his leadership and coordination of his leading-edge work with refugees.

Caritas offers emergency accommodation to the destitute, and supporters are campaigning for individual asylum seekers, even in some instances housing them in their own homes! They continue to respond to poverty and social injustice in our parishes in whatever form it might take.  This year’s second collection will enable us to reach out with compassion to those greatest in need.

To learn more, go to www.caritassalford.org.uk or contact the parish’s Caritas Representative, Anthony Brown on 01200 422811.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 21 January 2018

Dear Parishioners,

The Maintenance committee met on Tuesday to review recent projects, ongoing work and urgently required maintenance.

Major completed projects include the external repair and redecorating of SMSJ’s church, presbytery and social centre. Inside the church the loop and audio system have been improved by relaying wires and introducing four auxiliary speakers.

The total refurbishment of the porch/sacristy in Sabden is nearing completion. A steel H beam replaced the main roof support which had rotted, the plaster and cement were hacked off the walls, an area of dry rot was eliminated, the window replaced and floor, walls and ceiling were insulated to warm the coldest room in Sabden! The outside steps have also been replaced.

Major redevelopments begin in Dunsop this week to extend the extremely cramped sacristy and provide storage space for the church by incorporating a back room from the presbytery. The house will be divided from the church before a total refurbishment will make it an attractive rental in the property market. The income will eventually repay the parish for the budgeted cost of £66,000 and then provide financial security for St Hubert’s Church which as you are aware is now listed at grade II. A new toilet will be introduced next to the Church.

From Monday 26th February to 9th March work will be carried out in the porch of St Michael and John’s. During this period, entrance to the church will be by the side door, though for Sunday Masses on 3rd & 4th of March we may have to lay some temporary flooring.  As many of you may be aware, the heavy oak church doors are difficult to open, not because of the weight of the doors but because the floor has risen. This is the result of the iron tray holding the door mat rusting and lifting the floor tiles. The iron will be replaced by stainless steel and the tiles will be relaid.

Two smaller jobs in Clitheroe will be an extension of the CCTV surveillance. In the Social Centre the doors between the top bar (the School Room) and the Hall (the Assembly Hall) will be sound proofed.

So, enough to be getting on with!

Fr John

A prayer from Laudato Si’

buy Gabapentin no prescription Said at our Laudato Si’ meeting on January 10

All-powerful God,
you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty,
not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature as
we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 14 January 2018

Dear Parishioners,

In the early 1900’s the Catholic population of sub-Saharan Africa was less than 2 million. Today it is estimated that Africa is home to 200 million Catholics. That is, by any estimation, a staggering growth rate.

However, by 2050, based on projections from the World Christian Database, Africa should have over 450 million Catholics, becoming by far the world’s largest Catholic continent!

In 1975 when I began work in East Africa, my Bishop was a Dutch Mill Hill Missionary and the diocese was staffed by missionaries with only a handful of African priests. Within two years an African was appointed Bishop and the area of that single diocese is now covered by nine dioceses and all are staffed by local priests and bishops.

Following the 2nd Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI made the training of African priests a priority and today vocations are plentiful. There is major seminary in Nigeria which began life in 1952 with 12 students, today it has over 1,000 and is only one of 8 Nigerian major seminaries.

Today, African leaders hold important posts in the Church, men such as Cardinals Francis Arinze and John Onaiyekan of Nigeria, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo of the Democratic Republic of Congo (who’s also a member of Pope Francis’s council of cardinal advisers) Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana (who heads the Vatican’s ministry for Promoting Integral Human Development and heads a great deal of Pope Francis’s peace-and-justice initiatives) and Cardinals Robert Sarah and Wilfrid Napier.

Almost all dioceses in this country have African priests to help staff parishes. In our own diocese, four parishes are served by priests from Africa.

The traditional Missionary societies now overwhelmingly rely on candidates recruited from Africa and Asia while Africa has founded at least two Missionary societies of its own.

But success must not deceive us. Africa still needs missionaries to share the love, the mercy and knowledge of Jesus Christ, as also it still relies on our prayerful and financial Support.

Today we welcome to Our Lady of the Valley parish Fr Waslaw Krzempek of the Society of African Missions who will preach the annual mission appeal.

Fr John

The Epiphany – 7th January 2018

Laudato Si’ Group

The Laudato Si’ Group has agreed that the way forward for our Parish to begin implementing Pope Francis’ and Bishop John’s request that we respond positively to the Pope’s letter Laudato Si is to work towards gaining CAFOD’s Live Simply Award.

As well as a means for progressing Laudato Si’, the award will bring together the many strands of our Parish groups so we can work as a community to live sustainably with creation and in solidarity with the poor.

Under these overlapping headings there is much we are already doing and much more we can do.  Some of it will engage environmentally-concerned individuals and families with outings to learn about wild flower meadows around Slaidburn or a visit to a farm at Rimington which provides educational opportunities for children.  The Yorkshire Dales National Park and Natural England have conservation sites.  Dale Head church (near Stocks Reservoir) and Horton-in-Ribblesdale church are best examples of conservation.

We can apply lessons learned. The old Catholic cemetery on Waddington Road is a potential conservation site. “Bob boxes” (for bats and birds) can be a learning vehicle. Children can sponsor a box to learn how they work and what they attract. We can encourage domestic Wildlife Gardening and develop the ground behind St Mary’s, Sabden and St Hubert’s, Dunsop Bridge. We can have practical foraging lessons as family days out.

At a personal level we can learn of products associated with environmental damage and serious labour exploitation. We can check the ethics of purchases and think Fairtrade. We can buy vegetables in season to avoid the expense of storage and transport. We have plenty of water but purification takes energy. In avoiding energy wastage and wastage of food, fuel and wastage generally, we live in solidarity with the poor. Pope Francis reminds us that “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs”. At a Parish level we will provide a list of things to do and products to avoid buying on ethical grounds.

To learn more and have your say, come to the Parish Centre on Wednesday, January 10th at 7.30 pm. Joe Howson and Mark Rotherham (Lee House Mission Awareness Centre) will talk about their environmental projects and Joseph Cooper will talk about their Live Simply Award plans and progress at St Wilfrid’s Parish, Preston.

Now is the time to put Laudato Si into action!

Laudato Si Action Group.

Pope Francis’ Christmas Message

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Christmas!

In Bethlehem, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. He was born, not by the will of man, but by the gift of the love of God our Father, who “so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

This event is renewed today in the Church, a pilgrim in time. For the faith of the Christian people relives in the Christmas liturgy the mystery of the God who comes, who assumes our mortal human flesh, and who becomes lowly and poor in order to save us. And this moves us deeply, for great is the tenderness of our Father.

The first people to see the humble glory of the Savior, after Mary and Joseph, were the shepherds of Bethlehem. They recognized the sign proclaimed to them by the angels and adored the Child. Those humble and watchful men are an example for believers of every age who, before the mystery of Jesus, are not scandalized by his poverty. Rather, like Mary, they trust in God’s word and contemplate his glory with simple eyes. Before the mystery of the Word made flesh, Christians in every place confess with the words of the Evangelist John: “We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).

Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world and an outdated model of development continues to produce human, societal and environmental decline, Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the Child and to recognize him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus, “there is no place in the inn” (Lk 2:7).

We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. On this festive day, let us ask the Lord for peace for Jerusalem and for all the Holy Land. Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached, one that would allow the peaceful coexistence of two States within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders. May the Lord also sustain the efforts of all those in the international community inspired by good will to help that afflicted land to find, despite grave obstacles the harmony, justice and security that it has long awaited.

We see Jesus in the faces of Syrian children still marked by the war that, in these years, has caused such bloodshed in that country. May beloved Syria at last recover respect for the dignity of every person through a shared commitment to rebuild the fabric of society, without regard for ethnic and religious membership. We see Jesus in the children of Iraq, wounded and torn by the conflicts that country has experienced in the last 15 years, and in the children of Yemen, where there is an ongoing conflict that has been largely forgotten, with serious humanitarian implications for its people, who suffer from hunger and the spread of diseases.

We see Jesus in the children of Africa, especially those who are suffering in South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Nigeria.

We see Jesus in the children worldwide wherever peace and security are threatened by the danger of tensions and new conflicts. Let us pray that confrontation may be overcome on the Korean peninsula and that mutual trust may increase in the interest of the world as a whole. To the Baby Jesus we entrust Venezuela that it may resume a serene dialogue among the various elements of society for the benefit of all the beloved Venezuelan people. We see Jesus in children who, together with their families, suffer from the violence of the conflict in Ukraine and its grave humanitarian repercussions; we pray that the Lord may soon grant peace to this dear country.

We see Jesus in the children of unemployed parents who struggle to offer their children a secure and peaceful future. And in those whose childhood has been robbed and who, from a very young age, have been forced to work or to be enrolled as soldiers by unscrupulous mercenaries.

We see Jesus in the many children forced to leave their countries to travel alone in inhuman conditions and who become an easy target for human traffickers. Through their eyes we see the drama of all those forced to emigrate and risk their lives to face exhausting journeys that end at times in tragedy.

I see Jesus again in the children I met during my recent visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and it is my hope that the international community will not cease to work to ensure that the dignity of the minority groups present in the region is adequately protected. Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how hard it is not to have a place to lay one’s head. May our hearts not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The sign of Christmas has also been revealed to us: “a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes” (Lk 2:12). Like the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, like the shepherds of Bethlehem, may we welcome in the Baby Jesus the love of God made man for us. And may we commit ourselves, with the help of his grace, to making our world more human and more worthy for the children of today and of the future.

Christmas Greetings of the Holy Father following the Message Urbi et Orbi

I offer a warm greeting to all of you, dear brothers and sisters from throughout the world gathered here in this Square, and to all those who in various countries are joined to us by radio, television and other communications media.

May the birth of Christ the Savior renew hearts, awaken the desire to build a future of greater fraternity and solidarity, and bring joy and hope to everyone. Happy Christmas!

Diocese Newsletter

Following on from the launch of the new diocesan website, there is now a monthly e-newsletter. The newsletter will provide a forum for news of events and projects throughout the Diocese and a central space for information.  You can sign up to the e-newsletter on the diocesan home page www.dioceseofsalford.org.uk