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
18 September 2022
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
| Attendance last Sunday: St T’s: 294 StJS: 58Collection: StT’s £691.06 StJS: £118.60received with thanks received with thanks |
Sunday : The Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
“Jesus said to his disciples, the man who can be trusted in little things, can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. If you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?
‘No servant can be the slave of two masters, he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’
Gospel Reflection : To What Do We Entrust Our Lives?
In each man and woman is the need and desire for security. As infants we look to parents/guardians totally for security, and as life moves on, we may look to family, friends and children for our security, like rocks on which we feel we will be safe. And we can entrust ourselves to God, knowing the words for God, like Rock, Fountain of Living Water, of Eternal Life, are foundations of our security. Or we may place our trust in money or financial security, or prestige and honour from a job or position in life, or entrust our feeling of security to an over-care of the body – and the question from the gospel of Jesus is : to what do you entrust yourself?
We cannot place full trust at the same time in God and wealth, nor in love and possessions, nor in a long life and trust in God. God intends that we use created gifts like wealth and honour and appearance, friendship, love and prayer, to bring us to him. But if we are entrusted to them, they may draw us away from him.
So, may we know the happiness of entrusting ourselves to God and to love, and wanting to use all else in his service.
This Week It Is With Great Sadness That We Remember In Our Prayers the young Isabelle Grundy, whose Funeral Service is at St. Teresa’s next Wednesday, 21st May, at 10 am, and Adam Bajkowski, who died so unexpectedly last Wednesday. The date for Adam’s Funeral has not yet been arranged. We pray for them and their families and friends. May they all be in God’s love and peace at these most difficult times.
This Sunday There Is The Annual Special Collection For Our ‘Home Missions’. It is a day of prayer for the spread of the Gospel in our own country, and the collection is for those agencies which support that work.
The Church Shop In The Outer Porch At St. Teresa’s is open before and after each weekend Mass. Please feel free to go in and have a look around.
Interested In The Catholic Faith? Have you ever asked yourself if you would like to know more about the Catholic Church, so that you can at least consider becoming a full member of our Church? In October we are going to begin meetings to help you, without any pressure, meetings where you will be made very welcome. The meetings take place in St. Teresa’s church sacristy, but are for anyone from St. John Southworth parish too, or any other local area. There is an introductory meeting to the whole programme, which we call ‘The Journey of Faith Programme’, on Wednesday 26th October at 7pm. If you are at all interested, or know of someone who is, please phone Fr. Chris – 01253 853340
The Sacrament of Confirmation for both St. Teresa’s and St. John Southworth parishes will take place on 11th November, at St. Teresa’s. This is for young people who will be in Year 8 in High School this September, and for anyone in the years above. There is an introductory meeting for the young people who wish to be Confirmed, and their parents, on Thursday, 6th October, at 6.30 pm in St. Teresa’s Church. Although contact is being made through Cardinal Allen R.C. High School, there may be other young people at other secondary schools who would like to be Confirmed. Would anyone wishing to be Confirmed please contact Fr. Chris (01253 853340).
Hiring St. Teresa’s Parish Hall : It is now possible to hire St. Teresa’s Parish Hall for some event of your own. For availability and advice please contact the Hall manager, Mike Holderness, on 01253 827230 or 07872 680645.
Education Mass at St. Peter’s Cathedral, Lancaster LA1 3BT on Friday, 7th October at 6.30 pm : All parishioners are invited to join Bishop Paul at the annual Diocese of Lancaster Education Mass. This invitation extends in a special way to all those involved in education and faith information – teachers, including those who teach outside the Catholic sector, catechists, youth workers, deacons and priests. The celebration gives us the opportunity to express our thanks and acknowledge the contribution made by all those in the Diocese involved in the work of education and formation in the faith. Together we also ask God’s blessing on the mission of education and formation in our Diocese. Please put the date in your diaries.
A Prayer For The Late Queen Elizabeth
Almighty God,
the one who is endless love,
who is over all and in all.
We give you thanks for our late Queen,
to whom you granted a long and fulfilling life,
which was marked by her sense of duty for this nation.
In Your life, she shaped her life.
Under your sovereignty, she fashioned her reign.
In your loving heart, she found wisdom and peace.
Grant that she may be wrapped in your loving presence
in your eternal Kingdom, where you are Lord, for ever and ever. Amen
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Carlo Carretto)
In the face of Love’s judgement I felt enclosed in my own infinite and omnipotent egoism, a freshly cut log still full of sap, refusing to burn, merely smoking and sizzling. This is why. One evening, in the desert, I met an old man shivering with cold. I had two blankets with me – indispensable for warmth on a night in the open. Giving him one meant going cold myself. I was afraid and kept both blankets for myself. I did not shiver with cold that night, but I trembled before God’s judgment the following day. The two blankets, nothing else, were the subject of the judgment. I was declared unfit for the kingdom, and I could see why: I had failed to observe the commandment ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ How could I enter the Kingdom of love in these conditions? I was rightly judged unfit and requested to remain outside until I had mended my ways.
Scripture (Ecclesiasticus 29:8-13)
Be patient with those who are badly off, do not keep them waiting on your generosity. In obedience to the commandment, help the poor. Spend your money on your brother or your friend, do not leave it under a stone to rust away. Use your wealth as the Most High has decreed; you will find that more profitable than gold. Stock your store-rooms with almsgiving; this will save you from all misfortune.
Tuesday (Fr. Richard Rohr)
The level of sophistication in this country moves higher every decade. Our restaurants, hotels and cars get better and better, and we get used to it! In a culture of affluence, people don’t necessarily lose the desire to do good. It’s worse than that. They don’t even recognise the good any more. They become spiritually blind. The rich man in the story never notices Lazarus because his concern is for prestige, comfort and consumption. You wouldn’t put a man in jail for that! He has done nothing “wrong,” yet the story puts him in the torment of “Hades.”
Scripture (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
Instruct those who are rich in this world’s goods that they should not be proud and should set their hopes not on money, which is untrustworthy, but on God who gives us richly all that we need for our happiness. They are to do good and be rich in good works, generous in giving and always ready to share – this is the way they can amass a good capital sum for the future if they want to possess the only life that is real.
Wednesday (Thomas a Kempis)
Christ speaks to the disciple: Take great care to ensure that in every place, action and outward occupation you remain inwardly free and your own master. Control circumstances and do not allow them control you. Only so can you be ruler of your actions and not their servant or slave. The things of this world have no hold over the children of God; on the contrary, they draw them into their service, and employ them in ways ordained by God who has left nothing in his creation without its due place.
Scripture (Mark 10:17-18,20-25)
A man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him and asked him, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life? I have kept all the commandments since my earliest days.’ Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, ‘You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.’
Thursday (Meister Eckhart)
However holy our works may be, they do not in any way make us holy in so far as they are works, but it is we, in so far as we are holy and possess fullness of being, who sanctify all our works. The reason why a person’s essence and ground is wholly good is that their mind is wholly turned to God. Make every effort, then, to let God be great and to ensure that all your good intentions and endeavours are directed to him in all that you do and in all that you refrain from doing. Truly, the more you do this, the better your works will be.
Scripture (Acts 2:42, 44-46)
People accepted what Peter said and were baptised. They remained faithful to the teachings of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. 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 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 (Martin Luther King)
Jesus knew that his disciples would face a difficult and hostile world. They would need a tough mind, characterised by incisive thinking and decisive judgment. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. They have a quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment. But the gospel also demands a tender heart, without which tough mindedness is cold and detached. The hard-hearted individual never experiences the beauty of friendship because they are too cold to feel affection for and are too self-centred to share another’s joy and sorrow. The hard-hearted person lacks the capacity for genuine compassion. They give money to a worthwhile charity, but give not of their spirit.
Scripture (1John 3:16-20)
This is the proof of love, that he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for each other. If anyone is well off in earthly possessions and see their brother in need but close their heart to him, how can the love of God be remaining in them? Children, our love must be not just mere words or talk, but something active and genuine. This will be the proof that we belong to the truth.
Martin Bennett