Thank you...

...for your concern and prayers for my operation on Monday.

The operation went very well. In fact I got what I believe is called BOGOF - Buy One Get One Free. In fact both were free thanks to the NHS! As well as the obvious hernia on the right, they found another little one on the left, so they fixed that at the same time.

Thank God for our wonderful NHS and the Treatment Centre at Queen's Hospital, Burton.

I am rather sore and tired, but otherwise well. I hope to be back to some parish duties in a week or so.

Please keep up the prayers.

Newsletter for Christ the King/Advent 1

Please click here to read the latest, double issue of the newsletter.

The Briars Youth Retreat Centre and NDCYS seek to appoint....

A Programme Facilitator

(a 1 year fixed term contract with hope to extend)

To assist in leading retreat programmes for young people age 11-18

£14,000 per annum, plus accommodation suitable for a single person

The successful candidate will:

• Be experienced in working with young people.
• Have a thorough knowledge and a keen interest in the Catholic faith.
• Be dedicated to the spiritual development of young people.

For an application pack please contact Angela Gillespie at angela@ndcys.com or 01773 852044

The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Friday 4^th December 2015

Please note that interviews will be held on Thursday 10^th December 2015

NDCYS is committed to Safe Recruitment Practice.

The post is subject to a satisfactory Enhanced Disclosure & Barring (DBS) check.

Church responses to the Paris attacks

Tweet from Pope Francis here.

Vatican Statement here.

Statement from Cardinal Vincent Nichols here.

Message of support from Cardinal Nichols to the Archbishop of Paris and to the French community in London here.

Statement by Cardinal Vingt-Trois of Paris here. This is a particularly notable contribution, as in the midst of his own people's pain, he draws our attention, as I did in my homilies this weekend, to the recent terrorist attack in Beirut and other atrocities throughout the world.

Tweet from our own Bishop Patrick here.

Congratulations and thanks...

With Father Colin

... to Mrs Jo Rutledge, our RE Coordinator at St Charles School, who was commissioned as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at the Cathedral on Saturday. 

With her family

Please pray for the people of France

Maybe this prayer of St John Paul II from his visit to Paris in 1980 may help us to pray in the wake of the recent atrocity:

Virgin Mary, at the heart of the Cité
We pray to you for this capital city.
You Intact, preserve the purity of its faith!

Virgin Mary, from the banks of the Seine,
We pray to you for the country of France.
O Mother, teach it to hope!

Virgin Mary, in this great Christian site,
We pray to you for all the earth’s people.
You, full of grace, may they be one in Love.

An interesting study resource on the Sacred Liturgy

An American Liturgical Institute has produced an interesting series of short (about 3 minute) videos to help us to be more aware of what we are doing at Mass. Here are the first two with their (also brief) study guides.

Link to Study Guide 1

Link to Study Guide 2

The Second Vatican Council (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 11) decreed:

Pastors of souls must therefore realize that, when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the mere observation of the laws governing valid and licit celebration; it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects.

This series is an attempt to respond to what Vatican 2 is asking. We can follow the rest of the series by signing up for it (free) here. Three minutes or so a week, plus a bit more to read the study guide, seems a fairly painless way to enrich our participation in the Mass.

Newsletter for 14/15 November - Sunday 33(B)

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Remembrance Sunday

One of our Confirmation Candidates, Kieran Palmer, represented Our Lady of Lourdes Parish at the wreath-laying ceremony in the town on Sunday. Kieran was keen to do this as he had recently toured some of the battlefields and war cemeteries with his school. At Thiepval he had been able to visit the grave of his great-great-grandfather, Sergeant Arthur Palmer who was killed, aged 37,  in the last weeks of the first World War, leaving a widow and eleven children. It makes very real what I was talking about last Sunday, based on the psalm, about the Lord upholding the widow and orphan...

Newsletter for 7/8 November - Sunday 32(B)

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