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
9 October 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-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel: Luke 17:11.19
On the way to Bethlehem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one of the villages, ten lepers came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ When he saw them he said ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This made Jesus say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God except the foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’
Gospel Reflection : Thanks
One New Year’s Day I sat down and relaxed, and went over the last year. I thought of all I could be grateful for – people I met who helped me, people whom I love and who love me, and the times someone seemed to care. But I was grateful too for times I could help another, show some care, and make life a bit easier and safer for them. And I thought of things like faith and health, for having food on the table, and enough to live on.
Problems came to mind too – the worries of others, and my faults and failings, even though in the context of thanks they seemed less intense. And I know I could go back over the years and say thanks too, like a stream flowing by as I sit and enjoy the memories and feel the thanks. Thanks – a word that brings us alive, for some things in the past can still give life. Thanks – a word that keeps us humble, for we know that we depend on others. Thanks – a word that keeps us joyful, for we know that in every day there are the contacts and the memories, the help and support given and received, which are the seeds of life and of growth.
May we be people who are truly grateful to others and to God for what makes life worthwhile. Remember this day, remember last week, remember all times, and be grateful for things we find there!
We Remember In Our Prayers Adam Bajkowski whose Funeral Mass has now been arranged for Friday, 21st October, 10.30 am at St. Teresa’s. We remember him and his family, and all those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they be in God’s peace.
The Funeral of Fr. John Walsh, who, amongst several placements, was once parish priest at St. John’s, Poulton, and at English Martyrs’, High Cross, Poulton, is this Wednesday, 12th October, at St. John’s, Poulton, at 12 noon. May he too, and his family and friends, be in God’s peace.
CAFOD Family Fast : A big thank you to those who are returning their CAFOD envelopes this weekend, and those who have already donated. This year your donations will go to East Africa where millions of people are in the grips of starvation. At each Mass this weekend Sue will be at the back of church to help with any enquiries. She also has a bank card machine, linked directly to CAFOD, which some people may find useful.
And Closer To Home – A FOOD PANTRY : We want to establish a FOOD PANTRY for those most in need in our own locality. To do this we need your support and generosity. Our base will be at St. Teresa’s Church, where people can donate a variety of goods, for example tinned or dried foods, household items etc. PLEASE NO PERISHABLE OR OUT OF DATE GOODS. As ever, for this to happen, we need volunteers to run such a worthwhile and needed venture. Please could you give your support to this new initiative by letting Sue or Bernard Ward have your name and contact number. Their contact number is 01253 858346. Thank you.
Food Pantry Meeting : This Thursday, 13th October, there will be a meeting at 10 am or at 12.30 pm for those who have already kindly volunteered their service to help with the Food Pantry, and for any new people who would like to do so. Please meet at the back of St. Teresa’s church
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 round. Confirmation cards and gifts are available, as are 2023 diaries, with the order of Mass printed, are now on sale.
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.
There Were Twelve Young People And One Adult At The Confirmation Meeting Last Thursday A big thank you to them, the parents who were there, and Clare and our team of catechists who led them. It was a very open and friendly meeting.
Thornton Cleveleys Friends of Trinity Hospice are holding a Coffee Morning in St. Teresa’s Parish Hall on Saturday, 29th October, 10 am – 12 noon. Entrance is £1, which includes coffee and biscuits. There will be various stalls, a raffle and tombola. Hospice Christmas cards will also be on sale.
School Admissions 2023 There is a warm invitation to visit our St. Teresa’s Primary School, on the following days : Saturday, 15th October, 12 – 2 pm; Wednesday, 19th October, 5.30pm – 7 pm; and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 2 – 3 pm throughout November. Please phone the school office, 01253 852457, to book a visit.
A CAFOD Harvest Prayer
God of abundance, you entrust to our care your gift of creation, our common home. Open our ears to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
God of justice, you show us how to live in gratitude and solidarity. Open our mouths to speak out, challenging greed and inequality, and standing up for all among us in desperate need of food.
God of hope, you share with us your vision of a world renewed. Open our hearts to compassion. As we hold before you the people of East Africa, may we reach out in love. Amen.
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Brother Lawrence)
It is only necessary to realise that God is intimately present within us, to turn at every moment to him and ask for his help, recognise his will in all things doubtful, and to do well all that which we clearly see he requires of us, offering what we do to him before we do it, and giving thanks for having done it afterwards. In this unbroken communion one is continually preoccupied with praising, worshipping and loving God for his infinite acts of loving-kindness and perfection. We should in all confidence ask for his grace, which God never fails to offer at every juncture.
Scripture (Luke 17:11-19)
Jesus was travelling in the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ When he saw them, Jesus said, ‘Go and show yourself to the priests.’ Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Seeing that he was cured, one of them turned back, praising God at the top of his voice, and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This led Jesus to say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? Where are the other nine? It seems that no one has come back to praise God except this foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’
Tuesday (Fr. Richard Rohr)
Unless we presume that the Lord is speaking right now, how can we believe that He ever spoke? We proceed on the premise that the Lord is acting and speaking in our lives right now. To have an attitude of faith is to hear the Lord speaking everywhere and all the time, in the concrete and ordinary circumstances of our lives. People of faith don’t need signs and wonders. God has quietly broken through and stands perfectly revealed in the now of things.
Scripture (2Kings 5:9-11,13-15)
Naaman came with his team and chariot to Elisha’s house. And
Elisha sent him a messenger to say, ‘Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be clean once more.’ But Naaman was indignant and went off saying, ‘I thought he would be sure to come out to me, call on the name of his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure me.’ And he went off in a rage. But his servants approached him and said, ‘If the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you have done it? All the more reason then to do as he says.’ So Naaman bathed as Elisha had told him to and his flesh became clean once more. Returning to Elisha, he went in and said, ‘Now I know there is no God anywhere except in Israel.’
Wednesday There lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing. If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is offered by the offer of a holiday at the seaside. We are far too easily pleased. (C.S.Lewis)
Scripture (Matthew 13:13-16)
Jesus said, ‘The reason I talk in parables is they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. So in their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive! This people’s heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me. But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!’
Thursday The graces with which God has so plentifully endowed our soul and by which he has surrounded our very existence, reveal his designs in our regard. Life should be the most perfect realisation possible of these designs. We appraise everything – persons, things and events – from the human point of view, which is so ephemeral and narrow. Our values should be God’s eternal values. Then things would open out and become beautiful. It is this life of faith which is the very life of God within us. (A Carthusian)
Scripture (2 Cor. 4:3-4, 6)
If our gospel seems to be veiled at all, it is so to those who are on their way to destruction, the unbelievers whose minds have been blinded by the god of this world, so that they cannot see shining the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. It is God who said, ‘Light shine out of darkness,’ that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God’s glory, the glory on the face of Christ.
Friday For the founders of Christian monasticism life was the wonder of the present encounter with the risen and fully alive Jesus. This encounter is freedom from the individual bondages of our personal histories as well as from the collective enslavement to sin, fear, ignorance and weakness. By knowing this freedom of Jesus as the deepest human reality, the monastic founders ignited a living tradition. The spirit of their tradition has to be alive for us as it was for them because the ‘new creation’ to which Jesus is the door is as fresh for us as it was to the first disciples. (John Main, OSB)
Scripture (John 14:6-11)
Jesus said, ‘If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you have known him and seen him.’ Philip said, ‘ Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’ Jesus said, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me: or at least believe it on the evidence of these works.
Martin Bennett