Newsletter- 6th Week of Ordinary Time
Dear Parishioners
‘Lead me, guide me, for the sake of your name’ – This Sunday, our readings invite us to consider God’s laws and true wisdom. Our attitude may depend on whether we respond to God’s law of love or see it only as a legal imposition. In the First Reading, Ben Sirach underlines how God has given us loving guidelines, but it is entirely up to us as to how we respond. God has also given us the gift of free will. The Psalmist praises God’s law: we are reminded that we will experience happiness as we seek God and follow in his ways. St Paul (Second Reading) points out that true wisdom comes from God. Only the Spirit of God can reach the depths of all things. St Matthew, in the Gospel, describes the relationship between the Law of Moses and the more radical vision of Jesus. Jesus has not come to abolish the Law but to complete it. During this week, as we strive, with God’s grace, to follow his law, may we be inspired by the example of so many who surround us.
Lent begins this Wednesday 18th February on Ash Wednesday: During these next 40 days we are remembering the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert, the temptations he experienced there and his time of prayer and fasting.
Lent is a time for each of us to become more deeply aware of our faith and a time to deepen that faith by practical actions. The Church offers us three ancient remedies of Fasting, Almsgiving and Penance to help us in this goal. Ancient remedies which can be life enhancing and that can help us to live out more authentically our Christian witness and discipleship. Let us ask for God’s grace at Mass this weekend to help us in our Lenten disciplines, in our Christian discipleship and in our Christian witness in the world in which we live. Let us pray too that our faith may be strengthened during this coming penitential season and that our Lenten resolutions may remain clear and firm.
I pray that each of us may experience during Lent again this year a real awakening to the Love that is God and the place of Christ in our lives, that we may follow our Lord Jesus Christ more fully day by day and come to know him more completely as our brother and our friend
Lent Information 2026
Ash Wednesday – Christmas is only just past and now Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday 18th February this year falls during the school half term break. We shall offer two Masses this Wednesday in the parish at which there will be the Imposition of Ashes. A simple said Mass at 9.30 am in the morning and then in the evening a Sung Mass at 6 pm. We shall be joined in the evening by the parents and children from our First Holy Communion Group.
Extra times of Confession on Fridays in Lent (starting Friday 20th February from 6 pm – 6.45 pm) N.B. (No confessions Friday 27th March nor Friday 3rd April).
Adoration and Quiet Private Prayer on Fridays in Lent before the Blessed Sacrament concluding with a simple Blessing from the Monstrance – (starting Friday 20th February from 6 pm – 6.50 pm) N.B. (No Exposition Friday 27th March nor Friday 3rd April).
Stations of the Cross – Fridays in Lent (starting Friday 20th February at 7 pm) – N.B. 6 pm Friday 27th March – (First Holy Communion candidates and catechists lead the devotion tonight). Additional Stations of the Cross: Wednesday in Holy Week and Good Friday at 6 p.m.
Important Lent Diary Date
Deanery Lenten Station Mass, at The Immaculate Conception and St Norbert’s church, Spalding, Tuesday 24th February, at 7 p.m.
All parishioners are warmly invited to attend. No Mass in St Marys Grantham that day.
Bishop Patrick will preside and preach at Mass that evening and I do hope as many parishioners as possible from St Mary’s will be able to join with me and my brother clergy and their parishioners from around our Deanery at this special evening.
Programme for the Evening
Adoration – from 6 pm – 6.45 pm
Confessions – from 6 pm – 6.45 p.m.
Station Mass – 7 p.m. – Principal Celebrant and Preacher – (Bishop Patrick) – Concelebrants – (Priests of the Deanery)
Refreshments – Immediately after Mass in the parish Hall.
CAFOD Fast Day collection 2026 – Friday 27th February is CAFOD’s annual Lent Fast Day. This Lent, CAFOD’s Family Fast Day invites parish communities to respond through prayer, fasting and almsgiving to the needs of families facing floods and droughts in places such as South Sudan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Through support for CAFOD’s Lent Appeal, parishes and schools can help families grow food and care for their communities in the face of the devastating impacts of climate change.
CAFOD envelopes will be available from the First Sunday in Lent as you come into church to make a Lent offering. Please return your envelopes in the weekly collection plate throughout Lent. All donations received will be forwarded to CAFOD after Easter.
With my prayers for you and for your families as we approach Lent this year,
Your parish priest and friend,
Fr Jonathan
2026 15th February – Newsletter – Download