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
27 November 2022
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : 1st Sunday of Advent
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left, of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left.
‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
Gospel Reflection : “Stay Awake” _ But Are We Truly “Woke”?
Our beautiful time of Advent, our preparation to celebrate the Lord’s coming, has now begun.
The trouble is many of us may be tempted to say that we have a lot on at the moment, including the material preparation and planning, like presents, cards and food, so there might be more opportunity to prepare spiritually sometime later.
As we heard today, St. Paul once said “The night is almost over, it will be daylight soon.”
The story is told of an ancient Rabbi who once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night was over, and the day was on its way back again. One suggested : ‘When you see an animal in the distance, and you can tell whether it is a sheep or a goat.’ Another said : ‘When you see a tree in the distance, and you can tell whether it is a fig tree or an orange tree.’
But the Rabbi was not impressed, and he answered like this : “It is when you look at the face of any human being, and see there the face of a sister or brother – because if you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, for you it is still the night.”
There is only one time when we can prepare to make sure we are ready for when the Lord comes. That time is now, and we prepare by sharing our lives with Him and with each other day by day.
We Remember In Our Prayers Dorothy Hegginbotham and Kenneth (Ken) Evans whose Funerals were last week, Raymond (Ray) Nelson whose Funeral is at Carleton Crematorium on Wednesday, 30th November at 11.45 am, Gerry Diamond whose Funeral Service is at St. Teresa’s on Monday. 5th December at 11.30 am, and Mavis McQuillen whose Funeral is at St. Teresa’s on Wednesday, 14th December, at 11.30am. We remember them and their families, and those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they all be in God’s peace.
The Church Shop, in the outer porch of St. Teresa’s Church, is open before and after each weekend Mass. Please feel free to go in and look round. Christmas cards are available, as well as many other cards and gifts, including 2023 diaries.
The SVP are very grateful for your donations, amounting to £102.71, which you kindly gave to their special collection last weekend.
This Weekend there is the annual special collection for the Poor Missions Fund, which supports those parishes of our own diocese who financially cannot support themselves.
Christmas Mass Times
St. Teresa’s : Saturday, 24th December, 6.30 pm
Sunday, 25th December, 9.00 am and 10.30 am
St. John Southworth : Sunday, 25th December, 10.00 am
(There is no 5 pm Mass that Sunday)
Advent Service : On Tuesday, 6th December, St. Teresa’s are hosting the annual Blackpool Catholic Schools Advent Service, in church at 6 pm. All are very welcome.
St. Teresa’s School Christmas Events :
Key-stage 2 Carol Concert in church: Monday 12th December, at 2 pm, and Tuesday 13th December, at 10.30 am and 6 pm.
Key-stage 1 Christmas Nativity in the school hall : Thursday, 15th December at 6 pm, and Friday, 16th December at 9.15 am
Nursery and Reception Christmas Nativity in the school hall : Thursday 8th December, at 2.15 pm.
Churches Together In Cleveleys have organised our annual Carol Singing together in town, outside the TSB bank on Victoria Road, on Saturday, 10th December, at 11 am.
The Dream Team Singers, & Harmony and Health Singers are kindly giving us a Christmas Concert, with carols and traditional songs, in St. Teresa’s church on Sunday, 18th December at 2 pm. Everyone is welcome.
The Christmas Fayre which is in St. Teresa’s Parish Hall next Sunday, 4th December, 2 – 5 pm, has been organised by the North Fylde Rotary Club, for their own charitable work, which on this occasion is to support local food parcels. For further information, including being interested in a stall, please contact 07718 767255
The Food Pantry In St. Teresa’s Church Building is open between 10.30 am and 12 noon on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 2.30 – 4 pm on Wednesdays.
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Brother Lawrence) I speak honestly and often of my way of approaching God. It all amounts to one good act of renunciation of everything which we recognize does not belong to God, in order to habituate ourselves to an unbroken converse with him without mystery or artificiality. It is an enormous self-deception to believe that the time of prayer must be different from any other. We are equally bound to be one with God by what we do in times of action as by the time of prayer at its special hour. We must not grow weary in doing little things for the love of God, who looks not to the greatness of the deed, but to the love. When this finally becomes habit it produces the action without our thinking about it, and with wondrous joy.
Scripture (Psalm 119:33-37) Teach me, Lord, the way of your will, and I will observe it. Give me understanding and I will observe your Law, and keep it wholeheartedly. Guide me in the way of your commandments, for my delight is there. Bend my heart to your instructions, not to selfish gain. Avert my eyes from pointless images, by your word give me life.
Tuesday (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) How could Jesus’ call to Levi immediately evoke obedience? We get the stupid question: surely he must have known Jesus before, and that previous acquaintance explains his readiness to hear the Master’s call. Scripture displays not the slightest interest in the psychological reasons for a person’s religious decisions for the simple reason that the cause behind the immediate following of call by response is Jesus Christ himself. The encounter is a testimony to the absolute, direct and unaccountable authority of Jesus. He has the authority to call and demand obedience to his word. Jesus summons us to follow him not as a teacher or a pattern of the good life, but as the Christ, the Son of God. In the call of Levi, Jesus Christ and his claim are proclaimed.
Scripture (John 8:23-26, 31-32)
Jesus said, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I have told you already: you will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus answered: What I have told you from the outset. About you I have much to say and much to judge; but the one who sent me is true, and what I declare to the world I have learned from him. To the Jews who believed in him, Jesus said, ‘If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Wednesday (Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius) There are people whose desire is to want a thing or not to want it only according as God our Lord shall move their will, and as might appear to them personally to be more for the service and praise of God. In the meantime they wish to reckon themselves as having given the thing up totally in their hearts; and they draw upon all their powers to want neither this thing, nor anything else, unless it be solely the service of God our Lord that moves them. Thus it is the desire to be better able to serve God our Lord that will move them to be able to take the thing in question or to leave it.
Scripture (Ephesians 5:8-11, 15-17)
You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of the light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth. Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are. Be very careful about the sorts of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people. Make the best of the present time, for it is a wicked age. That is why you must not be thoughtless but must recognize what is the will of the Lord.
Thursday (Carlo Carretto) Brother Charles de Foucauld faced a spiritual crisis which was to make him leave the monastery he loved and go in search of a religious life very different from the earlier one. He said “I no longer want a monastery which is secure.” Had his spirit of prayer weakened? No, he had taken a step forward. He had decided to live the contemplative life on the streets, in a situation similar to that of any ordinary man. That step is much harder! It is the step that God wants mankind to make. He felt his calling was saying “You must go back among men, live your intimacy with God in the noise of the cities. And for this, the grace of God will not fail you.”
Scripture (2 Cor. 5:17-18, 20-6:1).
For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see. It is all God’s work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you though us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God. For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God. As his fellow workers, we urge you not to let the acceptance of his grace come to nothing.
Friday (Evelyn Underhill) In the days that are coming, I am sure that Christianity will have to move out from the churches and chapels, beautifying and enriching all levels of being, physical, social and mental as well as spiritual, telling the truth about God and man, casting its transfiguring radiance on the whole of that world in which man has to live, and in the light of this interpretation show mankind the way out of its confusions, misery and sins. Only those who have learned to look at the eternal with the disinterested loving gaze, who do see the stuff of common life with the light shining through it, will be able to do that.
Scripture (Isaiah 2:2-5)
It will happen in the final days that the mountain of the Lord’s house will rise higher than the mountains and will tower above the heights. Then all the nations will stream to it, many peoples will come to it and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.’ Then he will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, no longer will they learn to make war. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in God’s light.
Martin Bennett