Thank you for your offerings last week of £1,438. Mass attendance was 804.
Sunday 25/09/16	Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 6.00pm Dennis Ashton RIP (K. Griffin) 9.15am People of the Parish 11.00am Pat Meehan (Meehan Family)
Monday 26/09/16	Feria 9.30 Pupils/Students New Academic year (CWL)
Tuesday 27/09/16	St Vincent de Paul 10.00 Funeral Mass for Doreen Armstrong
Wednesday 28/09/16	Feria 9.30 Welfare of D & J Winn (F. Simon)
Thursday 29/09/16	Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael 9.30 Private Intention (J. Casey)
Friday 30/09/16	St Jerome 9.30 John Mulvey (Feeney Family)
Saturday 01/10/16	St Therese of the Child Jesus Vigil Mass 6.00pm Reg Griffin (K. Griffin)
Sunday 02/10/16	Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 9.15am Michael Feeney (Feeney Family) 11.00am People of the Parish

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.

“Drop-In” – Evening Surgery

The next Surgery will take place on Tuesday 27th September 5pm – 7pm. Please call at 281a Crescent Drive. No appointments necessary.

Second Collections

Maintenance Fund

Next Sunday, 2^nd October there will be second collection for the Maintenance Fund.

CAFOD

Sunday 9^th October is the Harvest Family Fast Day collection. Please give what you can to help those in most need. Thank you.

Fr David Writes:

“In efforts for peace, indifference is the greatest sickness of our time. It is a virus that paralyzes, rendering us lethargic and insensitive, a disease that eats away at the very heart of religious fervour, giving rise to a new and deeply sad paganism. We cannot remain indifferent. Today the world has a profound thirst for peace”. These were the words of Pope Francis, said at an interreligious summit in Assisi on Tuesday marking the 30^th anniversary of the World Day for Peace convoked by St Pope John Paul II. Pope Francis focussed on humanity’s thirst for peace and the toxic nature of self- interest and apathy in the face of violence around the world. He spoke of his experience together with the Patriarch of Constantinople visiting the refugees on the island of Lesbos. He spoke of his experience in seeing despair in the eyes of traumatised children fleeing from a worn torn country. Children that had been born in war and brought up in violence. They know of nothing but misery and destruction. The world has been overwhelmed by this tragedy and it cannot cope for a lot of reasons.

We are shown images of suffering every day on our social media. Suffering, resulting from terrorist’s attacks to natural disasters to thousands of refugees fleeing their war worn countries across the Mediterranean. We become immune to the sufferings of our neighbours. It’s very easy to become indifferent. When there is too much suffering, we shut down. We retreat in our own world. In the face of such suffering, we feel helpless and powerless. Witnessing how unpredictable terror is, with so much violence around us, it tends to paralyse us and in consequence we live our lives protecting ourselves and those we love and really become indifferent to the sufferings of others. Fear of violence makes us become self-centred. We tend to lack the ability to empathise because most of our energy is reserved in catering for our own need for self- preservation. However this attitude unfortunately then keeps on translating itself in our everyday lives. It can also affect our relationships with one another even within our communities.

It is a blessing to see so many people gathering to worship God together at St James’ and so many people wanting to be involved in the parish. It is also beautiful to see so many people caring for each other. It is evident that we are a community of people who are not indifferent to each other’s needs and concerns. We need to encourage each other to continue to be more sensitive to the pastoral needs of others. Because the community is made up of real human beings living real lives, we all come with our different stories to church. Some of us are hurting because of loneliness, some of us are grieving the loss of a loved one. Some of us are struggling with addictions of all kinds. Some of us have difficult situations at work, other’s significant relationship is on the rocks. Some of us come to Mass after a week of medical tests and receiving devastating results. We have no idea what the person entering the church this week is going through. In no way I am trying to suggest to probe into each other’s personal life. That is not our place. That is not our business.

What I would like to encourage though is an attitude of looking out for one another. Let’s keep on creating a safe atmosphere within the community where people who are struggling in one way or another can have access to a caring listening ear and support. Sometimes we think that this is the role only of the priest. This is not so. The ministry of Pastoral Care is the ministry first and foremost of all the parish. At the same time, the parish is now trying to build up pastoral services within the structures of the community, where people who need some emotional and spiritual support would have access to it. I would like to see it imbued within the actual structures of the parish. For this reason I would like to invite first of all, those people who have skills in pastoral ministry, bereavement issues, listening skills, group facilitation and counselling skills, hospital ministry etc, to consider becoming part of a team of pastoral carers by sharing your skills with us. I would also like to invite people who feel that they would like to be trained to be part of this team. This is an open invitation for those who would like to make a difference in the life of the parish. If you are truly interested, I would like to invite you to come and speak to me.

In today’s gospel we see the rich man who is totally engulfed in himself. A very self-centred human being. He loves the good life and he comes across as being addicted to food. He is so self-absorbed that he is totally indifferent to the sufferings of Lazarus, the beggar at his gate. In the story we see their respective fate in the afterlife. The tables turn. The rich man is punished whilst Lazarus is rewarded. Let us not be indifferent to the lives of those who are suffering nearby, sometimes at our gate, maybe not only because of lack of food but because of their need for support, a listening ear in their time of need. We can make a difference. Let us be generous in sharing our skills and talents for the benefit of all. And God will surely bless you and our community when we are generous with our time with one another. Thank you for taking time to read this reflection. Have a good and safe week.

Baptisms

We welcome in Holy Baptism this week:

Joseph David Egan and his parents Daniela and Fergus Egan; and Rebecca and Mauro Moreschi and their parents Daniele and Agnieszka Moreschi.

Blessing of Pets – St Francis of Assisi Feast Day

In anticipation of the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on Tuesday 4 October, we are planning to hold a blessing of pets at Church on Sunday 2 October at 3pm. St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was the patron saint of ecologists, florists and poets. Please bring along your pets to the Church Garden at 3pm, hopefully they will all be well behaved.

Eucharist Adoration – 7th October

Eucharist Adoration will take place on 1^st Friday of each month, starting on Friday 7^th October from 7.30 pm to p pm. This Devotion to the Eucharist outside of the Mass will be a time of silent prayer, quiet music and conclude with Benediction. Everyone is welcome for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

All Souls – Mass for our Deceased – 2 November

For all those families who have lost a family member in the last year, a special mass will be held on All Souls Day Wednesday 2 November in the evening at 8pm. All parishioners are most welcome to attend. This Mass will be in addition to the 9.30 Mass and hopefully those at work will get a chance to come in the evening.

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and Readers – 12th November

The annual day of recollection for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and Readers for the South East area will take place at Bishop Thomas Grant School, Belltrees Grove, Streatham, SW16 2HY on Saturday, 12th November. The theme for the day is ‘Encountering God’s Mercy in the Eucharist’. The day will start at 11 am and finish with a Mass said by the Bishop Rt. Rev. Patrick Lynch. Please contact the Parish Office and let us know if you plan to attend.

Children’s Liturgy

If you child is 3 years old or above, they are welcome to join us for Liturgy sessions at the 9.15 am Sunday Mass each week.

Parish Groups

Pastoral Council- 20th October

The Parish Pastoral council are keen to communicate with parishioners. We have set aside half an hour before each meeting from 7.30 – 8.00 pm for you to come along to the community Centre bringing suggestions, ideas, questions, topics for discussion, issues or concerns. Even if you are just curious to see what goes on, please do visit within that half-hour. We will provide slips of paper for those visiting to jot down anything they wish the PPC to know. Feel free to include any feedback about the experience of coming along or observations about the process.

Thank you to the various parishioners that have visited so far. We appreciate your input and interest. Do feel free to come along again or encourage others to take the step.

The next Parish Pastoral Council 20^th October 2016 and parishioners are welcome from 7.30–8.00pm.

Youth of the Parish

Christ The King Youth Day – 19th November

The Catholic Youth Ministry Christ the King Youth Day will take place on Saturday 19^th November here at St James’ from 12.00pm-5.30pm and will be followed by a Youth Mass at 6.00pm. There will be activites throughout the day and refreshments will be provided. This event is open to all young people across the Bromley Deanery in school years 7 and above.

‘Stagelight ‘– Performance Skills Workshops

One of the CYM course members has designed a programme called ‘Stagelight’, a series of performance workshops for young people aged 14 – 20 years. This is an opportunity for young people to become involved with all areas of performance, such as acting and singing and to take part in a show at the end of the programme.

The first workshop begins next Wednesday 28^th September from 7.45 – 9.45 in the Holy Innocents Junior School Scout Hut. For more information or to register please email Roger directly at rogf16@btinternet.com or call 07952 462997.

Justice & Peace Group Meeting

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 28^th September at 7.45 pm in the Meeting Room of the Parish Office (281a Crescent Drive). All parishioners are very welcome. We shall be starting to plan a Saturday seminar/workshop on Laudate Si’ amongst other things.

Bromley Foodbank

The foodbank needs a number of food items so if you could help provide some of these, that would be hugely appreciated.

They have run out of jars of pasta sauce. They are also very low on custard, rice puddings and tinned fruit, and ‘cold’ meat (ham, spam etc.) ‘hot’ meat (i.e. tinned meat that can be heated to form the basis of a hot meal) and tinned vergetables. Please don’t donate pasta, beans or soup as they have too much of those.

Thanks again to all parishioners who donate these vital items.

Traidcraft Stall

Thank you to all who generously supported the Traidcraft stall last weekend, takings were £291.

CWL Meeting

The next meeting of the CWL will take place on Monday 26^th September and will include a short talk about jewellery.

Shoeboxes

Thank you to all parishioners who donated items for the shoeboxes and to those who helped packing them with the donated items. A total of 49 boxes were filled and sent off.

Parent & Toddler Group

A Parent & Toddler Group meets every Friday during term time in the Community Centre from 1.30 – 3pm. Parents with babies from 0 up to age 5 are welcome to attend. Do come along and enjoy the companionship and the fun.

Refreshments provided.

Plant a Rose for a Loved One

In November, we will be planting roses in memory of the deceased along the Church wall. If you would like to have a rose planted for a family member, please let us know. The charge is £10 to cover the costs and there will be a total of 35 roses available. If you wish to purchase a rose, please put the money in an envelope with the details of the person to be remembered as well as your own contact details. Envelopes can be dropped off at the Parish Office.

Cleaning the Church – Help Needed

Please let us know if you are able to help with Church cleaning. Even if you have just one hour to spare for this important job, either during the week or at the weekend we would be most grateful. We will draw up a list for the coming weeks, so do please offer an hour of your time if you can. Many thanks in advance.

Gardening Help – 1st October

Thank you so much to those who helped clear up the garden recently, your efforts are greatly appreciated. We would like to have one more session to complete the work on Saturday 1 October at 10am. Again even if you can spare an hour to help, that would be welcomed.

Petts Wood Playgroup for Children with Special Needs

Would you be interested in volunteering to support our children? Would you be able to offer certain sessions regularly but with flexibility to cover in emergency? The work is term time only 9.30 am. – 12.30 but with some flexibility.

Would you be interested in acting as escort on our mini-bus? The group needs someone on Thursday lunchtime 12.15 – 13.15 pm. There is a small remuneration available. Come and see the group at Christ Church on Willett Way during a session or phone 01689 830822 or 01689 872053 (out of hours)

Reminder for Parents – Food & Drink should not be brought into the church for consumption during Mass. Thank you for your co-operation.