Ascension Newsletter - 31 May/1 June

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This Sunday, Ascension Day, is also World Communications Day. This is the day when Catholics are asked to reflect on the necessity of fulfilling the command of Jesus to preach the Good News of the Gospel to the whole world. A key to communicating with “the whole world” is the world of the media and its demands for news relating to every aspect of the life of the Church and its people. There is a brief extract from Pope Francis' message for today in the newsletter. You can download the full message here.

Deanery Forty Hours Eucharistic Adoration

Lay Catholic Chaplain to HMP Sudbury

HMP Sudbury is a category D rehabilitation and resettlement prison, with facilities to hold 600 prisoners who present a low risk and can reasonably be trusted in open conditions. The prisoners here are offered full-time and part-time education and evening classes, workshops and a selection of training courses. They are also given the opportunity for paid and unpaid employment, training and education in the community. HMP Sudbury is located in Derbyshire, between Uttoxeter and Derby.

We are currently seeking to recruit a Lay Catholic Chaplain on a ten hours per week sessional contract.

The successful candidate will be required to be part of an ecumenical, multi-faith chaplaincy team sharing responsibility for the care and support of prisoners and prison staff. They will also be expected to take on appropriate generic chaplaincy duties and when required and ensure that the diverse religious and spiritual needs of the prison community are met.

Applicants will need to be excellent listeners and communicators, and have a non-judge mental, calm and confident approach.

For information and to apply, please contact Ahmed Kola at HMP Sudbury
(e: ahmed.kola@hmps.gsi.gov.uk; t: 01283 584088).

If you require any further information about Catholic ministry in this or other prisons, please contact Fr Roger Reader, the Catholic Bishops' Prisons Adviser at roger.reader@cbcew.org.uk

Sunday's Pastoral Letter

If you would like to take another look at the Pastoral Letter from Monsignor McGovern which we heard at the weekend Masses you can read it here.

Please pray for Pope Francis...

...during his visit to the Holy Land.

You can follow the visit, including links to live transmissions, through the Radio Vatican website.

Easter 6 Newsletter 24/25 May

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More pictures of May Procession

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May Devotion

What a lovely sunny May morning!
Led by the children from St Charles School we processed out of Church after Mass and crowned the statue of our Lady.

O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today

Queen of the Angels, and Queen of the May

O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today

Queen of the Angels, and Queen of the May.

Why do we say that May is Mary's month?

You can find many answers if you Google the question. I like the reflective answer in The May Magnificat by the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins. It's well worth reading, slowly, thoughtfully.

May is Mary's month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:

    Her feasts follow reason,

    Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;

But the Lady Month, May,

    Why fasten that upon her,

    With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter

Than the most are must delight her?

    Is it opportunest

    And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:

Her reply puts this other

    Question: What is Spring?—

    Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together;

    Star-eyed strawberry-breasted

    Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within;

    And bird and blossom swell

    In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathising

    With that world of good,

    Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

    How she did in her stored

    Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:

Spring's universal bliss

    Much, had much to say

    To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-apple

    And thicket and thorp are merry

    With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

    And magic cuckoocall

    Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth

    To remember and exultation

    In God who was her salvation.

Easter 5 Newsletter - 17/18 May

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Keep praying for vocations

On Sunday we prayed for vocations. Don't stop! Let Deacon Andrew's homily continue to encourage us.

Meeting of Bishops of England & Wales

The Bishops of England and Wales have been meeting in Leeds this last week. Themes from the meeting included:

• Nottingham priest to be new General Secretary of Bishops' Conference.
• Nearly 100 men and women entered convents, seminaries and religious houses across England and Wales in 2013. This is a very hopeful sign - and we pray for yet more this Vocations Sunday.
• The bishops passed a resolution opposing assisted suicide. These Q&As  are worth downloading and reading.

It is also worth reading the opening speech of the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, His Excellency Archbishop Antonio Mennini. A summary can be found here. He tackled areas where the Church is engaging with civil society, including assisted suicide, human trafficking, and those excluded from social welfare.

Queen of heaven, rejoice!

We are singing this anthem to Our Lady at the end of the 10am Mass at present:

 

You may like to use this YouTube video to help you get to know it better. If it's hard to pick up the whole thing at first, maybe start by learning the alleluias, and joining in with them.

Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia!
for he whom you were worthy to bear, alleluia!
has risen as he said, alleluia!
Pray for us to God, alleluia!

This weekend's newsletter and much more

Click here to read this week's newsletter.

Sunday is Vocations Sunday. More here.

It is good to report that we already have some takers for the Bishop's Certificate in Catechesis Course to be held in Shepshed starting in September. This is strongly recommended for all who prepare people for Holy Communion and Confirmation,  and those involved in RCIA and Children's Liturgy of the Word. More details and application form here - please print, complete and return form to Fr Colin.

The coming  week is Christian Aid Week: more about the week nationally here, and locally here.

And finally two lovely quotes from St John Paul II. They seem to link some of the above themes.

Dear friends, the Church today looks to you with confidence and expects you to be the people of the Beatitudes. Blessed are you if, like Jesus, you are poor in spirit, good and merciful; if you really seek what it just and right; if you are pure of heart, peacemakers, lovers of the poor and their servants. Blessed are you! Only Jesus is the true Master, only Jesus speaks the unchanging message that responds to the deepest longings of the human heart, because he alone knows “what is in each person.” Today he calls you to be the salt and light of the world, to choose goodness, to live in justice, to become instruments of love and peace. His call has always demanded a choice between good and evil, between light and darkness, between life and death. He makes the same invitation today to you...
World Youth Day, Toronto 2002
I invite you all to pray for those young people who, throughout the world, hear the call of the Lord and for those who may be afraid to answer that call. May they find educators at hand to guide them! May they perceive the grandeur of their vocation: to love Christ above all else as a call to freedom and happiness! Pray so that the Church may help you in your search and in arriving at a correct discernment! Pray so that Christian communities may always know how to pass on the call of the Lord to the younger generations! With me, thank the Lord “for the gift of a vocation, for the grace of priesthood, for priestly vocations throughout the world.” Let us thank him for consecrated persons! Let us thank him for families, parishes and movements, the cradles of vocations!
World Youth Day, Paris 1997

Diocesan Administrator

Following Archbishop Malcolm's installation in Liverpool, our diocesan website has the news that Monsignor Tom McGovern will be our Diocesan Administrator until we have a new Bishop.
He will continue to be parish priest of Ss Peter & Paul, Lincoln. Please pray for Mgr McGovern, and for all those involved with the appointment of our new Bishop.

Archbishop Malcolm's Installation

Fanfares, challenging modern music, beautiful plainchant, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons, religious, civic dignitaries, and hundreds upon hundreds of the faithful joined together to welcome Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool today. After over two hours of beautiful solemn liturgy we processed out of the vast, modern Cathedral of Christ the King singing the praises of that King:

Angels, saints and nations sing : 

"Praised be Jesus Christ our King; 

Lord of life, earth, sky and sea, 

King of love on Calvary!"

You can read an account of today here. Archbishop Malcolm's homily is here.

The task of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ is for all of us.
We are all called to carry the Lord and be carried by the Lord.

Newsletter for Easter 3 - 3/4 May

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