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Miss Holycheek, the Catholic Sunday school teacher, had just finished explaining the feast of the Assumption to her class.  “Now,” she said, “let all those children who want to go to Heaven to see their Heavenly Mother raise their hands.”  All the children raised their hands except little Marie in the front row.  “Don’t you want to go to Heaven, Marie?” asked Miss Holycheek.  “I can’t,” said Marie tearfully. “My mother told me to come straight home after Sunday school

St Wilfrid’s Celebration Mass and Visit to our Garden of Remembrance where we had a very moving service:

Thank you Father Rory for making this celebration so special, Teresa and Annette for the Altar display and everyone for joining in and singing, something we have missed in lockdown.

Then after Mass into our hall for refreshments, beautifully set out and organised by our excellent team.  It was so good to get together at last and enjoy ourselves in the company of our fellow community members.  The adult tombola was well stocked and great fun.  The money taken went to funding the food.  The children’s tombola was great fun too, no profit was made as we had to pay for the prizes this time.  Thank you everyone who contributed in anyway to our wonderful happy and successful day.  Here’s to the next one, now we are up and running, still observing the COVID rules of course.

It was lovely to see so many returning parishioners and welcome new members to our community at St George’s on Sunday. We are almost back to normal but continue to tread with care in keeping everyone safe. So good to see Alan serving on the altar again and great to chat with everyone afterwards too. A thanksgiving and remembrance event is planned for September. Details to follow.

The following was written by Peter Riordan in 2008.

My life has been a good news story. I think of myself as having been extremely blessed. I grew up with the loving care and guidance of great parents and grandparents. My twin brother has always been my best friend, so there was always someone with whom to share the adventures of youth. The rest of my family are also precious to me and to one another. My parents sent me to great schools where I learned values and attitudes I cherish. I am married to a wonderful wife and have two terrific children, a son and a daughter who are also great friends to one another. I live in a prime location where my neighbours are also my friends. I count my blessings and thank God for them. My work is my chance to pay God back, to share the gift of God’s love. At work I enjoy the loyal friendship of staff and the company of students whom I treat with respect and with sensitivity for their feelings. I try to call each by name so that I know each as a person. My parents were both teachers. I guess that was part of the reason I also felt called to teach. But does this mean there has never been, or never will be, upsets, problems, or disappointments? Of course not. No matter how blessed our lives may be there will always be challenges along the way.

What do we do about them? It seems to me we have a very clear choice. Either brood about them, and be angry, bitter, and resentful, or get on with life. Sadly, I meet people who do not cope well with ‘knock-backs’, and who seem to accumulate the baggage of bitterness and lingering hurt. So my attitude is never to fret about what went wrong, what I missed out on, what could have been. I can do without carrying the burden of past disappointments. It is far better to face each problem and either turn it into an opportunity or to look for the next opportunity. Look forward, not back. It is much easier to progress if we face where we want to go.

Well how did it go?       You may ask “what go”?  We had our celebration marking our return to church after the part that the coronavirus has played in recent times.  It is good to say “very well indeed”, as is the human situation, a sense that of course it could have been better.  Certainly the heart of the event was in the right place.  The liturgy for the Feast of the Assumption could not have suited our situation better.  As Catholics, we have long memories of different events associated with this feast over the years.  For us, when we were children it had particularly great memories, being the high point of the year.  Again, even then the human element, it also marked thoughts of having to return to school, the passing year, bringing with it change.

This may be a key note for us, as we hold our post mortems.  The liturgy of the mass is at the heart of our future and gives us great confidence that we have got something good to build on.  The excellent work of Gary through the streaming of the pictures, gave us access to recall the “hearts of gold” that we have lost in recent times.  They have left us with a very special legacy and with their deaths comes real sadness and great loss.  The presentation ignited memories of these special people.  We are greatly blessed, by the legacy that they have left.

The children’s liturgy team gave us a special focus on what our lives as Catholics are all about.  The Scripture, the teachings, the tools, that if we use we can develop and strengthen our faith.  When I hear mention of the return of the word “obligation” to go to mass, I shudder.  How can we get it so wrong?  Of course I can hear of it as a mortal sin if you do not eat.  If you never eat you will die.  We need our food to nourish our bodies, and in the same way we need to nourish our spiritual lives.  I accept that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and through God’s providence He finds ways of looking after us in our own particular needs or circumstances.   Ultimately it is our faithfulness to His will His way for us to serve Him.

It is a great sadness that here in Europe, and I do accept the great scandals in the Christian Churches and Institutions that have caused people to turn their backs upon them.  The unfolding developments in our world, with Afghanistan at the moment, climate change, the danger that there will have to be large scale migration, turmoil, highlight our human existence.  We can allow ourselves to be overwhelmed and lose our sense of purpose, but against all of that, God’s great gift to us each Sunday – The promise that the Feast Day holds out for us, the resurrection of Our Lord and its promise for all of us.  Yes, to the treasured memories of those gone before us marked with the sign of faith, yes to the teaching of our children’s catechist, yes to our needs for help, especially for our music ministry, yes to the firm foundations to build upon as we go along.

Hard work that was done by a few, the hall was cleared, the seating beautifully prepared, and the food was second to none.  My sense that I should have supported and sold it better, could be re-echoed, and our way forward is in working with this, understanding and supporting.  A sense of thanks for the legacy that we have been left with, a sense of confidence that we can do better, and our two communities, but only with the reality of a new generation working for us.  This truly highlights the essential gifts of modern means of communication, and the will to live and to learn together, with God’s help, strength and protection.

Meal at the Treacle Mine:  We were down in numbers as many of our friends were child minding or on staycation, as it was the holiday month.  Something I had not realised at the time of booking.  ‘Oops’, nevertheless 12 of us came, plus Fr Rory of course and mostly our friends from St George’s.

It was lovely to catch up on various news items and gossip, as we had not been able to mix for so long, we all appreciated the freedom to see each other and chat.  We agreed to meet up each month for a lunch together.  The next date will be Thursday 9th September, we hope you can make it.

The manager at the Treacle Mine is very happy to accommodate us in our special space away from the other diners and we are treated very well.  This venue is between both parishes and so we will book our tables there again.  Watch this space for further details nearer the time.

Fake £5. Notes:  Please be aware there are fake £5 notes in circulation at the moment.

St George’s is gently and carefully returning to normal. It is no longer necessary to book into the weekday Masses on Tuesday and Thursday. It is preferable to book Sunday, but not absolutely necessary anymore. For those who would like some space around them, this can be accommodated. Music has made a welcome return and singing, with a mask – which is perfectly possible – is positively encouraged. Every care is being taken to make our church a safe place for all. We look forward to welcoming everyone back into our parish family and have plans for a thanksgiving Mass and social in September – more details to follow.

Last Friday August 13th the Psalm was no.136. We only had 4 verses read to us. It is remarkable as it contains the phrase, “for his mercy endures forever” 14 times in those few verses. If you read the whole of the Psalm then the phase occurs 26 times. Psalm 136 is a psalm of thanksgiving for the work of God in creation and his faithful love through Israel’s history. It shows us God’s goodness and the importance of this for us. Yes, we should remember that God always loves us – never forget this. In fact we should all do more than this we should do what the Psalmist says many times in this psalm. He says “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever,” So I suggest that we adopt this phrase as a reminder for us during August. Try to remember to say it every day and not forget it during the day.  Keep it in mind and surely it will help you in everything you do each and every day. 

With the help of God we will continue to be progress for a return to a more normal life in our parish.  Some of the signs are very hopeful and the vaccines have been a great blessing.  To acknowledge that we could be hit by another variant that could be very virulent is adding to our anxieties unnecessarily, needs to be quickly embraced by God’s help, and with His help we will come to terms with it.  Living and learning with a proper amount of care and caution, makes all the difference.  A lot more suffering was inflicted than necessary, but always the outcome is most important.

It is good to hear stories of what a great gift it is to be able to return to the things we once took so much for granted.  A niece gave me a lovely  story of her children returning to experience music for a family occasion.  Admittedly it had to be C.D’s and not the live band that would normally have provided the music in the past.  I experienced an unexpected, but most welcomed window to events that we took so much for granted.  In memory of Jeff and Anita Stone, I called at an old haunt from their time at Deanland Park retirement homes.  By chance it coincided with a return to an open mike evening, where people take turns to provide their contribution to an evening of musical entertainment.  What a lovely hour and a half it turned out to be.

Reading “The Tablet” this week, in the books section was a review of a book “Mission Impossible”, which told the inside story of the team behind the Oxford Astra Zeneca Vaccine and the race against the virus.  Inspiring, instructive, restoring ones faith in humanity.  Heroes and mainly heroines working all the hours, and contending with adversaries; inspiring.  Indeed, thanks be to God.   Please God, we will have a very happy occasion this Sunday when we begin our progress to returning to church.  It is a time a) Counting our blessings and b) Expressing our gratitude to those who do all the work that is necessary for these occasions to happen.

So we are most grateful for all our volunteers, and appreciate those who lead, who organise and who make all the preparations, in fact the hard work that is required.  I am sincerely grateful, learning to count my blessings, and with your patience with me we will build back bigger and better.