RCIA - RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS
Webmaster • December 29, 2025
We have our final meeting, next Friday at 5.00pm, for those preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday 4th January.
During the month of November, we pray for everyone who has lived in this world and during that brief time, has tried to follow the Lord’s will and plan for them. We call them the ‘Holy Souls.’ Following their deaths, they are now travelling home to Heaven, while undergoing a process of the purification of their Souls. We believe that the holy Mass, celebrated for the deceased person, connects them closely to the Lord and his saving love and speeds their purification and journey to Heaven. Please find in the porch of the church, envelopes for holy Masses to be celebrated in November, for people you have known or have known about. Please complete the details on the envelope, adding your stipend, and please post the envelopes through the door of the presbytery. One day, please God, following our deaths, there will be people praying for us.
The holy Season of Advent is only a few weeks from now. Many shops are already selling Advent Calendars that have nothing whatsoever to do with Advent! Dear Parents and Families, please give your children a real Advent Calendar which they can use right up to Christmas and the celebration of Our Lord’s birth. There is a good on-line Company that produces a range of real and beautiful Advent Calendars. Please see: Eden.co.uk Please find some real Advent Calendars for sale, in our Repository, in the porch of the church. You will also find a sample copy of a ‘Walk with me’ AdventCalendar for children (35p) and a ‘Walk with me’ Advent booklet for Adults (99p). These can be ordered from ‘Alive Publishing’ at: general@alivepublishing.co.uk
As in previous years, we will place our Book of the Deceased, on a table, at the front of the side chapel of the church during this month of November. If any of your family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, in fact anybody you might have in mind, has died in the last 12 months, please write their names in the Book, on the date of their deaths. Our Book of the Deceased will be placed on the altar, during every holy Mass throughout the month of November so that they will be remembered and will be in our prayers, at every holy Mass.
To keep the House of God clean and tidy is a prayer in itself. Please come next Saturday morning at 9.30 and give 30 minutes to looking after our church where the Lord dwells among us. Thanks be to God we have a church building to which we come to celebrate holy Mass. Let’s not take that for granted. Please help to look after it. All equipment for cleaning and dusting and tidying provided. Thank you.
Please note that our Evangelisation Cafe opens on Tuesdays immediately AFTER holy Mass, at about 10.15am so that our Hosts may be able to celebrate holy Mass before opening the Café. The Café will then be open until about 12.00midday. The Café is also open on Sundays immediately AFTER our final Sunday holy Masses until about 1.00pm The Olde Forge Evangelisation Café can only open thanks to the great generosity of our wonderful Hosts and Bakers/Providers. Thank you so much to them. If you are not yet an active member of our Parish Faith community, please offer your help as a Host or Baker/Provider. Presently it would mean that your help is needed only about once every month. The more Hosts we have the less often your good help is required. We will be very pleased to show you how the Coffee machine works and you will soon be able to be one of our very own ‘Baristas’!
Thank you so much to all for your excellent work in the Evangelisation Café e. Please everyone, let’s double our efforts to fulfil what the Lord asks of each of us, by being involved in God’s work of bringing others to know the Lord Jesus in his Church. We can do this really well by inviting and accompanying members of our families, our friends and neighbours to our Evangelisation Cafe.
On Sunday 7th February 2027, Bishop Gerard will be joining us for our 10.30am holy Mass. During that holy Mass, Bishop Gerard will celebrate the great Sacrament of Confirmation for us. Please would anyone who has not yet received the Sacrament of Confirmation in her or his life, speak with me. This is a great opportunity to receive the gifts of God’s Holy Spirit in this Sacrament. The Holy Spirit comes upon us to give us gifts, like Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Self-Control, Perseverance, Wisdom, Generosity, Humility and Courage and many more. These are the gifts that we all need to live real, adult, mature lives of Faith in this world. We will shortly begin a series of meetings to help those who will be preparing to receive this Sacrament. Please let know in the next few weeks if you would like to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday 7th February next year, when Bishop Gerard visits us.
The re-arranged date and time for the first meeting will be Friday 20th November at 5.00pm in the Parish Room.
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to pop into the Olde Forge Cafe, last Sunday morning, after holy Mass, to support this Evangelisation event in our parish. Last week, I received the following letter from a lady who travelled all the way from Kent to be with us: Dear Monsignor Malachy Thank you so much for inviting me yesterday to the Blessing of Pets service, which was really lovely. I attended with Riley. Also, your Parishioners were all very welcoming and very friendly. That’s an amazing little cafe connected to the church. Thank you so much for an amazing event. I may be back next year. Kind regards Cathy
