Thank you for your offerings last week of £1639.55 and £1435.95 for the Maintenance Fund.  Mass attendances were 786.

 

Sunday

20/9/15

 

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

6pm Saturday Vic & Ellen Clark RIP (M Clark)

 

9.15am  People of the Parish

 

11.00am  Michael Feeney RIP  (M Feeney)

 

Monday

21/9/15

 

St. Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist

 

9.30am  John Mulvey & Family (Howell Family)

 

Tuesday 22/9/15

Feria

 

9.30am Well Being of Mrs Pamela Brenman (S & A Barradell)

 

Wednesday

23/9/15

St. Pius of Pietrelcina

 

9.30am  John Joseph Jagger RIP (Sharon Jagger & Sons)

Thursday

24/9/15

Our Lady of Walsingham

 

9.30am  Wilbur & Betty Wright  (R & E Wright)

 

Friday

25/9/15

Feria

 

9.30am Josephine McMorrow

 

Saturday

26/9/15

Vigil Mass

 

6.00pm  Dennis Ashton RIP (K Griffin)

 

Sunday

27/9/15

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

9.15am Barry & Pat Mitchell 50th Anniversary (G Mhlroy)

 

11.00am  People of the Parish

 

Confessions heard Saturday 5.00pm-5.45pm or by appointment.

A warm welcome is extended to all our Parishioners, new members of our Parish and any visitors who are here with us this weekend.

Fr David writes......

I remember with great fondness the times when I would be seated at the feet of my maternal grandfather as he used to narrate to me stories of the First World War when he was sent to the sugar cane fields in Queensland, Australia or else stories of how he had met and fell in love with my grandmother.  I felt safe and loved around him.  I was his first grandson and I knew that he would protect me with passion if needed.  It’s a good feeling for a child to feel loved and appreciated for who he or she is.  The positive messages that are transmitted to children remain imprinted in our psyche forever.  We grow up feeling a secure sense of self.  We grow feeling that deep down, notwithstanding our playing up sometimes, we are existentially good and loved for who we are.  On the other hand a child who is constantly told that he or she is not good enough, that he or she is bad, grow up believing that they are intrinsically bad and damaged.  The child grows up feeling shamed.  Shame is the feeling that you are intrinsically a bad person.  This does not help you to feel self-confident and neither helps you to build up your own self esteem.  In fact you find yourself feeling that you are damaged and so try to fill that void as you grow older by indulging in dysfunctional behaviour and relationships.  A person with a low sense of self-esteem finds himself or herself trying to find their identity through others or through achievement for example.  They might feel that they are no one if they are not over achievers and failing in an exam for example would not only mean failing an exam but also failing as a human being.  A person with a low self-esteem would experience failure as catastrophic.  The exaggerated craving for power, success, relationships and social status can be fuelled by low self-esteem – by an existential void.  The child needs to be nurtured.  This can be difficult if the parents are toxic shamed themselves.  Thus the pattern might become intergenerational.  On the way, the disciples were discussing amongst themselves who is the greatest.  In other ways they were arguing amongst themselves who is the most important or most successful in their tiny group.  That would have given them status within the group.  Jesus knew this and he asked them what they were discussing about along the way.  But they felt ashamed and they remained silent.  Then Jesus went straight into the narrative of the little child.  The little child can be the little child within each one of us who is still alive and kicking.  Sometimes the child within us determines our emotions and behaviour especially if we still have unresolved issues in us.  If we reflect carefully sometimes our behaviour and emotions are still triggered by the same issues that we had to deal with as children.  The circumstances are different but the issues are the same.  Maybe feeling angry for example when we feel invisible and not given importance would be trigger in us similar emotions when we used to feel ignored by our parents for example.  Not given importance.  We need first to stop and reassure our inner child that he or she is heard and loved now.  Secondly we need to remind the child gently that now the adult is in control.  In this way the healing relationship between the inner child and the adult will help us to live more mature existence.  Let us try to continue to create a community of faith which embraces our children.  Let us try our best to form our children in the art of spirituality.  Let us introduce them slowly in the landscape of the sacred.

“Drop-In” – Evening Surgery

Next Tuesday 22nd September, I will be available from 5.00pm – 8.00pm, in the Parish Office, 281a Crescent Drive.  If you wish to speak to me about any matter, please feel free to come along.  No appointments are necessary.  Fr. David.

Second Collection

Will be taken this weekend for Home Mission Sunday.  This collection provides the Bishops of England and Wales with resources to support “Home Mission”, the spread of the Gospel in our own country.  The money collected enables a breadth of work to be done in support of parish evangelisation.  Thank you for your support.

Reminders - Church Cleaning!

Saturday 26th September – Year 7 Parents

Saturday 3rd October – Year 6 Parents

Morning Prayers

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

Traidcraft Stall

Will be held this weekend after all three Masses.  Please support.

Annual Day of Renewal

All parishioners are invited to attend the sixth annual Day of Renewal on 26th September 2015 at St George’s Cathedral, praying for the needs of the Diocese and organised by the Diocesan Service Team for charismatic renewal.  If you would like to attend please contact Stefanie Donovan on 01892 542245 or email stefaniedawn61@gmail.com.  More details on poster in porch.

Leave the Car at Home Weekend

For one weekend in September 2013 a large number of parishioners left their cars at home when coming to Mass.  This was in support of the LiveSimply project, showing our commitment to the principle of Sustainability.  The J&P Group is asking the parish to repeat that initiative on the weekend of 26-27th September.  Please note that this request is for those fit enough to travel by foot, cycle, bus, scooter, push chair, etc!  There will be stickers for children.  Help to renew our promise to live simply.

Spreading the Good News in the Inner City

Seminar to take place on Saturday 17th October, 10.00am – 1.00pm at Centre for Catholic Formation, Tooting.  More details on poster in porch.

Annual Day of Recollection for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and Readers

This will take place on Saturday 14th November at Bishop Thomas Grant School, Belltrees Grove, SW16 2HY, registration at 10.30am.  The day will be led by Fr. Ashley Beck, from St Edmund of Canterbury, Beckenham.  Bishop Patrick Lynch will end the day with Mass at 3.00pm.  All Ministers of Holy Communion and Readers are encouraged to attend.  Please email or call the parish office so that we can reply with the names of those that are attending.

New Church Cleaning Rota

We are proposing to reinstate a rota of volunteers to clean the church each week.  If you would like to go on the rota please contact the parish office.  Please note - the current rota will still be used until further notice.

Pondering the Word (Lectio Divina)

A quiet reflective look at the following Sunday’s Gospel.  Mondays 11-12 noon here in the Church.  This is an ancient way of praying the Scriptures, grounded in the fundamental premise that “the Word of God is alive and active” (Heb. 4:12) and has something to say to each one of us.  It is not Bible Study and it is not a discussion group.  The emphasis is on silence: listening rather than talking.  All welcome.