Contactless Payments/Offerings
The contactless device is now permanently situated at the back of the church and may be used for Offertory and Second Collection offerings, Repository payments, candles, SVP and other stipends.
BIN A TIN FOR VIN
The St Vincent Centre is doing wonderful work in Southend helping the poorest amongst us.
You can help the food bank there by bringing a tin of something with you when you come to mass and putting it in VINNIE'S BIN, which will be in the OLD BAPTISTERY.
This will be emptied twice weekly.
St. Vincent de Paul Society(SVP), Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Joseph
Bereavement Support Group
If you are in need of individual or Group Counselling and support, please leave your name and contact details with the Parish Office. All enquiries received in strict confidence.
Missio Red Box Holders
I have received the Summer 2023 Missio Magazines. If you have not received one from me personally, please take one from the back of the Church on the ledge in the usual place. Thank you.
Joan Caunce, Secretary
01268 757505
Parish Fundraising
Thank you to everyone who supports the 200 Club. The results of the June draw are as follows:
1st Prize £150 108 Mr & Mrs M Mapson
2nd Prize £100 9 Mr S Pearson
3rd Prize £75 94 Mrs A Thompson
4th Prize £25 185 Mrs E Humpage
We are still looking for new members. The subscription is £5 per month, either by cash, cheque or direct debit. If you would like to join, please fill in a form which can be found at the back of the church or ring Linda Wall on 01702 558217.
First Holy Communion 2024
If your child is going into Year 3 or above and you wish for them to make their First Holy Communion, please submit the application by Friday 8th September 2023.
This should be done via the parish website, under Sacraments - Communion
(https://lourdesleigh.org/sacraments)
The first meeting for parents will be on Wednesday 13th September at 8pm in the Parish Centre.
The Knights of St Columbia National Relic Tour
We are delighted to announce that the Diocese of Brentwood will be graced with the presence of esteemed relics during the Knights of Saint Columba National Relic Tour 2023. From July 30th to August 12th, we welcome you to witness and venerate the sacred relics of St. Columba of Iona, St. Andrew the Apostle, and St. Margaret of Scotland.
These relics, rich in spiritual significance, offer a unique opportunity for personal reflection and communion with these revered saints. Join us in this profound spiritual journey as we celebrate their enduring legacies. Stay tuned for more details and event schedules. Let us come together in faith and embrace the blessings of this extraordinary experience! Please see the timetable below dates, times and places the Relics can be viewed throughout the Diocese.
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear friends in Christ
St Matthew’s Parable of The Sower is one of the best known of the stories told by Jesus.
Dear friends in Christ
St Matthew’s Parable of The Sower is one of the best known of the stories told by Jesus. God hopes we will be good soil that will receive His grace and bear fruit. The greater our generosity towards God, the better and more abundant will be the fruit we produce. The only thing that matters, comments St John, Chrysostom, is that we should not be a beaten-down thoroughfare, or rocky ground, or thorns, but that we should be good soil… Our hearts must not be the path from which the enemy, like the birds, snatches the seed, trodden on the foot by passers-by. Our hearts must not be the rocky ground where the shallowness of the soil causes the seed to germinate immediately, so that it is scorched by the sun. Our hearts must not be a thistle-bed of human passions, strangled by the care of this world. (Sermon 101,3)
Anyone, whatever our lives have been in the past, are able to become soil that is prepared to receive God's grace. Any soil could become rich land, although previously it may have been nothing but desert, because God's grace never fails us, and His care is greater than that of the most expert farmer. Once grace has been given, the results depend only on us, who are free to correspond or not. The ground is good, the sower is the same, and the seeds are the same in each case. Nevertheless, how is it that one gives a hundredfold, another sixtyfold and another thirtyfold? We can see that the difference depends on the person receiving it, for even when the soil is good, there is a great deal of difference between one patch of ground and another. You can see that neither the farmer, nor the seed is at fault, but the soil on which the sowing was done. This is not a result of nature, but of the disposition of the will. (St John Chrysostom, loc.cit)
We could daily examine our lives and ask ourselves if we correspond well with the graces God gives us. He has given us so much, and has a right to expect much back in return.
May God bless you all!
Msgr Kevin Hale
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Liturgy:
Readings of Year A
The Nicene Creed
Preface of Sunday 5
Sunday 16 July
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
5.30pm Vigil Mass Charles & Margaret Kelly, RIP (MS)
6.30-7.30pm: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confessions
8am Mass Roy Worsley, RIP (JC)
9.30am Mass The People of the Parish
11.30am Mass Ofelia Omaguin, RIP & Lucille Tannobale, RIP
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
Monday 17
Feria
9am Mass Intentions of Rena Scanlon (AB)
11.30am Funeral Mass Raymond Morton, RIP
Tuesday 18
Feria
9am Mass Intentions of Blake Mackay (SD)
4.30pm Body in Church Eileen Gurney, RIP
Wednesday 19
Feria
11.30am Requiem Mass Eileen Gurney, RIP
Thursday 20
St Apollinaris, Bp, M
9am Mass Intentions of Ewan Craig (AC)
Friday 21
St Lawrence of Brindisi, Pr, D
12 Noon Mass Denis O'Shea, RIP (F&JO’B)
Saturday 22 July
St Mary Magdalene
10am Mass Colin O'Brien, RIP (CO’B)
10.30-11.30am: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confessions
Sunday 23 July
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
5.30pm Vigil Mass Clare Chadwick, RIP (Anniv) (MI)
6.30-7.30pm: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confessions
8am Mass Intentions of Marie Rubbert (RO'C)
9.30am Mass Intentions of Carol Paine-80th birthday (AT)
11.30am Mass The People of the Parish
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
We Pray for the Dead on their Anniversaries
Canon Daniel Harnett, Fr Edmund Dobson, Fr Patrick Taylor, Deacon David Balmer, Fr James McEvoy, Margarita Ekers, Mary James, Andrew Wardle, Hope Bailey-Pillow, Madeleine Bullock-Jarman, Joan Slattery, Norah Jordan, Donald Joyce, Ellen Gardner, Joseph Ketterer, James Dawson, Andrew Regan, Mabel Buckley, Michael Regan, Bill Prior, Margaret May Orme, David Finnigan, Reginald Copley, Caroline Hardy, Kathleen Butt, Jane Bickmore, Charles Fletcher, Jane Mawdsley, Alice Collins, Aislinn Lane, Elsie Witty, Irene Huggett, Frank McEvoy, Pamela Johnson, Francis Howard Kenney, Geraldine Hayter, Joan Farmer, Winifred Martin & Marian Bukowski.
We Pray for our Sick
Tay Collicutt, Benjamin Dench, Eva Paviour, Gy Rampersaud, Mary O’Sullivan, Ian Spacie, Bobby Newman, Paul Watts, Christine Reid, Rose D’Souza, Jimmy & Pauline Martin, Ben Dench, James Fegan, Muriel Matthews, David Lesley, Kenneth Biebuyck, Zach Stokes, Andrew Stokes, Noel Conroy, Marjorie Jay, Paul Sutton, John Murphy, Jennifer Biebuyck, Moira Scott, Jill Yates, Leonora Maguire, Brian Mountier, Renata Butler, Margaret Bartle, Tony Downey, Kristy Monferrari, Fred Ring, Russell Short, Marie Kharas, Garry Pearman, Patricia Ann Darroch, Patricia Vanner, Amy Louise Fox, Sarah Savage, Bill O’Connell, Janet Weale, Charlotte O’Neil, Ella Williams, David Kislingbury, Mark Shepherd, Breege McCaffrey, Mark Hartley, John Lavery, Paul Keane, Rosemary Bragard, Pat Lynch, Ben Wilson, Christian Ryan, Tina Doveaston, Addi Brady, Patricia Fleming, Nicky Wigmore, Rose Craft, Patricia Spikin, Sandra Fagan, Edna Wallace, Beryl Dixon, Nick Evans, Vicky Jack, Mary Boyce, Kristin Hallenga, Anne O’Neill, Cheryl Shallis, 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, Norma McCleverty, Belinda Balazsi, Johnny Poole, Edward Martin, Joanna Luciani, Pauline Wilsher, Simon Marshall, Kriston Barnes, Hugh Isaacs, Dawn Deleigh, Lorraine Hart, Linda Dean, Georgina Cornwell, Antonella McConalogue, Sharon Levill, Annie Holland, Ivor & Joanne Knight, Brian Beresford, Rebecca Peake, Connor Bourke, Mattia Mollica, Bernadette Lane, Irena Solecki, Ianto Bellis, Marguerite Harris, Andrew Exley, Elizabeth McConalogue, Kean Smith, Keith Maliff, Bradley, Florence Hownam & children: Thomas Ball, Liam Davis, Connie Price, Albert Chambers, Fergus Grant, Mary Isherwood, Lucy Price, Frazer Gregory & baby Forest Gallagher.
We Pray for the Repose of the Souls of
RAYMOND MORTON RIP who died on Sunday, 11th June. His funeral will be held on Monday 17th July at 11.30am, followed by 12.45pm burial at Sutton Road Cemetery.
EILEEN GURNEY RIP who died on Friday, 16th June. Her body will be received into the Church on Tuesday, 18th July at 4.30pm and her Requiem Mass will be held on Wednesday, 19th July at 11.30am followed by committal at Basildon Crematorium.
JIMMY McCRIMMON RIP who died on Wednesday, 14th June. His funeral will be held on Wednesday, 2nd August at 11am, followed by committal at Southend Crematorium.
CHRISTIANE DUVAL, RIP who died on Friday, 30th June.
Requiescant in pace
Sanctuary Lamp
This week the Sanctuary Lamp burns for the intentions of Kate Hardwick, RIP.
Responsorial Psalm at 11.30am Mass
Prelude: Cornet Voluntary—Henry Heron (18th century)
Postlude: Voluntary in C—Peter Prelleur (1705-1741)
Responsorial Psalm
Flower & Arts Festival 2023
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in making the Flower & Arts Festival on Saturday such a success.
The church was open from 11.00 am to 4.30pm and we had a constant stream of people visiting and spending time looking at the displays and finding out more about us. These are some comments written by visitors.
“So peaceful and lifts the heart and soul…”
“I went for a walk and found you God with these beautiful flowers…Thank you so much…”
“Thank you, really beautiful. May peace be with all.”
A special thank you to Jan for organising all the refreshments and to all the wonderful bakers who made and donated all the cakes for the event.
Also to all those brave souls who embroidered, knitted, painted and crafted as well as all the wonderful flower arrangers. Events like this can only happen with your support.
I would also like to thank the members of the Serving the Homeless Committee who helped to meet and greet at the doors of the church, and Damon from HARP who organised the HARP exhibit.
Anna Firth M.P. also visited
Just over £430 in cash donations to Serving the Homeless were made on the day.
Thank you again. Jo Ronan
Reading at weekend Mass - Volunteers welcome
Readers participating in the Liturgy of the Word play an essential role in the Mass, and the parish is looking for more volunteers to read. Pre-Covid there were usually two readers per weekend Mass and we would like to get back to that arrangement again if possible. It would also be wonderful if we could have readers from all age groups - including our young people.
On average people read about once every 4-5 weeks, and the rota is flexible to fit in with holiday and other commitments. You don't have to have read before and training can be provided. If you want to experience what reading would be like before deciding whether to read regularly, a one-off reading opportunity can be arranged too.
So if you would like to find out more and give reading a try, please go to the volunteering page on the website and send us your details Volunteer (lourdesleigh.org) and Jackie Sullens will be in touch. Thank you.
OLL Ladies Group
Would ladies please note we will not be holding our usual Meeting next week, 20th July.
On Thursday 20th July, instead of our usual Meeting, we will be having an “end of year” luncheon party. Entrance is by Ticket only with doors open 12.30pm for 1pm. We will be enjoying a Buffet lunch accompanied by beautiful music from two Professional musicians…Lucy (Violin) and Becky (Cello ). We look forward to enjoying glass of Prosecco on arrival, and in addition ladies are invited to bring their own favourite tipple (fruit juice is also available). We are also hoping to have a great Raffle with some special prizes and round off this special occasion with tea or coffee.
We are sorry to disappoint anyone who does not have a ticket as we are completely sold out. We wish everyone a very happy summer and look forward to meeting all our members, old and new, in September. Watch this space!!
Repository
As usual the Repository is open this weekend, and we will then close for the Summer from 22nd July and re-open in early September with a selection of new stock, gifts and cards.
Site Manager - Cathedral House
The successful applicant will identify and carry out effectively, routine and reactive maintenance tasks, regular health and safety checks and other general duties associated with the management of buildings and grounds comprising the Cathedral House and the Brentwood Parish.
Hours: 35 hours per week
Salary: £23,000 - £27,000 p/a depending on experience
Start Date: ASAP
Apply by sending a CV and covering letter (no longer than A4) recruitment@brcdt.org
Closing date for applications is 14th August 2023