St Teresa & St John Southworth Churches, Cleveleys
Fr Chris Cousens—Phone: 853340
Rev Bernard Ward (Deacon) (Tel: 858346)
Enquiries for St John Southworth: Phone: 853340
28 May 2023
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : Pentecost Sunday
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel: John 20:19-23
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, “Peace be with you.
“As the Father sent me,
So am I sending you.”
After saying this he breathed on them and said:
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.”
Gospel Reflection : Renew, Refresh
Holy Spirit, refresh the face of the earth; refresh like the cool wind through humid air, refresh like the cooling rain in stagnant water, refresh like greenery in the burnt desert – and refresh tired hopes, dull love, broken trust, with gentle confidence, with new visions of each other, with a belief in goodness. Refresh and renew us.
Refresh our countries, with compassion in politics, with peace based on justice, with respect for the dignity of all, and a genuine care for those in need, and policies to end inequality.
Refresh families with tolerance, communities with openness, whole neighbourhoods with involvement.
Refresh our prayer with your love, our sorrow with your forgiveness, our generosity with your life-long call and support.
Refresh us, renew us, renew the face of the earth.
We Remember In Our Prayers Stephen Tormey whose Funeral was last week, Michael Martin whose Funeral Service is at St. John Southworth church on Thursday, 1st June at 10.30 am, Ronald Cole whose Funeral is at St. Teresa’s church on Friday 9th, June at 11 am, and Anne Beswick, whose Funeral is at St. Teresa’s church on Monday 19th, June at 12 noon. We remember them and their families, and all those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they be in God’s peace.
On Monday 26th, June, Our Parish Deacon, Bernard Ward, Celebrates His 25th Anniversary of Ordination. There will be a Silver Jubilee Mass that day at 6.30 pm in St. Teresa’s Church, followed by a celebration in the Parish Hall. Anyone from both our parishes is most welcome.
As is our tradition, there will be a special collection for Bernard in order to give him a money gift on the night. This collection will take place in both our churches this weekend at each Mass, so thank you if you can kindly donate to this.
Because we need at least a rough number of those who intend to be in the Hall that night, for food catering purposes, please will you help us in one of two ways. Either add your name to the piece of paper which will be at the back of church this weekend, or phone Isobel on 01253 859952, and leave a message with her. If for any reason you cannot stay for the celebration after Mass you are of course still very welcome to attend the Mass itself.
Daily Mass : Mass is celebrated each week day – at St. Teresa’s, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9.30 am, and on Wednesdays, 9.30 am at St. John Southworth. Please note this coming week on Thursday, 1st June, there is no Mass at St. Teresa’s because of the Funeral Service at St. John Southworth.
Throughout the winter the daily Mass has been celebrated in the church sacristy in order to try to minimise our fuel costs. From this Monday, 29th May, Mass will be celebrated in church again, and we pray for warm weather for the next few months, or for ever!!
The SVP have their regular collection, ‘for those in need’, next weekend, 3/4 June
The Food Pantry : Unfortunately, during last week the Food Pantry based at St. Teresa’s became almost bare. We have always been so grateful to those who have been kindly donating food items over the recent months, as we are to the volunteers who run the Food Bank for us. Food prices are now making big demands on all of us, but if you can spare something for our Food Bank, please will you kindly do so. For a list of the main items which are needed, please see the ‘framed’ list on the long table at the back of St.Teresa’s church.
The Food Pantry at St. Teresa’s Church is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10.30 am – 12 noon, and on Wednesday, 2.30 pm – 4 pm. NB the food pantry is not open on Monday, 29 May (bank holiday).
The ‘Warm Space’ takes place in St. Teresa’s Church Hall on Wednesday afternoons, 2 pm – 4 pm. All welcome.
The Next Day of Renewal will be held on Saturday, 17th June, from 10 am to 4 pm, at St. Clare’s Church, Sharoe Green Lane, Fulwood, Preston, PR2 9HH, beginning with Mass at 10 am. This Day, with the title “The Obedience of Faith”, will be led by Barbara Mason, who has been in faith formation, including giving retreats in the UK and internationally, for over 35 years.Please bring a packed lunch. Tea and coffee available. For further information contact Christine, Tel. 07745 009694.
A Prayer for Ukraine
Lord of all people and all nations,
We lift before you the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia,
Each girl and boy, each woman and man, living in fear of what tomorrow might bring.
We long for a time you spoke of through the prophet Isaiah,
When weapons of war would be beaten into ploughshares,
When nation will no longer lift up sword against nation.
We cry out to you for peace.
Protect those who only desire and deserve to live in security and safety.
Comfort those who fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
Change the hearts of those set on violence and aggression.
Fill earthly leaders with great wisdom to find paths to peace.
Please Lord, come and have your way in your world.
May your will be done here, on earth as it is in heaven.
May your peace reign, now and always. Amen
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (St. Cyril of Jerusalem )
Water comes down from heaven as rain: it always comes down in the same form, yet its effects are manifold – thus it takes one form in the palm tree and another in the vine; it is in all things and takes all forms, though it is uniform and always remains itself. It adapts itself to the nature of the things which receive it and it becomes what is appropriate to each. Similarly with the Holy Spirit. He is one and of one nature and indivisible, but he apportions his grace as he wills to each one. He acts differently in different people while himself remaining unchanged, as it is written: ‘To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.’
His approach is gentle, his presence fragrant, his yoke very light; rays of light and knowledge shine forth before him as he comes. He comes to save, to heal, to teach to admonish, to strengthen, to console to enlighten the mind, first of those who receive him, then through the minds of others also.
Scripture (Isaiah 61:1-2)
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison.
Tuesday (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
We, too, are being driven back to first principles. Atonement and redemption, regeneration, the Holy Spirit, the love of our enemies, the cross and resurrection, life in Christ and Christian discipleship—all these things have become so problematic and so remote that we hardly dare speak of them. The day will come when people will be called again to utter the word of God with such power as will change and renew the world. It will be a new language which will horrify people, and yet overwhelm them with its power.
Scripture (Acts 2:1-8) When Pentecost day came around, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind, which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves. Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. ‘Surely’, they said, ‘All these men speaking are Galileans?’
Wednesday (Fr. Richard Rohr)
When you no longer expect something from life, you are for all practical purposes an atheist. When you are no longer open to do something new, you might as well hang it up. The experience of the Spirit is an undeserved, unmerited becoming, a new whole greater than the sum of all the parts. It draws us out and beyond ourselves. It is radical grace. To walk in the Spirit is to allow yourself to be grabbed by God and taken into a much larger world of meaning.
Scripture (2 Timothy 1:6-7,13-14)
That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess. God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the spirit of power and love and self-control. Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, look after that thing given in trust.
Thursday (St. Teresa of Avila)
The prayer of quiet, then, is a little spark of the true love of Himself, which our Lord begins to enkindle in the soul; and his will is that the soul should understand what this love is by the joy it brings. This spark given of God, however slight it may be, causes a great crackling; it is the beginning of a great fire, which sends forth the flames of the most vehement love of God. What the soul has to do is nothing more than to be gentle and without noise. By noise I mean striving with the understanding in search of words and reflections whereby to give thanks for his grace, and gathering up the sins and imperfections to show that it does not deserve it.
Scripture (Titus 3:4-7)
When the kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed, it was not because of anything we had done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own faithful love that he saved us through the washing by which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and new life. For God abundantly poured out the Holy Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that by his grace we might be made right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.
Friday (Evelyn Underhill)
From the first to the last, the emphasis is to be on God and not on ourselves. Admiring delight, not cadging demands. Faithful and childlike dependence – a clinging to the Invisible, as the most real of all realities, in all the vicissitudes of life – not mere self-expression and self-fulfilment. Disinterested collaboration in the Whole, in God’s vast plan and purpose, not concentration on our own small affairs. Three kinds of generosity. Three kinds of self-forgetfulness. A confident reliance on the immense fact of His Presence, everywhere and at all times, pressing on the soul and the world by all sorts of paths and in all sorts of ways, pouring out on it His undivided love, and demanding undivided loyalty. We stand in a world completely penetrated by the living God. We are citizens of that world now; and our whole life is or should be and acknowledgement of this.
Scripture (Ephesians 4:2-7)
With all humility and gentleness and with patience, support each other in love. Take care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one body, one Spirit just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all and within all. On each one of us God’s favour has been bestowed in whatever way Christ allotted it.
Martin Bennett