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
10 March 2024
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : Fourth Sunday of Lent
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel : Jesus said to Nicodemus:
‘The Son of Man must be lifted up
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert
So that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Yes, God loved the world so much
That he gave his only Son,
So that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
But may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
Not to condemn the world,
But so that through him the world might be saved.
No one who believes in him will be condemned
But whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,
Because he has refused to believe
In the name of God’s only son.
On these grounds is sentence pronounced:
That through the light has come into the world
Men have shown they prefer
Darkness to light
Because their deeds were evil.
And indeed, everybody who does wrong
Hates the light and avoids it,
For fear his actions should be exposed;
But the man who lives by the truth
Comes out into the light,
So that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.
Gospel Reflection : Uprooting Hedges
No – not a plea for help in the church grounds! It’s just that we all have a tendency to hedge our love, and being loved, with conditions. We attach ourselves to others who can please us, or supply us with what we want. Even children learn that living up to expectations, rather than being themselves, is what earns adult praise and affection.
The liturgy today reminds us that we do not have to earn God’s love. We are loved for who we are – lovable, completely lovable, to Him. Perhaps this week we could examine the hedges we build around love, and pray for the strength to uproot them. And not to leave them still lying around, only to take root again, but remove them for ever.
We Remember In Our Prayers Maureen Lynch, whose Funeral Service is at St. Teresa’s on Tuesday, 19th March at 12.30 pm, and Donna Fildes, the daughter of Des and Vera Stevenson, who has sadly, and unexpectedly died, and whose Funeral Mass is at the Church of St. Andrew and Blessed George Haydock in Cottam, Preston (PR4 0NB) on Thursday, 21st March, at 10 am. We remember Maureen and Donna, and their families and friends, and those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they all be in God’s peace.
A Huge Thankyou for all your contributions to CAFOD’s annual Family Fast collection, which this year has amounted to £1222.68. CAFOD are going to be very pleased indeed with our generous support.
It’s That Time Of Year – Planned Giving/Gift Aid Envelopes for the coming new tax year, are available this weekend and next after each Mass. At St. Teresa’s please see Steve Laird in the Food Pantry room at the back of church, and at St. John Southworth see Jane Collier who will be in the church porch. The envelopes of those who have them now will soon run out, but there are plenty of envelopes for those who want to start using them. Of course if you are a tax payer, whether working or retired, this is a very important source of income for our parishes. Last year it gave us 25p in the pound on what you already gave, at the Inland Revenue’s expense, not yours, which meant we received back £7,000 to add to our income. Such an amount proves that it is so worthwhile, and why we are so grateful to those who already contribute in the weekly offertory in this way. Please will anyone who is not already using ‘Gift-Aid seriously consider it, and also see Steve or Jane in order to complete the simple paperwork. They are both very helpful, and we thank them for what they do for the good of our parishes.
Afternoon Tea : Why not treat yourself to a scrumptious afternoon tea in St. Teresa’s Parish Hall, on Wednesday, 3rd April, 2-4 pm. The cost is just £5 each, and admission is by ticket only, so that we know what numbers to expect for catering purposes. The tickets can be purchased from the back of St. Teresa’s church, or the church shop, A limited number of tickets are available from this weekend.
Stations of The Cross This Sunday, 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.
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.
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.
The Church Shop, in the porch at St. Teresa’s, is open before and after each weekend Masses, and has cards and gifts for Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and First Holy Communion. The last few Diocesan Directories are also on sale, priced at £6. Please call in and browse. You will be most welcome.
A Prayer for Peace : One Family
Lord God, Father of all,
We, your children, are all members of the same family, your family.
We implore you to help us to accept your peace,
To be at peace with ourselves, and to live in peace with others.
Help us to seek wisdom and justice in all that we do.
Help us to be more understanding and compassionate when dealing with others : –
To be ready to forgive when wronged;
To be willing to love when hurt, and
To strive for harmony and peace when threatened.
Eternal Father, grant us all your everlasting peace. Amen
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (A New Catechism)
The first thing that we as Christians have to realise—as is proclaimed again and again by the Gospel, the liturgy and the preaching of the church—is our inadequacy. This is the primary task of Christians in the world. They are called to know and proclaim that we constantly receive light and strength from him who loves us. This is the first element of sanctity in the church. Those who sense this insufficiency share the true fundamentals of holiness in the Church. Through it, dedication to the Infinite takes shape. This offers support and perspectives which are above our closed circle.
Scripture (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
Yahweh says this, “Accursed be anyone who trusts in human
beings, who relies on human strength and whose heart turns from Yahweh. He is like a scrub in the wastelands: when good comes it does not affect him, since he lives in the parched places of the
desert. Blessed is anyone who trusts in Yahweh with Yahweh for his reliance. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it has nothing to fear.
Tuesday (Fr. Richard Rohr)
When all our idols are taken away, all our securities and defence mechanisms, we find out who we really are. We’re so little, so poor, so empty—sometimes, even so ugly! But we are able to present ourselves to God poor and humble. Then we find out who we are and who God is for us. The desert is where Israel experienced its sinfulness, that it was weak and unable to do any good. Our temptation is always to shorten the time, make our timetable God’s timetable. We want to get out and get it over with. But we cannot rush the journey of faith.
Scripture (Daniel 2:20-22)
May the name of God be blessed for ever and ever, since wisdom and power are his alone. It is he who controls the procession of times and seasons, who makes and unmakes kings, who confers wisdom on the wise, and knowledge on those with discernment, who uncovers depths and mysteries, who knows what lies in darkness; and light dwells with him.
Wednesday (Fr. Daniel O’Leary, ‘An Astonishing Secret’)
What Jesus introduced and accomplished by his death and resurrection was not a legal contract of atonement with his demanding Father; it was the depth and invincibility of love. Love transforms darkness, death and sin. When everything we see, hear, touch and smell is perceived as the embrace of the divine arms; when the winter chill, the city noises, the brilliance of artists and the revelations of scientists provide glimpses of the Incarnate God; when the New Universe Story captures our hearts with a profound and transforming wonder, when the courage and hope of oppressed people on a mutilated earth are experienced as the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit within, then, and only then, are we living within the Incarnation.
Scripture (Isaiah 42:6-7,16)
I, the Lord, have called you in saving justice, I have grasped you by the hand and shaped you; I have made you a covenant of the people and light to the nations to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeons. I shall lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they do not know I shall conduct them. I shall turn the darkness into light before them and the quagmires into solid ground. This I shall do—without fail.
Thursday (From the “Twelve Steps” Alcoholics Anon)
We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us; made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God; made a fearless moral inventory of ourselves; admitted to God, to ourselves and to others the exact nature of our wrongs; were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character; humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings; sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
Scripture (Eph 2:4-5,8-10)
God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ. It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.
Friday (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
What I cry out for, like every being, with my whole life and all my earthly passion, is something very different from an equal to cherish: it is a God to adore. To adore….that means to lose oneself in the unfathomable, to plunge into the inexhaustible, to find peace in the incorruptible, to offer oneself to the fire and the transparency, to annihilate oneself in proportion as one becomes more deliberately conscious of oneself, to give of one’s deepest to that whose depth has no end.
Scripture (Matthew 16: 24-26)
Jesus said to his disciples “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in
exchange for his life?
Martin Bennett