TAKEHOMENEWS

WELCOME BACK

As from this weekend the church will be open for prayer at the following times:

SATURDAYS 6.PM—7.30PM

SUNDAYS 9AM—1.PM

WEDNESDAYS 9AM—11.AM

When you enter the church you will find things look quite different. Certain parts of the church are cordoned off. There is a one-way system around the church. On entering the church through the porch area, please first sanitise your hands beside the empty holy water stoop. If you take a leaflet, please take it home with you, do not discard it as someone else may touch what you have touched. Takehomenews means what it is called—it is not leavebehindnews!

There are certain places where you can sit and pray—near the front in the central aisles and some of the pews on the left facing Our Lady's altar. Please observe social distancing at all times. If you wish to light a candle, please sanitise your hands again from the sanitiser by the candle stands. Please do not touch the statues and limit touching anything else. There are candle stands by Our Lady’s altar and at the back by the Sacred Heart Statue.

To reach the Sacred Heart Statue please, go up the central aisle, turn left and then down the side aisle. Do not return down the side aisle. To leave the church, please depart through the central doors, sanitising your hands again from the pedal machine. Please do not come into the church if you are feeling unwell. I would like to thank the Parish Council for their time, efforts and advice in preparing the church for re-opening. I would like to thank the Stewards who will be on duty while the church is open and helping to clean the church at the end of the opening time. The Stewards will guide you as necessary and they are the ones wearing the yellow ‘fire warden’ armbands. There is a limit of 20 people visiting the church at any one time, so you may be asked to wait outside the church until a space becomes available.

We hope to be able to resume Mass later in the month. Obviously, there will be restrictions on numbers attending and we will be deciding on how to arrange this.

I apologise for all these restrictions, it does not sound like a very warm welcome but I am genuinely thrilled that we can come back and pray before the Blessed Sacrament and light candles again.

Father Colin

MAY THEY REST IN PEACE

Please pray for the following parishioners who have died sine the last Takehomenews was produced in March:

ADRIAN O’CALLAGHAN MARGARET DANIELS MYLES HARPER

UNA SANGLIN SEBASTIAN MULLEN MARY HANNON

HENRY SARMIENTO FELIX DEVLIN FRANCIS DAYRIT

THOMAS CLANCY ELAINE CREEK AGNES BREEN

14th Sunday of Year A

The message in today’s readings is to COME, come closer to the Lord—come to HIM who undertakes our worries, who gives us rest, who teaches us the way, who is humble of heart. How appropriate it is to have this Gospel passage in the first Sunday that the church is open after 3 months of being told ‘DON’T COME.’

Although we are aware that the invitation to come to the Lord is not confined to coming to the church, - we can come to the Lord at any time we set aside for prayers—to come into the Lord’s Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament does make a difference. In fact, I am sure that people have been praying harder and more often in the last 3 months than they have before. Many of you have seen Masses and periods of prayer live-streamed into your homes. In a way, that has been the Lord coming too. And when we come to the Lord we want to bless his name as we do in the psalm: we give glory to God our King, we thank the Lord for his love and compassion. Today through the advice of St Paul we place our interest in the spiritual not in the unspiritual. We allow the Holy Spirit to work in us leading us to all that is good and loving, and away from what is bad and hurtful. The Holy Spirit in God’s love and the Feast of Pentecost a month ago may have slipped by without us noticing, but the Spirit is there to be tapped at all times, not just at Pentecost.

For a moment let us think of the different ways that the Holy Spirit has been present amongst us in the last few weeks: How the Holy Spirit has guided the decisions that have been related to the coronavirus, how the Holy Spirit has given courage and guidance to the workers in the NHS, how the Holy Spirit the best of all consolers has helped the bereaved, the sick and the worried, how the Holy Spirit has sustained our own faith, how the Holy Spirit will guide us in the days to come into the unknown future. At Pentecost, I sang all the favourite Holy Spirit Hymns as loud as I could at my private Mass in an empty church, echoing each of our needs and prayers at this time.

As we move into new times on our lifelong journey, perhaps we can be more charitable as mentioned in today’s Gospel, standing in awe at the power of God, allowing him to guide us, directing our lives towards the spiritual. In today’s first reading Zechariah is announcing the restoration of the royal rule in Israel. It is a rule which is just and righteous, Today may we be renewed in our commitment to the Lord, coming to him to praise and thank him, to plead repentance of our sins, to ask his help with our worries and concerns.

Weekly Mass Sheets

Today is the final day when the Sunday Mass sheets are available. They have been available throughout the lockdown but now we have reached the end of the supply. We await to find outwhether the supply will be resumed.

Weekly Collection

Thank you to everyone who has left their contributions at the church during lockdown. We are still financially afloat! Please leave your donations in the box on the altar steps. Thank you.

The new boxes of planned giving envelopes are available. Please ring at the presbytery to collect your box. Also available on the table at the back of the church are standing order forms. More parishioners are now donating by standing order, please contact the office for details, (Wednesday 1PM-4PM and Thursday 9.30AM—4.30PM).

Gift Aid

We thank all parishioners who are paying by direct debit or envelopes and have signed a Gift Aid Declaration. We ask any parishioner who is a tax payer and donating through the loose plate to please consider donating instead by direct debit or envelope.

Any parishioner who has stopped being a tax payer should inform Susan in the office.

Parish Council

The Parish Council meet at 7.45PM this Thursday, 9th July, in the church

TOILET FACILITIES

I am sorry to say that toilet facilities are no longer available in the Church or Parish Centre.

Some suggested prayers for those without access to the internet or streamed Masses.

~ For NHS Staff

Almighty God,

whose Son Jesus Christ, healed all manner of illness and disease,

grant to doctors,

nurses,

all allied health care professionals

and care home staff ,

your boundless love and protection.

Keep them safe, and preserve them from all contagion.

Enable them to use their

energy,

wisdom and skill,

sympathy and patience

to help, heal and support those living with illness.

We make this prayer,

through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Prayer of Pope Francis to Our Lady.

O Mary, you always shine on our path as a sign of salvation and of hope. We entrust ourselves to you, Health

of the Sick, who at the cross took part in Jesus' pain,

keeping your faith firm. You know what we need, and we are sure you will provide so that, as in Cana of Galilee, we may return to joy and to feasting after this time of trial. Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform to the will of the Father and to do as we are told by Jesus, who has taken upon himself our sufferings and carried our sorrows to lead us, through the cross, to the joy of the resurrection. Amen.

A Prayer for Everyone:

God, Our Father, Creator of the world, almighty and merciful. Out of love for us, you sent your son into the world as the doctor of our souls and bodies.

Look upon your children, who in this difficult time of confusion

and dismay

in many regions around the world turn to you seeking strength, salvation

and relief.

Deliver us from illness and fear, comfort our sick and their families give wisdom to our rulers, energy and reward to our doctors, nurses and volunteers, and eternal life to those who have died.

Do not abandon us in this moment of trial, But deliver us from all evil.

We ask this of you who with the

Son and the Holy Spirit, live and reign for ever and ever. Amen

Mary, Mother of Health and Hope, Pray for us. Amen