Dear Parishioners,

Today is Youth Sunday, a day of prayer for our young people. Fr Frankie will speak of his experience of World Youth days at all Masses.

Advent begins next Sunday and this year it will last for only three weeks and two days, so we should make the best of every day as we prepare spiritually for Christmas amidst the frenetic round of planning, shopping and parties. Please do consider a Twinsburg Walk With Me booklet available for only £1 at the back of church. These offer a thought and suggestion for prayer on each day of Advent. Similar booklets for infants and for juniors are also available at 50p each.

Last Wednesday Parish Forum and the Little Church leadership team discussed the challenge that the excellent attendance at Little Church presents each week. It was agreed that all children who have made their first Holy Communion should remain in the congregation to join in the Mass, unless they are junior helpers with Little Church.

On Sundays when there is a large number of children, those below 4 years of age should use the large meeting room and the over-4’s will use the smaller room. We appreciate that some children will not attend Little Church without a parent but we do ask that only one parent accompany a child and that parents slowly encourage their children to come alone, as they do at nursery and school. Finally, we are always ready to welcome mums or dads to join our teams of leaders.

And so to grandparents! Speaking recently Pope Francis said: “We live in a time when the elderly do not count. It’s awful to say, but they are discarded – often because they are a nuisance to us. The elderly are those who carry history, who carry values, who carry the faith and give it to us as an inheritance. They are like a good vintage wine who have this strength from within to give us a noble heritage.” He recalled a story he heard as a child. A family: father, mother, children and grandfather were gathered around the table. The father, annoyed by the mess the grandfather made as he ate, threatened to buy a separate table for the grandfather to eat at by himself. A few days later he returned home from work to find his son playing with blocks of wood. When Dad asked him what he was building, he replied, ‘A table for you Dad, when you become old like grandpa.’ “This story has done me so much good, all my life,” the Pope said. “Grandparents are a treasure.”

The Parish Website committee meets this Wednesday at 7.30pm in the presbytery. Any parishioner interested in communication is welcome to join us.

Leopoldshöhe Fr John