You are Peter

Then Simon Peter spoke up,
‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you:
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

These last words from this weekend's Gospel  are the foundation of our faith in the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, the successor of Peter. Even though Deacon Andrew is preaching at all the Masses this weekend, I have found myself pondering them throughout the week. As you probably know, music is very important to me, and two settings of these words, one very old, one very new have kept coming to my mind. You might like to listen as you reflect on the conversation between Jesus and Peter above.

Newsletter for 23/24 & 30/31 August - Sundays 21 & 21(A)

Click here to read the latest newsletter. Please note that it covers two weeks.

Newsletter for 16/17 August - Sunday 20(A)

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For Twitter Fans

If you use Twitter, do you use it to enrich your faith?

Here are a few links to people and organisations I
follow:

Pope Francis: a prayer, a challenge, a thought most days.
Vatican News: news from the Church all over the world.
Catholic Church in England and Wales: news, comment, prayer.
Nottingham Cathedral: news and devotional material from our own Cathedral.
Catholic Herald: news and comment from this British Catholic Newspaper.
Fr Patrick Brennan: prayerful and reflective Tweets, often from the Divine Office.
catholicmum: prayer thoughts, often on the daily readings or saints, and reflections on family life.
Father Colin Patey: and finally, you could even follow me for updates from the parish blog, and whatever strikes me day by day.

The Assumption of our Lady

There are far fewer Holy Days of Obligation on weekdays than there used to be. I think the Church hoped we would keep them better as a result. Please let this be the case at Our Lady of Lourdes and St Charles for the wonderful Feast we celebrate over the next couple of days.

The dogma of the Assumption teaches that at the end of her early life, Mary was taken into heaven, body and soul. Although it was only formally defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950 (Fr Peter Tierney, one of my predecessors was in Rome at the time of the definition) the doctrine was held and the Feast has been celebrated for centuries, certainly from the first half of the first Christian millennium.

Let us honour our Mother and Queen by making sure we are at Holy Mass for this wonderful feast.

Mass of the Assumption at Our Lady of Lourdes, Ashby-de-la-Zouch:
Thursday 14th August: 7.00pm
Friday 15th August: 9.00am
Mass of the Assumption at St Charles Borromeo, Measham:
Friday 15th August: 10.30am

Newsletter for 9/10 August - Sunday 19(A) - and more

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We are all aware of the various conflicts in the Middle East. This weekend the Bishops of England and Wales have particularly asked us to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq. More here.

Lord, the plight of our country
is deep and the suffering of the Christians
is heavy and frightening us,
therefore we ask you Lord
to assign our lives, grant us patience and courage
to continue to witness our Christian values with trust and hope.
Lord, peace is base of any life; give us peace and stability
to live with each other without fear, anxiety, with dignity and joy, glory to you forever.
† Louis Raphael I Sako
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch

CAFOD have asked us to pray and to take various actions with regard to the terrible situation in Israel and Gaza. The dedicated page is very easy to navigate, and allows us to send a message to the Foreign Secretary asking the Government to do all it can to stop the violence, and also provides an easy way to donate by credit card to the relief of suffering in that land where our Blessed Lord walked our earth.