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
4 February 2024
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel : Mark 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up, and the fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.
In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.
Gospel Reflection : “Open 24 Hours”
Reading the Gospel for this Sunday we may be reminded that Jesus had a very busy life. And yet elsewhere in the Scriptures we are told that to do the work he had been given it was essential for him to find a “lonely place and pray”..
Some of us have a lot of things to do. “Open 24 Hours” is the sign people expect to see on more than garage forecourts. And yet we can find a ‘lonely place’ elsewhere, as we may have done
during lockdown, or will do again during this coming season of Lent. The ‘lonely place’ is not necessarily far away, or for those who live alone. We can find a place to pray within ourselves, in the room of our own hearts. It is there that plans are hatched and our hopes fostered, and where our real self resides.
This room is with us at all times. We carry it around wherever we are. We could make it a place where we can go, by putting aside some time of our own choosing.. Then with others we might find a wonderful discovery – that that place is not a lonely place at all, but occupied by the God of love who dwells in us all.
We Remember In Our Prayers : Susan Feeney whose Funeral is at St. Teresa’s on Thursday, 15th February at 10.30 am. We remember her and her family, and those whose anniversaries are at this time.
May they all be in God’s peace.
Please Remember There Is Now Only One Sunday Morning Mass At St. Teresa’s, And That At 10 am.
The Sunday Mass Times In Cleveleys Are Now :
At St.Teresa’s : Saturday 6.30 pm (Vigil Mass); Sunday 10, am. (The weekday Masses remain the same – 9.30 am, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.)
At St. John Southworth : Sunday 5pm, ( The weekday Mass is on Wednesdays at 9.30 am)
The Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession will be available, from this Saturday 27th January, each Saturday from 6-6.20 pm at St. Teresa’s, that is, before the 6.30 pm Mass, or by appointment.
First Holy Communion for St. Teresa’s and St. John Southworth parishes will be celebrated this year on Sunday 12th May, at the 10 am Mass at St. Teresa’s. We will soon be starting our 2024 Reconciliation and First Holy Communion preparation, for Baptised children in Year 4 and above. Some of these children may be in another school besides St. Teresa’s, and they are welcome to join the programme too.
Our first meeting will take place after the 10 am Sunday Mass on 25th February 2024. The meeting will take place in the Parish Hall immediately after the end of Mass. Each meeting in the preparation programme will be after the end of the 10 am Mass
In order for the preparation to convey the full meaning of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it is necessary for the child and parent or guardian to attend the 10 am Mass each Sunday. Parents and guardians will be expected to work alongside their child, and our catechists, to support their children in their preparation. You are the first and best teachers for your children, and it is through your encouragement, love and care that they will grow in their understanding of God’s love and care.
Please could you let us know if you intend your child to take part in our Preparation Programme this year by contacting Clare Gooden on 07879 811925. If you have to leave a message please remember to leave your own contact number. We look forward to welcoming you and your child at our first meeting on 25 February.
A New ‘Fit For Purpose’ Kitchen Is Needed For Our Parish Hall. To start off our fundraising we are holding a ‘Table Top Sale’ on Saturday, 24th February, 10 am – 1 pm in the Parish Hall. Table Hire is Available for only £10 per table. For further information please contact Sue on 07889 532158.
One of the stalls at the Table Top Sale will be selling plants (indoor and outdoor), and all things linked with gardening. If anyone would like to contribute to this stall, for example potted cuttings etc, please let Sue or Bernard know. You can leave a message on the following mobile 07889 532158.
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 New Lancaster Diocesan Directory Is Now On Sale- in the church shop at St. Teresa’s, and in the church porch at St. John Southworth.
And also the “Walk With Me ” booklets have now arrived in the church shop, and will be on sale there from this Saturday, priced £1.
The SVP, the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Teresa’s, are extremely grateful for the £160.20, and a generous private donation, which was given in their recent collection.
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Viktor Frankl)
One time we were at work in a trench. The dawn was grey around us; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces. I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “Yes!” to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose. In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen.
Scripture (Rom 8:35-39)
Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ—can hardships or distress or persecution, or lack of food or clothing, or threats or violence? No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us. For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights or the depths, nor any created thing whatever will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Tuesday (Martin Luther King Jnr.)
My experience with God had given me a new strength and trust. I knew now that God is able to give us the interior resources to face the storms and problems of life. Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of
freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a great benign Power in the universe whose name is God, and he is able to make a way out of no-way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.
Scripture (Ps. 40:10-12,16-17)
I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love in the great assembly. For troubles surround me until they are beyond number; my sins have overtaken me; I cannot see my way. They outnumber the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me. But joy and happiness in you to all who seek you! Let them ceaselessly cry ’Great is Yahweh’ who lve your saving power. Poor and needy as I am, the Lord has me in mind. You, my helper, my Saviour, my God, do not delay.
Wednesday (Henri Nouwen)
We tend to divide our past into good things to remember with gratitude and painful things to accept or regret. This way of thinking, which at first glance seems quite natural, prevents us from allowing our whole past to be the source from which we live our future. It locks us into a self-involved focus on our gain or comfort. If God is to be found in our hard times, then all of life can open us to God’s work among us. As we come to God with our hurts—honestly not superficially—something life-changing can begin slowly to happen. We discover how God is the one who invites us to healing. We realise that any dance of celebration must weave both the sorrows and the blessings into a joyful step.
Scripture (Philippians 4:4-7)
Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful. Let your good sense be obvious to everybody. The Lord is near. Never worry about anything, but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.
Thursday (Thomas Cullinan, OSB)
I think that staying power is a quality we need very badly. People seem to lack long-term courage, that creative patience—not apathy, but the sort of patience that knows how to go on and on until the end appears—to hang on to the vision until it is possible to be creative with it, and not to give up one’s vision just because the thing seems hopeless. The New Testament writers had a word for it: “hypomene”. It meant “patient endurance,” the ability to be poised to do what needed doing even though all the going seemed to be against one. And that staying power calls on deep spiritual resources, on a deep peace within ourselves.
Scripture (Ps. 22:1-2,19, 22-25)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me. My God, I call by day but you do not answer, at night, but I find no respite. Yahweh, do not hold aloof! My strength, come quickly to my help. I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly. For he has not despised nor disregarded the poverty of the poor, has not turned away his face, but has listened to the cry for help.
Friday (Fr. Richard Rohr.)
Rising and dying are closely related. Despair, I suspect, is another kind of dying and another kind of pain. It is not so much the loss of persons as the loss of ideals, visions and plans. The crash of images is experienced as a death of the spirit, as a loss of hope, as a darkness almost too much to bear. Until we walk with this despair, we will not know that our hope was hope in ourselves, in our successes, in our power to make a difference, in our image of what perfection and wholeness should be. Until we walk with this despair, we will never uncover the hope on the other side of human achievement. Until we allow the crash and crush of our images we will never discover the real life beyond what only seems like death.
Scripture (Mk. 1:32-38)
That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were sick with diseases of on kind or another; he also drove out many devils. In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and went to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him said “Everybody is looking for you.” He answered “ Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring towns, so that I can proclaim the message there too, because this is why I came.”
Martin Bennett