The Presbytery 1 St Joseph’s Street Matlock Derbyshire DE4 3NG  01629 582804 FAX 01629 582804 Parish Priest: Fr. Bernard Needham Parish Deacon: Rev. Richard Walsh Parish Sister: Sr. Frederica Britto www.matlockcatholicchurch.org.uk [email protected] st 21 March 2015 th 28 March 2015 Fifth Sunday of Lent Palm Sunday Year B Year B MASS TIMES AND INTENTIONS st Week: 21 March 2015 Saturday 6.00 pm (Vigil) Sunday 8.30 am 10.30 am Monday 9.30 am Tuesday 9.30 am Wednesday 9.30 am Thursday 9.30 am Friday 7.00 pm Maureen Fraughan Donor’s Intention All the People of our Parish Morning Prayer & Holy Communion Morning Prayer & Holy Communion Morning Prayer & Holy Communion Declan Larkin RIP Maureen Feeley RIP MASS TIMES AND INTENTIONS th Week: 28 March 2015 Saturday 6.00 pm (Vigil) Sunday 8.30 am 10.30 am Monday 9.30 am Tuesday 9.30am Wednesday 11.30 am Maundy Thursday 8.000 pm Good Friday 3.00 pm Pauline Robinson RIP All the People of our Parish Barbara Smith RIP Holy Souls Padraic O’Dea RIP Mass of Chrism: Cathedral Mass of the Lord’s Supper Watching until 10.30pm 12 Noon: Ecumenical Service of Witness 3.00pm: Good Friday Liturgy 7.00pm: Stations of the Cross th SCRIPTURE READINGS 5 Sunday of Lent. Jeremiah 31.31-34 Hebrews 5. 7- 9 John 12. 20-30 Palm Sunday. Isaiah 50.4 - 7 Philippians 2. 6 -11 Mark. 14 1-15.47 SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION Friday: 6.30 - 6.55 pm READERS Week Commencing 21 March Week Commencing 28 March Saturday 6.00 pm Sunday 8.30 am 10.30 am L. Philpott. M. Rhodes M. Goddard. S. Bradshaw F. Kornas C. Johnson C. Wroe D. Johnson F. Kornas TELLERS Parish Team Alan & Eileen Johnson CHURCH CLEANERS Sheila Sheppard & Pat Gallon David & Doreen Johnson COLLECTIONS 8 March 2015 £546.30 Saturday: 10.30 - 11.00 am, and on request st th th th M. Rhodes K. McCluskey A. Roe 15 March 2015 £678.00 Easter Flower Collection Reconciliation Lent is a time when we particularly hear the call “Repent” and be reconciled with God”. The Lord in his goodness has given us a special way in which we can celebrate this reconciliation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There will be a Parish Service on Thursday March 26th at 7.00pm. Three priests will be available to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Blessing of oils Please note there is no Mass on Wednesday 1st April. Fr Bernard will be joining all the priests of the Diocese in celebrating the Mass for the blessing of the oils in the Cathedral. Services in Holy Week Maundy Thursday 2nd April 8.00pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper Watching until 10.30pm Good Friday 3rd April 3.00pm Liturgy of Good Friday 7.00pm Stations of the Cross Good Friday is a day of Fasting & abstinence. Holy Saturday 4th April 8.00pm Easter Vigil Mass Easter Sunday 5th April 8.30am Easter Day Mass 10.30am Easter Day Mass Ecumenical Service of Witness This year the Ecumenical Service is organised by ‘Churches Together in Matlock’, and will be held at the Park Head, Hall Leys Park on Good Friday at 12 noon. There will be a retiring collection on the weekend of 28th/30th for those who wish to donate to provide Easter Flowers Holy Places in Palestine There will be a diocesan collection on Good Friday for the upkeep of the Holy Places in Palestine. Maybe at this time more than ever our fellow Christians need our help. The mere fact that there are fewer pilgrims/tourists means their access to funds in severely restricted. Please Note Due to a change in security, our bank will not accept cheques made out to St. Joseph’s or Our Lady & St Joseph’s. Cheques must be made out to the Parish Account which is :Matlock & Wirksworth RCP. First Holy Communion Children The following children made their First Confession on Saturday 7th March. Please pray for Molly Seeney, Isabella Gould, Henry Elliott, Lucas Barker and Ashleigh Hunt. They are now preparing for their First Holy Communion and you are invited to pick a name from the basket at the back of Church and pray for them and their families. Celebrating St Teresa of Avila A time for silent prayer and reflection for Lent with St Teresa of Avila and the Carmelite Saints. Saturday 28th March at St Bernard’s Abbey. For more information please see the poster on the notice board at the back of church. Vacancies St George’s Catholic Voluntary Academy, Littleover, Derby are looking for a Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 class teacher for September 2015 (NQT/MPS/UPS). Please apply via https://jobs.derby.gov.uk/ or ring the school on 01332 766815. Closing date: Thursday 26th March. St John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy, Derby are looking to appoint a full-time Key Stage 2 Teacher from Sept 2015. For more information and an application pack please call the school office and speak to Mrs Harlow 01332 572154 or email [email protected] The Governors of The Good Shepherd Easter Cards There area limited number of Easter Cards for sale at 50p each and they will be in the hall. Primary Catholic Voluntary Academy, Nottingham are seeking to appoint a Deputy Headteacher. Please contact the school office (tel: 0115 926 2983) or email [email protected] for further details and to receive an application pack. Closing date 20th March 2015 If a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it yields a rich harvest. As the first fruits of our renewed humanity, Christ escaped the curse of the law precisely by becoming accursed for our sake. He overcame the forces of corruption by himself becoming once more “free among the dead.” He trampled death under foot and came to life again, and then he ascended to the Father as an offering, the firs tfruits, as it were, of the human race. “He ascended,” as Scripture says, “not to a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the real one, but into heaven itself to appear in God’s presence on our behalf.” He is the life-giving bread that came down from heaven, and by offering himself to God the Father as a fragrant sacrifice for our sake, he also delivers us from our sins and frees us from the faults that we commit through ignorance. We can understand this best if we think of him as symbolized by the calf that used to be slain as a holocaust and by the goat that was sacrificed for our sins committed through ignorance. For our sake, to blot out the sins of the world, he laid down his life. Recognized then in bread as life and the giver of life, in the calf as a holocaust offered by himself to God the Father as an appeasing fragrance, in the goat as one who became sin for our sake and was slain for our transgressions, Christ is also symbolized in another way by a sheaf of grain, as a brief explanation will show. The human race may be compared to spikes of wheat in a field, rising, as it were, from the earth, awaiting their full growth and development, and then in time being cut down by the reaper, which is death. The comparison is apt, since Christ himself spoke of our race in this way when he said to his holy disciples: “Do you not say, 'Four months and it will be harvest time?' Look at the fields I tell you, they are already white and ready for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving his wages and bringing in a crop for eternal life.” Now Christ became like one of us; he sprang from the holy Virgin like a spike of wheat from the ground. Indeed, he spoke of himself as a grain of wheat when he said: “I tell you truly, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains as it was, a single grain; but if it dies its yield is very great.” And so, like a sheaf of grain, the first fruits, as it were, of the earth, he offered himself to the Father for our sake. For we do not think of a spike of wheat, any more than we do of ourselves, in isolation. We think of it rather as part of a sheaf, which is a single bundle made up of many spikes. The spikes have to be gathered into a bundle before they can be used, and this is the key to the mystery they represent, the mystery of Christ who, though one, appears in the image of a sheaf to be made up of many, as in fact he is. Spiritually, he contains in himself all believers. “As we have been raised up with him,” writes Saint Paul, “so we have also been enthroned with him in heaven.” He is a human being like ourselves, and this has made us one body with him, the body being the bond that unites us. We can say, therefore, that in him we are all one, and indeed he himself says to God, his heavenly Father: “It is my desire that as land you are one, so they also may be one in us.” Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. When Jesus entered Jerusalem like a triumphant conqueror, many were astonished at the majesty of his bearing; but when a short while afterward he entered upon his passion, his appearance was ignoble, an object of derision. If today’s procession and passion are considered together, in the one Jesus appears as sublime and glorious, in the other as lowly and suffering. The procession makes us think of the honour reserved for a king, whereas the passion shows us the punishment due to a thief. In the one Jesus is surrounded by glory and homer, in the other “he has neither dignity nor beauty.” In the one he is the joy of all and the glory of the people, in the other “the butt of men and the laughing stock of the people.” In the one he receives the acclamation: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes as the king of Israel”; in the other there are shouts that he is guilty of death and he is reviled for having set himself up as king of Israel. In the procession the people meet Jesus with palm branches, in the passion they slap him in the face and strike his head with a rod. In the one they extol him with praises, in the other they heap insults upon him. In the one they compete to lay their clothes in his path, in the other he is stripped of his own clothes. In the one he is welcomed to Jerusalem as a just king and saviour, in the other he is thrown out of the city as a criminal, condemned as an impostor. In the one he is mounted on an ass and accorded every mark of honour; in the other he hangs on the wood of the cross, torn by whips, pierced with wounds, and abandoned by his own. If, then, we want to follow our leader without stumbling through prosperity and through adversity, let us keep our eyes upon him, honoured in the procession, undergoing ignominy and suffering in the passion, yet unshakably steadfast in all such changes of fortune. Lord Jesus, you are the joy and salvation of the whole world; whether we see you seated on an ass or hanging on the cross, let each one of us bless and praise you, so that when we see you reigning on high we may praise you forever and ever, for to you belong praise and honour throughout all ages. Amen. Guerric of Igny (c. 1070/80-1157) God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.