NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES

Next Sunday the Church celebrates Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) Sunday. This year, the Church has been celebrating a significant anniversary. It is 1,700 years since the Council of Nicaea. At Nicaea, the great gathering of Bishops from around the Church began the work to formulate the Creed we proclaim Sunday by Sunday. It is the content of this Creed that is our mission as faithful followers of Jesus, so that we may know and love God in this life, in order to be happy with him forever in the next. The Creed begins with a profound proclamation, “I believe…” This is the theme for Evangelii Gaudium Sunday 2025.  There will be a retiring collection at the end of all Masses next weekend to support the development work of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales’ Department of Evangelisation and Discipleship to allow the Church to continue to spread the Good News proclaimed in the Church each time we say the Nicaean Creed.

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The feast recalls three historical events: the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine; the dedication of churches built by Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Calvary; and the restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem by the Emperor Heraclius II. However, the deeper meaning of the feast is a celebration of the Cross as the instrument of our salvation. This instrument of torture, designed to degrade the worst of criminals, became the lifegiving tree that reversed Adam's Original Sin when he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. Let us all place our hope and trust in the Cross as we celebrate this feast today.

Many thanks for your ongoing support for the homeless at the Night Shelter at St. Mary of the Angels, Canton. The team still needs hats, gloves, boxer shorts, socks and jackets for the people who use the night shelter, they are also in desperate need of jeans or trousers (32” waists). Please note that the young people are medium size at most. Please do not donate large clothes items. Sleeping bags and haversacks are also very welcome. The team also needs Fizzy drinks, chocolate bars, crisps, sweets and cakes. If you are able to help by donating any of these items, please drop them at the back of the Church.

Canon John on leave With Canon away, there will be no weekday Mass at St. Teilo’s and Our Lady of Lourdes. Neither St. Teilo’s nor Our Lady of Lourdes will be open this week. St. Teilo’s is closed as the new carpet is being fitted. Weekday Mass is available in our neighbouring churches: Nazareth House (access to the chapel is through the door on Colum Road, lift assisted access is via the convent entrance) – Mass is celebrated at 10am at Nazareth House on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. (No Mass on Tuesday) St. Joseph’s – Mass is celebrated at St. Joseph’s at 9.15am on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 7pm on Wednesday. The Three Churches – Mass is celebrated in the 3 churches as follows: Monday at 9.30am at St. Brigid’s, Tuesday at 9.30am at Christ the King, Wednesday at 9.30am at St. Paul’s, Thursday at 9.30am at Christ the King, Friday at 9.30am at St. Paul’s, Saturday at 9.30am at St. Brigid’s. St. Mary of the Angels and Holy Family –Mass is at 9.30am on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at St. Mary’s and at 9.30am on Thursday at Holy Family.

The Annual Ecumenical Service of Sung Vespers will take place in the grounds of Tintern Abbey on Sunday, September 15th at 3pm. This open-air service will focus on Prayers for Peace. This openair ecumenical service will draw together Christians of all backgrounds to this sacred site. The preacher this year will be Abbot Brendan Thomas OSB, Abbot of Belmont. You are invited to bring a folding chair for the service. Entry to the Abbey is free for those attending the service. Lunches and teas are available in the village nearby.

From Monday, September 8th to Friday, September 12th there will be Carpet Fitters at St. Teilo’s replacing the current carpet tiles with new carpet which is Supacord Heavy Contract Fibre Bonded Carpet and is specific for churches and areas with heavy footfall with a BREAM Rating of A+ which indicates that the product has the lowest overall environmental impact. The carpet comes with a 10 year guarantee and has been used in schools and other heavy-duty high traffic environments for over 40 years.  Many thanks to the parishioners who have noted the various breaks and wears in the current surface, it has taken a while to get Archdiocesan approval for the work to take place, but hopefully by Sunday, September 14th everyone will see the difference. Naturally, these things do not come cheap with the lowest tender being for £21,000. It seems like a good time to think of ways to fund this expenditure please let the Parish Finance Committee know if you have any suggestions for fund raising.

The next Parish Bingo evening will be on Friday, September 19th . The door will be open at 6.30 pm, for a prompt 7pm start. A Chip shop supper, which can be ordered on the night, is optional. Bingo is £7. Proceeds to the Parish Fund. All are welcome to come along and enjoy this fun evening.

For the first three weekends Canon John is away, Fr. John Patrick Thomas will be celebrating Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes on Saturday evening and hearing confessions before Mass. Mgr. Reardon will be celebrating the two Sunday Masses at St. Teilo’s. We welcome them both as they lead us in our Sunday worship. On the final Sunday of September, while Canon is in Lourdes, Fr. John Boles, Superior of the Columban Missionaries in Britain will celebrate all three weekend Masses and make the missionary appeal for the Columban Missionaries.

Each Tuesday evening, the parish has an hour of silent Adoration at St. Teilo’s from 7pm to 8pm. The primary intention for the period of Adoration is vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Feel free to come for all or part of the hour to pray for the Church in its need for faithful ministers to continue the Mission of Jesus.