The Third Order Secular of the Leigh-on-Sea Carmelite Order
Are you interested in finding out more about us? If so, why not come along to an informal gathering, have a talk to one of our group, pick up a leaflet and have a cup of tea.
One lady has joined after contacting Aylesford Priory. She had no idea there was a group meeting once a month at Our Lady of Lourdes.
We are meeting on Saturday, 26th October from 3pm to 4pm in the Parish Centre. All welcome—or contact Julie on 01702 330096.
20th October is World Mission Sunday
The Holy Father invites all Catholics to support his charity for World Missions through a special collection. To donate use the Mission envelopes (at the back of the Church) and please take a Missio Prayer card. The ways to donate are on the envelope. See also the poster at the back of the Church.
Thank you Joan Caunce Secretary 01268 757505
St Thomas More High School Open Days
Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th October by appointment. Telephone 01702 344933 or email office@st-thomasmore.southend.sch.uk.
For parents who have a son due to transfer to secondary school in September 2025—come and see the school during a normal school day, meet the staff and pupils.
Parents of boys who wish to apply to St thomas More School for a place in September 2025 should complete the Local Education Authority single application form (SAF) and fill in the supplementary information form (SIF) that can be collected from the school or downloaded from the website.
St Vincent's Centre, Southend
As we approach the colder months, St Vincent Centre Southend is working to provide much-needed winter clothing for vulnerable men and women in our community. We are reaching out to ask for your assistance in donating warm clothing items, such as coats, hats, scarves, gloves, and other essentials, to help those who are struggling through this difficult season.
St Vincent’s are accepting donations of gently used or new winter clothing at our centre: Unit 9, Victoria Business Park, Short Street, Southend , SS2 5BY
If you are able to assist, please feel free to contact me at 07549128877 or via email at nesperm@svp.org.uk.
Volunteer Drivers
As we approach the colder months, St Vincent Centre Southend is urgently seeking driver volunteers to help us continue providing vital services to those in need. This winter, we are asking you to be the "Door of Hope" for vulnerable individuals and families in our community.
How You Can Help: Food Pickup & Delivery, Furniture Pickup & Delivery, Event Support and More.
If you or anyone in your community can spare an hour a week, you can make a real difference. Your assistance will enable us to keep our doors open to those in crisis, offering them not only essential goods but also the warmth and kindness they so desperately need.
Together, we can be the hands and feet of compassion this winter. Thank you for considering this opportunity to help. We are deeply grateful for any time you can offer.
For more information or to volunteer, please contact us at lilyd@svp.org.uk
Catholic and aged between 18—30?
Join a group for faithful young adults for faith based discussions. Presentations on relevant theological or ethical issues, evening prayer, exposition and benediction.
If you are interested then contact Max on 07783506474 for more information or to confirm your place. Food and drink will be provided.
The first session: Monday 28th October at 18:30pm in Sacred Heart Church Hall (SS1 2QB) featuring a presentation by Fr. Graham Smith titled: Gender Ideology: A Catholic Perspective.
Repository
We are open after Masses every weekend with some new stock including Statues and Rosaries. We have a good selection of cards for various occasions, plus a few books for children.
You are welcome to come and browse and if you do not see what you are looking for please ask one of the Volunteers. NB. The Repository is open at weekends only.
Upcoming Baby Loss Support Service - Essex
Saying Goodbye, (part of the Mariposa Trust) are coming to Chelmsford in October with a very special Baby loss remembrance and support service (part of a UK and Ireland chain of events). The Mariposa Trust’s core objective is to support people who have lost babies at any stage of pregnancy, at birth, or in infancy. It was founded in 2012, by Zoe and Andy Clark-Coates, who saw a critical lack of support for people like them, who had gone through baby loss. With over 258,000 babies being lost yearly in the UK alone, the charity needed to be able to offer not only a comprehensive package of befriending and support but also national baby loss remembrance services (called Saying Goodbye Services), for people to join together and remember the children they had lost. 12 years on, over 200 services have taken place at Cathedrals and Minsters across the UK, US, and France, and 2024 will see 25 services across England, Wales, Ireland, France and the US.
On the 13th October at 6pm, in Chelmsford Cathedral, we will be hosting one of our Saying Goodbye Services and as this is the most local service to you this year we wanted to share this information with you.
So who is the service for?
Anyone who has either personally lost a baby at any stage of pregnancy, at birth, or in early years, or who has been affected by family members' or friends' loss. Whether the loss was recent or 80 years ago, everyone is welcome to attend. We have also extended the services, and gladly welcome anyone who is grieving the fact that they haven't had children. This may be due to circumstance, infertility, or for other reasons - but all are welcome. Babies and children are also invited to come with their families, as the Saying Goodbye service is truly a family event for all.
We know that as 1 in 4 women suffer miscarriage and baby loss, you will have contact with a significant number of people who have either personally suffered baby loss, or who have a partner or family member that has, so we wanted to ask if you would help us in promoting the service.
To read more on the charity, please see the Saying Goodbye website, which you can find at: www.sayinggoodbye.org
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear friends in Christ
Jesus was teaching in Judaea on the banks of the Jordan to a great multitude.
Dear friends in Christ
Jesus was teaching in Judaea on the banks of the Jordan to a great multitude. They were listening closely to his every word. Then they asked Jesus to pass judgment on the Mosaic Law. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Moses had permitted divorce because of the hardness of heart of the chosen people. The condition of woman was at that time ignominious. She could be put aside by her husband for virtually any reason. Moses required that the husband give the wife a bill of divorce so that she might be free to marry again. The Prophets spoke out against divorce when they came to the Promised Land.
Jesus takes this opportunity to affirm the indissolubility of marriage, as God originally intended at Creation. He quotes the words of Genesis which we find in today's First Reading. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder. The Lord declares that the unity and indissolubility of marriage had been established from the beginning. This teaching was so surprising to the disciples that once they had left the crowd they asked Jesus to explain it again. And he said to them: Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. It would be hard to express the matter more clearly. His words were of an unmistakable clarity.
Pope Saint John Paul II in his monumental Letter on Family and Marriage of 1981 wrote: It is a fundamental duty of the Church to reaffirm strongly ... the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage. To all those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and to those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm the good news of the definitive nature of that conjugal love that has in Christ the foundation and strength (Eph 5:25). Being rooted in the personal and total self-giving of the couple, and being required by the good of the children, the indissolubility of marriage finds its ultimate truth in the plan that God has manifested in his revelation: He wills and He communicates the indissolubility of marriage as a fruit, a sign and a requirement of the absolutely faithful love that God has for man and that the Lord Jesus has for the Church. This bond can be broken only by death. It is an image of the bond between Christ and his Church, His Mystical Body.
Marriage, and the resulting family, is the school where the virtues are taught to us. Let us remember to pray often for our families; for those preparing for Marriage; for those struggling with their vocation, that together we can live and build-up the Body of Christ on earth.
In this month of the Holy Rosary, perhaps many of us can rediscover the simplicity of this prayer which binds us together as families and individuals. Pope Francis has asked that this Monday—feast of the Holy Rosary—be observed by Catholics as a day of prayer and fasting for peace, especially in the Middle East, at this time.
May Jesus Christ bless you and Mary intercede for us!
Msgr Kevin Hale
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Liturgy:
Readings of Year B
The Nicene Creed
Preface of Sunday 2
Saturday 5
St Faustina Kowalska
5.30pm Vigil Ciaran Fitzgerald, RIP (MT)
6.30-7.30pm: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confession
Sunday 6 October
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
8am Mass The People of the Parish
9.30am Mass Muriel Matthews, RIP (Anniv) (RK)
11.30am Mass Amy Fox, RIP (LL)
4pm Mass Michael Mapson, RIP (CB)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
Monday 7
Our Lady of the Rosary
9am Mass Elaine & Siobhan Galvin, RIP (F&JO’B)
Tuesday 8
St Osyth, Rel
9am Mass Michael Mapson, RIP (K&LW)
Wednesday 9
St John Henry Newman, Pr
10am Requiem Mass Amy Fox
Thursday 10
St Denis, Bp and his Comps, Mn
9am Mass Intentions of Jacob & Chloe Mosbey (ES)
Friday 11
Pope Saint John XXIII, P
12Noon Mass Ian Spacie, RIP (VS)
Saturday 12
Ss Ethelburga, Hildelithe and Cuthburga, Rel
10am Mass Moss & Frances Galvin, RIP (F&JO’B)
10.30-11.30am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confession
5.30pm Vigil Thomas Patrick Costello, RIP (Anniv) (KC)
6.30-7.30pm: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confession
Sunday 13 October
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
8am Mass Stephen Hymas, RIP (Anniv) (GM)
9.30am Mass The People of the Parish
11.30am Mass Intentions of Bridget Scholastica Helen D'Cruz (AJ)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
We Pray for the Dead on their Anniversaries
Canon Edward Heery, Fr Harold Cahill, Fr Alfred clements, Pope Pus XII, Fr John Dempsey, Fr Patrick Malin, James Wood, Sheelagh Sheridan, Adele Petronius, Ethel Shepherd, Jean Buck, Muriel Matthews, Alan Adamson, Kathleen Lionet, Walter wood, Daphne Sounes, Dympna Addecott, James Roberton, Joyce Mary Pycroft, Henry Hart, Thomas Gunnel, Ronald Ballard, Mary Chin Eng Sawyer, Julia Shields, Amelia Eaglesfield, Mary J Clark, Moira O’Riordan, Francis Gurney, Charles Cutter, Arthur Hooper, Chloe Watts, Valerie Martin, Thomas Patrick Costello, Joan Lucey, Eric Phillips, Irene Earl, Stanley Greaves & Teresa Morton.
We pray for our sick
The Sick List is available on the website main menu, under Worship.
We pray for the sick of our parish
“Father,
by the power of your Spirit
you have filled the hearts of your faithful people
with gifts of love for one another.
Hear the prayers we offer for our relatives and friends.
Give them health of mind and body
that they may do your will with perfect love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.”
Sanctuary Lamp
This week the Sanctuary Lamp burns for Immaculate, for her person and her intention, and for her to get a job soon.
Please pray for the repose of the souls of
AMY FOX, RIP who died on Tuesday, 3rd September. Her Requiem Mass will take place at 10am on Wednesday, 9th October followed by committal at Sutton Road Cemetery.
MICHAEL MAPSON, RIP who died on Tuesday, 10th September. His Memorial Mass will take place on Friday 15th November 9.30am.
Requiescant in pace
Music at 11.30am Mass
Prelude: Fantasia on "Adore Te Devote"—Alexandre Boely (1785-1858)
Postlude: Fantasia in G Minor—Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Responsorial Psalm
Dates for your Diary
Monday, 7th October—Journey in Faith (RCIA) 8pm Parish Centre
Thursday 14th November—Annual Requiem Mass 7pm
Friday 22nd November—Sung Latin Requiem Mass 7pm
Thursday 28th-Saturday 30th November—Forty Hours’ Prayer
Friday 20th December—Sea of Voices Carol Service 7pm
Saturday 15th—Friday 21st March 2025—Parish Mission led by the Redemptorists
Saturdays 10th & 17th May 10.30am—First Holy Communion Masses
Sunday 1st June 2025—Visitation & Confirmation
Sunday 22nd June—Corpus Christi Procession 4pm
Monday 21st—Friday 25th July—Lourdes Pilgrimage
Daughters of Divine Love
The Sisters of the Daughters of Divine Love received £1658.70 for their Mission Appeal last weekend. Much gratitude to all those who donated!
Certificates of Catholic Practice
These Certificates can be collected from the Parish Office 09.00-13.00 each Thursday and Friday over the coming weeks.
JOURNEY OF FAITH—RCIA
This continues on Monday, 7th October and is specifically for those who are not Catholics but who are enquiring with a view to finding out more about the Catholic Faith and Reception into the Church. These evenings begin at 8pm, are held in the Newman Room of the Parish Centre (the door is beside the Memorial Garden) and usually last just over an hour. Names may be given in advance to Fr Kevin or the Parish Office.
Lourdes Ladies Group
Our next Meeting in the Parish Centre is on Thursday 10th October from 10am. All ladies in the Parish are welcome with subs of just £1 per session which includes refreshments.
Next week we look forward to giving a big welcome to Jo Ronan who will be presenting Part 2 of her work/ adventures in Zimbabwe as a young Teacher. If any ladies (or men) in the Parish have a story to tell please let us know as Guest Speakers are always welcome!
Finally please don’t forget our popular fun Raffle as contributions always welcome.