Our Lady of Lourdes & St Joseph 26th October 2014 30th Sunday Ordinary Time + Year A + Mass Schedule Sat - Vigil Mass for Sunday Sunday Our Lady of Lourdes 5.30pm Bill Parker (B) St Joseph 7pm Ian Sinclair 9.30am Parishioners 11am Kathleen Newsham (A) Mon 10am John Moss (LD) Tue Wed 10am In thanksgiving (BA) Thurs Fri Vigil Mass for Sunday Sunday 10am Josephine Rawlinson (A) 10am Frank O‘Brien 5.30pm Int Paul Bagshaw 10am Maureen Hodgson (LD) 7pm Cerys Loughlin (LD) 9.30am Parishioners 11am Ints Jean & Joe Judge We pray for the sick Mary Teresa Millington, Peter des Landes, Mia King, Louise Booth, Patricia Cosgrove, Renee Sproat, Vera Robinson, Hilda Stoker, Andrew McFayden, Phil Irlam, Deirdre McLean, Justine Kehoe, Patricia Taylor, Ian Dalton, Baby Katrina Byrom, Maureen Driscoll, Paul Bagshaw, Anita Meadows Lately Dead Fr Brendan O’Sullivan, John Moss, Maureen Hodgson, Cerys Loughlin Anniversaries Kathleen Newsham, Josephine Rawlinson We pray for the First Holy Communion Children and their families, the long suffering Christians in Iraq and the Middle East. Rosary 9.40am Mon, Wed, Fri at St Joseph Confessions St Joseph after 10am Mass Friday, Our Lady of Lourdes 5pm Saturday Church Cleaning Friday10.30am St Joseph Thursday 9am OLOL – Many hands make light work. Perhaps you can spare an hour a week, a month, occasionally? Liturgy this Sunday. Eucharistic Prayer as chosen by celebrant. Children’s liturgy at both Sunday Masses To hire the Meeting Rooms call Sheila Ball 567788 Tea and Coffee after 11am Mass on Sunday Collection: Envelopes £1,196.80 Loose £401.38 Total £1,598.18 Received with thanks Missio Special Collection: £479.25 Next Sunday is LAMP Sunday and there will be a retiring collection. Monday Bridge at Our Lady of Lourdes from 1pm to 4pm. If you are interested in coming along call Eve Houghton on 538579. Please come and enjoy a relaxing afternoon drawing and painting. Everyone welcome. First meeting 16th October at 1pm in the meeting rooms. Phone Marie 550706. Contact Details: Parish Priest Fr Atli Jonsson, 40 York Road, Southport PR8 2AY, Tel 01704 568313, ajonsson@btinternet.com Parish Deacon Rev Bill Ball, Tel 567788 http://birkdalecatholics.com Youth Pilgrimage to Lourdes - Fr Philip Gregory, coach chaplain, has called a meeting for those who wish to join the youth pilgrimage to Lourdes. This meeting will be at 6pm on Tuesday 4th November at Our Lady of Lourdes. The purpose of this meeting is to explain the application procedure and completion of the application forms, which become available at 12 Midnight. Please do your best to be there if you want to travel on the yough pilgrimage in Summer 2015.. Pious Lists – Envelopes and Blank lists are available at the back of church. Please return to the sacristy – Masses for the Pious Lists will be offered during the month of November. Next CAFOD coffee morning at Our Lady of Lourdes 13th November after 10am Mass. All welcome! Christmas Gift Tags – we now have the lists of gifts for Christmas. The tags will be available next weekend – please take a tag, buy the gift, wrap it and stick the tag on the outside. Please return to church in good time for distribution before Christmas. Thank you for your support. Knights of St Columba would like to thank all those who have contributed in any way to the £6,000 raised this year for their nominated charities. Sacramental Preparation for Children in Year 4 has now begun. This preparation is open to all Catholic children whose parents request that they receive the Sacraments. If your child is not baptised arrange a date for your child’s baptism as soon as possible. If your child attends a school other than Our Lady of Lourdes and you would like them to be included please contact Fr Atli asap. The First Holy Communion Masses will be celebrated at Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph in May/June 2015. In the past two years we made the happy experience of seeing parents directly involved as they helped their children prepare for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and Holy Communion. An integral part of this preparation is the attendance at Sunday Mass as often as humanly possible! Children’s Liturgy and Family Masses will offer you and your children the opportunity of taking an active part in our celebration of the Lord’s day. At church and school we look forward to welcoming you and working with you. Next session is 11th November at 6.30pm in Our Lady of Lourdes Church. Admission to Primary School for September 2015. Parents/Guardians of children due to start school in September 2015 need to apply through Sefton on the website: www.sefton.gov.uk/admissions This includes parents/guardians of children who attend Our Lady of Lourdes School nursery. You do not automatically gain a school place which transfers from Nursery to Reception. If you wish to view the school or have any queries please phone the school office on 01704 568375. Praying with the Pope in October Daily offering: O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, may it please Thee this day to order and to hallow, to rule and to govern our hearts and our bodies, our thoughts, our words and our works, according to Thy law and in the doing of Thy commandments, that we, being helped by Thee, may here and hereafter worthily be saved and delivered by Thee, O Saviour of the world, who livest and reignest for ever and ever. And I pray for the Pope’s intentions with Mary and the whole Church this month: Universal: That the Lord may grant peace to those parts of the world most battered by war and violence. For Evangelisation: That World Mission Day may rekindle in every believer zeal for carrying the Gospel into all the world. Are you 50 this year? Were you in the class of 1981 at Christ the King School? A reunion has been organised on Saturday 7th February 2015. See poster for further details. Christ the King School Sixth Form Open Evening – all Year 11 students and parents are invited to attend the evening to find out more information about courses available in sixth form. Thursday 6th November 2014 – there will be a short presentation in the main hall at 6.30pm and the evening will run until 8.30pm. Reflection: In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees try Jesus with the question: “Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” The issue was not actually about which commandment took precedence over all others. Rather, Jesus was being asked to express an opinion on whether there was a single commandment whose greatness lay in its capacity to sum up the meaning of the whole of the Law, with all 613 of its precepts. It’s easy to imagine the endless debates on the subject among the great and the good of the religious leadership: everyone had an opinion on the matter. Jesus doesn’t give a direct answer to the question. Instead, he chooses two commandments: from Deuteronomy and from Leviticus. He says, “on these two commandments hang the whole of the Law and the Prophets”. We are reminded of pictures in a gallery, suspended by two chains. Similarly, the two commandments chosen by Jesus are like two chains that uphold the entire Law. The two commandments are well known. First comes a quotation from Deuteronomy 6: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The second, from Leviticus 19, resembles it, says Jesus: “You must love your neighbour as yourself.” We are left with the question of why Jesus chose these two, and why he says the second resembles the first. One way we can explore this is to consider Jesus’ teaching on the conditions of discipleship. To be a disciple, says Jesus, it is necessary to renounce self and take up the cross and follow him. If we take these in reverse order, we see that these amount to the two commandments Jesus cites as summing up the Law, because they are the way that he too lives the Law. Jesus’ total commitment to his Father is shown through his taking up of the cross: the cross shows he loves his Father with all his heart, soul, strength and mind. In taking up the cross he renounces himself. He continually places the needs of humanity before his own needs: that is, he loves his neighbour as himself. To be a neighbour is to address the needs of others before one’s own needs. So loving God with all our energy, and loving neighbour as self, sums up the Law because it describes perfectly the ministry of Jesus, who is the fulfilment of the Law.