Category: Latest News

Catholic Universe/Catholic Times

TO OUR CATHOLIC UNIVERSE AND CATHOLIC TIMES READERS IN THE PARISH:- at the moment you are unable to collect your paper at Mass, but you can get it delivered direct to your home every week, POST FREE.   Please go to www.thecatholicuniverse.com or call them on 0161 820 5722 and they will arrange for you.

SPECIAL OFFER 3 MONTHS :-                £25.00

SPECIAL OFFER  12 Months:-                   £99.00

DIGITAL COPY:- 12 Months:                     £55.00

OR

DIGITAL COPY/AND HARD COPY FOR:- £115.00  (EASTER SPECIAL OFFER)

CAFOD

CAFOD:  This Lent, CAFOD invites you and the whole Catholic community of England and Wales to join the Big Walk for Water virtual event.  Help give the boot to water poverty across the world by walking a 5-mile route on Saturday 20th February at 2pm.  Could you Walk for Water as a personal Lenten challenge by walking 10,000 steps a day, every day, for 40 days?  Find out more at cafod.org.uk/walk

Fr Jimmy Buckley

Fr Jimmy Buckley, who spent many summers covering St George’s will be streaming Mass from Esker Monastery on Saturday 13th February at 10am and Sunday 14th February at 11am.  He knows many of you will be watching.  Google Esker Monastery, Galway and you will find him there.

Poem

2021

It’s now two thousand and twenty one ,we know the virus still hasn’t  gone 

But nearly a year has passed us by, we cope with it all with a great big sigh 

We wear our masks and stay at home, even though we would love to roam 

Keeping to rules and keeping apart sometimes it feels it will break your heart

But progress is happening, that’s really fab! Vaccines on offer so go for you’re jab!

We look to the future with positive air, and bless NH staff who give us such care 

We will not be beaten, we’ll stay really, really brave, clearing out cupboards (what shall we save!)

Contact each other by email and phone, so nobody feels that they are alone 

Lockdown is staying, no doubt about that, lazing around we might put on fat! 

But what does it matter with friends all around, looking out for each other with feet on the ground               By Ross

Deacon John Writes

Since this coming Sunday is Valentine Day I thought I would delve into the Internet to see what I could find about St. Valentine. The following is a summary of what I found.

Valentine of Rome was a widely recognised 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Christianity on February 14.  Since around the 10th century his Saint’s Day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love.  Around this time it was believed that birds paired in mid-February and this was then associated with the romance of Valentine. Although these legends differ, Valentine’s Day is widely recognised as a day for romance and devotion. Relics of him were kept in the Church and Catacombs of San Valentino in Rome, which “remained an important pilgrim site throughout the Middle Ages until the relics of St. Valentine were transferred to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV“. His skull, crowned with flowers, is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome; other relics of him were taken to Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, where they remain; this church continues to be a popular place of pilgrimage, especially on Saint Valentine’s Day, for those seeking love. 

St. Valentine is included in the Roman Martyrology of the Church and February 14th was celebrated as a Feast day in the liturgy on this date until 1955 when Pope Pius XII reduced it to a commemoration within another celebration. 14 years later there was a major revision of the church calendar when it was removed completely except for a small number of places where there was a special reason for inclusion, such as a church dedicated to St. Valentine.  With my love and prayers.

To continue:

Last week I highlighted the coming of Spring.  New life and a fresh window of opportunity.  To begin with it is a challenge; a challenge of the highest order because of the current climate.  There is no magic process to be called upon.

So it is most appropriate that we are presented in the life of the church with the season of Lent.  The Stations of the Cross have traditionally been an important part of Lenten preparation and devotions.  A memory in my life, is one of my dad doing the Stations of the Cross all the way through Lent.  Because he was very crippled by arthritis, suffering great pain, it was a powerful witness to his faith and the strength that he received from it.

In the wider picture the coronavirus is very crippling, a source of suffering and affliction, many isolated in their sufferings, and people left feeling powerless and not sure what to do for the best.  The constant feedback from the media and also from the immediate environment is anything but helpful.  Normally we could turn to the church for strength and support, but our celebration of funerals highlights the reality of our time.  There have been good moments, and streaming services, meetings and Masses have been a welcome introduction.  But the immediate circumstances of our life means that we cannot satisfactorily feel that what was achieved was good enough, or indeed very helpful.  At the same time they do provide moments of grace and a sense of “the best we can do in the circumstances”.

Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and so it leaves us with immediate decision, thanks be to God.  The vaccination programme with its successful roll out is going very well.  I am grateful to have received my first vaccination and I am very at ease and pleased with the protection that it has given me.  My ears are also full of its limitations that I do not deny.  But with options and choices remaining “stay safe and protect each other”, I am ready to move on within its limitations.  So the ashes which were part and parcel of my childhood school.  The headmaster from when we were five or six year olds distributing them to the whole school.  “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return”, repeated and repeated, “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return”, until everyone in the school was done, and then it was the question, who got the biggest daub?

So here we are today.  For many of us who could avail of the great gift of streaming Spiritual Communion has become an important focus.  So our Mass for Ash Wednesday sets the stage for our spiritual process and please God, with one step at a time we will return to near normal circumstances.