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PARISH NEWSLETTER
8th February 2015
(Cycle B)
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
PARISH PRIEST
Fr. Nicholas Wetz OSB
Tel: 01432 - 277319
email:[email protected]
www.belmontparish.org.uk
Parish Deacon
Rev Deacon Eddie Wyman
Tel: 01432 - 263575
Parish Hall 01432 - 374781
Safeguarding Representative
Gabrielle Stanley 07939 472059
Items for the Newsletter to
[email protected]
or The Parish Office
Parish ‘Social’ AGM
There will be a short social AGM on Tuesday 10th February between 7-8pm.
Do drop in at any time for a drink and a chat or to raise any questions or
issues you may have. I’ll say a few words at 7.30 about parish plans and ideas
for 2015.
Marriage Care
During this week celebrating Marriage, we pray for all married couples and
remember just what makes marriage so special. We celebrate the love and
commitment of all couples, both those who have been recently married and
those who have lived a lifetime together. We also look forward to the
weddings that will take place this summer in our parish and pray for all
engaged couples. Sadly, marriages often encounter difficulties. Marriage
Care provide help, support and advice in such situations. The second
collection today is help fund their work.
Fr Nicholas
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Last
Sunday’s
1st Collection
£546.12
FLAME 2
Standing Orders:
£480.00
Flame 2 is the largest National Catholic
youth event of 2015 and will take place
in the Wembley Arena on Saturday 7
March 2015. Starting at 12 noon, it will
finish at 5.30pm and is aimed at young
people from year 10 and above. Over
10,000 young people from all over the
country are booked to attend. Speakers
will include Cardinal Luis Tagle from
Manila and Baroness Sheila Hollins. The
day will conclude with a time of
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament led
by Cardinal Vincent Nichols.
2nd Collection
£509.94
Columban Missionaries - Thank you.
WORLD YOUTH DAY – KRAKOW – JULY
2016
World Youth Day is an incredible, life
changing experience. Nowhere else in
the world is there an event where
millions of young people from every
corner of the world come together to
celebrate and share their faith. It was
started 30 years ago by Pope John Paul
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II and will be attended next year by
Pope Francis. The previous World Youth
PROCLAIM 15
Day was in Rio de Janeiro and Krakow in
Poland is now preparing to welcome This is the name of the major
pilgrims in July 2016.
Conference on Evangelisation being
organised by the Bishops of England and
The Diocese of Cardiff has booked 50 Wales to be held at Birmingham on 11
places for two weeks in July. One week July 2015. Thirty five delegates will be
will be spent in the Diocese of Bialostok attending from the various parishes in
in northern Poland as a ‘Mission’ week the Diocese of Cardiff. A coach is now
or week of preparation. We will travel being arranged to pick up the delegates
to Krakow for the celebrations in from various parishes in order to travel
preparation for the arrival of the Pope to Birmingham together. Further
and will stay in the university Halls of information has already been circulated
Residence. Further details will be to the participants. All who attend the
circulated shortly after Easter. The total Birmingham Conference will be invited
cost is envisaged to be £800 per person. to play an important role in the
Parishes will be invited to help sponsor Diocesan Proclaim Day which will be
young people and there will held on 10 October 2015. Those wishing
opportunities for Diocesan fund raising to participate in preparations for the
as well.
Diocesan Day are welcome to meet at
Cathedral Clergy House, Charles Street,
V V V V V
on the Third Monday of each month
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from 7.00pm – 8.30pm. Further details jumble - so please start looking and
available from Fr. Gareth Leyshon at St. leaving things in the Parish Hall Porch.
Philip Evans Parish, Cardiff.
Many thanks!
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V V V V V
150 CLUB
WHITE RABBIT
Thank you to everyone who has paid
their 2015 subscription for the 150
Club. There are a few more to come in
so if you pay by cash or cheque, please
place it in an envelope as soon as
possible and hand it to Chris Moore or
Fr Nick.
Following the success of last year’s
production Soldier to Saint by RISE
Theatre, we have invited them back to
perform their latest offering White
Rabbit in Hedley Lodge at 7.30pm,
Friday 20th March 2015.
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This is a tale of faith, love and selfdiscovery, of two people lost in a
grown-up world of work, normality and
disappointment - a place with no time
for fairy tales or childhood dreams.
Jenny cannot STOP, her fast-paced
work life spiraling out of control. Tom
cannot START, his life as an artist now at
a complete standstill. Suddenly an
unexpected encounter with a stranger
sets them on a life-changing journey.
Could this be the White Rabbit of their
childhood? Experience for yourself the
message of hope and forgiveness in this
imaginative and moving play by singersongwriter and director Charley Pinfold.
NEW EMAIL ADDRESS
The parish is setting up new email
addresses for publications such as the
newsletter and The Angel. From today,
items for the newsletter should be sent
to [email protected]. The
previous address will continue to be
checked for the month of February.
Items for the website may be sent to
[email protected].
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Tickets are now on sale from the Parish
Office (see Chris Moore or Fr Nick) £8
for adults, £6 for under 18s.
JUMBLE SALE
1.30pm on Saturday 7th March at
OLQM - same time - same place as
always but we need items for the
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PILGRIMAGE TO FRANCE 25-29 MAY
2015
Luncheon would cost the sum of £15
but for the sick it would be on a
voluntary basis. Please note transport is
Pilgrimage plans are going well. There possibly available.
will be a meeting to sort out final details
and have a social get together on Friday Could any sick that wish to come
17th April in the Annexe at SFX after the contact Andrew Grant on 01886
6:30pm Mass. (Approx. 7:10).
832368.
Andrew Grant FRICS DL
In the meantime could everyone please
send a cheque for their outstanding
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balance, payable to St. Francis Xavier’s
HOMILY
Church, to the SFX office. Cheques
should arrive no later than Friday 20th
March. Please mark the envelope “She began to wait on them.”
“France Pilgrimage.”
Illustration
The final total cost is £300 pp for adults
and £150pp for children (less deposit if There’s a story about a man – let’s call
him Sam – who was walking by a river
paid).
one day when he spotted a woman in
Thank you. John and Mary Cook 850231 the water in obvious distress. Without a
moment’s hesitation, he jumped in,
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swam to the woman and guided her
safely to the riverbank, where a small
MASS AND ANOINTING OF THE SICK group of people had gathered to watch
SATURDAY 28TH FEBRUARY 2015
the dramatic rescue. No sooner had
Sam made sure that the woman was
British and Sovereign Order of Malta going to be okay than the shout went
(BASOM) are holding their annual up: “There’s another one!” Sam leapt
reunion at the Church of the Oratory, back into the river and swam to rescue
Hagley Road, Birmingham on Saturday a drowning man. Our exhausted hero
28th February 2015.
dragged him to the shore and hadn’t
even got out of the water this time
There will be a solemn Mass which will when the cry went up again: “Someone
be offered at 11:00am which will else is drowning!” This time a child was
include the Sacrament of the Anointing rescued by valiant Sam.
of the Sick. After Mass luncheon will be
provided in the Oratory halls. Those By now the crowd had grown to quite a
that are sick are invited to come. size, so when the eagle-eyed spectators
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shouted out that there were more
people floating down the river, all eyes
turned expectantly to Sam. But instead
of diving back in, Sam calmly stood up,
turned his back to the river and started
walking away. Angrily, the crowd
challenged him: “Aren’t you going to
rescue those people?” “You rescue
them,” Sam said. “I’m going to find out
who’s throwing people into this river.”
instead heads off for other places. And
his intention is not simply to heal, since
healing is only one aspect of his
mission. He has come to “preach” – to
proclaim the good news of the nearness
of God’s kingdom, of which the healings
and the exorcisms are but a sign.
Application
It’s easy for us to be so wrapped up in
our lives – the daily routine, the
demands that simple existence makes
upon us – that we lose sight of our true
purpose and calling. Like Job, we can be
left struggling with our existence, failing
to find a meaning in our lives. Sickness,
mental illness, stress and anxiety in
particular can so consume us that our
life feels like no more than “pressed
service” and “hired drudgery”. But that
highly charged, symbolic good deed of
Jesus points a way forward for us:
Simon’s
mother-in-law,
totally
incapacitated by her illness, is restored
by Jesus’ touch not simply to health but
to service. She is “helped up” by Jesus –
and she begins to “wait on them” (the
original Greek word means she
“ministers” or “deacons” to them). In
other words, her encounter with Jesus
transforms her suffering into the
freedom to serve. This Gospel truth is a
lesson the disciples struggle to learn:
that true greatness lies in service, for
Jesus himself came not to be served but
to serve.
Gospel Teaching
Today’s Gospel shows Jesus doing a
good deed, as he heals Simon’s motherin-law. Quickly a crowd gathers as word
spreads of Jesus’ healing powers. It’s
almost as if Jesus is presented with the
suffering of the whole town. And he
dives in, curing those who are sick and
freeing those caught up by evil spirits.
But Jesus faces a dilemma. Is this why
he came – to cure sick people, to
establish a base here in Capernaum so
that those who are burdened can come
to him? In the silence of the night, away
from the crowds, he is able to look
beyond the immediate need and hear
his Father’s voice speak to him of his
true purpose, his real mission. Yes,
Jesus is a healer – but his mission is not
simply to cure sickness, and he has not
been sent just to this one town.
Like Sam in the story, Jesus sees that
there is a bigger issue at stake, a more
urgent and important task he has to
accomplish. So although “everybody is
looking for” Jesus – doubtless there Jesus’ mission was indeed to heal – but
were more people in need of healing – this healing was accomplished on the
Jesus does not return to the town but cross, and was a healing of the whole of
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humanity, indeed the whole of
creation. Those of us who, like Simon’s
mother-in-law, are touched by Jesus
are raised to serve like him, to continue
his mission of bringing healing and
wholeness into our world. So many
people are weighed down by burdens
of suffering, trapped by external forces
of oppression and poverty, or enslaved
by internal compulsions and addictions.
The response of Christ – of the Christian
– is to do more than simply ask “Why?”
We are called to engage actively, by
proclaiming the nearness of God’s
kingdom through lives of loving service.
was as if, for the crowd, these miracles
validated his preaching claims.
Anyone can preach, but someone who
can back up their preaching with
healing is surely worth listening to. And
for Jesus these cures were not the beall and end-all of his mission. They were
signs of something else: the setting up
of the kingdom of God. From the start
Jesus never claimed any credit for these
miracles. He was up-front about where
he got his power from: his Father. And
it was his Father who had sent him to
inaugurate a new way of life, a new
style of living according to the values of
the kingdom which was about to come.
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Two thousand years on the Church
continues this mission of proclaiming
the kingdom to a world that is often as
weary as Jesus’s listeners. In the midst
of war, scandal, opposition and sheer
human frailty we keep in mind that we
are not trying to compete with other
agencies, with governments or lifestyle
promoters. Our message is radically
different from any other. It says that
God intends us to live in a way that puts
others first, that thrives on self-sacrifice
after the fashion of Christ and that has
no time for the self-centred idealism of
much of what advertisers and spindoctors present us with today. For
Christians are in the world but not of it.
That’s because, warts and all, they are
part of the kingdom of God. And as
Jesus’s audience found out, despite the
problems that each day might bring,
the kingdom is very near.
FAITH IN FOCUS: SIGN OF THINGS TO
COME
‘Life is but a breath and my eyes will
never again see joy.’ We can all
sympathise with Job. He feels so
downhearted that nothing seems
worthwhile any more. And from time to
time we can all end up asking what’s
the point of life and whether it’s worth
all the effort. We take our fair share of
knocks and it’s easy to stay down rather
than pick ourselves up and dust
ourselves down. That’s why the cures
that Jesus worked came as such a
bombshell to a people that had grown
cynical about life. St Mark tells us that
from the outset of his ministry Jesus
attracted large crowds eager to see him
perform cures on those who were sick.
Of course, Jesus was no doctor. But it
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Ministers, etc. For next
Sunday 15th February: 6th Sunday in OT
8:30am
Welcomer
Liz Norman
9:30am
11:00am
Clare & Basil
Nickerson
Hackman Family
Sacristan
Jerry Hogan
1st Reading
Adrian Eyre
2nd Reading
Jacqui Ramage-Smith
Frances Wood
Margaret Rose
Morawiecki Family
Bidding Prayer Richard Batho
Offertory
Children’s Liturgy
Monica Tomlin
Georgina McGurk &
Menna McBain
Extra-Ordinary Fran Smallwood &
Minister(s)
Julia Davey
Stephen Fisher
Next Sunday - Second Collection: Catholic Education Service
Next Week - Newsletter Folding: CG-C
Dates to be noted
20 March 2015 White Rabbit - Hedley Lodge, Belmont Abbey - 7:30pm
I ARISE TODAY: THE LENT RETREAT
February 16-19
(3 days mid-week registration fee £28)
CHILDREN’S LITURGY
8.30 am Children's Liturgy 15 Feb
11.00 am Liturgy
Wisdom from the Celtic saints. We learn what
it is to be pilgrims to the place of our
resurrection: our Lenten journey for 2015.
08-Feb
Jacqui Moore & Monica Russell
15-Feb
Anna Nugent & Robert Blackburn
Dom Brendan Thomas
22-Feb
Marje Hayes & Pauline Gill
01-Mar
Jacqui Moore & Mary Wood
DEATHS and ANNIVERSARIES: Please pray for all who have died: May they rest in peace.
Beryl Swain, Francis Bray, Elizabeth Croton, Mary Hill, Joe Schofield, Mary Carroll, Norah
Gethen, Agnes Ward, Philip Davies, Dominic Sterckx, Denise Homfray, Geoffrey Shimmin,
Margaret Thomas, Catherine Connely, Agnes Holtom, Sarah Slattery, Lena Whitlock, Mary
Anderson, Mary Jillow, Rhoda Linehan, William Tyler. Leslie Blackmon, Rev. Hilary Brightling,
Elwin Lyons, Claude Meredith and Isabel Wheatly.
The SICK: Please pray for Will Kinsman, Toni Cornforth, Mary Carroll, Sue Rogers, Elizabeth
Lloyd-Jones, Jane Shaw, David Ellis, Norma Naudain, Fr Michal Cronin, Siobhan Hayes, Elaine
Campbell, Sr Catherine, Joanne Savory, Ken Harding, Brian Holberry, Vincent Hanna, and
Sadie Bowyer.
Belmont Abbey Parish is part of Belmont Abbey Mission Trust (Registered Charity - 226277)
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Liturgy for Sunday 8th February 2015
Readings: Sunday Cycle B; Weekdays: Cycle 1; Divine Office: Week 1
Entrance: O come, let us worship God and bow low
before the God who made us, for he is the Lord our
God.
Acclamation: Save us, Saviour of the world ...
Communion: Let them thank the Lord for his mercy, his
wonders for the children of men, for he satisfies the
thirsty soul, and the hungry he fills with good things.
5th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
Principal Celebrants, Extraordinary Ministers, Readers, etc.
8:30am
Celebrant
Fr. Nicholas
Welcomer
Cooper Family
9:30am
Fr Nicholas
Anne Stapleton
Sacristan
Marnie Archer &
Brenda Sherwood
Stephen Fisher
1st Reading
Julia Davey
2nd Reading
Richard Batho
Frances Wood
Ramage-Hill Family
Marje Hayes
A. Morton-Saner &
M. Campbell
Extra-Ordinary
S. Hayes & Kath Parry
Minister(s)
Mass Intention Parish Intention
Brian Draper
Pat Draper
Bidding Prayer Liz Norman
Offertory
11:00am
Chris Moore
Benefactors
Parish Intention
Second Collection: Marriage Care
Tesco Vouchers: Order this week please
What’s On for the week
Mon St Teilo: Mass at 8:00 am in the Oratory
Tue St Scholastica: Mass at 8:00 am
Wed Our Lady of Lourdes: Mass at 8:00 am: Midday Mass in the Oratory
Thu Feria: Mass at 8:00 am
Fri
Feria: Mass at 8:00 am; Midday Mass in the Oratory
Sat
SS Cyril & Methodius: Mass at 8:00 am: Sacrament of Reconciliation at 10:00 am
Events for the week
Tuesday 10
7-8:00pm - Short social AGM in the Parish Centre - All Welcome!
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