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
11 February 2024
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel : Mark 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees ‘If you want to’ he said, ‘you can cure me.’ Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured. Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him, ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your healing, prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’ The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.
Gospel Reflection: : A People of Hope
From the very beginning of our existence, from our first baby cries and wrinkled faces, we struggle to make sense of who we are and what we are, and of the strange new furniture of our lives – of sounds and smells, of warmth and cold, of light and shadow, of hands and faces. We struggle to put together the bits and pieces of our experience into some kind of understandable order. Perhaps when we do so, we can then live with less fear, especially in the midst of forces which can seem to threaten and overwhelm us.
Sometimes, without asking, we want to know from each other : “How do you cope, because at least you seem to?”; and from those who have gone before us : “What can we learn from your experience?”
However much we might like to be left alone at times, none of us want to be foreigners in our own land, strangers to where life is leading us. To be human is to live in a world of meaning. To live without meaning is to be a stranger in the midst of our own human lives.
As in the Gospel today, may the Lord stretch out his hand and bless us, and bring us that healing and wholeness we need to cope with our own situation right now.
We Remember In Our Prayers : Susan Feeney whose Funeral is at St. Teresa’s on Thursday, 15th February at 10.30 am. We remember her and her family, and those whose anniversaries are at this time.
May they all be in God’s peace.
Ash Wednesday Is Next Wednesday, 14 February, Beginning Our Whole Season of Lent.
There is one Mass in each of our parishes that day, with the Distribution of Ashes – 9.30 am at St. Teresa’s, and 6.30 pm at St. John Southworth.
Stations of The Cross Next Sunday (18th February), and each Sunday in Lent, we have the Stations of the Cross, with Benediction, at 3 pm at St. Teresa’s. This is a short Service which is very suitable for our Lenten reflection.
The Parish Pastoral Council meets this Monday, 12th February at 7 pm in the church Sacristy.
Appeal : For a future Parish project we need to collect lots of plastic milk bottle tops (white only). These can be left at the back of St.Teresa’s Church, or in the church shop, in batches when you have them available. Thank you for your help.
First Holy Communion for St. Teresa’s and St. John Southworth parishes will be celebrated this year on Sunday 12th May, at the 10 am Mass at St. Teresa’s. We will soon be starting our 2024 Reconciliation and First Holy Communion preparation, for Baptised children in Year 4 and above. Some of these children may be in another school besides St. Teresa’s, and they are welcome to join the programme too.
Our first meeting will take place after the 10 am Sunday Mass on 25th February 2024. The meeting will take place in the Parish Hall immediately after the end of Mass. Each meeting in the preparation programme will be after the end of the 10 am Mass
In order for the preparation to convey the full meaning of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it is necessary for the child and parent or guardian to attend the 10 am Mass each Sunday. Parents and guardians will be expected to work alongside their child, and our catechists, to support their children in their preparation. You are the first and best teachers for your children, and it is through your encouragement, love and care that they will grow in their understanding of God’s love and care.
Please could you let us know if you intend your child to take part in our Preparation Programme this year by contacting Clare Gooden on 07879 811925. If you have to leave a message please remember to leave your own contact number. We look forward to welcoming you and your child at our first meeting on 25 February.
A New ‘Fit For Purpose’ Kitchen Is Needed For Our Parish Hall. To start off our fundraising we are holding a ‘Table Top Sale’ on Saturday, 24th February, 10 am – 1 pm in the Parish Hall. Table Hire is Available for only £10 per table. For further information please contact Sue on 07889 532158.
One of the stalls at the Table Top Sale will be selling plants (indoor and outdoor), and all things linked with gardening. If anyone would like to contribute to this stall, for example potted cuttings etc, please let Sue or Bernard know. You can leave a message on the following mobile 07889 532158.
The ‘Hub in the Hall’ Meetings take place in St. Teresa’s Church Hall each Wednesday, 2 pm – 4 pm. All are very welcome.
The Food Pantry At St. Teresa’s Church is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10.30 am – 12 noon, and on Wednesdays, 2.30 pm – 4 pm.
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Cardinal Basil Hume)
In searching for meaning and purpose in life, we are trying to catch glimpses of the glory of God. In a great Cathedral like Westminster, it is right that we should use all that is fine and magnificent to give honour and glory to God. But I remember a prison chaplain celebrating mass in a shapeless room made clean and tidy for the occasion. It is no place of beauty and the congregation is composed of the wounded ones of our society; their musical talents minimal, their clothing drab and dull. But God is smiling on them as he does on the congregation of the Cathedral. They, too, are pleasing to God.
Scripture (Isaiah 57:14-15)
Then it will be said “Level up, level up, clear the way, remove the obstacle from my people’s way,” for thus says the High and Exalted One who lives eternally and whose name is holy ‘I live in the holy heights but I am with the contrite and humble, to revive the heart of the contrite.’
Tuesday (John Henry Newman)
When God took flesh and appeared on earth, he showed us the Godhead in a new manifestation. He invested himself with a new set of attributes, those of our flesh, taking into him a human’s soul and body, in order that thoughts, feelings, affections, might be his which could respond to ours. When, then, our Saviour weeps with sympathy, let us not say it is love of a man overcome by natural feeling. It is the love of God, the bowels of compassion, of the almighty and eternal, condescending to show us we are capable of receiving it, in the form of human nature.
Scripture (Mk. 1:40-45)
A man suffering from a virulent skin disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying “If you want to, you can cleanse me.” Feeling sorry for him, Jesus reached out his hand, touched him and said to him “I am willing. Be cleansed.” And at once the skin disease left him and he was cleansed. The man went away and started talking about it freely, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.
Wednesday (Henri Nouwen)
The Lord, whose compassion we want to manifest in time and place, is indeed the displaced Lord. A greater displacement cannot be conceived. The mystery of the incarnation is that God did not remain in the place that was proper for him but moved to the condition of a suffering human being. God gave up his heavenly place and took a humble place among mortal men and women. God displaced himself so that nothing human would be alien to him and he could experience fully the brokenness of our human condition.
Scripture (Philippians 2:5-8)
Make your own the mind of Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.
Thursday (Pope Francis: Evangelii Gaudium)
The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. The Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.
I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us “Give them something to eat”
Scripture (Romans 3:21-24)
God’s saving justice was witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, but now it has been revealed altogether apart from law: God’s saving justice given through faith in Christ Jesus to all who believe. No distinction is made: all have sinned and lack God’s glory, and all are justified by the free gift of his grace through being set free in Christ Jesus.
Friday (Thomas Merton)
He “in whom all things consist” was not only to walk with man in the breeze of the afternoon, as he did with Adam, but would also become man and dwell with us as a brother. The Lord would not only love his creation as a Father, but he would enter into his creation, emptying himself, hiding himself, as if he were not God but a creature. Why should he do this? Because he loved his creatures, and he could not bear that his creatures should merely adore him as distant, remote, transcendent and all-powerful. This was not the glory that he sought.
Scripture (Hebrews 2:16-17)
For it was not angels that he took to himself; he took to himself the line of Abraham. It was essential that he should in this way be made completely like his brothers so that he could become a compassionate and trustworthy high priest for their relationship with God, able to expiate the sins of the people.
Martin Bennett