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
3 March 2024
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : Third Sunday of Lent
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflections for the coming week
Gospel : John 2:13-25
Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, “Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.” Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said, ‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?” Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.
During his stay in Jerusalem for the Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he gave, but Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about any man; he could tell what a man had in him.
Gospel Reflection : The House of Fraser – And John, and Anne. And……….
Our church, like the Temple in Jerusalem, is a house of God, as are our own homes, as we may have discovered during those Covid lockdown times. All have the potential and opportunity of being houses of prayer.
Of course, we can pray in many ways, and at many different levels, but we pray first by appreciating that we are in God’s presence, and can come to be with Him as we are. Then we can pray with our thoughts and our lips. But most of all we pray with our hearts. Unless our hearts are behind what we say or think, then our words are just sounds, no better than a ‘gong booming or a cymbal clashing’, as St Paul once said.
Our churches and our homes are also places where we draw close to others. In fact the quality of our prayer depends on the bond that exists between us. Although different, one from another, if we are united in heart and mind our prayer will be very powerful indeed.
But if we are not reconciled with another, our prayer will be like the singing of a choir in which some members are out of tune.
Lord Jesus, help us to make our church, and our house, a true house of prayer.
We Remember In Our Prayers Maureen Lynch, whose Funeral Service is at St. Teresa’s on Tuesday, 19th March at 12.30 pm, and Donna Fildes, the daughter of Des and Vera Stevenson, who has sadly, and unexpectedly died, and whose Funeral Mass is at the Church of St. Andrew and Blessed George Haydock in Cottam, Preston (PR4 0NB) on Thursday, 21st March, at 10 am. We remember Maureen and Donna, and their families and friends, and those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they all be in God’s peace.
Again This Week We Warmly Welcome to the 10 am Sunday Mass the children who are preparing for their FIrst Holy Communion, and their parents. First Holy Communion for both are parishes will be celebrated at the 10 am Mass on Sunday, 12th May. The preparation meeting for both the children and the adults, takes place in the Parish Hall straight after the end of Mass.
A Very Big Thank You to Sue and Bernard, and all those who set up or supported the Table Top Sale in the Hall last weekend. This was for the much-needed refurbishment of the kitchen in the Parish Hall, including an appropriate oven. This event raised the amazing figure of £960, which someone has kindly added to, making a total figure of £1,000. Thank you so much for this superb help to achieve what needs to be done.
CAFOD : Thank You Too to those who are returning their CAFOD Lenten Fast envelopes to church this weekend. CAFOD envelopes are always available at the back of church.
Stations of The Cross This Sunday (25th February), and each Sunday in Lent, we have the Stations of the Cross, with Benediction, at 3 pm at St. Teresa’s. This is a short Service which is very suitable for our Lenten reflection.
Appeal : For a future Parish project we need to collect lots of plastic milk bottle tops (white only). These can be left at the back of St.Teresa’s Church, or in the church shop, in batches when you have them available. Thank you for your help.
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 Church Shop, in the porch at St. Teresa’s, is open before and after each weekend Masses, and has cards and gifts for Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and First Holy Communion. The last few Diocesan Directories are also on sale, priced at £6. Please call in and browse. You will be most welcome.
The January 100 Club Winners :
Maura Brogden, £15; Margaret Rennison, £10, John Dunkerley £5.
A CAFOD LENT PRAYER
Plant in us, Lord, seeds of solidarity, so that rejoicing in your gifts we may cherish your presence in each other and in all creation
Root us, Lord, in compassion and justice. Pour your Spirit down like gentle rain, softening our hearts, and washing away division and selfishness.
Cultivate in us, Lord, attentiveness to your call. Give us hope to dream a better world, and strength to play our part to make it really happen.
Grow in us, Lord, your ways of peace and courage, so that in this time of Lent we may bear witness to your way of love revealed to us in Jesus, our Lord. Amen
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Thomas a Kempis)
Christ speaks: I must be your supreme and final end, if you desire true happiness. Refer all things to me, for it is I who have given all to you. From myself, as from a living mountain, both small and great, rich and poor alike draw the water of life; and they who willingly and freely serve me shall receive grace upon grace. But whoever desires to glory in anything outside me, or to delight in any personal good thing, will not be established in true joy, nor be uplifted in heart. Therefore, ascribe all to God, without whom man was nothing.
Scripture (2 Corinthians 6:14-17;7:1)
Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers; what can light and darkness have in common? The temple of God cannot compromise with false Gods, and that is what we are—the temple of the living God. We have God’s word for it: ‘I shall fix my home among them and live among them; I will be their God and they will be my people.’ Since these promises have been made to us, dear friends, we should wash ourselves clean of everything that pollutes either body or spirit, bringing our sanctification to completion in the fear of God.
Tuesday (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh)
Worship to me means a relationship. I used not to be a believer, then one day I discovered God and immediately he appeared to me to be the supreme value and the total meaning of life, but at the same time a person. You cannot teach worship to someone who has not got a sense of the living God; you can teach them to act as if they believed, but it will not be the attitude which is real worship. One of the reasons why communal worship or private prayer seems to be so dead is that the act of worship, which takes place in the heart communing with God, is too often missing.
Scripture (Exodus 20:1-5,7-9)
Then God spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no gods except me. You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am a jealous God and I punish the father’s fault in the children, but I show kindness to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not utter the name of the Lord your God top misuse it, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who utters his name to misuse it. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall but the seventh day is a Sabbath for the Lord your God.
Wednesday (Thomas Merton)
It is a law of man’s nature, written into his very essence, and just as much a part of him as the desire to build houses and cultivate the land and marry and have children and read books and sing songs, that he should want to stand together with others in order to acknowledge their common
dependence on God, their Father and Creator
Scripture (Psalm 62:5-12)
Rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my hope. He alone is my rock, my safety, my stronghold, so that I stand unwavering. In God is my safety and my glory, the rock of my strength. In God is my refuge; trust in him, you people, at all times. Pour out your hearts to him, God is a refuge for us. Ordinary people are a breath, important people an illusion; set both on the scales and they are lighter than a puff of wind. For God has said only one thing, only two do I know: that to God alone belongs power and to you, Lord, love.
Thursday (John Henry Newman)
I need you to teach me day by day, according to each day’s opportunities and needs.
Give me, O my Lord, that purity of conscience which alone can receive, which alone can improve your inspirations.
My ears are dull, so that I cannot hear your voice.
My eyes are dim, so that I cannot see your signs.
You alone can quicken my hearing and urge my sight and cleanse and renew my heart.
Teach me to sit at your feet and hear your word.
Scripture (Psalm 19:7-10)
The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, they gladden the heart. The command of the Lord is clear, it gives light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is holy, abiding for ever. The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. They are more to be desired than gold, than the purest of gold and sweeter are they than honey.
Friday (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The church is marked off from the world not by a special privilege, but by the gracious election and calling of God. “Say” and “do” do not mean the ordinary contrast between word and deed, but two different relations between man and God. The person who says ‘Lord, Lord’ is the one who puts forward a claim that he has said ‘it’; the doer is the person of humble obedience who builds their life on the grace of God. The person who says ‘Lord, Lord’ has either called themselves to Jesus without the Holy Spirit or has made out the call of Jesus as a personal privilege. But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, they obey and follow. They understand their call not as a right, but as an act of God’s judgment and grace, as the will of God which alone they must obey.
Scripture (Philippians 2:13-16)
It is God who, for his own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act. Let your behaviour be free of murmuring and complaining so that you remain faultless and pure, unspoilt children of God surrounded by a deceitful and underhand brood, shining out among them like bright stars in the world, proffering to it the Word of life.
Martin Bennett