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
23 January 2022
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel (Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21)
Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have taken place among us, exactly as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galillee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.
He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives
And to the blind new sight,
To set the downtrodden free,
To proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’
We Remember In Our Prayers Frances Edmondson, Mary Baker and Tom Gradwell whose Funerals were last week, and Linda Whipp whose Funeral is at St.Teresa’s on Tuesday, 25th January at 12 noon. We remember them and their families, and those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they all be in God’s peace.
First Holy Communion : At this point we are hoping to celebrate First Holy Communion at St.Teresa’s (but as always for both our parishes) on Sunday, 15th May 2022. This is for children aged from Year 4 (in Primary School) and upwards. We were hoping to have an Introductory Meeting for parents and children towards the end of February, but this may now depend on the Covid situation by then.
Please Note : These First Holy Communion arrangements, as always, are also for children who are in other schools besides St.Teresa’s, but who are Baptised and within the age group outlined above.
Afghanistan Crisis Appeal : Last week we saw on our television screens the extent of the humanitarian crisis affecting millions of people in Afghanistan, not least as shown on the faces of babies, children and their parents, literally starving to death. We can’t be human if we were not moved and didn’t wonder how we could help at all. Well one way for us to help in a very practical way has been set up by CAFOD (the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development). They have launched a Crisis Appeal for money donations so that they can continue the work they have already started. CAFOD has local partners in the country who have started to provide families with those most basic things which are urgently needed – food, water and shelter. Can you help in this great task?
THIS WEEKEND, 22nd/23rd JANUARY, at all Masses in our two churches, we will have a Special Collection so that we can make our own contribution to help save people’s lives. Whatever you give will go directly for that purpose.
The Annual Service for the Week of Prayer For Christian Unity takes place this Sunday, 23rd January, 3 pm at Cleveleys Park Methodist Church. For many years this has been organised by Churches-Together-In-Cleveleys, and this time it is the turn of Cleveleys Park Methodist Church to be our hosts. We will all be made very welcome.
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Oscar Romero)
It is very easy to be servants of the word without disturbing the world: a very spiritualised word, a word without any commitment to history. What marks the genuine church is the word that, burning like the word of the prophets, proclaims to the people God’s wonders to be believed and venerated, and accuses of sin those who oppose God’s reign, so that they may tear that sin out of their hearts, out of their societies, out of their laws. God’s spirit goes with the prophet, the preacher, who keeps on proclaiming his reign to the people of all times.
Scripture ( Luke 4:16-22)
Jesus came to Nazara, where he has been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scrollhe found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today, even while you are listening.’
Tuesday (Martin Luther King)
We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. Everybody lives in two realms, the internal (the realm of spiritual ends) and external (the various means by which we live). Our problem
today is that we have allowed the internal to be lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live.
Scripture (Isaiah 42:5-7)
Thus says God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and spread them out, who hammered into shape the earth and what comes from it, who gave breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it: I, Yahweh, have called you to serve the cause of 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 dungeon.
Wednesday (Dorothy Day)
Together with the works of mercy, feeding, clothing and sheltering our brothers, we must teach. We must give reason for the faith that is in us. Otherwise we are scattered members of the body of Christ and our religion is an opiate, for ourselves alone, for our comfort or for our individual safety or indifferent custom. And if we lose the vision, we become merely philanthropists, doling out palliatives. We are trying to say with action “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We believe in the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God, the Mystical Body of Christ. Through all the means of improving life for the poor that we can live as though we believed indeed that we are all members of one another.
Scripture (1Cor. 11:17, 20-22)
I cannot congratulate you on the meetings you hold; they do more harm than good. When you meet together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat; for when the eating begins, each one of you has their own supper first, and there is one going hungry while another is getting drunk. Have you such disregard for God’s assembly that you can put shame on those who have nothing? On this I cannot congratulate you.
Thursday (Fr. Austin Smith, CP)
My Christian tradition mediates God to me and mediates a new format of relationships with the world. The social relationships which create the world in which I live, the human quest of which I am a part and the culture to which I belong, are in themselves a mediation of God. The breakdown in society must first be located in humanity itself to honour its own dignity and its search for fulfilment. Society has ceased to understand what it is to be truly human. If the Church is to address such a society realistically it must see the world and the human quest as bearers of the mediations of God. In other words, we must recognise and identify God in the struggles and the human quest for fulfilment.
Scripture (Acts 2:42-47)
They remained faithful to the teachings of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. And all who shared the faith owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed. Each day, with one heart, they regularly went to the Temple, but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone.
Friday (Mechthild of Magdeburg)
If you love the justice of Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment then you will seek to be compassionate. Compassion means if I see my friend and enemy in equal need, I shall help both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner, and comfort them and offer them our help. Here lies the holy compassion of God that causes the devil much distress.
Scripture (Nehemiah 8:1,8-10,12)
All the people gathered as one and asked the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the Law of Moses which Yahweh had prescribed for Israel. Ezra read from the book from dawn till noon, translating and giving the sense, so the reading was understood. Then Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites who were instructing the people said ‘Today is sacred to Yahweh your God. Do not be mournful, do not weep.’ For the people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law. He then said ‘You may go; eat what is rich, drink what is sweet and send a helping to the one who has nothing prepared. For today is sacred to our Lord.’ Then all the people went off to eat and drink and give helpings away and enjoy themselves to the full, since they had understood the meaning of what had been proclaimed to them.
Martin Bennett