Thank you for your offerings last week of £1,404. Mass attendance 735.
5th May (Saturday Vigil)	Sixth Sunday Of Easter 6pm Edward Pereira RIP (N Pereira)
Sunday 6th May	9.15am People of The Parish 11am Sharon Fernandes RIP (L&P Da Cunha)
Monday 7th May	Feria 9.30am Margaret & Kenneth Jackson RIP
Tuesday 8th May	Feria 9.30am Elaine Slattery
Wednesday 9th May	Feria 9.30am Hugh & Mary O’Donnell RIP (D Marshall)
	10.45am Eucharistic Adoration
Thursday 10th May	The Ascension of The Lord
(Whole School Mass – Holy Day of Obligation)	9.30am Anthony Olivelle RIP (M Olivelle) 8.00pm Mass for Ascension Day
Friday 11th May	Feria 9.30am Elphin Conroy RIP (G&B Ford)
12th May (Saturday Vigil)	Seventh Sunday Of Easter 6pm Claire Draper RIP (Simon Family)
Sunday 13th May	9.15am People of The Parish 11am Mr Noel McDevitt RIP (Bunnage Family)

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.

Rosary

Every day after Mass there is rosary. All are welcome.

Sunday Mornings in the Community Centre

Every Sunday coffee and tea are served after the 9.15am and 11am Masses. Please join us for a while and get to know each other over a cuppa!

Second Collection

The second collection next weekend will be for the work of St Catherine's parish in the Philippines our parish overseas project. The support we give is to assist St Catherine's in providing technical education programmes for the benefit of people in the area to enable them to obtain employment and to support their families.

Following fundraising events over the past couple of months we have recently sent £3,254.52 to St Catherine's made up of funds raised from the Filipino Fiesta, by the Confirmandi candidates from their quiz night and by the Traidcraft stall together with some donations.

Further support for St Catherine's is needed and the parish priest Father Joe has expressed his great appreciation and gratitude for the support St James has provided. More information on the work done by St Catherine's can be seen on the notice board at the back of the Church and on the Parish website.

Thank you. Justice & Peace Group.

Fr David writes…

C.S Lewis, the author of the book “The Four Loves”, which was based on a set of radio talks from 1958, takes us on a quest to discover and explore the various types of love felt, given and received by us, humans. Lewis talks about love in terms of affection, friendship, Eros and Charity. He calls them Storge – empathy bond which is liking someone through the fondness of familiarity, family members or people who relate in familiar ways that otherwise have found themselves bonded by chance. An example of Storge is the natural affection of a parent for their child. Philia – friend bond is the love between friends as close as siblings in strength and duration, Eros – erotic bond is the love for Lewis in the sense of “being in love or “loving” someone, as opposed to the raw sexuality of what he called Venus, and Agape – unconditional God Love, is the love that exists regardless of changing circumstances. Lewis recognizes selfless love as the greatest of the four loves and sees it as a specifically Christian virtue to achieve. He goes into depth on each subject, but his true message seems to be that the four are almost always intertwined and that they are at their most intense and satisfying when they are connected to a love for God, Agape. Charity, according to Lewis, is the highest form of love. The three previous examples have been “natural”, earthly, human types of love, but Agape is divine love itself, the source of all the others. Affection, friendship and Eros cannot remain themselves without the help of divine love. Rather than being in competition, the presence of divine love, when it rules in the human heart, nurtures and strengthens all the natural loves. He says that “In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give”. In that case, people love without any personal attraction.

The Christian life, modelled on Jesus, is about a freedom to love to the point of laying down one’s life for the other. A relationship with Jesus necessarily involves a relationship with his friends. And these friends are called to love not only Jesus and the Father, but perhaps more importantly, one another. This kind of love is not simply a checklist of good deeds, but a dying to self that puts the other first. This love is self-sacrificial and demands that we put our own wants, needs, desires and egos aside to serve and love the other. In a world and culture, where we are invited to take care of our needs first, this type of love is looked upon as archaic and unhealthy. We are constantly encouraged to put ourselves first and foremost. The Christian life, however, is one that demands a kind of heroism of daily self-sacrifice, daily dying to one’s self. We would be able to do this because as John says about the love of God in today’s readings, “this is the love I mean: not our love for God but God’s love for us”. The same message is underlined in the Gospel: “You did not choose me, no, I chose you”. God’s love is first, and it is only because of the primacy of God’s love that we have the power and the freedom to choose God and love others selflessly. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love”. In everything that he did, Jesus kept on choosing to love.

That self-giving quality of divine love is one that can be seen in the lives of many people. Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate (Rejoice and be Glad) is one long incisive effort to urge us Christians on. Not to be satisfied with mediocre spiritual lives, not to reduce the Gospel to mere living out of a set of rules and regulations, not to despair of our own weakness, not to give up on God and the joy and gladness that he alone can bring into our lives and through us, into the world. Pope Francis connects Agape with Holiness. We are all called to be witnesses, but there are many actual ways of bearing witness he says. Besides those saints and martyrs whose lives were an exemplary imitation of Christ, Pope Francis also praises the everyday sanctity of “those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile”.

That kind of self-giving and concentration on the needs of another reflects something of the quality of God’s love in Jesus. Jesus invites us that we would choose to keep on giving ourselves in love, even when the giving hurts, even when we feel we have nothing left but our exhausted presence. But it is that kind of love that mirrors God’s kind of love. As Jesus said himself, the love is the giving of the self, the communication of the self, the handing over of the self. We must be honest and say that we cannot do this on our own will only. We need God’s imbued love in us to help us on. The “ego” continually comes in the way of Agape. The “Ego” continually wants to be assuaged. Living the Christian life as Jesus is encouraging us to live in this week’s liturgy is counter-cultural in today’s world. We would not be able to live it out wholeheartedly without our intimate relationship with Him. The mystical experience of God in our life that translates itself into our selfless love of others is the Agape, which C.S Lewis was referring to. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us live it out as best as we can in our daily lives.

“Drop-In” Evening Surgeries

Please note that the next surgery will be on Wednesday the 9th May 2018. Fr David will be available at 281A Crescent Drive from 5.00-7.00pm and no appointment is necessary.

Baptisms

This weekend we welcome Henry William Francis Foster and his parents Mark and Lisa; and also Matylda Maria Brown and her parents Stephen and Malgorzata.

Pastoral Pillar

Service at St James the Great to mark Dementia Awareness Week.

On Sunday 20th May at 3pm you are warmly invited to a service here at St James’ to mark the start of Dementia Awareness Week which is from Monday 21st May to Sunday 27th May. The service will be led by Fr David and take place in the Church. It will be a time of singing, poetry and prayer followed by refreshments in the Community Centre. We do hope you can join us.

Healing Mass

This will take place on Sunday 27^th May at 2.30pm, followed by refreshments in the Community Centre. Should you require a lift to and from the Healing Mass please contact the parish office giving your name, telephone number and address. A member of the SVP will then contact you to make the necessary arrangements.

Helplines and Counselling Services

As part of our care for the community a list of helplines and counselling services has now been added to the parish website and also, placed in the porch. The purpose of this is to give contact details of various organisations which can provide help in difficult times thereby enabling people to seek privately the information and support they may need.

Liturgy Pillar

Eucharist Adoration

This 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 7.30–9.00pm and concludes with Benediction. The next one will take place on 6th April. Everyone is welcome for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Social Pillar

CWL Military Whist

Our eagerly awaited annual Military Whist Drive will be held on Saturday 12th May in the Community Centre. It is a fun evening for 10 - 100 year olds. Light refreshments will be served, there will be a raffle and the bar will be open. Tickets £6. Come along at 7.30 if you would like to learn how to play whist, otherwise please arrive in time to buy your drinks ready for the 8 pm start.

Knights of St Columba

Message from Flavio

I managed to complete the 25 mile Cycle Challenge in just under 3 hours. The sponsorship form is still located in the church entrance for those who would still like to donate. Thank you to all of those who have sponsored me already. The monies donated by you will go to St Michaels Hospice (a care home for the terminally ill) & the Hastings Lifeboat (75%), as well as to the Knights of St Columba for good causes (25%). God Bless, Flavio.

Justice & Peace

Pots for sale

Several used garden pots have been donated. Have a look at the photos at the back of the church and if would like one contact the parish office to reserve it. All donations will be going to the St Catherine’s in the Philippines.

Foodbank

The list of needs has changed and is now: tinned potatoes, tinned tomatoes, tinned soup, long life fruit juice, jam, rice, shampoo, toothbrushes, baby wipes, washing up liquid and washing powder. Thank you for continuing to donate these much needed supplies.

Seeking Job

We have a parishioner who is an experienced domestic cleaner looking for work, housekeeping, ironing, cooking and cleaning. She has references. Please contact the parish office for more details.

Polite Reminder

The Parish disabled parking spaces are for Blue Badge holders only.

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.

Saturday 12th May 2018
Cleaning the Church	Eucharistic Ministers

Wednesday Coffee 9th May

S Barradell, B D’Arcy

13th May 2018
Mass	Saturday 6pm (Vigil)	Sunday 9.15am	Sunday 11am
Welcomers	A Neal	F Mace M Howell	Uniformed Groups
Readers	K Lams L Rusmini	C D’Souza C Hairs	Parade Mass
Ministers of Holy Communion	J Gribben J Callinan P Crosland C Wakefield C Cosgrave	M Howell S Cotta A Ward M Smith D Hairs	R Mwansa K Chan K Evans A Evans P May
Bar			B Meehan O Clutton
Coffee		D Delf F Curran E Aletta	C D’Arcy T Lowe
Altar Servers	P Marshall Paulina		Emily

Tellers

P Benson, N Longhurst