Thank you for your offerings last week of £1,493. Mass attendance 762.
16th June (Saturday Vigil)	Eleventh Sunday 11am First Holy Communion 6pm People of The Parish
Sunday 17th June	9.15am Derek Fry RIP (Fry & Bridle Family) 11am Sharon Fernandes RIP (Fernandes Family)
Monday 18th June	Feria 9.30am The O’Connor Family RIP 5.00pm Reception of Barbara Bridle
Tuesday 19th June (Please note change of time)	Feria 11.00am Requiem Mass for Barbara Bridle
Wednesday 20th June (Please note change of time)	Saint Alban 9.00am Maurice Ingledew RIP (M Ingledew) Mass at St James’ School Year 3 Mass – All Welcome
	10.45am Eucharistic Adoration
Thursday 21st June	St Aloysius Gonzaga
	9.30am Hilary Marvell (K&A Evans)
Friday 22nd June	St John Fisher 9.30am Thanksgiving (Antao Family)
23rd June (Saturday Vigil) Sunday 24th June	The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist 6pm People of The Parish 9.15am Feast of St Columba (L Thomas) 11am Stephen Wyman RIP (Fry & Bridle 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

Next week’s collection is a “3 in 1” collection for Communications, Day for Life and Apostleship of the Sea.

Fathers’ Day

This weekend we remember all fathers including all those who are no longer with us. Happy Fathers’ Day.

Fr David writes…

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite impatient in everything, to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new”. This prayer was written by one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20^th Century – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – a Jesuit Priest. Many people find inspiration and can easily identify with the sentiments of this prayer. In reality it is a very countercultural prayer. Our culture promotes people who achieve the fastest. Our culture looks down on waiting. We are obsessed with quick results. We strive to find short cuts on the way. We tend to look at our young children and already yearn to see them achieve well at university. We long to possess our dream house immediately. We desire to recover physically and mentally quicker. However we forget that our bodies have their own time to heal. Our body has its own wisdom. As I grow older, I am learning that wisdom demands patience in being in tune with the rhythms and the flow of life. Life has its own timings. We sow seeds in the present believing that in time we would appreciate the fruits of our labour. We don’t have the patience to wait. Living in between makes us feel out of control and very anxious. We feel that we should skip the intermediate stages. They are too uncomfortable. Even our ideas, our self-insight, and our faith needs, time to mature. I remember as a young person, I was much more dogmatic than I am now about faith and life in general. I thought that I had the answers and life was in black and white. Nowadays, I am less certain of things. I live less in a black and white world but more in a complex world of myriad colours. In my youth I thought that I was strong by having the answers to my questions and nowadays I feel stronger because I feel humble enough to say I don’t know.

In Mark’s gospel today, Jesus offers us two short parables. The first one is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three phases of agricultural work: the sowing, the growth of the seed and the harvest. The narrator wants to draw all the main attention on the time of growth. Days and nights follow and the farmer sleeps and keeps watch without being able to intervene in the growth. It is useless to do something, to be restless or worried, the process in place is no longer dependent on him, if he agitates, enters in the field, he would provoke trouble, trampling and destroying the tender shoots. He should do nothing but wait. In fact in silence, the miracles start; the seed sprouts from the earth. The description of the growth is accurate: the green and tender stem appears first, then the ear and then the mature grain. It is a development that amazes and delights, but cannot be forced. It takes time and patience.

The assimilation of the Gospel, of faith and growth is not immediate. Our work of inner transformation takes days and years. However, once it has penetrated into the heart, the word of Christ sets us up on an unstoppable dynamism, although slow. We need to respect the process though. The one who wants to rush it, runs the risk of getting caught by frenzy. We need to be able to let go, once we do our part, and let the process take its course. If we attempt to intervene in the process, we might cause coercion in not respecting the freedom of growth. There are times, that we need to sleep, have the wisdom to wait, stay calm, to sit and amazingly contemplate the seed sprouting and grows by itself. The fruits would ultimately be certainly beyond our expectation.

The second parable is also taken from the experience of life in the fields. It is this amazing contrast between the smallness of the beginnings and the greatness of the results that Jesus seeks to highlight in the parable of the mustard seed. The wonder stems from the realisation that, from an almost invisible grain, it sprouted and grew, in one season, into a shrub that even the birds nest in it. The invitation is to consider the reality with the eyes of God. People tend to give value to what is great and what appears to be grand. We tend to judge successes and failures according to the accumulated money, the power of the position reached, titles of honour, prestige and fame. Jesus overturned the scale of values. The passage ends with the comment by Mark: “He explained everything privately to his disciples”. Reflection, silence and prayer are needed in front of this mystery. In some way, the gospel today is telling us that we need to trust the flow of life. We cannot get in the way. As we allow growth to happen in the dark, fruit would emerge in its time. Let us be content with the seeds that we are planting today in our private life and also within our family and professional life. Let us trust in the flow of life and in the slow work of God. God give us the patience to wait and believe in this truth.

“Drop-In” Evening Surgeries

Please note that the next surgery will be on Wednesday the 20th June 2018. Fr David will be available at 281A Crescent Drive from 5.00-7.00pm and no appointment is necessary.

Holy Baptism

This weekend we welcome, Orlaith Cleave and her parents Ben & Niamh; Mia Cholewa and her parents Marcin & Anna; and Grace D’Cruz and her parents Neal & Caroline.

First Holy Communion

This weekend the following children will be receiving their First Holy Communion. Please keep them and their families in your prayers.

Josh

Daryn

Rayan

Anastasia

Max

Chaheth

Gabriel

Maja

Amasha

Eireann

Christina

Mia

Charlie

Mario

Edward

Finlay

Oscar

Olivia

James

Parish Annual General Meeting (the AGM)

This year’s AGM is scheduled to be held on Thursday 21st 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.

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 1st June. Everyone is welcome for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Pastoral Pillar

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 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.

Service of Remembrance for Bereaved Families & Friends.

Losing a baby or a child of any age is one of the most painful experiences anyone may ever have to face. On Sunday 1st July you are warmly invited to a Service of Remembrance for Bereaved Families & Friends. It will take place at 3pm in St James' Community Centre. The service will be a time of music, prayer, poetry and reflection. We do hope you will be able to join us & to stay afterwards for refreshments. Please pass this on to anyone you know who might benefit from this service. All are most welcome.

Youth Pillar

Youth Film Night – Save The Date

The youth film night for people aged 12+ will be held on Saturday 21st July at 7pm in the Community Centre. The film showing will be ‘What We Did On Our Holiday’. Food will be provided. There will be a suggested donation of £2. We look forward to seeing you there!

Justice & Peace

Foodbank request

The food and drink needs haven’t really altered much, but they still need tinned potatoes, tinned tomatoes, long life fruit juice and jam, plus squash, biscuits and cold meat. However, they have run very short of toiletries and household goods. So basically all toiletries, apart from feminine wear, are needed as are washing powder and washing up liquid.

Thanks from the Foodbank

The Bromley Foodbank Project Manager has sent a message of thanks to St James’ for the £175 worth of vouchers which were donated as a result of the retiring collection at last Saturday’s Film Night. She asks us to pass on “a huge thank you to everyone for their very kind donations”. They plan to keep the vouchers until the school holidays, so they can help local families who struggle without the free school meals. Last year, despite providing 200 extra packs each holiday week, and running a summer lunch club, they still had families visiting the food bank centres just trying to make ends meet. The vouchers give families a choice, including even using them to buy school uniform if necessary. So thank you to the Film Club organisers who nominated the Foodbank this time. J&P Group.

Remember CAFOD in your Will?

Once you’ve taken care of your loved ones, could you include a gift in your will to your worldwide family? Pick up a leaflet at the back of church to find out about the free will-writing service for CAFOD supporters, email legacy@cafod.org.uk or call Hannah Caldwell on 020 7095 5367.

Social Pillar

SVP Summer Lunch

The SVP would like to thank everybody who attended and helped make last Sunday’s lunch so enjoyable. In particular special thanks to Mary and Eve Ardron, Mark and Danielle Edwards, Peter Delf, Nigel Longhurst and the sensational singers Alfie and Moya Wright. Thank you all. Photographs are on the Parish website.

Dad and Me

The next meeting of Dad and Me will be held at the community centre on Saturday 23rd June at 10am – 11.30am.

Film Night

Yet another big thank you to supporters of our Film Club! Last Saturday’s showing of La Vie en Rose raised an amazing £175 in donations for the Foodbank. Thank you for your great generosity! The manager has written a warm letter of appreciation from which it is clear that our support is desperately needed.

The next Film Club will be on Saturday, 14 July. We will be showing The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a highly entertaining and touching British comedy/ drama. It was released in 2011 and has a great cast of actors, including Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. As before please feel free to bring a cold snack with you if you wish. The film will start at 7.45pm and runs for just under 2 hours.

Sign-up sheets are in the church porch. We do hope you will join us!

Garden Party and Fun Run

The time for our major summer event, the Garden Party and Fun Run, is rapidly approaching. There are plenty of ways to help and get involved:

On the day, Sunday 8th July, you can donate cakes and/ or food from your country.

You can help man a stall for an hour.

You can help to set up on either the Saturday or Sunday or, very importantly, be part of a group that clears up at the end of the event.

You can buy some raffle tickets, they are on sale from today onwards at the end of every Mass.

You can come and enjoy the event from 12.00 until 4.00.

You can run in the fun run. Starting point is beside St James’ School at Jubilee Park. This is a fun event suitable for all to walk, jog, run. You can choose to do one or two laps. Fr David is running again so you could sponsor him to show your support. At the back of the church there are sign up forms for this and all the other ways you can get involved. Marshalls are needed for the fun run so this might be something you could help with.

Sign-up sheets are at the back of the church.

Many thanks for your continuing support.

Polite Reminder

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

Lost Walking Stick

A lady from the parish has lost her walking stick in church on Saturday. If you may have picked it up by accident and have it at home could we please ask that you return it to the parish office (281a Crescent Drive) Many Thanks

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 23rd June 2018
Cleaning the Church	Uniformed Groups and CWL

Wednesday Coffee 20th June

Georgina Tomkins, Caroline Monaghan

24th June 2018
Mass	Saturday 6pm (Vigil)	Sunday 9.15am	Sunday 11am
Welcomers	K Moon	C Cook L Thomas	L Moore S Kavanagh
Readers	J Wedderspoon C Kiely	Children’s Mass	P Lowe R Rowan
Ministers of Holy Communion	R Wright J Bajorek M Cahill C Cahill J Callinan	D Hairs B Cotta W David B D’Arcy A Ward	K Evans A Evans P May S Ingle R Del Guercio
Bar			B Meehan O Clutton
Coffee		G Brookes D Brookes	R Troy J Cosgrave
Altar Servers	N Cracknell R&F Norman-Brown A&D Poulton P Marshall	A Lynch L Delamain J David P Marshall	J Monaghan V Marcolina Emily

Tellers

F Simon, J Cosgrave