Serving the Homeless Christmas Carol Concert
Serving the Homeless is pleased to announce that our annual Christmas Concert has gone online this year! On Friday 18th December you will be able to access it via You tube https://youtu.be/MAsYbYQuCOA
We were able to film at Our Lady of Lourdes and the other churches involved in ‘Serving the Homeless’ during October, thanks to Tim Browne. He kindly offered his services, to film the various participants separately and then edit it into a film for us. We hope that you will find it a wonderful way to start your Christmas celebration. Our thanks to Fr Kevin and all the other clergy and parishioners who took part.
If you wish to donate the link is www.paypal.me/ServingtheHomeless
At Christmas our Carol concert is normally followed by mulled wine and mince pies. However, this year we ask you to embrace technology and join us from home, although you may like to have your mince pies and wine to hand!
We wish you all the blessings of the Christmas season.
Jo Ronan, Chairwoman, Serving the Homeless
Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School
Is your child due to start school in September 2021? We know that choosing your child’s primary school is an important decision. We’d love for you to send us your questions about starting school!
In the absence of being able to show you around the learning environment that we are so proud of, please send us any questions that you have for our Headteacher, Sally Nutman, or our EYFS Reception team.
Please see our website or social media to send us a question and look at our answers to yours and others’ questions!
HARP
This year, Christmas might feel a bit different to usual. But most of us can still look forward to a cosy festive break spent celebrating as best we can, in homes where we can feel safe, warm, and comforted.
Many people struggling with homelessness have already endured the coronavirus pandemic without a safe place to live. And now, Christmas will be spent in cramped bed and breakfasts, sleeping in cars, or in temporary, precarious accommodation alone and isolated.
No one should have to cope with such misery and stress – let alone at this time of year.
Christmas is regarded as the season of giving, and spending time with loved ones, so I ask you to please spare a thought – and if you can, a donation – for local homeless people this Christmas.
Just £10 can bring a little Christmas cheer to our homeless and vulnerable people.
By donating to HARP this Christmas, you will provide so much more than a Christmas meal – you will give local people who are homeless compassion, safety and a friendly smiling face throughout the festive period and beyond.
You can donate online at www.harpsouthend.org.uk or leave your donation in the office, marked for the attention of Linda Wall.
CAFOD World Gifts 2020
You can investigate alternative gift ideas at www.cafod.org.uk/worldgifts. Gifts can be made for education, health, water or other Cafod project areas. All help to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters in many communities around the world.
Missio Red Box
I have received the Missio 2021 Calendars. Please take one, plus a copy of the Autumn Missio magazine from the back of the church in the usual place (Ledge by the exit door). If you have boxes to be emptied please keep them until January. Thank you.
I wish you all a very happy and Holy Christmas.
Joan Caunce, Secretary 01268 757505.
COVID: Guidelines for Public Worship
Our church will remain open for public worship, if we can keep it safe — please try your best to observe the guidance:
book a place online for Mass, one booking will accommodate up to three adults or two adults and two children from the same family (you might ask anyone who does not have internet if you could book for them)
do not come to the church if you or anyone living with you has Corona-virus symptoms
before entering church wear a face covering
sanitise your hands upon entry and exit
use the QR code at the entrance for Test and Trace
keep a safe distance from others using only the pews designated
do not touch or kiss statues, candle stands or other objects that others may come in contact with
when receiving Holy Communion, remove your face covering before receiving in the hand and do not move away from the Altar until It has been consumed
any weekly offerings can be left in one of the baskets at the back of church and preferably use one of the online, contactless or standing order methods of giving.
Thank you for your continued co-operation with these guidelines — this will ensure the church is a safe environment for everyone.
Facebook page
The Parish Facebook page needs a couple of people to keep an eye on it, answer questions and keep it up-to-date.
If you could help, please contact Fr Kevin.
Second Sunday of Advent
Dear friends in Christ
Saint John the Baptist is a central figure in this Advent-time. He was sent to prepare to the world for the arrival of the Messiah and he speaks powerfully to us still.
Dear friends in Christ
Saint John the Baptist is a central figure in this Advent-time. He was sent to prepare the world for the arrival of the Messiah and he speaks powerfully to us still. The Baptist called the people of that time back to basics: repentance, prayer, solidarity with others, making the world fit for God again. During these last months we have had much time to focus on what is most necessary in our lives. Indeed, our first sentiment should always be thanksgiving: for our life, for our family and relationships, and for membership of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church. These are no small benefits and despite the fact that we may be experiencing a heaviness of heart at recent events, our thanksgiving to God should be constant. We have been given so much and therefore we must never forget to raise-up our hearts and hands in profound gratitude to the God who gives us everything we need and Who keeps us in existence. St John the Baptist can remind us, as we progress through Advent, that it is our relationship with Christ that is paramount.
THE prayer of Advent is The Angelus. In this prayer—which we offer in the morning, noon and evening-time—we recall the announcement of the great news of the Incarnation. St Gabriel announces to Mary that she is to be the Mother of God; Mary accepts what God is asking and for which she has been prepared from the start of time; the Word then becomes flesh in her womb. Try to recall this greatest of moments in salvation history faithfully each day and so live with joyful hope and expectation, the coming of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Tuesday (8th) is the great Solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. She was conceived sinless, redeemed by Christ from the first moment of her existence, and so created by God as a fitting dwelling place for the Word Incarnate. As I do each year, I shall consecrate the Parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the end of Mass on Tuesday. Try to make this offering also in your homes and families, so that in spite of all the uncertainties that we face, we may be placed under the protecting mantle of God’s Mother and our Mother also.
May Christ and Mary be with you all in these Advent days!
Msgr Kevin Hale
Second Sunday of Advent
Saturday 5 December
5.30pm Vigil Mass The People of the Parish
6.30pm Holy Hour: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Sunday 6 December
8am Mass Intentions of Phyl Cassin & family (PO’S)
9.30am Mass Doreen Cassidy, RIP (YM)
11.30am Mass Intentions of Lena Young (CB)
4.00pm Mass Intentions of Elizabeth Fitzgerald (MI) - Ex Form
(No general Communion)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
Monday 7
St Ambrose, Bp, D
9am Mass Basil & Frances Emmerson, RIP (AE)
8.30-10am Private Prayer
Tuesday 8
The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
9am Mass Intentions of Patsy Major (K&LW)
8.30-10am Private Prayer
Wednesday 9
St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
9am Mass Clare Clarke, RIP (Anniversary) (BH)
8.30-10am Private Prayer
Thursday 10
Our Lady of Loreto
9am Mass Intentions of David Lesley (SD)
8.30-10am Private Prayer
Friday 11
St Damasus I, P
12Noon Mass Vivien Clancy, RIP (K&LW)
11.30am-1pm Private Prayer
Saturday 12
Our Lady of Guadalupe
10am Mass Mike Barry, RIP (HB)
9.30-11.30am Private Prayer
Exposition 10.30-11.30am
Confessions in the Lady Chapel
Third Sunday of Advent — Gaudete Sunday
5.30pm Vigil Fidelis & Lourdes Mary Pallis, RIP (Anniversaries) (DL)
6.30pm Holy Hour: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Sunday 13 December
8am Mass The People of the Parish
9.30am Mass Carl Balcazar, RIP (PB)
11.30am Mass Charles & Mark Kelly, RIP (MS)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
We Pray for the Dead on their Anniversaries
Fr Brian Drea, Fr Michael Healy, Fr Bernard Pownall, Fr John Lane, Canon Anthony McKentey, Fr Geoffrey Pye, Fr Eamonn Magrath, Anne Woods, Hugh Smyth, Anne Reid, Christine Lyons, Barbara Clarke, Brigid Hill, Doris Masters, Ana Dawson, William Johnson, Bruce Pond, John Newton, Thomas O’Hanlon, Mary Alice Ring, Mary Dulcie O’Leary, John Parsons, Walter Scott, Patrick Lyons, Clare Clarke, Karen Anderson, Hilda Eid, Georgina Francis, Ann Dunbar, Ivy Heale, Cecilia Upsher, William Anderson, Marie O’Carroll, John Burke, Ronald Clarke, Eugene Grant & Alexander Black.
We Pray for our Sick
Margaret Bartle, Tony Downey, Kristy Monferrari, Fred Ring, Ian Irwin, Russell Short, Marie Karaf, Gilberte Cook, Garry Pearman, Anne Owen, Adrian Barclay, Patricia Ann Darroch, Peggy Larman, Sylvia Langley, Patricia Vanner, Amy Louise Fox, Sarah Savage, Bill O’Connell, Janet Weale, Charlotte O’Neil, Ella Williams, David Kislingbury, Mark Shepherd, Eileen Bines, Breege McCaffrey, Mark Hartley, Austin Butler, John Lavery, Paul Keane, Rosemary Bragard, Pat Lynch, Maureen Gooding, Ben Wilson, Christian Ryan, Mike Rubbert, Tina Doveaston, Addi Brady, Patricia Fleming, Nicky Wigmore, Rose Craft, Nan Carrit, Eileen Wilson, Patricia Spikin, Sandra Fagan, Edna Wallace, Beryl Dixon, Nick Evans, Vicky Jack, Mary Boyce, Kristin Hallenga, Anne O’Neill, Cheryl Shallis, Anthony McEvoy, Justin Stark, Sheila Netherton, David Blyth, Janet Woods, Lynne Hilkene, June Moncaster, Laura & Anne Breen, Breda Lynch, Maria Clark, Roy Widdecombe, Johanna Lynch, Anthony King, Chas Taylor, Norma McCleverty, Belinda Balazsi, Johnnie Pool, Edward Martin, Joanna Luciani, Pauline Wilsher, Simon Marshall, Kriston Barnes, Hugh Isaacs, Josephine Griggs, Dawn Deleigh, Lorraine Hart, Linda Dean, Wyn McCafferty, Georgina Cornwell, Antonella McConalogue, Eddie McConalogue, Sharon Levill, Annie Holland, Ivor & Joanne Knight, Brian Beresford, Rebecca Peake, Connor Bourke, Mattia Mollica, Bernadette Lane, Irena Solecki, Ianto Bellis, Doreen Troughton, Marguerite Harris, Andrew Exley, Elizabeth McConalogue, Kean Smith, Keith Maliff & children: Thomas Ball, Liam Davis, Connie Price, Albert Chambers, Fergus Grant, Mary Isherwood, Lucy Price & Frazer Gregory.
Bookings for Christmas Masses
As from the publication of this week’s Newsletter, you will now be able to book a place at Christmas Masses. You must book a place online if you wish to attend — without an online booking you will not be able to enter the church due to Covid restrictions. When booking a place, one booking will accommodate up to two adults and two children, or four adults from the same household.
Please note
The Bishops have decreed that we may celebrate the Incarnation on any day during the Christmas Octave in this extraordinary year, that is: we can celebrate our Christmas Mass any day between 24th December and 1st January.
Church Bells
During the recent lockdown we have taken the opportunity to undertake some repairs and essential maintenance on our Bells. This has involved the dismantling of the headstocks and renewing of the bearings. As this involves work at the Bell Foundry the bells are silent at present. We are assured they will be working again in time to ring-in Christmas
HARP
This year, Christmas might feel a bit different to usual. But most of us can still look forward to a cosy festive break spent celebrating as best we can, in homes where we can feel safe, warm, and comforted.
Many people struggling with homelessness have already endured the coronavirus pandemic without a safe place to live. And now, Christmas will be spent in cramped bed and breakfasts, sleeping in cars, or in temporary, precarious accommodation alone and isolated.
No one should have to cope with such misery and stress – let alone at this time of year.
Christmas is regarded as the season of giving, and spending time with loved ones, so I ask you to please spare a thought – and if you can, a donation – for local homeless people this Christmas.
Just £10 can bring a little Christmas cheer to our homeless and vulnerable people.
By donating to HARP this Christmas, you will provide so much more than a Christmas meal – you will give local people who are homeless compassion, safety and a friendly smiling face throughout the festive period and beyond.
You can donate online at www.harpsouthend.org.uk or leave your donation in the office, marked for the attention of Linda Wall.
CAFOD World Gifts 2020
You can investigate alternative gift ideas at www.cafod.org.uk/worldgifts. Gifts can be made for education, health, water or other Cafod project areas. All help to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters in many communities around the world.
First Sunday of Advent
Dear friends in Christ
We are on the threshold of a new year in the life of the Church.
Dear friends in Christ
We are on the threshold of a new year in the life of the Church. Advent Sunday brings us to the start of our remote preparation for Christmas, by reminding us to be vigilant in the wake of the second coming of Christ. The most important part of Advent is that we use the time to nurture within ourselves the desire for salvation; the need of our Saviour. To realise this we shall need to battle with vigilance in these days that lead to Christmas. Throughout most of this year we have been told repeatedly to be vigilant in the face of an unseen enemy: a virus that has decimated countries and communities around the globe. It can be viewed as a symbol of the Evil One, who never sleeps but who is seeking-out whoever is drowsy and not alert. We have to live our Christian lives with at least the same vigilance with which we are living through this pandemic; ensuring that we do not put ourselves at risk of falling prey to contagion. During Advent the Church, through Her Prophets and Saints, calls us to be watchful because we do not know the day or the hour when the Son of God will return. Living this vigilance will help us to concentrate on those areas of life that are most vital: our prayer and relationship with God; sacramental life and our repentance in the Sacrament of Penance, Confession; practical charity towards those who are in need of our material support. Living a heightened awareness of the things of God at this time, will help us not to be drawn into what for many is, a huge secular and materialistic binge. In many ways the experience of this year has forced us to focus on what is most necessary and essential. We must continue in this vein throughout Advent, so that our rejoicing at the Birth of Jesus, will be an expression of joy born of interior reform.
From Wednesday of this week we know that public worship may resume in our churches. As before, when we came out of a lockdown, we shall need to continue to follow the Covid protocols to ensure that our churches continue to be the safest of places to gather. Please use the online booking system, as before, to reserve places at Mass each week. Volunteers for stewarding are also vital!
God bless you!
Msgr Kevin Hale
First Sunday of Advent
Church is open for Private Prayer only until 2nd December
Mass and Holy Hour are online only until 2nd December
Saturday 28 November
5.30pm Vigil Mass Jack Vesey, RIP (Anniversary) (SV)
6.30pm Holy Hour: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Sunday 29 November
11.30am Mass The People of the Parish
5.30pm Holy Hour: Rosary & Benediction
Monday 30
St Andrew, Ap, Patron of Scotland
9am Mass Andrew & Mary Murray, RIP (Anniversary) (UO)
11am Requiem Mass Dorothy Bailey, RIP
NO Private Prayer
6pm Holy Hour with Rosary
Tuesday 1
Blessed John Beche, Ab, M
9am Mass Clare Chadwick, RIP (MI)
11-12 Private Prayer
6pm Holy Hour with Rosary
Open for worship in person
Wednesday 2
Feria
9am Mass Derek Timothy, RIP (Anniversary) (BT)
8.30-10.30am Private Prayer
Thursday 3
St Francis Xavier, Pr
9am Mass Deceased members of the Moon Family (SM)
8.30-10.30am Private Prayer
Friday 4
St John Damascene, Pr D First Friday
11am-1pm Private Prayer
12 noon Mass Intentions of Una Slough (US)
7-8pm Holy Hour & Benediction
Saturday 5
Feria
10am Mass Dympna Addecott, RIP (MR)
9.30-11.30am Private Prayer
Exposition 10.30-11.30am
Confessions in the Lady Chapel
Second Sunday of Advent
5.30pm Vigil The People of the Parish
6.30pm Holy Hour: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Sunday 6 November
8am Mass Intentions of Phyl Cassin & Family (PO’S)
9.30am Mass Doreen Cassidy, RIP (YM)
11.30am Mass Intentions of Lena Young (CB)
4pm Mass Intentions of Elizabeth Fitzgerald (MI) Ex form - No general Communion 5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
We Pray for the Dead on their Anniversaries
Fr Francis Branney, Fr Bartholomew (Bat) Lynch, Fr James (Pat) Hannon, Thomas Slattery, Patricia Manvell, Ronald Slater, Ann McGinty, Eileen Vaughan, Mrs Elinor Watters, Vera Spelling, Marie Sanctuary, Dilwyn Morgan, David Aldridge, Ethel Knight, Kathleen Dawson, Mrs Pat Ballard, William Kerry, Leonard Coventry, Derek Timothy, Terence Slattery, Val Brown, Delia Fleming, Liliana Petrini, Timothy Murphy, Louise De Souza, Maurice Brazier, Agnes Nisbett, Yvonne Lovett, Martha Braun, Irene Rice, Ryszaard Burzynski & Vera Walls.
We Pray for our Sick
Kristy Monferrari, Fred Ring, Ian Irwin, Russell Short, Marie Karaf, Christine Reid, Gilberte Cook, Garry Pearman, Anne Owen, Adrian Barclay, Patricia Ann Darroch, Peggy Larman, Sylvia Langley, Patricia Vanner, Amy Louise Fox, Sarah Savage, Bill O’Connell, Janet Weale, Charlotte O’Neil, Ella Williams, David Kislingbury, Mark Shepherd, Eileen Bines, Breege McCaffrey, Mark Hartley, Austin Butler, John Lavery, Paul Keane, Rosemary Bragard, Pat Lynch, Maureen Gooding, Ben Wilson, Christian Ryan, Mike Rubbert, Tina Doveaston, Addi Brady, Patricia Fleming, Nicky Wigmore, Rose Craft, Nan Carrit, Eileen Wilson, Patricia Spikin, Sandra Fagan, Edna Wallace, Beryl Dixon, Nick Evans, Vicky Jack, Mary Boyce, Kristin Hallenga, Anne O’Neill, Cheryl Shallis, Anthony McEvoy, Justin Stark, Sheila Netherton, David Blyth, Janet Woods, Lynne Hilkene, June Moncaster, Laura & Anne Breen, Breda Lynch, Maria Clark, Roy Widdecombe, Johanna Lynch, Anthony King, Chas Taylor, Norma McCleverty, Belinda Balazsi, Johnnie Pool, Edward Martin, Joanna Luciani, Pauline Wilsher, Simon Marshall, Kriston Barnes, Hugh Isaacs, Josephine Griggs, Dawn Deleigh, Lorraine Hart, Linda Dean, Wyn McCafferty, Georgina Cornwell, Antonella McConalogue, Eddie McConalogue, Sharon Levill, Annie Holland, Ivor & Joanne Knight, Brian Beresford, Rebecca Peake, Connor Bourke, Mattia Mollica, Bernadette Lane, Irena Solecki, Ianto Bellis, Doreen Troughton, Marguerite Harris, Andrew Exley, Elizabeth McConalogue, Kean Smith, Keith Maliff & children: Thomas Ball, Liam Davis, Connie Price, Albert Chambers, Fergus Grant, Mary Isherwood, Lucy Price & Frazer Gregory.