Newsletter

The Fourth Sunday of the Year

January 29th 2023

 

My dear parishioners,

 

I hope this finds you and your families well. I mentioned last week that this is the Year of Matthew in terms of the Sunday Gospel. This weekend we listen to one of his most well-known and well-loved passages, the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Many years ago, when I was a student, one of the priests who taught us Scripture, Fr. John Fitzimmons, spoke one day at Mass about how much this passage meant to him as a Christian. Maybe he was preaching on the Fourth Sunday of the Year when we had just listened to the passage. I remember him saying, when he needed to renew his sense of following Jesus and wanting to follow Jesus, he would take time to read the Sermon on the Mount and pray for the grace to live his life by these values. In those moments when he wondered about the meaning of the Christian message, Father John would spend some personal time with this passage and feel renewed by Jesus’ words on that hillside, and it’s not hard to see why: happy are the poor in spirit, happy the gentle, happy the merciful, happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right, happy the pure in heart,, happy the peacemakers, happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right.

 

In remembering Father John’s words as I prepared for this Sunday’s liturgy, I also became aware of how happy he was as a  person, someone filled with a real energy for life, for the church, for the gospel. In the end he described the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus’ Manifesto, one with the power to change the face of the earth and one which continued to change his own life. It has the power to change our lives too!

Father O’Brien

 

I offer here the times of the liturgy in the days ahead:

 

Saturday January 28th

Vigil Mass at St. Paul’s at 4pm

Vigil Mass at St. Mary’s at 5.30pm

 

Sunday January 29th 2023

Mass at St. Paul’s at 9.15am

Mass at St. Mary’s at 10.30am

 

Monday January 30th: Mass at St. Mary’s at 10am

Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help at 7pm; Confessions from 6.30-6.45pm

Wednesday February 1st: Mass at St. Mary’s at 10am

Thursday February 2nd: Mass at St. Mary’s at 10am

Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

 

Saturday February 4th:

Mass at St. Paul’s at 4pm

Mass at St. Mary’s at 5.30pm

 

Sunday February 5th:

Mass at St. Paul’s at 9.15am

Mass at St. Mary’s at 10.30am

 

CREDO, the parish prayer group, meets this Tuesday at 1pm in the parish meeting room; afterwards, around 2.30pm, participants enjoy some tea and cake together.

Faith sharing is about quiet and respectful listening and a celebration of how God is at work in my life and in the lives of the other members of the group.

New members are most welcome.

 

The Parish Walking Group is greatly enjoyed by members of our parish and beyond; new walkers are always welcome; simply come along on Tuesday morning to the Museum at the bottom of Muir Street for 11am; people then walk for one hour before meeting together in the museum café for some tea together.

 

A very sincere thanks to the Walking Group for organising last week’s coffee morning in memory of our friend Harry Doyle. It was a day of great generosity; the donations at the coffee morning came to £600; over the next couple of days further donations were handed in and that meant we were able to donate £1,000 to Mary’s Meals to help with their efforts to feed the poorest children in our world. More good news is that this will be doubled by some generous benefactors of the charity.

 

Youth Group Needed to Assist the Pilgrimage to Lourdes: Bishop Toal hopes that some of our young people (aged between 18-25 years) will accompany the pilgrimage to provide much needed physical assistance, especially with wheel-chairs to and from the grotto and assistance with the Liturgy; there will be a meeting for those interested with Fr. Mark O’Donnell, parish priest of St. Aloysius, Chapelhall on Thursday 2nd February at 7pm; contact frodonnell@rcdom.org.uk.

 

Please remember in your prayers:

Recently Deceased: Anna McMurray, Ryan Paterson, Desmond Henaghen, Anne McGuire, Anne McMahon, Roseanne McCormick, Billy Gray, Billy Greig

 

Special Remembrance:

Alex and Agnes Grant, Frank McBride, Sally Ann Murray, Barbara Jones, Jenny Smith, Campbell Esper, Chalres Shute, deceased members  of the Dalton and McKenna families, Father John Fitzimmons, Fr. Jim Foley, Fr. Walter Scott and all our deceased relatives and friends and the benefactors of St. Mary’s and St. Paul’s, requiescant in pace.