Our Lady of Lourdes & St Joseph December – 4 January 20152014 +Fourth Sunday of Advent – Epiphany + Year B+ 14th Mass Schedule Our Lady of Lourdes Sat - Vigil Mass for 5.30pm Mary O’Donnell Sunday IV Sunday of Advent 11am Jim Marsh (LD) Mon Tue - Wed CHRISTMAS EVE St Joseph 7pm Dorothy Lowe (A) 9.30am Peggy Lennon (A) 3.30pm Evening Prayer and Benediction 10am John and Martin Foulds (A) 10am Nora Burns 12.15pm Funeral Service for Tom Whalan 10am Pat Stannard 6pm Anthony Clayton, Christopher Taylor 9.30am Parishioners 10pm John Watson Thurs CHRISTMAS DAY 11am Yvonne Lenham Fri St Stephen Sat 5.30pm Peter Stoneman Vigil Mass for Sunday b’day remembrance Sunday Holy Family 11am Int of T and A Ford Mon St Thomas of 10am Private Intention (JC) 7pm John Cunningham 9.30am Babies before birth 10am Mrs O’Brien LD Canterbury Tue 10am Edith Hartley (A) Wed Thurs New Year’s Day 10am John and Gladys Mary Mother of God Hawkins (A) Fri SS Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen Vigil Mass for Sunday Epiphany 5.30pm Jack and May Pemberton (A) 11am Parishioners 10am Special Intention 10am Ann and Ian Sunter 40th Wedding anniversary 7pm Int of Lyn Evans 9.30am Thomas (Tobias) Kennan We pray for the sick Mary Teresa Millington, Peter des Landes, Mia King, Louise Booth, Patricia Cosgrove, Renee Sproat, Vera Robinson, Hilda Stoker, Andrew McFayden, Phil Irlam, Justine Kehoe, Patricia Taylor, Ian Dalton, Baby Katrina Byrom, Maureen Driscoll, Paul Bagshaw, Anita Meadows, Isabel Kelly Lately Dead Deirdre McLean, Win Sexton, Cath Berry, Malcolm Jefferson, Tom Whalan, Jim Marsh, Sr Elizabeth Redman SND, Sr Margherita Cini SND, Fr Bill Redmond Anniversaries Ken Seward, James Francis Gudgeon, Peggy Lennon, Dorothy Lowe, John and Martin Foulds, Yvonne Lenham, Edith Hartley, John and Gladys Hawkins We pray for the First Holy Communion Children and their families, the long suffering Christians in Iraq and the Middle East, those who suffer because of the Ebola outbreak, victims of terrorism, all who find Christmas a difficult time. Rosary 9.40am Mon, Wed, Fri at St Joseph Confessions St Joseph after 10am Mass Friday, Our Lady of Lourdes 5pm Saturday Church Cleaning Friday10.30am St Joseph Thursday 9am OLOL – Many hands make light work. Perhaps you can spare an hour a week, a month, occasionally? Liturgy this Sunday. Second Preface for Advent Eucharistic Prayer 3 Children’s liturgy at both Sunday Masses To hire the Meeting Rooms call Sheila Ball 567788 Tea and Coffee after 11am Mass on Sunday Collection: Envelopes £1,111.71 Loose £421.94 Total £ 1,533.65 Received with thanks Monday Bridge at Our Lady of Lourdes from 1pm to 4pm. If you are interested in coming along in the New Year call Eve Houghton on 538579. Art Group Everyone welcome. Thursdays 1pm – 3pm in the meeting rooms. Phone Marie 550706. We meet again in the New Year on January 8th. Christmas Gift Tree – Thanks to all who took part. The Gifts have now all been bought, wrapped, labelled and given away. Sacramental Preparation Thanks to all the families who regularly attend Mass – look at your attendance card to see how well you are doing. Next session is Tuesday 13 January at 6.30pm Praying with the Pope in December Daily offering: O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, may it please Thee this day to order and to hallow, to rule and to govern our hearts and our bodies, our thoughts, our words and our works, according to Thy law and in the doing of Thy commandments, that we, being helped by Thee, may here and hereafter worthily be saved and delivered by Thee, O Saviour of the world, who livest and reignest for ever and ever. And I pray for the Pope’s intentions with Mary and the whole Church this month: Universal Christmas, hope for humanity. That the birth of the Redeemer may bring peace and hope to all people of good will. For Evangelization Parents. That parents may be true evangelizers, passing on to their children the precious gift of faith. An online ADVENT RETREAT is offered by the Jesuits on: www.sacredspace.ie Something to think and pray about Some years, during Advent, the concreteness of the nativity story—how normal, how tangible it is— draws me in. The awkward unease of late pregnancy. The human need for shelter and rest. Straw, wood, pieces of cloth. The scent of barn animals. A newborn baby’s cry. But this year, it’s the swirl of mystery that hovers above and through the narrative that most captures my imagination. In an Advent homily, my priest quoted a theologian who said that thinking about God is like trying to draw a picture of a bird in flight. “You end up with details of its wings caught in a certain position, feathers, eyes, claws frozen in place for careful scrutiny,” he explained. “Or you end up with a blur that loses all detail, but captures speed and movement.” We’re all theologians, he said, and we all envision various concepts of God in detail and others in motion. Do we choose one picture over another, or somehow hold both in tension? I realize sometimes the “bird” I picture when I think of God is a faraway dot, flying high in the sky. At other times, it’s just outside my window, allowing me to appreciate the details of its feathers and the angles of its tiny beak before it flies away. Excerpted from Wholehearted Living by Jennifer Grant Mass Times Christmas Wednesday 24.12 Christmas Eve St Joseph 6pm Mass and Children's nativity tableau Our Lady of Lourdes 10pm, Mass with carols and plain chant Thursday 25.12 Christmas Morning St Joseph 9.30am Mass with Carols Our Lady of Lourdes 11am Family Mass Contact Details: Parish Priest Fr Atli Jonsson, 40 York Road, Southport PR8 2AY, Tel 01704 568313, [email protected] Parish Deacon Rev Bill Ball, Tel 567788 http://birkdalecatholics.com