Category: Fr John’s Weekly
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Christmas Preparation
Our parish Christmas has begun beautifully. On Tuesday and Wednesday St Joseph’s Table provided a delicious Christmas dinner in the tastefully decorated hall. The mood was festive and homely, the atmosphere warm and friendly and the compliments were many. The Lourdes Garden has been given its Christmas preparation and is ready for our Carols by…
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Advent – Hope!
A new Church year begins – Advent, leading to Christmas. If only we Christians knew how to share our joy in the remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ birth. The world knows colour and song but it worries about the costs of gifts, parties, and there is the sadness of many for whom Christmas is meaningless,…
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Papal Audience
Another wonderful week in Rome. We had mass three times in St Peter’s, twice at an altar reserved for our group and one of these times at the most privileged altar in the basilica – the altar at the tomb of St Peter. We saw and heard Pope Francis twice, at the Angelus on Sunday…
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The Voice of Women
Here are two letters from last week’s ‘Time’:(1) “Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein represents a form of extreme masculinity. To solve a problem like him we need to start by recognising men’s role in feminism. Until men act as advocates for women in their lives society will never be equal. For too long, women have been…
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Knowing Your Faith
On 31st October we celebrated (remembered or regretted) the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, Martin Luther’s challenging theses against the teachings and corruption of Rome. If only the Church and the Papacy had instigated their own reformation, so desperately needed . . . History tells us what devastation and sadness were the…
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Let The Children Live
We were on a parish day pilgrimage to Walsingham. I saw something in a shop window that I knew would make a little gift for one of our people not able to come. The small shop was busy and I waited in the queue. On the counter was a pile of leaflets headed “Let the Children…
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Refugees (By Brian Bilston)
They have no need of our helpSo do not tell meThese haggard faces could belong to you or meShould life have dealt a different handWe need to see them for who they really areChancers and scroungersLayabouts and loungersWith bombs up their sleevesCut-throats and thievesThey are notWelcome hereWe should make themGo back to where they came…
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Others First
I told you of the lady who complained that no one from the church had called to see her when she was unwell. The lady had retired from work a few years previously and I had asked her if she would like to visit the elderly and the housebound in the parish, but she didn’t.…