Thank you for your offerings last week of £1,351.  Mass attendance 528.
Sunday 4^th June (Saturday Vigil)	Pentecost Sunday 6pm Patricia Beh RIP (Sands Family)
	9.15am People Of The Parish 11am Inge Gattel RIP (Bendon Family)
Monday 5^th June	Saint Boniface 9.30am Keith Blacker RIP
Tuesday 6^th June	Feria 9.30am Maurice Cantopher RIP (P Cantopher & Family)
Wednesday 7^th June	Feria 9.30am Anthony Olivelle RIP (M Olivelle)
	10.45am Eucharistic Adoration
Thursday 8^th June	Feria 9.30am Marjorie Phyllis Ingledew RIP (M Ingledew)
Friday 9^th June	Feria 9.30am Fr Louis Fitzmaurice (Foundation Mass) 7.30pm -9pm Eucharist Adoration
Sunday 11^th June (Saturday Vigil)	The Most Holy Trinity 6pm Tom Hughes RIP (P Cantopher) 9.15am Darrell D’Silva RIP (N&J D’Silva) 11am Francesca Sio RIP (J&L Sio)

Confessions heard Saturday 5.00-5.45pm or by appointment.

Morning Prayer: Takes place Monday – Friday at 9.10am.  All are welcome to attend.

Pondering the Word (Lectio Divina)

A quiet reflective look at the following Sunday’s Gospel.  Mondays 11am - 12 noon, except for Bank Holidays, here in the Church.  All welcome.

Offertory collection

The second collection next week will be for The Catholic Trust for England and Wales.  This fund supports the activities of the Bishops’ Conference and helps pay for the administration of the Church in this country.  There is a special envelope in the Gift Aid boxes

Fr David writes…

A few months ago, I had a visit from a mother and her fifteen year old daughter from outside the parish.  The teenage daughter seemed very reserved as any teenage daughter or son would have been if they were reluctantly dragged by their mother to see the priest.  The mother seemed overwhelmingly worried.  She explained to me that her daughter had not been able to go out of the house for months.  For this reason, she had not been going to school.  The reason given was that she was being bullied by other teenagers at school.  When asked to describe to me her side of the story, the young girl explained that she feels the need to protect herself from the world.  That she sees the world out there as cruel.  In order to escape being called names, she had retreated and locked herself literally at home.  Fear and anxiety had taken over her and trapped her.  The problem in today’s world is that the perpetrators of bullying can find you within the safe haven of your home through social media.  This experience had paralysed her.  This is not surprising.  In puberty, we can be in our most fragile stage of our lives.  We feel insecure about ourselves, our bodies and how we look.  We are just beginning to understand our emotions and feelings.  Our hormones are all over the place as we start maturing into adulthood.  For most young people, their self-confidence is at its lowest.  As young people we feel deeply the desire to fit in and be accepted.  Other people’s opinion of us matter.  In our most vulnerable stage of life we need affirmations.  We need to feel loved and accepted as we are.  The last thing we need is to be bullied.  Put down.  Made to feel inferior.  No wonder that this teenage girl retreated into her shell to protect herself from the harshness of cowards who project their own insecurities on others.

In different stages of our lives, maybe we too resume to protect ourselves by retreating into our safe havens.  This happens when we are at our most vulnerable.  The losing of someone significant in our lives, so in times of grief.  The breakdown of a significant relationship.  Being given a confirmation that we are seriously ill.  These are just some examples of moments in life that make us retreat into our locked rooms.  And it is only natural to do so.  What makes it unhealthy is that we remain locked up.  Times of lying low are encouraged after a traumatic experience in order to re-gather our energies and also to digest what has happened to us, reflect upon it and eventually move on when we feel stronger.  Remaining stuck is another matter.  We know that there are people who suffer with agoraphobia.  Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives the environment to be unsafe with no easy way to get away.  This could include open spaces, public transport, shopping centres, or simply being outside.  In severe cases some people cannot leave their own homes.  This mental health issue needs to be dealt with professionally.  However, in all cases we need to feel empowered by hope.  Hope that things will eventually change for the better.  Remaining locked in has the connotation of hopelessness and eventually despair.  Helping the person to trust again slowly without pushing too hard, can help in the healing process.  Trusting first and foremost oneself.  Feeling empowered to feel comfortable in one’s own skin.  Once that is achieved miracles can happen.

Celebrating the feast of Pentecost today, we encounter a group of people who feel completely overwhelmed by fear.  They have lost their self-confidence.  They find their strength in being and supporting one another and at the same time protecting themselves from the outside world as they perceive it as potentially threatening.  We encounter first and foremost a community which has lost its zeal for life and is absorbed instead by fear and anxiety.  There is no creative energy as they are wasting it for self -preservation.  In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke narrates a very dramatic story.  As the Holy Spirit comes over the disciples everything changes.  Luke emphasises the energetic power of the Spirit that even physically shakes the house they are in.  John on the other hand, shows us that there is an exit from this paralysing fear through the peace that Jesus brings.  Into this room of trapped people Jesus comes with peace.  He breathes the Holy Spirit on his disheartened followers.  Only in the gift of the Spirit is fear changed into freedom.  Only in the Spirit are the disciples empowered to understand the past anew and see the future with hope.  The Holy Spirit is the exit from hopelessness of being locked into a cruel and fearful past.  The Spirit is the exit that leads into the streets where lots of people may seem to walk freely but where many feel trapped in their own lives for one reason or another.

Through the disciples of Jesus the Holy Spirit will reach these people.  For the disciples are commissioned to breathe out as they have breathed in: to share this new Spirit with the multitude of people whose lives are hell without it.  There seems to be an interconnectedness between experiencing the peace and freedom of spirit within us and the freeing of others to experience peace.  We cannot give to others what we do not possess ourselves.  An authentic inner freedom is given freely by God’s spirit.  We no longer need to rely on external rules and regulations completely for our moral compass.  The Spirit of God shatters our fears and anxieties and empowers us to set other people free.  We might shock others in the meantime who think that they are living righteously, according to the law, as the disciples did.  The Spirit of God gifts us with authentic inner freedom.  I pray that we would continue to be a community led by God’s spirit of peace and freedom.  A spirit which builds up and inspires others to do the same.

“Drop-In” – Evening Surgery

The next Drop-in Surgery will take place on Tuesday 13th June between 5pm – 7pm.  Please call at 281a Crescent Drive.  No appointments are necessary.

Liturgy Pillar

Eucharist Adoration

takes place for an hour each Wednesday shortly after the morning Mass starting at 10.45 am and finishing at 11.45 am.  This Devotion to the Eucharist is a time of silent prayer and quiet music.  Everyone is welcome for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

First Friday of Month - Eucharist Adoration also takes place on the 1^st Friday of each month from 7.30 pm – 9pm and concludes with Benediction.  Everyone is welcome for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Holy Baptism

This weekend we welcome Patrick James McGeown and his parents Paul & Caroline, Evelyn Lily Wright and her parents Matthew & Sarah-Louise.

Pastoral Care Pillar

Service of Remembrance for Bereaved Parents.

Losing a baby or child is one of the most painful experiences anyone may ever have to face.  On Sunday 25th June you are warmly invited to a Service of Remembrance for Bereaved Parents.  It will take place at 4pm in St James' Community Centre and family and friends are also very welcome.  The service will be a time of music, prayer, poetry and reflection.  We do hope you will be able to stay afterwards for refreshments.

Francesca Sio

On 1 April, Francesca Sio a 3 year old parishioner died suddenly, after being sent home from the A&E, for having constipation 3 days earlier.  Due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding her death and the way in which such tragic events are covered for under the UK law, the family now have to raise funds to be able to undertake the painful judicial process of finding out what happened and what might have been done differently to save her.  Please see the web link below if you can help and/or would like to find out a bit more about their cause https://www.gofundme.com/CheerfulChesca.

The Parish Pastoral Council

The next Parish Pastoral Council meeting will take place on Wednesday 7^th June at 7.30pm in the Community Centre.  Parishioners are very welcome to come along for the first half hour of the meeting.  Alternatively, you may raise any relevant issue using the PPC mailbox which is ppc@stjamespettswood.org

Sunday 9th July – celebrate with Fr David!

Save The Date and join us for a Parish celebration of Fr David’s 25th Anniversary with a Garden Party and Fun Run.  More information to follow.

Parish Life……

Catenian Association

This weekend we welcome the members of the Blackheath and Chislehurst Circle of the Catenian Association to all our Masses.  They will give a very short talk at the end of Mass and will distribute leaflets with the aims and aspirations of their Association.  They will also be will be hosting teas and coffee with the Friends of St James’ in the community centre after the 9.15am and 11am Masses.

Parish Garden Clearance

Will take place on Saturday 10^th June at 9.00am.  Please meet Frank in church car park.

"The Parish’s Annual General Meeting (the AGM)”

This year’s AGM is scheduled to be held on Thursday 22nd June at 8pm in the Community Centre.  The meeting will include information about, and from, the PPC and parish groups and activities.  The Parish Groups are invited to prepare a presentation giving us an overview of the year and their aims for the next.  All parishioners are very welcome to attend so please put this date in your diary now.  We will let you know more in the coming weeks.  Thank you.

Justice & Peace Group

Bromley Foodbank requests

The list of priority foods and household goods is: toilet rolls, tinned tomatoes, long life fruit juice, tinned potatoes, desserts (sponge puddings, jellies, instant whips), UHT milk, men's razors and shaving foam.  Please make sure milk and juices are long life.  Thank you to all those who continue to respond so generously.  If you shop at a Tesco store in Bromley Borough please look out for the tokens given at the checkout desk.  Tesco makes a donation to local charities from the proceeds of their plastic bag sales.  Please vote for the Foodbank by putting your token in that box.

Communications Pillar

Friends of St James’

Don’t forget your coffee and croissants after Masses on Sunday this week.

Mass Intentions

Please note that, due to high demand, mass intentions for services up to and including August 2017 are fully booked.  Please bear this in mind when filing your Mass intentions, and try to give the office as much lead in time as possible to help ensure you get the dates you would like.

Social Justice

From time to time people meet to discuss progress upon issues such as reducing poverty, persecution, conflict, discrimination and environmental degradation – all dear to the heart of the Pope.  The next such meeting will be from 2.00 to 4.00 pm on Sunday June 11th at the Area Bishop's house ("The Hermitage", More Park, West Malling ME19 6HN - near the Catholic Church and school).  All are welcome!

Seeing a Chaplain if You Are Admitted to Hospital

Protecting personal information (data protection) is really important when you become an inpatient in hospital.

So please specifically ask hospital staff to pass on your details to the hospital’s Roman Catholic chaplain as soon as you are admitted if you would like a Chaplain to visit you.

Fr David would always be very happy to visit you too, so please ask a relative or friend to let him know about your admission.  You or they can email Fr David on father.david@stjamespettswood.org, or phone the parish office on 01689 827100.

Weekend Rotas:  Thank you for helping.

11th June
Mass		Saturday 6pm (Vigil)		Sunday 9.15am	Sunday 11am
Welcomers		J Callinan		C Cook E Froud	Uniformed Groups
Readers		C Kiely J Bajorek		S Cotta B Cotta	Parade Mass
Ministers of Holy Communion		M Cahill C Cahill A Guyton P Cosgrave P Driscoll		M Smith M Howell S Cotta A Ward A Hawkins	V Terry N Longhurst T Willard R Mwansa K Chan
Coffee				D Delf F Curran	M Harrington S Paris R Scott
Bar	N Longhurst B Meehan
Tellers	P Benson N Longhurst
Saturday 10th June
Cleaning the Church			Altar Servers and CWL