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
19 May 2024
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : Pentecost
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflection
Gospel: John 15:26-27
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘When the Advocate comes,
Whom I shall send to you from the Father,
The Spirit of truth who issues from the Father,
He will be my witness.
And you too will be witnesses,
Because you have been with me from the outset.
I still have many things to say to you
But they would be too much for you now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes
He will lead you to the complete truth,
Since he will not be speaking as from himself
But will say only what he has learnt;
And he will tell you of the things to come.
He will glorify me,
Since all he tells you
Will be taken from what is mine.
Everything the Father has is mine;
That is why I said:
All he tells you
Will be taken from what is mine.”
Gospel Reflection – Pentecost : The Farming Of Ideas And Resources
Christians adopted today’s Feast to commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit after the Ascension of Jesus. Originally Pentecost was an ancient celebration of the harvesting of wheat, and before Christ it also became the Jewish celebration, fifty days after Passover, for the giving of the Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. Our Pentecost today celebrates the new Commandment of love, as preached in word and action by Jesus, and our empowerment by his Spirit to live that love in our daily lives.
Of course we are used to praying at our own harvest-time in this country. Once a banker and a builder in town asked that when the community prays for farmers it should also pray for those who support the whole agricultural community. Farming, they pointed out, does not exist in isolation, but is dependent on the services and support of many people.
In our age of fast communication, and meeting-places such as Zoom, we still recognise that no-one can survive in isolation – and recognising that leads to new hope. Life in general, and parish life in particular, is a complex web of services and support being brought together.
Today we invite God’s Spirit into the life of both our small and large communities, remembering that the gifts and talents given to each of us are for the common good of all. Today we also thank God that there are so many people whose gifts allow our own to flourish.
We Remember In Our Prayers : John Stevenson whose Funeral was last week, and Eileen Lee whose Funeral Service is at Carleton Crematorium on Friday, 24th May at 1.15 pm and George Wilson whose Funeral is at Carleton Crematorium on Friday, 31st May at 11.45 am. We remember them and their families, and those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they all be in God’s peace.
This Sunday Pentecost Sunday (19th May) will be an opportunity for Parishioners to volunteer their time and talents to help in the important, various needs of the Parish, eg. Readers, Eucharistic ministers, Welcomers, Visitors to the sick and housebound, church cleaning, and gardening, to name but a few. More information will be available when we celebrate Pentecost, when there will be tables at the back of church, as in previous years, itemising all the different roles which are so welcome, and which will ‘lighten the load’.
Also : In a further step to returning to pre-Covid ‘normality’, the Sunday Mass weekly basket Collection and Offertory Procession will recommence on Sunday, 19th May.
The SVP (St. Vincent de Paul Society) have their regular collection for those in need at each Mass this weekend.
Thornton Cleveleys Friends of Trinity Hospice had an excellent Coffee Morning last Saturday, and are very grateful indeed for the great amount, £1.028.15, which was raised for the Hospice in Bispham. Kathryn Burn, the Secretary, writes : “All the money we raise goes to ensuring that palliative care remains freely available to those in our community who need it.” A very big ‘Thank You’ to those who helped in any way.
The Church Shop, in the porch at the back of church, is open before and after each Sunday Mass
5th Cleveleys (St. Teresa’s) Rainbow and Brownies need some new members : Rainbows Aged 4-7,Brownies Aged 7-10. Our numbers are becoming very low as Rainbows move up to Brownies, and Brownies move up to Guides. Please see or contact Kathryn Brimelow Tel. 07522 146571.
Two Social Events For Your Diaries :
- There is to be another Afternoon Tea. This will take place in the Church Hall on Wednesday, 5th June, 2 pm – 4 pm. Tickets are now available at the back of church after Mass, or contact Sue on 07889 523158. The cost is £7, but proceeds will go towards Parish/Pantry projects. Unfortunately only limited seats are available, so please book early to avoid disappointment
- There will be a Parish/Community Summer Night in the Church Hall on Saturday, 20th July. This will involve music, games and a little entertainment. Anybody interested in singing a few songs as a group, the first meet up will be in the Church Hall green room, next Wednesday, 22nd May at 7pm. This is being organised by Steve Connor. Everybody is welcome.
The Food Pantry, situated at the back of church at St. Teresa’s, is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10.30 am – 12 noon, and on Wednesdays, 2.30 pm – 4 pm. We are so grateful for all the volunteers who work in the Pantry, and all those who donate contributions.
Daily Reflections for this week
Monday (Cardinal Newman)
The condescension of the blessed Spirit is as incomprehensible as that of the Son. He has ever been the secret presence of God within creation and the voice of truth in the hearts of all rational beings, tuning them into harmony with the intimation of God’s law. He is especially called the “life giving” Spirit, being the inward light of the patriarchs and prophets, the grace abiding in the Christian soul, and Lord and ruler of the Church. Therefore, let us ever praise the Father Almighty, who is the first source of all perfection, in and together with his co-equal Son and Spirit.
Scripture (Acts 2:1-8)
When Pentecost day came around, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind, which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves. Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. ‘Surely’, they said, ‘All these men speaking are Galileans?’
Tuesday (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
We, too, are being driven back to first principles. Atonement and redemption, regeneration, the Holy Spirit, the love of our enemies, the cross and resurrection, life in Christ and Christian discipleship—all these things have become so problematic and so remote that we hardly dare speak of them. The day will come when people will be called again to utter the word of God with such power as will change and renew the world. It will be a new language which will horrify people, and yet overwhelm them with its power.
Scripture (Isaiah 61:1-2)
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison.
Wednesday (Fr. Richard Rohr)
When you no longer expect something from life, you are for all practical purposes an atheist. When you are no longer open to do something new, you might as well hang it up. The experience of the Spirit is an undeserved, unmerited becoming, a new whole greater than the sum of all the parts. It draws us out and beyond ourselves. It is radical grace. To walk in the Spirit is to allow yourself to be grabbed by God and taken into a much larger world of meaning.
Scripture (2 Timothy 1:6-7,13-14)
That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess. God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the spirit of power and love and self-control. Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, look after that thing given in trust.
Thursday (St. Teresa of Avila)
The prayer of quiet, then, is a little spark of the true love of Himself, which our Lord begins to enkindle in the soul; and his will is that the soul should understand what this love is by the joy it brings. This spark given of God, however slight it may be, causes a great crackling; it is the beginning of a great fire, which sends forth the flames of the most vehement love of God. What the soul has to do is nothing more than to be gentle and without noise. By noise I mean striving with the understanding in search of words and reflections whereby to give thanks for his grace, and gathering up the sins and imperfections to show that it does not deserve it.
Scripture (Titus 3:4-7)
When the kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed, it was not because of anything we had done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own faithful love that he saved us through the washing by which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and new life. For God abundantly poured out the Holy Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that by his grace we might be made right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.
Friday (Evelyn Underhill)
From the first to the last, the emphasis is to be on God and not on ourselves. Admiring delight, not cadging demands. Faithful and childlike dependence – a clinging to the Invisible, as the most real of all realities, in all the vicissitudes of life – not mere self-expression and self-fulfilment. Disinterested collaboration in the Whole, in God’s vast plan and purpose, not concentration on our own small affairs. Three kinds of generosity. Three kinds of self-forgetfulness. A confident reliance on the immense fact of His Presence, everywhere and at all times, pressing on the soul and the world by all sorts of paths and in all sorts of ways, pouring out on it His undivided love, and demanding undivided loyalty. We stand in a world completely penetrated by the living God. We are citizens of that world now; and our whole life is or should be and acknowledgement of this.
Scripture (Ephesians 4:2-7)
With all humility and gentleness and with patience, support each other in love. Take care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one body, one Spirit just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all and within all. On each one of us God’s favour has been bestowed in whatever way Christ allotted it.
Martin Bennett