St. Joseph’s Newsletter – 4th March 2018
Bonus Ball Winner: 29 – Dave Bunting
Offertory - £1608.07 (inc. standing orders)
CAFOD – (Next week)
Sanctuary Lamp
Ceri Hammill
(40th Birthday Remembrance)
Marian Candle
Gwen Voce
(Birthday Remembrance)
Lately Dead
Derek Thomas Hazell,
If anyone knows of any sick or housebound parishioner who would like to receive communion at home, please let Fr. Malcolm know. Thank you.
The Priests – Live in Concert are singing at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall with guest mezzo soprano Danielle Thomas on Friday 1st June 2018. Tickets have been purchased with good seats in the stalls at £30.00. I have reserved 47 tickets (which includes 19 for St. Alban’s/Sacred Heart) so if you have signed up, please arrange to let me have your payment as soon as possible, cheques payable to St. Joseph. All funds raised from the concert will be split between Nugent and supporting the work and upkeep of the cathedral.
St. Joseph’s Toddler Group
Will re-commence on Thursday 11th January from 9.45am to 11.30am at the Loreto Centre. Cost is £1.50. Please contact Angela Meade on 01925 723951 for more information.
Pilgrimage to Krakow Poland
Would you like to join a pilgrimage to Krakow, Poland from Sunday 29th April to Friday 4th May? The pilgrimage will be accompanied by Frs. Michael Fitzsimons and Bill Murphy fromSt Wilfrid's Parish, Widnes. Flights are from Liverpool airport direct to Krakow, staying at Hotel Campanile in the historic centre of Krakow.Visits to sites in Krakow, and trips to Czestochowa, Wadowice, Auschwitz and the Divine Mercy Centre. Price £650 single room supplement £135. Travel Insurance £46 per person no age limit. For more information contact the Parish Office at St Wilfrid's on 0151 422 1772
Cheltenham 2018---Date for your diary.
This is always a popular afternoon in St Joseph’s Club, watching the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the telly! The date this year is Friday 16th March from 12noon.
Stations of the Cross
As in previous years, Stations of the Cross will follow Exposition each Friday during Lent at St. Joseph’s.
LENT
Lent is only lent to us, as a time we can reflect,
On the progress of our souls and the way that we connect
To Heaven and to everyone, who shares the Earth with us,
Our brothers and our sisters, as God appointed thus.
Recalling we are stewards, to whom God gave the Earth,
Lent is a time to calculate our “giving” and our worth!
Everyone is equal and so we all must bear
The cost of being judged on did “we do our share?”
As masters of God’s creatures, a duty laid on all,
As is the land we live on; whose beauty, should enthral.
Have we loved our fellowmen in every way we could?
Treating them as family, as Our Saviour said we should.
Or do we think our Country, is superior to theirs
Which gives us “rights” to put on, selfish, greedy, “airs?”
Although we’re merely made of dust, we’re still so full of pride
Thinking we are perfect, from the way we look “outside”!
Lent lends time, to change our ways, by putting others first
And giving alms where needed, to satisfy the thirst
Of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who loves us equally;
His brothers and his sisters; in God’s great family.
What matters is our precious soul and for that we must account
One day, to God the Father, for its “free of sin” amount!
Lend should be reflective; a time to now repent.
To change our ways to better ones, with better lives well spent.
PW-2018
Open the Book
Can you join the team taking the Bible into our local primary schools?
Hopefully you will already have heard about the fantastic initiative from the Bible Society call “Open the Book” which is being established nationally in hundreds of primary schools. If not, then please carry on reading and see whether you can be involved in such an exciting mission telling the stories of the Bible to the children in our community……
Open the Book is where a team of volunteers visits a local school and acts out a story from the Bible in a fun and engaging way. All the material is pre-prepared for the team and satisfies the appropriate educational requirements. So many of our children today are not familiar with stories from the Bible and Open the Book teams simply retell the stories followed by a short learning point or message.
An Open the Book volunteer needs no previous experience or special skills, has all the material already prepared, can be any age over 18 (we have several volunteers aged 80 plus) and usually needs to commit to no more than an hour or so weekly.
At the moment the demand from schools for an Open the Book team is outstripping the volunteers we have available. Please pray and carefully consider whether you can join the West Warrington Open the Book volunteers.
For more details please contact Linda Murdoch on
Or 07594 356260 or visit the Bible Society’s website.
Nugent
Archbishop Malcolm and the Trustees have agreed that the annual collection for Nugent, our official Archdiocesan caring service be moved to the 4th Sunday of Lent and is now a mandatory collection for parishes within the Archdiocese, therefore, next Sunday, 11th March there will be a retiring collection for Nugent.
St. Joseph’s Uniformed Groups
Plant order forms are available at the back of Church. Please take one and return to either Andy/Paul or the Presbytery.
Lenten Meditation Course will be held at St. Joseph’s Family Centre in Museum Street over the next four Monday evening, next on 5th March at 7.30-8.30pm. This is a free course and all our welcome, new and experienced meditators alike.
North West Catholic History Society will publish in the spring of 2018:-
Upholland College: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Priestly Training by Dr. Peter Doyle, a former student and teacher at the College and the author of Mitres & Missions in Lancashire: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Liverpool 1850-2000. It will be available to members of the Josephan Society at £12 per copy, including postage and packing, and to non-members at £14. Please contact Christine at St. Joseph’s if you wish to order a copy.
John Traynor will be holding Lenten Reflections on John’s Gospel and the Triduum for five Wednesday evenings from 28th February, 7th March, 14th March, 21st March and 28th March. All are welcome to come along, in particular readers.
Change of Mass Time
Please note that the daily Mass time at St. Joseph’s on a Friday will in future be at 12 noon. This is to allow Fr. Malcolm to visit St. Joseph’s and St. Vincent’s schools and join in their Celebration assemblies on a Friday morning.
Gospel Reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent
Living Temples
Once a year at Passover, Jews visited the Temple and offered a sacrifice to God. At this time of year the number of visitors to Jerusalem swelled and the moneylenders, with their eye to business, took to operating a scam. When visitors came to the Temple they were able to purchase animals or doves to offer as sacrifices. Because the Jews considered Roman coinage bearing Caesar’s head as idolatrous, they were given the opportunity to exchange their Roman coins for Temple coinage. The idea was originally a good one, but the moneylenders were operating an unfair exchange rate for over priced animals. What had started out as a good idea had turned into an abuse. ….. and this in God’s name! Was it any wonder that Jesus was so angry? To see Jesus angry enough to take a whip and drive out the villainous traders might surprise us. We are brought up with a vision of a Jesus as both meek and mild. In our modern times, where disputes have to be settled over a table and those who display temper are sent off for anger management counselling, the story might even make us raise a disapproving eyebrow. But what this story makes us realise is that there are situations that warrant our righteous anger. Jesus simply could not tolerate injustice, and neither should we. What injustices do we need to drive out of our society today? We don’t have to look far. How can we claim to be Christians yet settle for injustices that Jesus would not have settled for? Can we really sit back and allow rich countries to profit greedily at the expense of poor countries? Can we really condone the unfair distribution of our planet’s resources just for our own convenience? Can we continue to let governments ride roughshod over those who cannot speak up for themselves? What has to be driven out of our lives and communities because instead of bringing us closer to God they prevent us from meeting him? Today's story is not about protecting a sacred building. God after all does not live in a building. Each of us is a living temple. God lives through us.
Pope Francis' Prayer Intention
March 2018
Each of us is a living temple and God lives through us. Letting God steer our lives isn't easy though. It's difficult to be discerning, yet if we want faith to form us and give us wisdom, we have to be open to Jesus' teaching in all of our day to day decisions. When we allow our faith to form us, we are a shining example to others. This month we are invited to join Pope Francis' prayer intention, "... That the Church may appreciate the urgency of formation in spiritual discernment, both on the personal and communitarian levels."
Peace Actions March 2018
- Fairtrade Fortnight ends Sunday 11th March, but if you can, think about continuing good shopping habits throughout the year. Become a 'supermarket campaigner'. We can change the world by how we shop.
- Support 'Water Aid' on World Water Day (March 22nd).
- Hunt down the 'Real Easter Egg' this year – of 80 million Easter Eggs sold in the UK every year, this is the first to tell the story of Easter. Not only that, the chocolate is Fairtrade. If you can't find it in your supermarket you can order online at Traidcraft.
Fairtrade Fortnight
26th Feb - 11th March
The Great Fairtrade Bake Off :- If you’re the baking type, then you can use Fairtrade ingredients in plenty of recipes. There’s a Fairtrade choice for everything from cocoa to sugar paste, from vanilla to icing sugar. So whatever style of cake you create you can make sure it does good as well as tastes good. Keep a look out for the Fairtrade logo.
BBC Radio 4
Lent Talks
Every year, to mark the Christian season of Lent, Radio 4 invites contributors to offer a personal take on an aspect of the Passion story. Tune in on Wednesday evening at 20.45 or early Sunday morning at 5.45catch it again on iplayer.
Bite Size
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
~ Lou Holtz
Mass Intentions for week commencing 5th March 2018Monday 5h / 9.30am / Magdalen Donlan
Tuesday 6th / 9.30am / Kath Gilmartin
Wednesday7th
/ 9.30am / Derek Hazell
(Requiem Mass)
Thursday 8th / 6.30am / Mary Norris
Friday 9th / 12 Noon / Pastoral Area Mass
(2md Intention June Traynor)
Saturday 10th / 4.30-5pm
Sunday 11th / 8.30am
10.30am
4.00pm / People of the Parish
Fred Gatley
Alan Newey (70th Birthday)
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Joseph’s will take place this week on Friday from 10.00am to 12 Noon.