Newsletter – 1st Week of Ordinary Time
Dear Parishioners
This weekend at all our Sunday Masses we celebrate the Feast of The Baptism of the Lord which marks the end of the liturgical season of Christmas. On Monday this coming week we enter the First Week of Ordinary Time. At his Baptism in the river Jordan Jesus was revealed as the Anointed One sent to redeem the world. The Baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of His Public Ministry. Jesus’ Baptism was not a private moment of revelation and blessing but a public commissioning to begin his important work of redemption for all humanity.
This weekend as we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and as we prepare to move from the Christmas Season and back into Ordinary Time let us remember the baptism of Jesus, His public embrace of His mission from the Father, and his solidarity with each one of us and as we do so let us also recall our own baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon us, and we were commissioned to do God’s healing work. Let us recommit ourselves to our own baptismal call, however long ago our baptism might have been! That call is still there, indelible, irrevocable, unerasable and irreversible. In the sight of God, it remains the deepest truth of our lives. If that mission of our baptism has lain dormant, during the past year, now is a good time at the beginning of a new year to bring it back to life. It is always there, ready to spring back to life all we must do is allow God’s grace to work in us and through us and seek the ways that we can be His modern-day disciples in the world in which we live. Whatever else may come and go in our lives, the commission to do the healing and redeeming work of Christ lasts as long as we do!
Second Collection this weekend – Sick and Retired Priests’ Fund – At all the Masses celebrated this weekend in the parish there will be a Diocesan 2nd Collection to support the important work of the Sick and Retired Priests Fund.
First Holy Communion Candidates 2025 – This weekend at the Parish Mass on Sunday 11th January at 9.30 am we welcome our new group of First Holy Communion candidates and their families to Mass in the parish. Catechesis will begin for them on Sunday 18thJanuary. Please keep our young people and their families and our parish catechists in your prayers this weekend as our young candidates begin this important period of preparation with a view to making their First Holy Communion in church later in the summer.
Fr Jonathan – Annual Leave for Christmas – I shall be taking a week away from the parish as my Christmas break from Monday 19thJanuary to Monday 26th January inclusive During my absence from the parish there will be a reduced Mass schedule during the week. The weekend Masses will be celebrated as normal and at the normal times. Please check the Bulletin from next weekend for Mass times whilst I am away.
Peace Sunday – 17th/18th January – Since its establishment in 1967 by Pope St Paul VI, all subsequent Popes have taken the World Day of Peace on the 1st of January as an opportunity to offer a message on peace related to special topics. Every year, with the support of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, we are encouraged as Catholics to promote Peace Sunday on the second Sunday in Ordinary Time, as a way of observing the World Day of Peace and promoting the Holy Father’s message for that year. This year Pope Leos’ message for the World Day of Peace has been published and his theme is: Peace be with you all: towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace.’ This is a challenging but exciting goal. Our Holy Father is reminding us that peace should not rely on fear, threats, or weapons of destruction. Peace should have the capacity to resolve conflicts and open hearts through mutual understanding and hope.
We live in a world torn apart by violence and war; a time of great uncertainty for many; a time when strong leadership can help disperse doubt and show us a positive way forward in full hope. This weekend we recommit ourselves to work for peace in our world; as men and women of faith to help build bridges between peoples and nations, and to seek justice for all peoples and the care of all God’s creation.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2026 – Grantham no longer has a Churches Together Group. But during the Octave of Christian Unity, we continue to pray each day for that unity for which Christ longed. The theme for this year’s celebration between 18th -25th January is ‘One Body, One Spirit’. More resources may be found at: www.ctbi.orguk/weekofprayer
With my prayers for you and for your families as we celebrate together this weekend the end of the Christmas season,
Your parish priest and friend,
Fr Jonathan
2026 11th January– Newsletter – Download