Seventh Sunday of Easter, 12th May 2024
MASS TIMES THIS WEEK :
Monday, 13th May : Our Lady of Fatima 12 noon
Tuesday, 14th May : St Matthias, Apostle NO MASS
Wednesday, 15th May : NO MASS
Thursday, 16th May : 12 noon
Friday, 17th May : (Exposition from 11.30 a.m.) 12 noon
Saturday, 18th May : 11.00 a.m. & 6. 15 p.m. (Sunday Vigil Mass)
Sunday, 19th May : PENTECOST SUNDAY 10.30 (SH) & 12.30 (St. A.)
FEASTS OF THE WEEK :
Our Lady of Fatima (Monday) : The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd-children at Fatima (Portugal) on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917. She brought a message of peace and reparation for sin, encouraging the recitation of the Rosary and devotion to her immaculate heart. Fatima continues to be a very popular place of pilgrimage.
St Matthias (Tuesday) : Chosen by lot to replace the disgraced Judas among the Twelve, he was present at the first Pentecost and according to various sources went on to preach in Judaea, Cappadocia and Ethiopia. He is reported to have suffered a cruel martyrdom.
ANNIVERSARIES : Derek Clemson, Ken Hepworth, Veronica Doyle, Patrick Joseph Weir, John Byrne, Edith Maud Grant, Edna Bennett, Margaret Lomax. May they rest in peace.
COLLECTIONS : Offertory £418.65 (Sacred Heart £317.35; St Anne’s £101.30). Parish Pound (SH) £96.60. Many thanks.
300 CLUB DRAW : The first draw of the new series was made in the Parish Room on Sunday morning. Thanks to the support received, it has been possible to offer almost the same level of prize-money as in the past twelve months, while ensuring a modest profit for parish funds. The winners this month were: £70, No. 148, Terry Mortiboy; £20, No.61, E. Boyle; £20, No. 54, Julie Ball.
THE PARISH LUNCH will be served on Thursday this week (16th May) from 12.30 p.m. in the Parish Room. There is still just time to book a place today.
NO BINGO this week.
‘RIPPLE OF HOPE’ AGM will be held in the Parish Room on Saturday, 25th May at 2 p.m. Our chairman, Dr Tony Simpson, is due back from Zambia this week. It is hoped that the nurse/midwife, Mutale Mondoca, whose training was financed in our first project (2009 -2012), will attend the AGM during a visit to the UK. Everyone is most welcome to come to this meeting and to meet her. The transfer of monies from Barclay’s to the Skipton Building Society Community Saver account has been completed. The sum of £5,542.81 was the closing balance at Barclay’s and with further donations added to the new Skipton account the present total is £5,843.17. Very many thanks to all our supporters.
FROM THE ARCHIVES (40 YEARS AGO) :
A copy of the Sacred Heart parish magazine (Spring edition 1984) came to hand this week and it made for fascinating reading. It was a lively forum, ably directed by legendary editor David Higginson, offering news and a range of opinions from well-remembered parishioners and visiting contributors. One letter-writer questioned the impact of the parish council which, despite a range of sub-committees, he felt lacked real focus; another had firm views on the need for young children to be made more familiar with the mass. Indicative of how times change, there were four masses at Sacred Heart on holydays (we had an assistant priest then) and a cohort of altar-servers almost 40-strong divided into four teams. Those were the days!
But the most prominent topic was the vexed question of the proposed parish centre. Fund-raising was ongoing, some £800 having recently been raised, and the magazine features a sketch of a possible hexagonal-shaped building sited on the main car park. But there was clearly frustration that no real progress towards building had been made. One humorist had penned an article gazing into his crystal-ball one hundred years hence in 2084, including the revelation : ‘The latest plans for the parish centre can be viewed at the back of the church’! Fortunately, as we know, the arrival of new parish priest Fr Michael Lavin in 1996 changed the picture almost immediately. Having instituted a parish lunch, held in the presbytery, he saw the urgent need for a new facility and plans were soon drawn up. Funds for building (£80,000) were quickly made available through loans readily provided by parishioners – loans which were repaid with remarkable swiftness – plus a 50 per cent loan from the diocese. Overseen by a small buildings committee, work on the parish room soon began and, despite a few modifications and increased costs along the way, it was officially opened in 2000 by parishioner Dr Alan Rebello. The benefits of this lovely facility enjoyed by the parish community are there for all to see and are beyond measure.
