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
18 May 2025
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 of Easter
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflection
Gospel: John: 13:31-35
When Judas had gone Jesus said:
‘Now has the Son of Man been glorified,
And in him God has been glorified.
If God has been glorified in him,
God will in turn glorify him in himself,
And will glorify him very soon.
My little children,
I shall not be with you much longer.
I give you a new commandment:
Love one another;
Just as I have loved you,
you must also love one another.
By this love you have for one another,
Everyone will know that you are my discriples.
Gospel Reflection : Love One Another As I Have Loved You
It was one of those days. Things had gone wrong all day – some tensions at work, annoyance with people, criticism behind their backs. One of those days!
The words sometimes go through my mind on those occasions : “Love one another as I have loved you”. They don’t make it easier, but somehow it makes things look a bit different, and I think a bit more kindly of someone else.
Sometimes it’s the “love one another” that I remember, and that gets me. Why should I love him? Why should I care for her? They don’t seem to want to care for me. And I hear in the ear of the mind and the memory of the heart, the words of Jesus, “as I have loved you”.
‘Lord, your total love of me should be like a wave coming over me, refreshing, cooling me, and that gives me another chance, to cool off hot words, refresh tired judgements, and believe that as you love me you also love everyone.
So, thank you Lord for the words “Love one another as I have loved you”. They spur me on. cool me down, centre me and focus me on the gift of love and hope that is your gift to everyone.
A Big Thank You to those who organised the V. E. Day Afternoon Tea last Wednesday. All proceeds from the event are for charity, and an incredible £640 was collected, which will now be used to pay off all the work which has been done to repair the sacristy rooves. Thank you so much. That’s really useful.
Lancaster Diocese Centenary :To celebrate the centenary of our Diocese our Deanery (local group of churches) has organised a family event on Saturday 21st June 2025, 1-4 pm at St. John Vianney Parish, Blackpool. It is hoped that each parish will help to make it an enjoyable day, with entertainment, food, and games. Please see the notice in the church porch.
Tom Holland has organised a Fundraiser for Trinity Hospice and Brian House in memory of his wife Mary, Please see the notice in the church porch.
Please note,The Saturday Evening Mass on 12th July is at 5 pm.
This Weekend our CAFOD parish representative, Sue Ward, will kindly be telling us about some recent information.
Reflections for this week
Monday (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The bearers of Jesus’ word receive a final word of promise for their work. They are now Christ’s fellow workers and will be like him in all things. They are to meet those to whom they are sent as if they were Christ himself. When they are welcomed into a house, Christ enters with them. They are bearers of his presence. They bring with them the most precious gift in the world, the gift of Jesus Christ. And with him, they bring God the Father, and that means indeed forgiveness and salvation, life and bliss.
Scripture (John 14:15-20)
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the
Father and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, the spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live. On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you.
Tuesday (Cardinal Basil Hume)
The baptised share Christ’s role as prophet. It means that Christians never shed responsibility for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, in season and out of season, to those who hear and heed the Word and to those who reject it. It means as well that Christians have to interpret sensitively all human experience in the light of the Gospel so that through them, ordinary men and women can discover for themselves its deeper significance, bringing to the whole of society the truth that sets us free.
Scripture (Acts 14:21-27)
Having preached the Good News in that town and made a considerable number of disciples, they went back through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith, saying, ‘We must all experience many hardships before we enter the Kingdom of God.’ They passed through Pisidia and Pamphylia. Then after proclaiming the word at Perga they went to Attalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On their arrival they assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles.
Wednesday (A New Catechism)
In Israel and on behalf of all mankind, our creator linked himself with our human destiny. This process was a very gradual one and did not proceed without reference to human development and circumstances. As Renckens says, “Attaching himself freely and almost imperceptibly to mankind on its pilgrimage, the divine travelling companion enters into the conversation as he finds it. He intervenes to give it a new direction. Then there is a new beginning whose effects are gradually but inexorably felt.”
Scripture (Ephesians 2:18-22)
Through him, then, we both in the one Spirit have free access to the Father. So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow citizens with the holy people of God and part of God’s household. You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone. Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord; and you, too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Thursday (Thomas a Kempis)
The Disciple to Christ: The prophets can preach the word, but they cannot bestow the Spirit. They speak most eloquently, but if You are silent, they cannot fire the heart. They instruct in the letter, but You open the understanding. They set forth the mysteries, but You reveal the meaning of all secrets. They teach your commandments, but You help us to observe them. They point the way. But You grant us strength to follow it. You instruct and enlighten the heart. They water the seed; You make it fruitful. They proclaim the words, but You impart understanding to the mind.
Scripture (1 Cor.2: 12-15)
Now, the Spirit we have received is not the spirit of the world but God’s own Spirit, so that we may understand the lavish gifts God has given us. And these are what we speak of, not in the terms learned from human philosophy, but in terms learned from the Spirit, fitting spiritual language to spiritual things. The person who lives by human nature alone has no room for the gifts of God’s Spirit; he cannot recognise them, because their can only be assessed in the Spirit. For: ‘who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser?’ But we are those who have the mind of Christ.
Friday (Jean Vanier)
By becoming flesh, the Word makes all things new: he brings a new vision of humanity, a new way of being. God is no longer revealed just in the heavens, but God is more particularly present in the earth, hidden in the earth of pain and poverty, and hidden in the earth of our own being. Mary lived this radical change at the moment of the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh. For her, God was not just in the Temple of Jerusalem and in the prophets’ words, but she found a new presence of God in the body of her child. This is a radically new path.
Scripture (Psalm 98:1-6)
Sing a new song to the Lord, for he has performed wonders, his saving power in his right hand and holy arm. The Lord has made known his saving power, revealed his salvation for the nations to see, mindful of his faithful love and constancy to the House of Israel. The whole world has seen the saving power of our God. Acclaim the Lord, all the earth, burst into shouts of joy! Play to the Lord on the harp, to the sound of instruments; to the sound of trumpet and horn, acclaim the presence of the king.
Martin Bennett