St Teresa & St John Southworth Churches, Cleveleys
Fr Chris Cousens—Phone: 853325
Rev Bernard Ward (Deacon) (Tel: 858346)
Enquiries for St John Southworth: Phone: 853340
15 June 2025
http://www.st-teresas-church.co.uk
Email: st.teresas.cleveleys@gmail.com
Lancaster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered Charity Number 23433
Sunday : Trinity Sunday
Contents: Gospel
Notices
Reflection
Gospel: John 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘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 : “God Loved The World So Much He Gave His Only Son”
From their eternal home the Trinity, (one God, three Persons), look on our world. Father, Son and Spirit, they see that we need them. We need to know more about the love of God, and what is the true meaning of our lives. They look on our lives and see our hungers and thirsts, our feelings of isolation and our conflicts. They see homes at peace and homes unhappy, and relationships needing help. They see the confusion of the young and the loneliness of the old. This weekend’s Feast of the Trinity means they care. That’s what it means – God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
They sent the best help they know to the people they loved and who needed their help. They sent not just a word of comfort, or vague promises of help. They sent one of themselves. They sent Jesus – “God so loved the world that he gave his only son”.
And through Mary, a young woman about to marry, the word was made flesh. Through millions since then, the love of the Trinity is alive in our world – through you, through me, in the love and care we show, and in the faith we live by and the hope we share – “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son”, and their Spirit remains with us for ever. Let us today give thanks for this great mystery : “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
We Remember In Our Prayers Lynne Wild whose Funeral Service is Carleton Crematorium on Monday 16th June at 12 .30 pm. We remember her and her family, and those whose anniversaries are at this time. May they all be in God’s peace.
Fr. Chris’ Golden Jubilee on Saturday, 12 July. To mark the occasion and celebrate the day, the Parish Council have organised a “a bit of a do”. The event will start with Mass at 5 pm. Please note that there will not be a 6.30 pm Mass that day. After Mass there will be a celebration with food in the Parish Hall. If you wish to attend the celebration please put your name and contact number on the sheets at the back of church. A buffet and refreshments (tea and coffee will be provided). Please note, there is a limit to the numbers we can have in the Hall.
There Is A Day of Renewal At St Clare’s Church in Fulwood, Preston PR2 9HH on Saturday 28th June, led by Archie Cameron.
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.
Reflections for this week
Monday (Thomas Merton)
The Lord made his world not in order to judge it, not in order merely to dominate it, to make it obey the dictates of an inscrutable and all-powerful will, not in order to find pleasure or displeasure in the way it worked. The Lord made the world and humans in order that he himself might descend into the world, that he himself might become man. The world was not made as a prison for fallen spirits who were rejected by God. The world was made as a temple, a paradise, into which God himself would descend to dwell familiarly with the spirits he had placed there to tend it for him.
Scripture (1John 4:14-19)
We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Saviour of the world. Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is. In love there is no room for fear, because fear implies punishment and whoever is afraid has not come to perfection in love.
Tuesday (Julian of Norwich)
We are enfolded in the Father, and we are enfolded in the Son, and we are enfolded in the Holy Spirit. And the Father is enfolded in us, and the Son is enfolded in us, and the Holy Spirit is enfolded in us. Our soul rests in God its true peace; our soul stands in God its true strength, and is deep-rooted in God for endless love. And if we in our blindness and weakness should at any time fall, we should quickly rise and go at once to God in love; not on the one hand crawling abjectly as if we were in despair, nor, on the other, bein over-bold as if we thought it did not matter.
Scripture (Exodus 34:4-6,8-9)
Moses went up Mount Sinai in the early morning as Yahweh had ordered. And Yahweh descended in a cloud and stood with him there and pronounced the name Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed before him and called out, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy.’ Moses immediately bowed to the ground in worship, then he said, ‘If indeed I do enjoy your favour, please, my Lord, come with us, although they are an obstinate people; and forgive our faults and sins, and adopt us as your heritage.
Wednesday (St. Athanasius)
The Trinity is endowed with the complete power of creating and energising. The gifts which the Spirit distributes to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all things that belong to the Father likewise belong to the Son: so that those things that are given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit is in us, the Word by whom we receive him is also in us, and in the Word is also the Father, and this is the meaning of the text, ‘We (that is the Father and I) will come to you and make our home in you.’
Scripture (2 Cor. 3:12-18)
Moses put a veil over his face so that the Israelites should not watch the end of what is transitory. But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is not lifted for only in Christ is it done away with. As it is, to this day, whenever Moses is read their hearts are covered with a veil, and this veil will not be taken away until they turn to the Lord. Now this Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image that we reflect with brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord who is the Spirit.
Thursday (St. Thomas Aquinas)
The meaning of possessing something is that it is in our power to use it and enjoy it at will. To have the power to rest joyfully in a divine person is ours by reason of grace alone. Still, as grace is given the Holy Spirit is possessed and dwells in a person and so it is he himself who is given and sent. Admittedly, effect of grace is also from the Father, who abides in us through grace even as do the Son and the Holy Spirit. The entire Trinity abides in the soul by reason of sanctifying grace.
Scripture (Ephesians 2:17-22)
He came to bring peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. 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.
Friday (St. John of the Cross)
It should not be held as incredible in a soul that the promise of the Son of God be fulfilled, the promise that the most Blessed Trinity will come and dwell in anyone who loves him. The Blessed Trinity inhabits the soul by divinely illumining its intellect with the wisdom of the Son, delighting its will in the Holy Spirit, and absorbing it powerfully and mightily in the
unfathomable embrace of the Father’s sweetness.
Scripture (Jn. 14:10-11,23,25-26)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; anyone who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we shall love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him. I have said these things while still with you, but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything.
Martin Bennett