NOVENA PRAYER FOR THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON US

Our Olde Forge Cafe has been up and running for some time now. There have been very wonderful signs, during these past months, that the Lord has been working through our efforts in the Cafe, to bring his love and truth to others who don’t yet know him well. Thank you so much especially to everyone who ministers as a Host or Baker. Thank you to everyone who has invited friends, family members, neighbours, colleagues to join them for refreshments in the Cafe. Of course we are delighted to offer our guests free drinks and cakes, while we ourselves offer a donation to cover costs. If you haven’t yet come into the Cafe or if you haven’t yet brought a guest with you, please may I urge you in the name of the Lord and at the request of our Archbishop, to please do so. Every one of us is called by the Lord to bring others to know him. If you do or even if you don’t think our Cafe is the best way to do this as a parish Faith community, nonetheless please take a full and active part in this initiative. In that way we really are trying to fulfil what our dear Lord Jesus is asking of us.

September Tue 2nd: Lisa Wed 3rd : Patricia Fri 5th: Marion

Please do your best to bring members of your family, your friends, neighbours and colleagues who normally have little, if any contact with our Catholic parish, to the Olde Forge Cafe. Please remember that those you bring with you DO NOT give a donation for their coffee and cake. Only us, who are regular members of our parish, are asked to give a donation, each time, to cover the cost of the Coffee machine, coffee beans, heat, light etc. Dear Bakers and those who provide milk, please remember to take your expenses from the donations received.

It is wise to write a Will so that the resources you have when the time comes for you to leave this world, goes to the people and organisations you wish. May I suggest that you might consider leaving a Bequest in your will to our parish or to our diocese or to our priest as well as to other causes. A gift in your will can enable us to continue to help people to know the Lord Jesus and his saving love. What a wonderful legacy you would be leaving behind.

Forgive me for raising the issue of parish finances, but I need to alert you to how we must finance our parish and manage our financial resources, if we are to continue as a viable parish. We pay a monthly levy to the diocese of £1,110.59. We also pay a monthly Health and Safety levy of £118.43. Monthly charges for electricity are around £200.00 These are just a few basic monthly costs. Our general monthly expenditure is well in excess of these amounts. Our weekly Collection is presently around £450.00. As you will appreciate then, our present weekly income is not covering our normal weekly expenses. Please may I suggest that every adult member of our parish give a minimum of £15, each week, in our Collection. If you are in personal financial hardship, please just disregard this suggestion. If you are in a reasonable or good financial position, please give more than this suggestion. We live in a relatively affluent area, so our finances should be secure. In addition to a Current Account, we also have a Savings/Loan account. I am reluctant to take anything from that account to pay our normal bills. The Savings/Loan account is there in case we face any unforeseen, sudden, emergency call on our finances or for any special projects we might have. That said, we are about to incur a debt of almost £8,000 to replace our very poor church Sound System with a much-needed new system. We will have to take that cost from our Savings/Loan account.

6/7 : 5pm Jim; 9am Carolyn; 11am Lorenza, Patricia, Lisa(H) 13/14 : 5pm John; 9am Gabrielle; 11am Maggie, Ross, Giannina(H) 20/21 : 5pm Lesley; 9am Regina; 11am David, Marian, Linda(H) 27/28 : 5pm Patrick; 9am Lizzie; 11am Angela, Phil, Paul(H) 

The role of proclaiming the Word of God, in the celebration of holy Mass, is a sacred function. In words taken from the Bible, Almighty God is made present among us. Therefore proclaiming God’s Word to people gathered for holy Mass, must be done with the utmost care, meaning, skill and love. It is not simply reading a text. To proclaim God’s Word in the best way possible, our Lectors prepare the text they will proclaim some time in advance. This preparation consists of taking time to meditate on the text, finding out its meaning and how that meaning applies to our lives. Jim Keating and I will be only too pleased to help our Lectors with their preparation. Please arrange with Jim or myself an opportunity to reflect upon the Reading, a few days before you are due to proclaim it.  If anyone would consider becoming a Lector in our parish, please let me know. We can offer you some on-going understanding of the meaning of the Scriptures and some training in how to deliver the text with skill and love. You can then become a very valued member of our group of Lectors. Thank you.

I’m hoping that on Thursday this week, a team of engineers will be installing a new Sound System in our church to replace the rather old, tired system that hasn’t worked well for some time.

Thank you to everybody who has already shared their financial resources. We will keep our Appeal open until Wednesday this week. Please put any contribution you wish to make into an envelope and drop it into the presbytery before Wednesday. There may still be a few ‘Cafod’ Gift-Aid envelopes in the porch of the church which you might like to use. If you use these envelopes, Cafod can also claim a Gift-Aid contribution.