St George’s Country Dance - Saturday 21st April
Organised by Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Social Committee, 7.30pm-10.30pm (doors open 7pm). Tickets £8 or family £25. Raffle. Bring your own nibbles & drinks. Live band ‘The Musicmakers’ with caller.
Tickets from Phyllis 07969 465518, Darrell 07825 686249, Irene 07449 471612
Serving the Homeless
Our next event is a meal at East on 22nd March at 7.30. Tickets are £15 and are available from Linda, 558217, Theresa, 335122 or from Jo 474062.
Spring Walk
Why not sign up for HARP’s Prittle Brook Spring Walk? Taking place on Sunday 22rd April 2018 at 2pm, it’s a 3½ mile Sunday afternoon stroll along the Prittle Brook Greenway from Priory Park to Belfairs Park – raising vital funds for HARP.
Every step you take will show you’re supporting local homeless people. What’s more, with each entry you will receive a FREE HARP Spring Walk T-shirt and also enjoy a well-earned cup of tea and slice of cake afterwards at the Woodlands Centre at Belfairs Park. This is a great afternoon out and knowing you are helping Southend’s homeless community rebuild their lives and live independently makes it even better! https://www.harpsouthend.org.uk/spring-walk-2018
Parish/Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes Monday 23rd - Saturday 28th July 2018
Five nights (full board) travelling with British Airways via Toulouse and staying at the Grand Moderne Hotel will cost £665 per pilgrim. Please indicate your interest by putting your name on the list in the Parish Office.
Coast to Coast Rosary
After similar events in Poland and Ireland, we plan to pray the rosary around the coast on Great Britain in April this year.
The event, which is scheduled for Sunday, April 29, will pray specifically for our country, for peace and for the upholding of the dignity of human life. This mass-rosary prayer will help combat the present threats to faith, the dignity of the human person and to peace, and encourage a re-flourishing of our Faith. Our Parish will pray the Rosary on the waters-edge at The Crowstone bottom of Imperial Avenue at 3pm that Sunday. Visit the website for more details: www.rosaryonthecoast.co.uk
Counters & Folders
Counters: Linda Wall & Brian Mountier
Folders: Pauline Jordan & Maureen Ward
Flower Festival 16th June 2018
As part of our Evangelisation and Discipleship project, we are organising a festival of flowers to be held on Saturday 16th June. The aim is to involve as many parishioners as possible in decorating all the windowsills in the church. The theme will be, The Saints. Each display to be inspired by the saints portrayed in the stained glass windows. We hope that this event will encourage the people of Leigh to visit our beautiful Church.
We hope that organisations, groups, families or individuals will volunteer to take responsibility for one window display. A list will be available to choose from.
This is not a competition. Please do not feel that you have to be a professional flower arranger to take part! Garden flowers and greenery, together with any symbols or items representing the Saints in the window that you have chosen, would be ideal.
If you are interested in taking part, or would like to know more, please contact:
Theresa 335122 or Jo 474062
EVANGELISATION & DISCIPLESHIP PROJECT
Thank you so much for your support for this initiative which we hope will produce confidence and growth in our Parish community. If you couldn't make the first meeting, DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU! You will still be welcome at our next meeting on Tuesday 20th March at 7:30pm in the Gilbert Room when we will begin studying Sherry Weddell's book Forming Intentional Disciples together. This programme has transformed and deepened the faith of many people. For those who already intend to come to the next meeting, why not start your evangelisation training now by inviting two other people from the parish to join you at the next meeting? Please remember to pray for this ongoing initiative.
Fourth Sunday of Lent - Lætare Sunday 11th March 2018
We have passed the mid-way stage of Lent, and the Church allows us a little respite, a glimpse of the joy that will come to us at Easter, in the prayers of the liturgy and in the lighter tone of the vesture used on this Lætare Sunday. The words of the Introit of the Mass bid Jerusalem rejoice, and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult... Jerusalem is the place where the events of our salvation are going to unfold and so it is the City that, in a very true sense, is blessed. It is there that our Saviour will be lifted up upon the Cross just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert. Everything in the Old Testament is a preparation for, or a prefigurement of, the coming of the Messiah. As we approach the part of Lent traditionally termed Passiontide we can begin to think in more detail about the particulars of the Passion of Our Lord. We reflect on these mysteries so that we can apply them to our own lives and understand something of the love God shows us by going to this extreme. During Lent we try with every greater determination to unite all of the crosses and contradictions of this life with the Passion of Jesus and His Cross. I would like to share with you some lovely lines of Pope Emeritus Benedict, from his Encyclical Letter on Hope - Spe Salvi -written to the Ch
Dear Friends in Christ
We have passed the mid-way stage of Lent, and the Church allows us a little respite, a glimpse of the joy that will come to us at Easter, in the prayers of the liturgy and in the lighter tone of the vesture used on this Lætare Sunday. The words of the Introit of the Mass bid Jerusalem rejoice, and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult... Jerusalem is the place where the events of our salvation are going to unfold and so it is the City that, in a very true sense, is blessed. It is there that our Saviour will be lifted up upon the Cross just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert. Everything in the Old Testament is a preparation for, or a prefigurement of, the coming of the Messiah. As we approach the part of Lent traditionally termed Passiontide we can begin to think in more detail about the particulars of the Passion of Our Lord. We reflect on these mysteries so that we can apply them to our own lives and understand something of the love God shows us by going to this extreme. During Lent we try with every greater determination to unite all of the crosses and contradictions of this life with the Passion of Jesus and His Cross. I would like to share with you some lovely lines of Pope Emeritus Benedict, from his Encyclical Letter on Hope - Spe Salvi -written to the Church in 2007:
I would like to add here another brief comment with some relevance for everyday living. There used to be a form of devotion—perhaps less practised today but quite widespread not long ago—that included the idea of “offering up” the minor daily hardships that continually strike at us like irritating “jabs”, thereby giving them a meaning. Of course, there were some exaggerations and perhaps unhealthy applications of this devotion, but we need to ask ourselves whether there may not after all have been something essential and helpful contained within it. What does it mean to offer something up? Those who did so were convinced that they could insert these little annoyances into Christ's great “com-passion” so that they somehow became part of the treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race. In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of human love. Maybe we should consider whether it might be judicious to revive this practice ourselves (40).
God bless you all!
Msgr Kevin Hale
Priest@LourdesLeigh.org ✚ 01702 478078
Homily available at LourdesLeigh.org
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT - Sunday 11th March - Lætare
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT - Sunday 11th March - Lætare
Saturday 5.30pm Vigil Frank & Moira Keenan, RIP (FK)
6.30pm–7.30pm Exposition & Confession
8.00am Mass Intentions of Marie Fitzakerley - 90th Birthday (JL)
9.30am Mass The People of the Parish
11.30am Mass Mervyn Calton, RIP (RC)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
Monday 12 Feria
9.00am Mass William Brown, RIP (Anniv) (JS)
Tuesday 13 Feria
9.00am Mass Intentions of Sue O’Brien (T&VT)
Wednesday 14 Feria
9.00am Mass Intentions of John & Renata Butler (C&AB)
Thursday 15 Feria
9.00am Mass Derek Timothy, RIP (T&VT)
Friday 16 Feria
6.30am Mass Barbara Sheaf, RIP (K&LW)
12Noon Mass John & Pat Moon & Valerie Griggs, RIP (SM)
8.00pm Stations of the Cross & Benediction
Saturday 17 ST PATRICK, Bp, Apostle of Ireland
10.00am Mass Rev John O’Neill, RIP (FM)
10.30am-11.30am Exposition & Confession
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT - Sunday 18th March
Saturday 5.30pm Vigil Mick & Sheila West (40th Wedding Anniv)
6.30pm–7.30pm Exposition & Confession
8.00am Mass Guy Bragard, RIP (Anniv) (RB)
9.30am Mass The People of the Parish
11.30am Mass Madelaine Sighe, RIP (MR)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
Sanctuary Lamp
The lamp burns for the intentions of the Hiscock Family, Living & Deceased.
We pray for our sick
Anne Currid, David Gurney, Maureen Gooding, Paul Keane, Mabel Addecott, Christian Ryan, Arthur Mills, Mike Rubbert, Teresa O’Brien, Maureen Deekes, Noel Fagan, Patricia Abram,
Tina Doveaston, Pat Lynch,Rose Craft, Addi Brady, Ben Wilson, Patricia Fleming, Nicky Wigmore, Brita Irons, Eileen Wilson, Patricia Spikin, Sandra Fagan, Edna Wallace, Beryl Dixon,Nan Carrit, Nick Evans, Vicky Jack, Lyn Gopee, Mary Boyce, Kristin Hallenga, Anne O’Neill, Cheryl Shallis, Anthony McEvoy, Justin Stark, Sheila Netherton, David Blyth, Dympna Addecott, Janet Woods, Lynne Hilkene, June Moncaster, Laura & Anne Breen, Breda Lynch, Roy Widdecombe,
Johanna Lynch, Maria Clark, Sheila McBrearty, Anthony King, Norma McCleverty, Belinda Balazsi, Edward Martin, Johnnie Pool, Joanna Luciani, Pauline Wilsher, Simon Marshall, Kriston Barnes, Josephine Griggs, Noel Kolb, Colleen Worley, Antonella McConalogue, Fr Jean Laurent Marie, Dawn Deleigh, Eddie McConalogue, Georgina Cornwell, Lorraine Hart, Wyn McCafferty,
Linda Dean, Annie Holland, Martin Buckley, Chas Taylor, Martha Braun, John Lavery, Ivor & Joanne Knight, Brian Beresford, Rebecca Peake, David Clark, David Askew, Connor Bourke, Mattia Mollica, Sharon Levill, Bernadette Lane, David Kislingury, Maureen Ward, Jane Jowers, Irena Solecki, Doreen Troughton, Marguerite Harris, Andrew Exley, Rosemary Arscott, Lanto Bellis, Richard Collins, Niqui Denkmayer, Elizabeth McConalogue, Kean Smith and children Thomas Ball,
Liam Davis, Albert Chambers, Fergus Grant, Lucy Price, Connie Price, Mary Isherwood,
Frazer Gregory, baby Talia Emery and Hattie Seymour.
Please Pray for the Dead on their Anniversaries
Fr William Luby, Canon Martin Horkan, Rev John O’Neill, Margaret Houston, Benjamin Dawson, Leo King, Edith Smith, Eileen Greaves, George Burnham, Lydia Upton, Maura Harley, Eric Wilding, Stefan Zyms, Frank Keenan Snr, Nora Thompson, Philip Hale, Eleanor Hayes, June Hazel White, David McGowan, George Conway, James Kennedy, Kathleen Horsford, Julian Felix Asselberghs, Catherine Isobel Jago, Anthony Slattery, Mary Russell, Henry McIlwee, Nina Clarke,
Alfred Marshall, Dolores Cutter, John Flynn, Gabrielle Haiser & Henry De Souza.
May their Souls & the Souls of all the Faithful Departed rest in peace.
Counters & Folders
Counters: Mary Cook & Jacky Hoggett
Folders: Bobby Newman & Emma Beardsell
Nazareth House Lenten Talks - Revised
Thursday 15th March Fr Dominic Howarth on Formation of our young people -
‘ Abbotswick and beyond’.
Final talk Thursday 22 March Brian Holt -President of the Comitium for the Legion of Mary in our Diocese - ‘Devotion to Mary means Apostleship’.
Both talks begin at 7.30pm and the evenings conclude with devotions with priests available to hear confessions.
The Deanery Sacrament of Reconciliation at St Peter’s is therefore moved to Friday, 23rd March at 8.00 pm (as opposed to Thursday, 22nd March at 7.30 pm as previously advised).
PILGRIMAGE to KNOCK SHRINE, IRELAND - 28th MAY 2018
Last few Seats - Pilgrimage to Knock Shrine, Ireland, 28th May 2018. Led by Bishop Alan Williams. £699 per person sharing. Price includes flights from London Stansted with 15kg checked in bag, all taxes, transfers, 5 nights’ in newly refurbished Knock House Hotel, in the grounds of the shrine, with full Irish Breakfast each morning, light lunch and 4 Course Dinner each evening. All entertainment and guided tours included. Wheelchair accessible rooms in the hotel. Limited single rooms available. Groups and Individual bookings welcome. Contact 01 268 762278 or email knockpilgrimages@gmail.com. Knock Pilgrimages is a member of the Travel Trust Association and is fully protected by ATOL T7613.
Class Teacher Posts
Sacred Heart Catholic Primary currently have positions for class teachers starting in September 2018. For more information please contact the school office via email at office@sacredheart.southend.sch.uk<mailto:office@sacredheart.southend.sch.uk> or call on 01702 534546 for an application pack.