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Thank you
for your offerings last week of £1,479.
Mass attendance 662. |
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Sunday 10th September (Saturday Vigil) |
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 6pm People Of The Parish |
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9.15am Francesca M Sio RIP (J&L Sio) Dr Margaret Evelyn Ledger RIP 11am Anthony Olivelle RIP (M Olivelle) |
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Monday 11th September |
Feria 9.30am Gerard Ussher-Smith RIP (M Kelly) |
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Tuesday 12th September |
Feria 9.30am Jimmie & Nora Dee (O’Leary Family) |
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Wednesday 13th September |
9.30am Jimmie & Mary O’Connor |
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10.45am Eucharistic Adoration |
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Thursday 14th September |
The Exaltation of The Holy Cross |
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9.30am Dennis Nelligan RIP (F Simon) |
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Friday 15th September |
Our Lady of Sorrows 9.30am Thanksgiving (Maria Holloway) |
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Sunday 17th September (Saturday Vigil) |
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time 6pm Patrick Meehan RIP (Meehan Family) |
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9.15am People Of The Parish 11am Terence Quinlan RIP ( |
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.
Second Collection
This week’s second
collection will be for the Maintenance Fund.
Next week’s
(Sun 17th Sept) there is a 2nd collection for Home
Mission which “provides the bishops with resources to spread the gospel
in our own country”.
Fr David writes…
As human beings, we do hurt one another. Sometimes unknowingly – other times knowingly. We are not perfect and so we do rub each
other up the wrong way. The question is
what do we do with the hurt. Some of us,
because of our personality or else also culturally, we are not given permission
to make use of confrontation. For this
reason, some of us exercise passive aggression as a way of dealing with the
pain of the hurt. This means giving the
silent treatment. There are couples
living together who live together and instead of confronting, they stop talking
to one another. They do this to punish. This obviously creates a lot of tension for
the whole family. Other people deal with
being hurt by allowing it to fester. I
know of people who cannot forgive something that had been done to them ages ago. And the way they deal with it is keeping
distance from the other. They also find
themselves talking about the other person to others. In this way, although they stop talking to
the one who had inflicted the pain, they still give them a lot of power. The other inhibits their mind even from a
distance. There is no resolution of the
problem in either of these instances. Unfortunately
a lot of us do live with unresolved issues with our families or friends or
members of our parish. Once we do not
confront, the issue magnifies itself. The
longer we leave it, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile. An unresolved issue between two people in a
family or in a community does not affect only the people involved but it also
affects the whole system being family or community. It becomes toxic and dysfunctional. Something needs to be done in order that
healing happens.
In a Christian community like a parish – hurts do
happen also. If they are not dealt with
appropriately and in a mature way, they can hinder both the mission of the
parish and also the atmosphere within the community. If the hurt is not addressed, it can fester. We lose sight of why we are part of the
community. A compassionate community
needs also to address difficult situations.
Pastorally we need to be aware of people who are hurt, listen to them
with compassion but also facilitate ways how reconciliation and healing can
happen. We cannot collude with
dysfunctional behaviour. We need to
encourage people within our parish if possible for healthy confrontation.
In today’s gospel, Matthew gives a setting for
addressing issues and problems which arise in the life of the organised
community of the local church. The
advice is straightforward: “if your brother or sister does something wrong, go
and have it out with him or her alone, between your two selves”. It counsels personal intervention and honest
confrontation. It encourages members of
the Christian community to straighten things out with each other privately. Christians are to deal with each other
candidly and personally – no anonymous complaints to the authorities, no
whisper campaigns. The purpose of
confronting a brother or sister is not to humiliate them but to be reconciled. However, I do suggest that we need first to
calm down and re-gather ourselves before confronting. The hurt might create a lot of negative
feelings in us and if we confront immediately we might say the wrong things and
make things worse. We need to allow the
emotion to settle down a bit. Then we
need to have the courage to ask for a meeting.
This does demand courage.
Something that really helped me in my life is that
when I confronted the other person, I try not to go on the defensive and start
blaming. This attitude creates a defensive
approach from the other two. It resolves
nothing – actually it worsens the situation.
It’s a deadlock. What helps is if
we say – “When you said or did this, I felt so and so”. This approach deflects from blame into
ownership of feelings. This approach
will give permission to the other to clarify why she or he said or did what
they did. If private reconciliation
fails, another attempt must be made by invoking the help of one or two others
for mediation. I suggest we find someone
who is skilled to do so who would be unbiased.
Only when this fails, is the offended party to bring the matter to the
attention of the whole community. This
must be handled with utter sensitively.
All the
practical advice in the Gospel today centres on Christians taking
responsibility for each other. Belonging
to a community implies being pastorally interested in the life of its members. In good times and in bad. Today’s gospel is challenging. But it gives us priceless insight on how we
can deal maturely and in a Christian way our differences both personally and in
our community. Let us open our hearts
and ears to what Jesus is inviting us for through his readings this weekend. Have a blessed and safe week everyone. Please keep me in your prayers.
“Drop-In” – Evening Surgeries
There will be no drop-in evening
surgeries until further notice. So if
you would like to see Fr David, please email him or phone the parish office for
an appointment. Thank you.
Holy Baptism
This weekend
we welcome, through Holy Baptism, Cameron Foley and his parents Neil and Jenna;
and Leonard D’Souza and his parents Martin and Jennifer.
The Parish
Pastoral Council
The next meeting of the Parish Pastoral Council will take place on
Wednesday 20th (not 13th as
advertised in the printed version of Briefly) September 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
One Parish Weekend, our Autumn Festival on 30th September.
Please plan to
come along to our Autumn Festival on 30th September and please
return your raffle tickets (and the money for them!) as soon as possible. If you
would like to help in other ways, please:
·
donate a bottle for the bottle tombola
(there’s a box for this in the church porch).
·
sign up to display your national
dancing skills, e.g. Irish, Scottish,
Indian, Morris Dancing and please provide your own music for this
·
sign up to cook or bake a national dish
or cake.
We need to know about dancing and hot food
contributions by 24th September at the latest so that we can
include you in our planning. So please
fill in the forms in the church porch to let us know what you would like to do
as soon as possible. Thank you!
The Missionary sisters of St Peter Claver
will be in our Parish to sell their
Mission Calendars on the weekend 23rd /24th September
2017. Having a Mission Calendar is a way
of reminding ourselves all the year round of our duty to sustain the missions by
our prayer and sacrifice. Please help
the sisters generously
Mass Intentions
You can now
view Mass intentions on the website. This
should enable people to see available dates.
However there are circumstances when a confirmed date has to be changed
such as funerals.
For clarity a
Mass offering or stipend is given for the
Steps to
booking a Mass intention:
1 Check availability online or with the
office.
2 Complete one of the Mass intention
envelopes stating all relevant details and include your offering. Please do not just email the office.
3 Put the completed envelope in the box at
the back of the church or through the parish office door.
4 Your Mass intention will be found online
the following week if it is submitted by Wednesday.
For online
checks go to the parish website and select the margin menu item Masses,
then click on Intentions. Alternatively
use the link www.stjamespettswood.org/masses.html.
Hopefully this
will make the system of booking Masses easier for all. The PPC.
Confirmation 2018
Calling all
Year Nine and above students who wish to be confirmed next year. There is a “Come and See” meeting on Monday 6th
November at 7.30pm in the Church. This
meeting is for candidates and their parents.
At the end of the meeting, packs will be distributed ready for enrolment
into the programme which starts with a kick off day on Saturday 25th
November. If you intend to come to the
meeting on the 6th, please let the parish office know by phone or
email: parish.office@stjamespettswood.org.uk.
We look forward to meeting you
all. The Catechists
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 1st
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.
Pastoral Care Pillar
Healing
Mass
This will take place on Thursday 28th
September at 6pm, followed by refreshments in the Community Centre.
Peace Candle in
Our Lady’s Chapel
A quiet space has been set aside in Our Lady’s Chapel
and a book is available for anyone who wishes to write a prayer for peace for
their own personal intentions.
Social Pillar
CAFOD
Southwark Pilgrimage
An afternoon to walk, pray and
reflect
Join us at St Francis de Sales Church,
Hartley DA3 8DW on Saturday 16 September to walk on our pilgrimage journey in
the Kent countryside to pray and reflect on how energy poverty affects the
poorest overseas and to inspire each other to take action to ensure that all
have access to clean, safe and affordable renewable energy.
Gather at 11.45am for a simple lunch, to
start a 3-4 mile pilgrimage at 12.30 pm, using pathways through woods and
fields via St Mary's Fawkham and All Saints Hartley, stopping for prayer and
reflection along the way. (Transport
available for the less able). We aim to
return by about 4.00 pm for tea and cake and an opportunity to attend 5.30 pm
Holy Mass at St Francis de Sales. (The
nearest station is just over a mile away at Longfield, just 30 mins from
It will be helpful if you can contact CAFOD Southwark
to say that you will come, on 020 8466 9901 or email: southwark@cafod.org.uk
Sponsored
Trek for Alzheimer's Society
Three parishioners - Rocio Blanco, Bernice
Mallion and Eleanor Smith - are putting on their walking boots on 16 September
to undertake a half-marathon trek through the
Silver Jubilee party photos
Thanks to various people, there is now a large set of
photos on the parish website showing the celebration of Fr David's Silver
Jubilee on 9th July. You will also find
photos and the results of the Fun Run via this link: http://stjamespettswood.org/jubilee.html;
alternatively go to the home page and check out "Recent updates". Roger Wright, webmaster.
Evangelisation Pillar
St James’ Parish Formation Day
You are warmly invited to join us at this forthcoming
event:
Date Saturday
23rd September 10:30am (prompt start)- around 4pm finish
Theme A Biblical Journey through the Mass
Venue St James’ Community Hall
Speaker Brian Purfield
(Director, Faith Formation,
The Mass is
the centre of our faith. We celebrate it
every day. We know all the responses. We know all the gestures. But do we know what it all means? In this
Formation Day, we will take a tour of the liturgy and explore the biblical
roots of the words and gestures in the liturgy and reflect on their profound
significance. The day will also be an
excellent start to our preparation for the Eucharistic Congress in
There will be four 1 hour sessions of talk/ discussion
during the day. Teas & coffee will
be provided and there will be a shared community lunch.
There are around 35 places left. So, if you wish to attend, please email Ken
Chan on ken.chan@stjamespettswood.org to reserve your place (on a first
come first serve basis) or if you would like more information about the day.
Knights of St
Columba
Please continue to bring in your postage stamps. Many thanks for your continued support.
Many thanks to everyone for their generosity in last weekend’s Plant
Sale. A total of £226.53 was raised
which will be donated to The Passage, a charity based in
Justice & Peace Group
Foodbank
request this week
Custard,
cold meat, (e.g. tins of ham, spam
etc.), tinned fruit and biscuits are all urgently needed. Also still needed are: jars of pasta
sauce, tinned vegetables, 'hot meat' (i.e.
tinned meat that can form the basis of a hot meal), rice pudding, tinned
tomatoes, squash and UHT milk.
Befriending
offenders
Have you
ever considered befriending offenders in prison helping them to reconnect with
the world outside? New Bridge is non judgmental, trustworthy and constantly in
support of prisoners. The charity was
set up by Lord Longford and training for befrienders is provided. A befriender can write letters, visit a
prisoner and keep in contact wherever the prisoner moves. Any prisoner who wants a befriender can write
to
Wanted
If you have any unwanted Jam jars could you please
leave them in the box in the porch. Jam
Jars ONLY please.
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.
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Saturday 16th September |
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Cleaning the Church |
Uniformed
Groups, Readers |
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Wednesday Coffee 13th September |
Madeleine
Howell |
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17th September |
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Mass |
Saturday 6pm (Vigil) |
Sunday 9.15am |
Sunday 11am |
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Welcomers |
L Ruber |
M
Howell K
Drabowicz |
M
Cooper K
Edwards |
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Readers |
L
Rusmini A
Prifti |
C
Hairs H
Denham |
N
D’Silva R
Morrison |
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Ministers of Holy Communion |
P
Crosland J
Bajorek H
Rothon M
Cahill C
Cahill |
A
Hawkins D
Hairs B
Cotta W
David B
D’Arcy |
T
B
Bridle A
Bunnage P
V
Terry |
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Bar |
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F
Simon P
Dabrowski |
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Coffee |
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G
Brookes D
Brookes |
C
D’Arcy T
Lowe |
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Tellers |
F
Simon, J Cosgrave |