PARISH OF ST. BONIFACE, SOUTHAMPTON
APRIL 2nd., 2017
FIFTH SUNDAY of LENT [A]
“Your brother Lazarus will rise again”
Presbytery: St. Boniface House, 413 Shirley Road Southampton SO15 3JD Tel: 023 80771231
Parish Priest: Father David Sillince
Safeguarding Officer: Diana Agacy 023 80907128 Chair of Parish Pastoral Council: pending
Parish Secretary: Eileen B. Aylett Parish Office opening hours Monday Thursday and Friday 9.00am to 12.30pm
Newsletter deadline 9.00pm on Tuesday for inclusion on following Sunday, space permitting.
Parish Website: www.st-boniface.org.uk Parish Office e mail:
This Parish is within the Pastoral Area of Southampton Central & West. RC Diocese of Portsmouth Regd. Charity 246871
The Church is normally open on weekdays 8am-5pm, Saturdays 8am-7.45pm, Sundays 7.30am-5pm
CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK / We pray especially for:-(Divine Office week 1)
Saturday / April 1 / ] / 6.30pm / Mass / Mary Twomey, RIP
Sunday / April 2 / ] FIFTH SUNDAY of LENT, in Passiontide [A] / 8.30am
10.30am / Mass
Mass / Jacqueline & Paul Lobaz
Father Geoffrey Hilton, RIP [Salford]
Monday / April 3 / of Lent 5 Eleventh Station of the Cross / 10.00am / Mass / Tomi Mathew & family
Tuesday / April 4 / of Lent 5 Twelfth Station
[St. Isidore, Bishop & Doctor of the Church †Seville 636] / 10.00am / Mass / Father Cyril Elkington, RIP
[Southwark]
Wednesday / April 5 / of Lent 5 Thirteenth Station
[St. Vincent Ferrer, Dominican †Vannes, Brittany 1419] / 10.00am / Mass / Father Barry Angus, RIP [Southwark]
Thursday / April 6 / of Lent 5 Fourteenth Station / 10.00am / Mass / Aleykutty Joseph, RIP
Friday / April 7 / of Lent 5 First Station (set 3)
[St. John Baptist de la Salle, Founder †Rouen 1719;
St. Henry Walpole, Jesuit Martyr †York 1595] / 10.00am / Mass / Scariya family
Saturday / April 8 / of Lent 5 Second Station
6.30pm Mass is of PALM SUNDAY / 10.00am / Mass / Cheers Sabanathan, in thanksgiving
Confessions Saturdays after 10am Mass and from 5.45pm to 6.15pm, also Lenten Reconciliation Hour each Friday 6.30-7.30pm
PARISH PRAYER GROUP: Fridays 11am-12noon in the Hall, all welcome.
REFRESHMENTS in the Hall every Sunday after 10.30am Mass, also Fridays after 10am Mass (for our Parish charity)
Please pray for those who are sick especially: Colette Morfett, Sheila White, Rosemary FitzGerald, Aileen Lynn, Geoffrey Milford, Edward Standley, Katie Smith, Mary King, Jenny O’Farrell, Joan & Peter Turner, Veronica White, Gordon Lyons, Anne le Flohic, Joe Gleeson, Adele Vella, Kenneth Angel, Ellen Ince, Mary Macintyre.
Please pray for the repose of the souls of those with anniversaries at this time: Dora Callinan, Desmond Heuze, Winifred Lowe, John Brant.
May they rest in peace and rise in glory.
DIOCESAN PRAYER INTENTIONS: Su: Parish Finance Committees; M: Welcome Centre, Jersey; T: The Bishops of Clifton & Northampton, and Emeritus Archbishop of Westminster, priests of this Diocese; W: Diocesan Trustees & Finance Council; Th: ‘Catholic HR’ for managers of Catholic organisations; F: De la Salle Brothers in the Diocese; Sa: Sisters of St. Lucy (Filippini) in the Diocese.
MEMORARE
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known
that anyone ever fled to thy protection,
implored thy help,
or sought thine intercession,
and was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins,
my mother; to thee do I come,
before thee I stand, a sorrowful sinner.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in thy mercy hear
and answer my prayer. Amen.
LENTEN PRAYER of St. EPHREM:
O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for power or idle talk; but give to me, your servant, a spirit of sobriety, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, allow me to see my own sins, and not to judge my brother, for blessed are you for ever and ever, Amen.
COLLECTION: Mar 26: Loose £534.93, Envelopes £433.30. Apportionment: Bankers’ Orders £320.00, Gift Aid £180.00. Total £1468.23. Clergy Assistance £408.45. Sebeya Ethiopia, CAFOD project £236.85 (£52642.52). Many thanks for these kind contributions.
This weekend: East Africa Famine emergency appeal (extra collection, no envelopes; see overleaf).
Next weekend: The Holy Places.
10.30 MASS in LENT: The Entry Antiphon is sung as per text on readings sheet, with accompanying Psalm verses.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION 2: Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?
COMMUNION ANTIPHON 2: none.
CONFIRMATION: next session next Sunday April 9. 2pm in our Hall: “The comeback of Jesus”.
EAST AFRICA CRISIS APPEAL: As announced over the last two weekends, this weekend we will take a special collection for the East African Famine appeal, which concerns South Sudan, Somalia, parts of Ethiopia and northern Kenya and where up to 16 million appeal are facing starvation, ‘the largest humanitarian crisis in more than 70 years’.
Yes we have only just had a collection for CAFOD and
Yes the crisis is not due only to natural factors such as drought, but to ineffective (or nil) government and meddling by other countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia
But Catholic bishops in the area have appealed for “immediate and unconditional concrete intervention and action before thousands of innocent lives are carried away and before it is too late”. Can you help?
HOLY WEEK READERS, MINISTERS of COMMUNION, WELCOMERS: Blank sheets covering the Triduum, plus Passion readers on Palm Sunday, are in the porch; please fill in your names in the remaining gaps if available, so that the final list can then be drawn up.
HOLY THURSDAY ‘MANDATUM’ (Washing of Feet): Twelve volunteers from the parish are sought to participate in this ancient ritual at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper; any age and either gender. Names to Micheline Brady or Fr. David.
FIRST COMMUNION now resumes after the school holidays.
ADVANCE NOTICE: Easter Vigil this year is at 8.30pm. Other principal services of the Triduum are at the usual times [Holy Thursday 8pm, Good Friday 3pm.]
‘RECONCILIATION HOUR’, each Friday in Lent from 6.30 to 7.30pm.
As last year, as a substitute for a Parish Penitential Service, Fr. David will be in the church each Lenten Friday from 6.30 to 7.30pm. Each person arriving will be invited to pray through, privately, a short preparatory service of the word which they will be given; they then come forward to the sanctuary rails to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and conclude with a short service of thanksgiving, which will also be offered to them. The Confessional is not used.
Confessions in the more ‘traditional’ mode are still offered each Saturday am & pm.
Friday April 7 is the last of these Fridays, as April 14 is Good Friday
HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY is seeking volunteers. Are you willing to help patients come to worship in the hospital chapel on, say, one Sunday a month? Or could you devote 1-2 hours on Friday mornings asking patients if they would like to come to chapel services? Or arrange flowers in the chapel? Or be trained to support the work of the hospital chaplains?
For an informal conversation, contact the Chaplaincy Volunteers Coordinator, Sue Pitkin, (023) 8120 8517. For an application pack (including need for enhanced DBS check, references and an interview), contact the Voluntary Services department, (023) 8120 6062 or
CARE AND RELIEF FOR THE YOUNG [CRY] are opening a charity shop in Shirley and seek a suitably qualified retail manager (32 hours per week) and deputy manager (16-19 hours), and also volunteer staff. Contact Clive Wyatt, 41 Victoria Road, Woolston SO19 9DY cwyatt@cry,org.uk or (023) 8178 0408.
FANNING THE FLAME SUMMER CAMP at St. Dominic’s Priory, Sway August 21-25, 10-25 years. Book now via
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
Predictably, there have been very mixed reactions to the death of Martin McGuinness, IRA activist, Sinn Fein politician and, from the other side of the coin, one of the architects of the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement.
Lord Tebbitt, whose wife was paralysed in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing, hoped that “he was parked in a particular hot corner of hell for the rest of eternity”. Jo Berry, whose father, MP for Enfield, died in the same atrocity, said that she “valued McGuinness as an inspiring example of peace and reconciliation”.
In Enniskillen, scene of the 1987 war memorial bombing, Gordon Wilson, now deceased, who lost his daughter, had already forgiven on that selfsame day: “I bear no ill will; I bear no grudge”. Steven Gault, whose father died, has condemned Enniskillen town council for opening a book of condolence for McGuinness.
Forgiveness. Not always easy to achieve. One of those precepts of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount – not only to forgive enemies, but to love them – which cannot be achieved at the push of a button. I have sometimes told of what I overheard while waiting my turn outside a not very sound-proof confessional at Westminster Cathedral: Priest: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” Penitent: “I’m trying, Father, but it’s just so jolly difficult!”
And yet we may feel there’s something really wrong about us if we can’t forgive, that we are actually nasty people.
The first point is that forgiveness is a gift from God, not just his forgiving us, but our being able to forgive each other. It is not as though it is something we have to achieve off our own bat before we can even look God in the eye.
This is all shown by the dynamic of the Prodigal Son parable: God (the father) is waiting at his door, beaming forgiveness at his son even before the son has come to his senses. In other words, God offers it, but we have to be ready to receive it.
That is the working of grace (God’s gift). God’s grace is never wasted, but it needs to be accepted. He will not give us grace for what is impossible: he made Mary, and Mary alone, “full of grace” because his divine knowledge foresaw that Mary could fulfil what was to be asked of her.
The first thing we must receive is a desire to forgive. Again, this is a gift of God. We may resist it, rather like St. Augustine’s famous remark: “Lord, make me pure, but not yet”.
But there may still be a big gap between wanting to forgive and being able to. Jesus worked his miracles in various different ways (with or without words, by touch, being present or absent) and so it is with the desire becoming a reality. It may be achieved consciously: we may revisit all the circumstances of the occasion which offended us and be able to review them in a calm frame of mind. It may be sub-conscious: here we just become aware, without having gone through any obvious process, that we have forgiven.
This latter I always compare to buying new shoes: at first they can seem terribly painful and we may think we will have to discard them, but we persevere and then one fine day we suddenly realise they aren’t hurting any more.
Forgiving is very healing for us but it is not something we can feign, force, or pay lip-service to. That would just be to mask resentment with a veneer of tranquillity.
As for the saying “forgive and forget”, well, I say: ‘forget it!’ Particularly seeing Christianity is built on the principle of remembering: “Do this in memory of me”. Some will disagree, but it seems impossible to scrub one’s memories so that some of them disappear. Isn’t that what in another context we call ‘brain washing’?
So if we forget, we forget. But if we remember, the important thing is not to take all the old hurt back. Rather, use the memory to say to oneself: “It’s all been forgiven”.
So RIP Martin McGuinness. Or not, depending on ‘where you are at’.