NEWSLETTER

Please Note! On the 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(30^th January) we will be holding a second collection for the Retired Priests’ Fund

Confession

Weekly Collections

Sunday 9th January:

Envelopes = £140.03, Loose Plate = £102.00, Total = £242.03.

Sunday 16th January:

Envelopes = £142.00, Loose Plate = £97.12, Total = £239.12.

Synod A two-year 'synodal' process is taking place in the Catholic Church from now until it culminates in the final Synod Gathering of Bishops in Rome in October 2023. The overall theme is "For a Synodal Church: i.e. Communion, Participation, Mission". For more Information go to  (https://bit.ly/3zXt4gx) https://bit.ly/2Tt6ope 

                        

 Letter from Father Anthony

01952 811299

Dear Parishioner,

I do hope you and your family are well in these challenging times. Please do contact us if the parish can be of any assistance. I write with some Important information for our community.

SUNDAY MASS TIMES

The Bishops of England and Wales invite us all to return to the regular practice of attending mass each Sunday which is at the heart of our faith and love for God. The Sunday mass obligation is to be re-introduced from the First Sunday of Advent, November 28^th, 2021.

There will be a Saturday evening mass recommencing on that date, but at the earlier time of 5.30pm (for an experimental period to see how attendance goes, since we have had much reduced numbers to date like all parishes). Mass on Sunday morning, 9.15am, as usual.

COVID SECURE as best we can. Hand sanitising upon entry, face masks are desirable, social distancing as far as practical.

PARISH FINANCE

Last Sunday I spoke about something that affects us all and that is stewardship of our parish giving and spending. At the end of the last tax year 2021, the yield from the Sunday Collection had fallen by £10,000, and on present figures is set to continue in the present tax year. A reduction of £20,000 over 2 years is quite a big hit to our parish finances because the outgoings remain the same. In the last tax year, it cost basically £30,000 to keep the church door open, as they say. Income was basically the same. In the previous tax year ended 2020, expenditure was significantly higher, but so was income. In that year, to provide some examples, property maintenance cost £10,660, insurance £1850, Diocesan Assessment £5427.It does cost much more to run a parish than we might imagine and every parish has to pay its own way.

A BIG THANK YOU to all our parishioners for your generosity in supporting the parish financially in the collection and in Our Mission Together (OMT). Without your support we could not pay our way.                                                                                                                                                              

I know this is a challenge, and of course everybody’s circumstances are different, but if 40 households could possibly increase the collection giving by £5 per household, that would at least return our income to the pre-pandemic level. Our giving is not just to cover expenses. We have an incredibly generous God and our generosity is an expression of gratitude for God’s abundant gifts to us. It is,

                                     “My gift to God and His Church”

WHAT WOULD HELP?

Standing Orders do help keep up the weekly collection (an SO Form is enclosed, if you would like to consider one. Please return to your bank).

Gift Aid enables increases giving considerably without any extra giving

£5 Gift Aid tuns into £6.25 without any extra giving. £10 into £12.50. (This is the government’s scheme to help charities by returning tax paid on the amount given. A ‘one off amount’ can also be gift aided) All that is required is to have paid enough tax for the reclaim. To gift aid £5 requires that the donor has paid £65 in income tax. (Form enclosed)

Using the Offertory Envelopes

We do have a beautiful church, a valuable resource in the Hall and a patrimony handed down to us. Let’s be good stewards of what we have been given.

 o

Date	Time	Service	Intention
Sunday 23 January   Psalter week 3	Mass 9.15	3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Day of Prayer for Openness to the Word of God	Patrick Monaghan
Monday 24 January	Mass 10.00	St Francis de Sales	DRF Burns&Grieg
Tuesday 25 January	Mass 10.00	CONVERSION OF ST PAUL	Special Intention
Wednesday26 January	MASS 10.00	SS Timothy & Titus	DRF Malone&Kitchen
Thursday 27 January		St Angela Merici
Friday 28 January	Mass 10.00	St Thomas Aquinas	Parish of Market Drayton
Saturday 29 January	Mass 5.30		Parishioners
Sunday 30 January	Mass 9.15	4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Climate Sunday	Sr Martin Fleming

On Friday we celebrate along with our sister parish in Market Drayton their Patronal Feast of St Thomas Aquinas.

Sunday of the Word of God was instituted by Pope Francis in 2019 on the feast of St Jerome and it's a Day of Special Prayer for Openness to the Word of God.

Gospel Luke 1:1-4,4:14-21 'This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen'  Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have taken place among us, exactly as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.

Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’

Commentary Today’s gospel passage starts the series of readings from Luke which will continue throughout the ordinary Sundays of the Year. Jumping over the preparatory stories of Jesus’ infancy, baptism and testing in the desert, it comes directly to his programmatic manifesto in the synagogue at Nazareth. The gospel is offered to Theophilus – a Greek name, ‘Lover of God’ – and is written for gentile communities. So Luke stresses that Jesus’ message is not just for Jews but for the peoples of the whole world. Twice in this short passage which gives Jesus’ programme Luke stresses that Jesus is moved by the Spirit of the Lord. As we saw in the second reading, the Spirit was palpably at work in the early Christian communities. In Luke’s stories of the annunciation, birth and infancy of Jesus the presence of the Spirit is constantly noted. In the earliest stories of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles the same guidance directs every move. Henry Wansborough OSB

Saint of the Week  St Vincent, died 304. Deacon and martyr. Vincent was born at Huesca, Spain, he became a deacon and served St, Valerius at Saragossa until their martyrdom at Valencia during the persecutions under the Emperor Diocletian. St Valerius was exiled, but Vincent was cruelly tortured because he would not surrender the holy books. He converted the warden of the prison and then died. He was honoured by SS Augustine, Pope Leo I, and Prudentius, and is considered the patron saint of Lisbon and Valencia, and of vinedressers in some regions of Spain.