Newsletter- 9th Week of Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners

This Sunday we keep the great Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). At both the Saturday evening Vigil Mass, at 6 pm and the Sunday morning Mass at 9.30 am, I will invite our Parish Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to stand in their places to renew their commitment. This will take place after Holy Communion and before the Post Communion Collect. In addition, at our Sunday morning Mass this weekend in place of the Final Blessing, the sacred Host will be enthroned in a Monstrance and carried in procession around the church. After which there will be a short period of silent prayer and Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, concluding with Benediction.

The great Solemnity of Corpus Christi is a feast that is over eight centuries old and a feast which is supremely Catholic. Today we reflect upon the heart of Catholic life, the Eucharist, the Mass, and the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus’ gift to the Church on the night before He died was the gift of His very self, body and blood, soul, and divinity. When we come to receive Holy Communion, we experience a closer contact with Jesus than was even possible to anybody during His earthly life. In the Holy Eucharist, the actual distance between ourselves and Christ vanishes.

Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a place of unity to draw each of us as His followers to Him and to one another. It is important to remember that receiving Holy communion is not simply a personal gesture but a public proclamation that we are in communion with Christ and with His Church.

This Sunday as we join again in the great celebration of Corpus Christi let us remind ourselves of the importance of the Mass and let us refresh our reverence for Christ truly present in His Body and Blood and let us remind ourselves too of the full significance of receiving Holy Communion, as we renew our commitment to give greater priority in our lives to times of prayer before the Lord, through Adoration and moments spent alone in the Lords presence in church, quietly contemplating Christ within the Tabernacle. When we do this, we can listen more acutely to the still small voice of God, the voice that summons us to be the men and women He is calling us to be in him, then we too become more fully able to turn outwards away from self and allow Gods Love to challenge, shape and change our lives, as we become more able to offer loving service to God and to one another in all the given situations of our daily lives.

First Holy Communion Mass: Please pray today on the feast of Corpus Christi for our First Holy Communion Candidates and for their families and our parish Catechists, as our young people continue their preparation to receive Holy Communion for the first time, at a special Mass celebrated in the parish, on Saturday 22nd June at 11 am.

Changes to the Mass Schedule for this Week:

 Tuesday 4th June – Church closed all day – No Public Worship – Important Electrical Works National Grid

 Friday 7th June – Requiem Funeral Mass at 11 am – Patricia Moore RIP

 Andrew Wakley Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate: In this Bulletin you will find details of the plans to mark Andrew’s ordination at the end of this month to the diaconate. We wish him well as he prepares for this important next step in his vocation journey and for his ordination on Saturday 29th June at 12 noon in the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham This week Andrew is making his pre-ordination retreat at the St Beuno’s Retreat Centre. Let us keep him in prayer during his time away. The list to reserve and pay for a seat on the coach to attend Andrew’s ordination at the Cathedral is now out in the entrance to Church.

New Lectionary: The Lectionary, the books that contain the sacred Scripture Readings for Mass and the Sacraments, is changing as part of the continuing process of revising the liturgical translations. The new Lectionary will come into force on the First Sunday of Advent 2024.The process began with the Roman Missal in 2011 and has continued with all the other liturgical texts. The new Lectionary will use the English Standard Version – Catholic Edition of the Bible and the Abbey Psalter. The changes are intended to make the biblical translations more faithful to the original languages, biblical scholarship, and to provide a text for use in a liturgical setting that is more proclaimable and, where appropriate, more inclusive.

Buying copies of the New Lectionary will mean a considerable outlay for our parish. We shall need to pre order the following in the next few weeks from CTS, for delivery by this October:

  • A Four Volume set of the complete Lectionary for use at the Ambo at MassPrice £695
  • A Processional Book of the Gospels for use at Sunday Masses, Solemnities and Feast daysPrice £395

In line with other parishes, I invite you as members of our congregation to consider making a monetary donation towards the purchase of the new Lectionary for our parish. If you would like to make a monetary donation, perhaps in memory of a loved one, please speak with me in person. Donations should be put in an envelope marked “New Lectionary” which can be put in the collection plate at Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, or given to me in person, or if you prefer made via the electronic Dona Plate (in the entrance to the church). All Donations whether large or small will be gratefully received, and I thank you in anticipation, for your kind generosity to our parish.

I hope when they become available to purchase, that we will be able to order from CTS for interested parishioners, through orders placed via the parish Repository, copies of the New Sunday Missal and the New Daily Missal which will be available to pre-order soon. More information will follow about how to do this.

With prayers and best wishes for you and for your families during the coming week,

Your parish priest and friend,

Fr Jonathan


2024 2nd June – Newsletter – Download