3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 23.01.2022

MASS TIMES AND INTENTIONS

Sun 23rd Jan

8.30 am Nicholas Pignataro, anniversary

10 am Frank Burke, RIP

12 noon Joseph Brohan, anniversary

Mon 24th Jan St Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor

10 am Caddle family, intentions

Tues 25th Jan The Conversion of St Paul the Apostle

10 am Albertina Alves, RIP

Weds 26th Jan NO MASS

Thurs 27th Jan Feria

10 am Michael McCabe, RIP

Fri 28th Jan St Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor

10 am Gerry O’Sullivan, RIP

Sat 29th Jan 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

5 pm Nancy O’Shaughnessy, RIP

10am – 11am; 4:30pm – 5pm: Confessions and Exposition

Your Prayers:

Let us keep in our prayers: Frank Kilbride, Kathleen Lancaster, John O’Shea, Rekha, Bina, Gale Yates, Jose Luis Pérez, Alice, Michael O Boy, Lilian Murphy, Karina McKiernan and Izabela Lissowska – all unwell at this time. Please add the Dixon family to your intentions. We also pray for Hugh Daniel Doherty, Fr Dominic Byrne, Peter Sartori, Arthur Palmer, Noel Ryan, Donato Merola, Aurora Lobo–Buckland, Larry Tuohy, Elizabeth O’Sullivan, Monica Thomson, Christine Pavlou, Tom Lohan, Dennis Lennane, Vincenzo Gagliardi, Verna Duffy, Susan Wren and Albertina Alves who have all died recently. May they Rest in Peace.

Visit of Bishop John:

Fr Peter “Thank you to everyone who helped with last Sunday’s visit of Bishop John. The church was lovely and clean, the readers and servers were brilliant and the refreshments afterwards were wonderful. Bishop John loved his visit to St Mary’s. Thank you.”

Confirmations at St Mary’s:

Bishop John will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on 18 of our young adults at the 5pm Mass on Saturday 12th February. If this is your normal Sunday Mass, you may like to choose another on the weekend of the 12th/13th February. Let us keep the confirmation candidates, their families, their sponsors and their catechists in our prayers over the next month.

Offertory Collection

Fr Peter writes: “The ordinary offertory collection in church for week ending 16th January £ 539.43. All contributions, every penny, is greatly received and I am very grateful for your continued support at this difficult time. Please do not forget, that arranging a standing order is the easiest way to support St Mary’s.

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School N12 - Applications for Nursery

Applications are invited for the Nursery for the Academic Year starting September 2022. This is for children born between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2020. The deadline to return this to the school office is 31st January 2022. Please contact the office or visit the school website for an application pack.

Nursery Application Forms:

Fr Peter writes: “If your child needs their Catholic Certificates of Practice” stamped and signed, please attend one of the Sunday Masses with your child, bringing their nursery school application forms. Please make sure you have completed address and dates of birth before coming to see me.”

Save the Date!

On Sunday 15th May 2022, Cardinal Vincent Nichols is coming to St Mary’s to celebrate a special Mass in commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the blessing of the church foundation stone. Please reserve the date in your diary.

Were you there?

70 years is not that long ago. Were you or a member of your family at St Mary’s in 1952 when its foundation stone was blessed? Please make contact with Fr Peter so he can gather first hand reflections for St Mary’s 70th anniversary year.

Volunteering…

Fr Peter writes: “Nothing happens at St Mary’s without the support and hard work of volunteers. If you have a skill (a singer, a musician, have an eye for decoration etc) please let me know and I can add you to the list of wonderful people who provide St Mary’s with terrific practical support.

With the advent of Wall repairs I am looking for a parishioner who has experience completing and submitting grant applications.

Holocaust Memorial Day – Sunday 23rd January

A commemorative service will take place at the Rickett Quadrangle, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, Hendon NW4 4BT on Sunday 23rd January 2022 at 3 pm. If you wish to attend, please be seated by 2.45 pm. This service commemorates the victims of genocide. Free entry. Nearest tube is Hendon Central, buses 143,113,83,183, 186 and 326. Disabled parking facilities and access. For more information call 0208 359 2652, e mail mayor@barnet.gov.uk or visit www.barnet..gov.uk/holocaust

The return of Lectio Divina:

Zoomed “Lectio Divina” will return on Monday 31st January from 7:30pm – 8:30pm. “Lectio” involves reading, reflecting and discussing the gospel passage used each Sunday at Mass. Please email Fr Peter if you want to be part of the “Lectio Team” and take part in the zoom.

The return of the Monday Senior Citizens Club:

Now that the latest Covid variant seems to have peaked in London, the senior citizens can return to the well ventilated “small hall” for teas and coffees after the Monday morning 10am Mass…. from 31st January. Donations of cakes and biscuits are very welcome.

Next Weekend:

Next weekend, at all Masses, there will be a mission appeal on behalf of the Holy Ghost Fathers.

Cardinals Letter:

As a new year dawns, we look for hope. Surely this next year can’t be as bad as the one to which we’ve said ‘goodbye’?

There are two versions of hope worth pondering.

One is that hope comes when we can look forward to an uncertain future from the basis of a secure present. The unknown prospects of what is to come do not cause us too much anxiety because we are well equipped to face them – individually and as a society. This is the pragmatic version of the virtue of hope

The second version is a reverse image of the first. Hope is the capacity to face an uncertain present on the basis of an utterly secure future. No matter what happens today or tomorrow, the long-term future is secure because it is promised by something beyond the ebbs and flows of ‘outrageous fortune’. This is the Christian virtue of hope, founded on the promises of God made visible in Jesus, the Christ, whose coming we are celebrating.

These too versions stand on either edge of the stage of life, summoning us to decide where to put our trust. They clarify the fundamental options. The choice we make establishes the direction in which we look, the foundation on which we shape our lives.

But there is a great deal of ‘middle ground’, in which our daily activity takes place. Prudence demands that we make provision now for future eventualities: insurance and saving schemes, health provision, all we do in preparation for ‘the rainy day’.

Charity demands that we act without counting the cost, putting the present needs of others way ahead of our own current security, acting in a self-sacrificing manner, even going as far as making a gift of our very life itself. This is the story of every true love, told and illustrated again and again, constantly transforming the drama of human living.

Such charity points to its deepest roots, in the promise of a secure and totally fulfilling future in the presence of God for ever. This is the hope given by the Christian faith and enacted in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This hope puts a radically new perspective on today and the days to come, no matter what they bring. This future is secured. Now I can act, in any set of circumstance, with a freedom and generosity which flows forcefully from that promise. This is what saints do.

But we must remember that we constantly see the astonishing goodness, devotion, perseverance and practical wisdom of so many people, made even more evident during the hardships of this last year.

As we start a new year, we may well ponder why it is that so many people act in such generous ways. I firmly believe that it the promptings of the Holy Spirit, that flow of love pouring out of God, that lies as the deepest source of this service. It goes beyond self-interest. It is seeking a future beyond the securities of the present, for they have been shaken. It is the privilege of faith to identify and highlight the well-spring of this goodness: the radical hope given in the promises of God.

It is also the source of our joy and the best reason for wishing each other a happy New Year.Cardinal Vincent Nicholls