Christmas week

MASSES this week.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

With a Retiring Collection in aid of the virtual Carol Concert for those affected by leprosy SUROL and for our own St Catherine's Hospice. 

Watch HERE and donate HERE.

8.30am & 10am Mass

Monday 9.30am Mass

Tuesday 12 noon EF Mass

Wednesday 9.30am Mass

                    11.15am Funeral Service for Eric Clayton

Thursday Christmas Eve 

Carols at 6.40pm: Solemn Mass at 7pm (by booking only)

Music with the Schola singing:

Missa "Princeps Pacis" by William Lloyd Webber

Credo I

Traditional Carols

Friday Christmas Day:

8.30am Said Mass (by booking only)

10am Sung Mass (by booking only)

Saturday. Feast of St Stephen 12 noon EF Mass

Sunday 27th December: Solemnity of the Holy Family

8.30am & 10 am Mass

 

Masses for Gaudete Sunday

 
Gaudete Sunday Masses

8.30am

10am

(The 11.30am EF Mass remains suspended at this time)

Weekdays

Monday 9.30am

Tuesday 12 noon (EF)

Wednesday 9.30am

Thursday  (Novena & Benediction are suspended until after Christmas)

Friday 9.30am

Saturday 12 noon (EF)

We are still taking bookings for Christmas Masses 

but the Christmas Eve Mass at 7pm is now almost full.

Masses on Christmas Day are at 8.30am & 10am.

Christmas Charity Carol Concert

Click on picture to enlarge

This week would have been our much loved Carol Concert held here at St Catherine's but sadly, with Covid 19 restrictions, it has not been possible to go ahead with it this year. However, the Octavius Choir have put together an online performance, which you can watch and also donate: 

What we raise is being divided between:

1. St Catherine’s Hospice here in Leyland and to SUROL - those suffering from leprosy in Sri Lanka. This year aimed particularly at providing fresh water there.

We don’t expect that it will enable us to support them in the usual way this Christmas but please do have a look online and share it as widely as you can, so that we can send SUROL in Sri Lanka and St Catherine's Hospice something this Christmas. 

Thank you!

To find it the 30 minute online concert on Youtube and donate as well, please go to 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuevh3kNkFw&feature=youtu.be

The JustGiving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/oslj-christmas-2020

AND this is the link for scanning from a phone: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/oslj-christmas-2020/qrcode 

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo and Patron of SUROL wrote to us: 

“My sincere thanks to all those who continue to support SUROL, especially the Order of St Lazarus in Great Britain, enabling SUROL to bring a ray of happiness to these people, who sometimes feel estranged from society.”

Catholic Education: A new Catholic School. St Peter's International College

During the course of this year, I have been working away at a new and exciting project in France, as part of the founding team of a new International Catholic School. 

Since it's conception we had chosen the name of Saint Peter as the Patron, giving expression to the bedrock on which it was to be built - our Catholic Faith. After looking at various sites, it can only have been Divine Providence that led us to a village of the same name: Saint Pierre de Maillé nestling in the beautiful region of Poitou deep in the heart of France, an the former Convent of the Daughters of the Cross, founded by the village's very own saint, Saint André-Hubert Fournet. 

In the aftermath of the French Revolution ‘Le Bon Père’, as he was known, sought to educate children and care for the sick. His Daughters of the Cross still care for the elderly and infirm, and now Saint Peter’s is continuing his work of catechising the young. In his life Saint André-Hubert persevered despite great trials, including exile and arrest, we want our students to learn to trust God in all things. Our task is to lead them to a closer knowledge of God and themselves. Indeed, in founding the school, such trials have already beset us and yet we have already come so far.

Pope Benedict taught that faith must be “tangible in our schools” and “given fervent expression liturgically, sacramentally, through prayer, acts of charity, a concern for justice, and respect for God’s creation”. Through our daily cycle of prayer, we seek to instill in our boys a rhythm of prayer that will stay with them for life. But we also emphasize that action can also be prayer. They are encouraged to care for one another, and perform acts of charity both within and without the College. Saint André-Hubert often said to his Sisters: “Have courage! You work for Heaven!” Two centuries later, we make this our message of hope to the young people under our care. 

Although the school this year only took on boys as we started up, we hope very much to be welcoming girls, on a separate site, as soon as possible. 

You can see more of our fascinating project on our website at:

Saint Peter's International College, France (stpetersfr.com)

A view of our chapel - Our Lady of the Rosary - from across the River Gartempe.

It's been a very challenging process to move so quickly from conception to reality, especially in this Covid year but we can only believe that it has been through God's Providence that we managed it. We received such a warm welcome from the village; from the good Sisters who still have a small house next door and from the Archbishop. The whole project has only been possible with the support of generous benefactors and investors, as well as our patrons, governors and advisors. 

We still have great challenges ahead, to grow our numbers, to get the Girl's School up and running and to continue the refurbishment of the main House (long named St André, with the statue of the Sacred Heart surmounting the front door). The next stage will be upon us immediately after Christmas, so we are reaching out to those who share the vision of a truly Catholic education who may be interested in either donating or who might consider joining our other investors who have seen the potential growth in building a school for the future.

The courtyard by night.

I will post some more about various aspects of school life and our journey on this amazing project. Despite the challenges, it's been a great jolt of joy for my own personal faith: to be part of building and growing something with other like-minded Catholics in these days, when so much in the Church seems to be shrinking and closing, has been an inspiration. I'd like to say a huge thank you to all those who I have worked beside over these months of preparation for their support, their generosity and the example of their faith. We have laboured together with the words of Saint Edmund Campion in our hearts:

“The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; 

it is of God, 

it cannot be withstood. 

So the Faith was planted: so it must be restored.”

Christmas Masses

With Advent joy we resume the public worship of the Church this Sunday at St Catherine's for the Second Sunday of Advent.

Masses at 8.30am and 10am only for the time being.

BOOKING FOR CHRISTMAS MASS

We need to look forward to some practical necessities for Christmas this year. Barring any re-imposition of restrictions, I am presuming we will be able to celebrate the Christ-MASS!

Because of the Covid 19 restrictions, our seating capacity is limited to 50 people at any one Mass. That has not been a problem for us so far, as only half our usual attendance has so far returned on any one Sunday. That may not be the case for Christmas. Looking back to last year, although on Christmas day itself numbers at each Mass were just under 50, Mass on Christmas Eve was filled to overcapacity with 130 people. That will not be possible this year, so we will need a booking system.

If I find we are vastly oversubscribed, I will consider putting on another Mass.

I invite you to apply to book your place at one of the three available Masses, which will be done on a first come, first served basis. 

But PLEASE if you book make sure you come; if you change your mind, please let me know. Otherwise, you will be depriving someone else of a chance to attend.

There is a signing up list in the hall (Please note the Covid safety precautions)

OR

You may take away a form on Sunday and return it by post or by hand

OR 

you can email me 

OR 

telephone if none of the above are available to you.

For this I will need the name of each person attending 

The Mass you would like to attend:

7pm Christmas Eve

 8.30am Christmas Day

10am Christmas Day

Please note that although I would very much like to, I am not intending to celebrate an EF Mass this Christmas, unless enough requests make it viable.

Advent in the Parish

This First Sunday of Advent, 29th November, we are still under the lockdown restrictions, and so Mass continues only with me in private for your intentions.

However, on 6th December, the second Sunday of Advent, our Masses will resume, as they have been previously at 8.30am and 10am only, with the Covid 19 safety measures in place. A reminder that if you do have any symptoms, you should stay at home.

Today is also our parish festal day: St Catherine and the Miraculous Medal. Let us ask Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal for an end to the pandemic and the return of all Catholics to Holy Mass.

We also need to look forward to Christmas itself. Barring any re-imposition of restrictions, I am presuming we will be able to celebrate the Christ-MASS!

However, due to the numbers usually attending at Christmas, we will have to have a booking system in place. I will explain how this will work next week and provide details of how you can book. Please wait until then to do so.

I leave you with these words of Pope Benedict (for whom you might offer a prayer for, as it is said he is now very poorly).

Advent begins this Sunday. It is a very evocative religious season because it is interwoven with hope and spiritual expectation: every time the Christian community prepares to commemorate the Redeemer's birth, it feels a quiver of joy which to a certain extent it communicates to the whole of society.

In Advent, Christians relive a dual impulse of the spirit: on the one hand, they raise their eyes towards the final destination of their pilgrimage through history, which is the glorious return of the Lord Jesus; on the other, remembering with emotion his birth in Bethlehem, they kneel before the Crib.

The hope of Christians is turned to the future but remains firmly rooted in an event of the past. In the fullness of time, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary: "Born of a woman, born under the law", as the Apostle Paul writes (Gal 4:4).

Today's Gospel invites us to stay on guard as we await the final coming of Christ. "Look around you!", Jesus says. "You do not know when the master of the house is coming" (Mk 13:35). The short parable of the master who went on a journey and the servants responsible for acting in his place highlights how important it is to be ready to welcome the Lord when he suddenly returns.

The Christian community waits anxiously for his "manifestation", and the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, urges them to trust in God's fidelity and to live so as to be found "blameless" (cf. I Cor 1:7-9) on the day of the Lord. Most appropriately, therefore, the liturgy at the beginning of Advent puts on our lips the Psalm: "Show us, O Lord, your kindness, and grant us your salvation" (cf. Ps 85[84]:8).

We might say that Advent is the season in which Christians must rekindle in their hearts the hope that they will be able with God's help to renew the world.

Indeed, we will find the good fruits of our hard work when Christ delivers to the Father his eternal and universal Kingdom. May Mary Most Holy, Virgin of Advent, obtain that we live this time of grace in a watchful and hardworking way while we await the Lord.

Mass today

 We have received official communication that from Thursday churches will be closed again. A heartbreaking decision, just when we need the consolation of gathering together as God's people to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass most.

It is a sad reflection on our times that special allowance is made for food poverty, for educational poverty but spiritual poverty is not given any recognition at all. Surely it is this greater poverty that needs to be tackled more than any other, as it underlies the very principles of fighting all other forms of poverty. The whole building will fall without this foundation.

I see that Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark feels the same.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/382715068876250/permalink/984370278710723/

Mass today for the glorious fest of All the Saints 

will be celebrated as announced at 8.30am and 10am.

Mass for  All Souls will also continue at 7pm on Monday.

Mass on Tuesday at 12nnoon and on Wednesday at 9.30am will also be offered. 

After that the public celebration of Mass is once again suspended.