CHORLEY HOSPITAL: Please contact St Joseph’s, Harper’s Lane (262713). If you are scheduled for an operation and would like to receive the Sacraments while in hospital. In an emergency, the ward staff will call in whoever is the on-call priest via the switchboard.
NEXT BAPTISM PREPARATION COURSE: Would parents please contact Fr Marsden or Deacon Norman personally, after one of the weekend Masses, if they wish to make baptism arrangments.
ST ANNE’S GUILD: Bingo this Tuesday 8st March 2016 at 7.45 pm in the Parish Centre.
APF-MILL HILL: DuringMarch promoters will be contacting “red box” holders to collect donations for the work of the APF-Mill Hill missions throughout the world. Thank you to everyone for faithfully supporting themissions, the totalamount raisedby St Mary's parishioners during 2015 has been confirmed at £3,940.89.
ARCHDIOCESE OF LIVERPOOL JUSTICE & PEACE COMMISSION has further details of the 36th annual Romero Mass on Sunday 13th March, 10 am at St Benedict’s Warrington. WA2 7QE. Further information available from or 0151 522 1080. In our parish, our primary school children receive a Romero Cross at the time of their First Holy Communion, which is a reminder for them to pray for the protection of life, promote human dignity and oppose violence. Blessed Oscar Romero, Bishop and Martyr, was murdered in 1980 while offering the Holy Mass in the chapel of Divine Providence in El Salvador.
QUOTATIONS ON THE GOSPEL PARABLE: “It is not reason which turns the young man from God; it is the flesh. Scepticism but provides him with the excuses for the new life he is leading.” St Augustine
“Dad, I’m not at all sure I can follow you any longer in your simple Christian faith’ stated the clergyman’s son when he returned from the university for holidays with a fledgling scholar’s assured arrogance. The father’s black eyes skewered his son, who was 'lost,' as C.S. Lewis put it ‘in the invincible ignorance of his intellect.’ ‘Son,’ the father said, ‘That is your freedom, your terrible freedom.” ― Ruth Bell Graham
“You never depart from us, but yet, only with difficulties do we return to You.”
― Saint Augustine, Confessions
“It was his home now. But it could not be his home till he had gone from it and returned to it. Now he was the Prodigal Son.” G.K. Chesterton
“The fatted calf, the best Scotch, the hoedown could all have been his too, any time he asked for them except that he never thought to ask for them because he was too busy trying cheerlessly and religiously to earn them.” ― Frederick Buechner
Fr Francis Marsden 01257 262537
and Deacon Norman Arrowsmith
E-mail address:
Parish website: www.stmarys-chorley.org
Office hours Tues- Friday 9.00-1.00 (except Mass), 2.00-4.00 pm
Parish Centre: 270122 or 0797 1025 985 (Manager – Heather Roscoe)
LIVERPOOL ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESAN TRUSTEES INC. Registered Charity No. 232709
St Mary’s Catholic Church Chorley
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
6th March 2016
The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:
‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.
‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.
‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.
‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property– he and his women– you kill the calf we had been fattening.”
‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’
MASSES, MASS INTENTIONS AND SERVICES
Rosary after Holy Mass Tues,Thurs and Sat
Sun 6th March FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (Laetare Sunday & Mother’s Day)
Sat 18.15 Mass – Sir Frank Kennedy
08.00 Mass – Kate Redhead (A)
10.30 Mass – Parishioners
11.45 Baptism - Sebastian José Ploch
14.00 Msza Swieta po polsku
16.00-17.00 Holy Hour, Evening Prayer (16.30) and Benediction
Mon 7th March SS Perpetua and Felicity
08.40 Mass – Morning Prayer
09.00 Mass – Kenneth Proudfoot(A)
18.00 Meeting of all Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion
Tue 8th March St John of God
09.30-11.45 Morning Prayer (9.30) and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
12.00 Mass – John Joseph Johnson (A)
Wed 9th March St Frances of Rome
08.40 Morning Prayer
09.00 Mass – Betty Rogers (LD)
Thurs 10th March St John Ogilvie
12.00 Mass – Pauline Smith (LD)
Fri 11th March Bd Thomas Atkinson
09.30-11.45 Morning Prayer (9.30) and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
11.30 Divine Mercy Chaplet
12.00 Mass – Freda Dawber (A)
19.10 Evening Prayer
19.30 Stations of the Cross
Sat 12th March St Elphege of Winchester
11.00-11.45 Confessions
12.00 Mass – Dr Władysław Gray- Grzeczyński (A)
Sun 13th March FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (Mass bk. p.177)
Sat 18.15 Mass – Parishioners
08.00 Mass – Francis Calderbank (A)
10.30 Mass - Edith Gladys Freason (A)
11.45-12.45 Catechesis Yr 4 Sacramental Programme in parish centre
16.00- 17.00 Holy Hour, Evening Prayer (16.30) and Benediction
Please pray for the sick and the housebound: Fr Kenny Hyde, Fr Kevin Mulhearn, Fr. Bob Elwood SMM, Lelia Addy, Rita Almond, Roland Anderton, Emily Atkins, Connie Atkinson, Frances Bond, Emma Beatty, Pauline Bennett, Brigid Cain, Marie Cannon, Michael Collins, Melville Coombes, Hughie Daly, Monica Donalds, Joan Doran, Sister Frances, Yvonne Finlayson, Gerry Harrison, Martin Henry, Simon Holcroft, John Johnson, Joan Jones, Doreen Lang, Julie Lowe, Tusia Lynch, Debbie MacFarlane, Jude Mack, Kevin McCarrick, Frances McHale, Kathleen Mitchell, Veronica Mobbs, Canon Kevin Mullen, Catherine O’Donoghue, Anthony O’Malia, Kathleen Rae, Kathleen Reynolds, Margaret Rice, Sam Round, Paul Tiffin, Frank Waring, and parishioners in The Adelphi, The Gables, Westwood, Gillibrand Hall etc.
LATELY DEAD: Mary Philomena Leach age 90. Funeral Mass on 16th March at 12 noon
FR KENNY HYDE according to reports, is making a good recovery. Thanks be to God.
ANNIVERSARIES: Kate Redhead, John Joseph Johnson, Kenneth Proudfoot, Freda Dawber, Dr. Władysław Gray- Grzeczyński, Francis Calderbank, Edith Gladys Freason, Robert Wallwork.
OFFERTORY COLLECTION last week was £854 of which £348 was gift aided. This weekend there is a second collection for the Restoration Fund. Many thanks for your great support and generosity.
READERS: 5/6 March: 18.15 Gillian Sharples, 08.00 Molly Stazicker, 10.30 John Daniels. 12/13: 18.15 Kinga Grzeczynska, 08.00 Margaret Arrowsmith, 10.30 John Daniels.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON FILM SESSION: On March 11th in the presbytery large dining room we will watch “The Scarlet and the Black.” Defying a Nazi colonel, Vatican Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty hides thousands of escaped POWs in occupied Rome. Based on a true story.
BLESSED ROGER WRENNO - PILGRIMAGE TO LANCASTER - Friday 18th March Please pay your fares at the parish office as soon as possible. Thank you.
GIFT AID: If you regularly donate money to our church, please would you consider completing a Gift Aid form and sending it to the parish office. The forms can be found on the back shelf near the hymn books. It will not cost you any more than you have donated, provided you are a standard rate tax payer. However, St Mary’s can claim back the tax you have already paid on each sum you donate. So if you give £10, the £2.50 tax you have already paid on that amount can be claimed back. Many thanks.
FR BOB ELWOOD SMM who originates from this parish, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 5th March. Many congratulations to him. He is resident at Marie Louise House Nursing Home. Newton Lane, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 8GZ.
NOVENA TO ST JOSEPH commences on 11th March. There will be copies of the Novena Prayer by the his statue. Please would you gather around St Joseph after Mass and would someone lead the prayers. Thank you.
LIVERPOOL ARCHDIOCESE has joined the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Friends (ASDF) and is commited to making the ASDF awareness session in all our parish communities. We need people who have completed the one-day training and become Dementia Friends Champions. If you are already a Champion or would like to become one, please contact Maureen Knight at Pastoral Formation; 0151 522 1046 . The archdiocesan action plan can be viewed at www.dementiaaction.org.uk/ listed under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool.
WALSINGHAM ASSOCATION CHORLEY BRANCH will hold a Coffee Morning and Bring & Buy Sale with light lunches, on Tuesday 15th March, 11.00-13.30. Please note that the next pilgrimage to Walsingham will be on Monday 20th – Friday 24th June. Further information from branch Chair, Miss J. Noblett.
SVP MEETING will be on Thursday 10th March at 8.00pm in the parish centre.