Parish Priest Fr John McElhone 0191 2623820 Resident Priest: Fr Pat O’Connell Deacon: Frank Forde email: [email protected] www.wallsend-aidettes.co.uk Our Lady and St Aidan & St Bernadette’s Parish Communities 22nd February 2015 First Week of Lent It’s not as difficult as you might think. Below you will find some ideas. Tell us if you can improve upon them P A R I S H N E W S Could you go without safe water for 40 days Take a jar and add to it each day. Encourage the people you work alongside to join in. Identify and read a challenging book throughout Lent that will nourish and enrich your spiritual life. Make it a time when you both read and reflect. Come to our soup lunch on Friday. A variety will be on offer and all we ask is a donation to CAFOD. Make a list of those parts of your life that don’t seem right just now. Decide which need God’s grace—and what you can change yourself. You can still enjoy chocolate during Lent. Ethically made chocolate tastes so much better. Look for the FairTrade label Dieting and fasting are not the same. You fast when you take the focus off self and reach out to others. Make that call you have been putting off. Spend an evening slimming down your wardrobe and charity shop what you no longer need and could be used by someone else. w/c 23rd February St Aidan’s St Bernadette’s Mon 10.30am Funeral Mass for Eileen Henry at St Columba’s (10.30 am) Wed 9.30am Olive Murphy Thurs 10.00am Fri 9.30am Saturday 6.30pm Sunday David Alexander Kippax Laurence Wynne People of the Parish 9.30am Gerald Newton 11.15am Rose Hui Chung Please pray for those who are ill and/or housebound: Vera Brady, Ann Marie Moon, Jim Glachan, Sheila McCashin, Winnie Shaw, Catherine Smith, Rachel McGilligan, Martin Summerly, Kathleen Durie and diocesan priests who are ill. The Season of Lent is an ideal time to think about those who are in need. We thank those who generously contribute to the Food Bank each week. If you don't regularly, contribute perhaps now is the time to start? Why not make each Friday a fast day and join us in St Aidan’s Parish Room for a Soup Lunch. Donations will be taken towards our CAFOD Lenten collection. Soup will be served from 12 noon until 1.30pm—and you can be sure it will be homemade! First lunch on Friday 27th February. The money raised for CAFOD over the next three months will attract matched funding from the government up to the sum of £5m. Each Tuesday morning at 11am, a small group meet in St Aidan’s to reflect upon the Mass readings for the following Sunday. They tell me that it helps them to better understand the Readings when they are at Mass. It’s not a discussion group. You won’t be expected to speak. You will learn over a period of time to be comfortable with the silence built into the session. It’s really relaxing. We are now entering Fairtrade Fortnight. Don’t forget this year the focus is upon the basic goods such as Tea,Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa. But no matter what you buy that is Fairtrade it is helping our brothers and sisters across the world earn a fair living from their labour. What would you want affluent (in comparison) European people to do if you were in their position? I would want them to think Fairtrade. Prominent during Pope Francis’ tour of the Philippines was the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle who will be visiting St Mary’s Cathedral on Monday 9th March. He will preside at the 12.05pm Mass and will also speak at an evening celebration on the same day at 7pm. Cardinal Tagle is an inspiring communicator and is well respected for his involvement in many social issues and his work among the poor.